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Post by ptctitan on Dec 9, 2020 8:22:12 GMT -5
1 step forward, 4 steps back. Very disappointing game after getting some hope against MSU and ND. I wouldn't be that despondent over last night unless we play the same way at WMU. We played a bad game against a good team that had a couple of days to recover from its performance against UVA while we chose to go to ND and play on Sunday evening. We need an 8 man rotation with 2 bigger guys added to it. Hopefully, we have that in place for the Wright State series on December 19-20th.
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Post by Commissioner on Dec 9, 2020 8:58:25 GMT -5
I could really use a post from PTC telling us all of the positive things that actually happened tonight. I know! I want a classic PTC post about how we outscored them between 17:43 and 14:51 of the second half or something like that. I don't see any reason to start acting like assholes towards one another.
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Post by larrytitan on Dec 9, 2020 9:57:53 GMT -5
I noticed that Thompson had another one minute appearance last night. Did anyone watch the game? Was his activity any differentthan his previous play vs MSU?
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Post by nctitan on Dec 9, 2020 10:05:31 GMT -5
The defensive intensity was missing, and KSU had waves of bigs to run at us. Right now Coach is playing a six-man rotation, and all the just-short misses usually points to fatigue. It'll be good to get Brandon back and at least one of the big guys in the line-up. I love the way Willy is playing, but he is out of position. On offense he positions at the top of the key, which is fine for his offense, but it removes our biggest player from offensive rebounds. We had eight second-chance points, and ten points in the paint.
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Post by upbasketballfan on Dec 9, 2020 10:16:04 GMT -5
For the small line-up to work, we have to play quickly to offset teams with size. We looked fatigued from the start and did not rotate out on shooters. 3rd game in five days caused the lack of depth on our front line to be exposed against Hamilton and Pippen on Kent State. Antoine's low percentage shooting has been a liability in these first 3 games. Fraser + Johnson + Kuol shot terribly and had little energy compared to the previous two games. Calipari was not the answer for more minutes. It's now been 1 year and 1 day since Noah Waterman last played any minutes in a college basketball game; yet, it appears that the NCAA still has not granted him a waiver for immediate eligibility. We now have 4 days to rest and practice before playing Western. I want to see the effort that we showed at MSU and ND when we play Saturday. Given Davis' pre-game comments on radio, it sounds like we may still play this short rotation at WMU. On Saturday, there will be no fatigue explanation available. Fraser, Johnson, and Kuol need to step up and reclaim the energy they displayed at MSU and ND. They are the core of this team - not Antoine.
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Post by upbasketballfan on Dec 9, 2020 10:20:55 GMT -5
For the small line-up to work, we have to play quickly to offset teams with size. We looked fatigued from the start and did not rotate out on shooters. 3rd game in five days caused the lack of depth on our front line to be exposed against Hamilton and Pippen on Kent State. Antoine's low percentage shooting has been a liability in these first 3 games. Fraser + Johnson + Kuol shot terribly and had little energy compared to the previous two games. Calipari was not the answer for more minutes. It's now been 1 year and 1 day since Noah Waterman last played any minutes in a college basketball game; yet, it appears that the NCAA still has not granted him a waiver for immediate eligibility. We now have 4 days to rest and practice before playing Western. I want to see the effort that we showed at MSU and ND when we play Saturday. Given Davis' pre-game comments on radio, it sounds like we may still play this short rotation at WMU. On Saturday, there will be no fatigue explanation available. Fraser, Johnson, and Kuol need to step up and reclaim the energy they displayed at MSU and ND. They are the core of this team - not Antoine. I was wondering why we would put someone in who is slow afoot to help get stops against a team which on this given night was already quicker than us and someone who needs space to get his shot off. I was hoping to see Joey again.
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Post by dtowntitan on Dec 9, 2020 10:21:11 GMT -5
I noticed that Thompson had another one minute appearance last night. Did anyone watch the game? Was his activity any differentthan his previous play vs MSU? I have been fortunate to be able to watch all 3 of the games so far this season. To answer your question, no it was no different. It was extremely strange his play to be honest. I don't want to disparage him at all, and do not know what is going on in his personal life that could possibly be contributing to his lack of playing. With that said, it almost appeared like he was intentionally moving out of position. One the last play he was in he had inside position and slid out of the way for the Kent State player to grab the rebound and then jumped very delayed and clapped his hands together. His time on the court all looked very strange to me. Again, I don't want to talk down about him, it just appears that either his head is not in the game or he is no longer interested in playing. I am hoping I am 100% wrong on the latter.
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Post by motorcitysam on Dec 9, 2020 10:34:00 GMT -5
One of the things that I like about this board is we have a variety of opinions and levels of optimism. Lord knows PCTCTitan and I have disagreed vehemently in the past, but I don't mind the unbridled optimism that he and some others show towards the program. We need fans like that. Just like we need the more cynical ones.
Of course, a loss like that one brings out the cynic in me, too. That's why I didn't post about the game last night. :-)
Even with the positive feelings of the good games we played against the schools of Sam & Jay Vincent and Orlando Woolrdige, we were aware that we needed more than moral victories. As UDBaller said, the Titans needed a win last night to signal that things were really different this season. We didn't accomplish that last night. Granted, the Golden Flashes are an experienced team with talent, but outside of a 10-0 run early in the game, the Titans showed very little life. That was disappointing. I'm hopeful that we wake up against WMU.
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Post by JDetroitTitan on Dec 9, 2020 10:43:26 GMT -5
I noticed that Thompson had another one minute appearance last night. Did anyone watch the game? Was his activity any differentthan his previous play vs MSU? Guy is playing games on the court. I saw him give himself high five when someone grabbed a rebound. If I was to guess there is some issues with either the coaching staff, players or both going on. I even had to watch the practice video to watch him effortless dunk the ball over the head behind the back (twitter oct 15 post #15). The guy I see on the court yesterday has never played basketball in his life.
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Post by ptctitan on Dec 9, 2020 11:17:09 GMT -5
The main problem this year so far has been Antoine's poor shooting. The second major problem has been Brandon's wrist injury because that took one more effective player off the front line. Thompson could have mitigated Brandon's absence, but not Antoine's shooting. The third major problem has been the inexplicable non-decision by the NCAA on Noah's waiver request. Last night, we had a fourth problem: the core of our team, Fraser, Johnson and Kuol had bad games at the same time (likely due to fatigue).
I hear that Brandon will be ready for Wright State. I hear that Koka will be announced today or tomorrow. If the reporters' Tweets in hsscout1's posts are accurate, then the NCAA Committee may solve the Waterman impasse one week from today. These developments will make the mystery of Taurean less of a problem by the start of HL play. When Fraser, Johnson and Kuol play well, the team does well. If they play well consistently and Antoine regains his shooter's touch, then we will be even better. And if Brandon returns even at 80% of what he was last year, then we will be even better. Last night was unacceptable. We better make a more positive statement on the court on Saturday.
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Post by therealcoach on Dec 9, 2020 11:26:46 GMT -5
I'm new to this forum, but a loyal Detroit fan. New year, but same ole ----! Our third year of new faces on the roster, but the same face on the bench. A father coaching his son like an AAU team. Regardless of the talent around him, its all about AD. No knock on the kid, because he's doing what he's allowed. Is this really about winning games, or is it about getting AD to the pros and letting dad and big brother live happily ever after.
Are we talented enough to compete and win the Horizon? Yes we are, yes like we were a few year ago with Josh M etc... but it and will never happen. Do we even have an identity? What do we do well, you'd think after three years on the job, you would have some sort of bread and butter.. Oh yeah we do, its AD! Wake up coach its not about your talented son its about the team. Remember that sorta stuff! Coaching 101. I'm sorry to be so negative, but this is D1 basketball. I'd be happy if we came in with 10 freshman two years ago, and developed them, but no we have an entirely different roster again, and you continue to do the same thing. A team full of grad transfers, and the young kids on the bench wont develop. I can hear the post game interviews already, "I've gotta go out and bring in some new talent, COVID has slowed down recruitment" Blah Blah Blah. Does Davis have it in him, I think he does, and he showed it a year ago when we played Toledo. We lost, but he actually coached. I forget, AD was out ill and didn't. We have enough to win games, but time will tell if we do or not.
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Post by nctitan on Dec 9, 2020 12:09:34 GMT -5
I'd be happy if we came in with 10 freshman two years ago, and developed them... Davis came in first season with five freshmen, has developed three of them and two left because they didn't fit into his system. I expect this will be the last season Coach relies so much on grad transfers.
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Post by nctitan on Dec 9, 2020 12:22:43 GMT -5
Fatigue probably had a lot to do with the flat play last night. It'll certainly be interesting to see how the HL schedule -- back-to-back games but then five days off -- will work for our players. They obviously (from the first two games) have high motors and high energy.
The other contributing factor is the six-player rotation -- i.e. why aren't Leidel and LeGrair playing? -- is that Coach is playing a six-man rotation right now because he has Brandon and (we think) Waterman coming into the lineup soon. And if Thompson develops ... that gives the Titans their nine-man rotation.
When Coach Davis arrived, he talked about the defensive system he wanted to install but said he couldn't because it takes time to learn and with an entire new roster that wasn't going to happen. Now he has returning players who know that system (and his offensive system) and he fits the new players in. It worked pretty well the first two games of the year, at least for 38 minutes in each game.
I say this by way of explaining why I think Thompson is behind the curve. Fraser and Kuol and, I think, Johnson were in school over the summer and had the opportunity to learn the system. Thompson was a late signing and didn't have that same chance, and I suspect that might be why he looks a bit lost on the floor. I hope that will improve during the season. At least that's my theory.
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Post by upbasketballfan on Dec 9, 2020 12:36:51 GMT -5
Fatigue probably had a lot to do with the flat play last night. It'll certainly be interesting to see how the HL schedule -- back-to-back games but then five days off -- will work for our players. They obviously (from the first two games) have high motors and high energy. The other contributing factor is the six-player rotation -- i.e. why aren't Leidel and LeGrair playing? -- is that Coach is playing a six-man rotation right now because he has Brandon and (we think) Waterman coming into the lineup soon. And if Thompson develops ... that gives the Titans their nine-man rotation. When Coach Davis arrived, he talked about the defensive system he wanted to install but said he couldn't because it takes time to learn and with an entire new roster that wasn't going to happen. Now he has returning players who know that system (and his offensive system) and he fits the new players in. It worked pretty well the first two games of the year, at least for 38 minutes in each game. I say this by way of explaining why I think Thompson is behind the curve. Fraser and Kuol and, I think, Johnson were in school over the summer and had the opportunity to learn the system. Thompson was a late signing and didn't have that same chance, and I suspect that might be why he looks a bit lost on the floor. I hope that will improve during the season. At least that's my theory. That theory is as good as any.
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Post by therealcoach on Dec 9, 2020 13:00:31 GMT -5
Could you elaborate on the system, because I'm not sure their is one. Now if bringing in low level grad transfers that come in and make the same mistakes as your younger guys a system, I'm with you! Go Titans!
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