BillySee58

I can’t rationalize some of the things we are doing on the offensive end this year. Why is 5’11” JJ Murray our guy in the middle of the floor in attacking the zone? Same swinging the ball around the perimeter again as well. Hearing Mccasland talk basketball, he is a really smart guy. I don’t get how these are the decisions he lands on though.

Right now we are being led in scoring pretty clearly by the 4 seniors we returned from our rotation last year. Hamlet, Reese, Simmons, and Bell. After that, the scoring options have been rough. Our team outside of those 4 shot 2-14 (14%) from the floor last night with just 6 points. We could get into why, or ask if they can turn things around, but unless these guys play better we won’t be able to keep up with the top teams in conference. Even more worrying is if those 4 seniors decide to grad transfer for their extra year of eligibility. We need much more out of these players. Here are their scoring averages in conference play: Mardrez McBride - 5.8 points, 37.5% shooting and 28.3% 3-pt shooting Rubin Jones - 5.3 points, 32.8% shooting and 37.1% 3-pt shooting JJ Murray - 3.8 points, 42.4% shooting and 37.5% 3-pt shooting (just 26.7% shooting and 22.2% 3-pt shooting in his last 7 games) Terence Lewis - 3.0 points, 48% shooting Abou Ousmane - 2.5 points, 52% shooting For perspective, these guys are replacing Gibson, Geu, Draper and Smart in our rotation. Those guys last year gave us 29.7 points a game, while the guys above are only giving us 20.4 points a game, on less efficient shooting.

Yeah I don’t think it has anything to do with being in a “doghouse” as much as it does just earning trust. Lewis plays, just not all that much because Simmons and Bell play a lot and we actually have a backup 5 too in Ousmane. Last year we only had 3 rotation bigs, so Bell was in off the bench anytime either one of our starting bigs was sitting. This year with Ousmane backing up Simmons, Lewis’ only opportunity to play is when Bell sits, and Bell has been better so that’s only when he needs rest. Definitley agree on Robinson. He has great size and athleticism and he has some skill to go with it. He is a capable shooter too. Would hate to see a guy like that leave because we wouldn’t play him over a player who was less athletic, less of a shooter, and 8 inches shorter.

In conference play McBride is shooting 37.5% from the field and 28.3% from three. He hasn’t been the ball handler or secondary creator we had hoped for, and he hasn’t been the off-ball shooter either. Very disappointing. Lewis is giving us just 3 points and 2 rebounds a game in conference play. We just are not a deep team, in large part because they have fallen very short of the guys they were replacing in the rotation. Yes, unfortunately. Murray hasn’t even been that big an asset defensively lately, and we expect him to be a liability on offense at 5’11” and not much of a shooter or ball handler. Mccasland has to do better in recruiting.

And we have to go through WKU and La Tech. Playing like this, yikes.

We are not as good as our conference record showed and it was bound to catch up with us.

Hamlet jacking threes to get us back in the game worked last game. Not so well today. 1-7 from deep for him.

Agreed. ZERO bench points!

IMO one does (Matthew Stone), one probably doesn’t (Crisdon Morgan). Recruiting is getting there, and we really need to finish this season strong so that it stays that way between now and when next season starts. Kind of like football, working off of a decent run in recruiting classes, need to keep it going to really sustain success.

I feel like this is pretty much the team we have been all season. Play better some games, worse in others, but we just don’t have the talent level that allows us to separate all that much.

McBride 3-pt shooting percentage in conference play is down to 29%. Really disappointing.

Sad to hear. RIP to him and condolences to his family.

I think I’d rather have Trevon West, but definitely would not complain with either. I don’t care as much about what positions we use those remaining spots on. Just get the most talented guys. If this was still December and we could get them on campus for spring I definitely would’ve wanted these spots to be used on defense. That time has passed. Hopefully the guys we have on campus are enough for Bennett to mold a competent defense.

Exactly. Not to mention Sanders returning does count against our 85-scholarship limit or our 25-scholarship class limit.

Yup. La Tech is done at 12-4, since MTSU is the only series they missed and MTSU’s rescheduled series for next week is against FAU, not La Tech. Conference winning %s if we sweep UAB: 1. North Texas - .786 2. La Tech - .750 3. UAB - .611 Conference winning %s if we split with UAB: 1. La Tech - .750 2. North Texas - .714 3. UAB - .667 Conference winning %s if we get swept by UAB: 1. La Tech - .750 2. UAB - .722 3. North Texas - .643

The women only have two double digit wins in conference play. They’re good, they’re having a great season, but they aren’t a team that necessarily has a huge talent edge over teams that have worse records. The case is pretty similar for the men’s team. 9-3 is truthfully proof of pretty impressive coaching jobs. Hopefully they can capitalize off of the success and lead to better recruiting, similar to what happened with the Men’s team a year ago.

This is now true. Had UAB won today they would’ve only needed a split next week to finish ahead of us, due to winning percentage.

They all can come back if they want. This season is a free year for eligibility purposes.

With La Tech’s win and our loss, we need a sweep next week or La Tech wins the West Division

Getting one road win against a top 80 NET team was always going to be tough. Expecting two felt like being greedy.

It sucks because it was a great drive. I wonder if Hamlet was scared they wouldn’t give him the call if he drove all the way so he rushed the shot before he got in with the trees. He has been getting hosed on not getting foul calls on his drives this season.

Taylor’s leg propelled the ball, but if Jones touched it last it doesn’t matter. I think it was a classic “not enough to overturn” because there was never a clear moment where the ball was touching only Taylor’s leg after Jones’ hand moved away from the ball.

Marshall thought 38.5% from three yesterday. That’s higher than their season average. Wasn’t like they were uncharacteristically bad shooting yesterday and were back to normal today. But they were lights out today.

4 straight for Mccasland after 6 straight from Johnny Jones. No clue why we decided to take a 5-year hiatus in between 🤷‍♂️ .