Marshall 2/17/2018

Mean Green Matt · February 18, 2018

Brutal homestand...

GangGreen · February 18, 2018

Terrible call

Harry · February 18, 2018

Disappointing loss.

Green Lantern · February 18, 2018

Is there any good video of the goaltending call? Looked questionable at best in person.

GangGreen · February 18, 2018

3 minutes ago, Green Lantern said:

Is there any good video of the goaltending call? Looked questionable at best in person.

The replay is on cusa.tv

I just watched it a couple more times and, maybe its just the green colored glasses, it looks like the ball is still going up.

GrandGreen · February 18, 2018

NT can not finish, they stall and most times try and miss a horrible shot. Letting Marshall in for a layup with less than 5 seconds is just awful basketball.

Questionable defense the whole game, allowing uncontested dunks on the baseline. Simmons may have the record for a 6'9 player getting his shots blocked.

Super game by Woolridge and good game by reliable Smart, the rest of the team struggled tonight. Duffy and Miller did contribute, so that is a positive.

FirefightnRick · February 18, 2018

25 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

NT can not finish, they stall and most times try and miss a horrible shot. Letting Marshall in for a layup with less than 5 seconds is just awful basketball.

Questionable defense the whole game, allowing uncontested dunks on the baseline. Simmons may have the record for a 6'9 player getting his shots blocked.

Super game by Woolridge and good game by reliable Smart, the rest of the team struggled tonight. Duffy and Miller did contribute, so that is a positive.

We held them 11 points below their average. That's decent defense in my book.

Rick

GreenBacker · February 18, 2018

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

NT can not finish, they stall and most times try and miss a horrible shot. Letting Marshall in for a layup with less than 5 seconds is just awful basketball.

Questionable defense the whole game, allowing uncontested dunks on the baseline. Simmons may have the record for a 6'9 player getting his shots blocked.

Super game by Woolridge and good game by reliable Smart, the rest of the team struggled tonight. Duffy and Miller did contribute, so that is a positive.

These games are awfully tough to swallow, but I still feel like Mac is getting the most out of these players. I was pretty excited about his hire, but didn’t think that we would be able to be in games with the top few teams in the league this year. Was hopeful for year two, but not this year. We are still improving, and haven’t given up despite these tough losses. I’m hopeful we can make some noise in the tournament, and then be incredibly competitive year two.

GrandGreen · February 18, 2018

57 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

We held them 11 points below their average. That's decent defense in my book.

Rick

Yes, they are a high scoring team; but holding the ball and eliminating the number of touches an opponent gets. does not count as good defense. NT did do a good job on the exterior but allowed too many layups and dunks.

6 minutes ago, GreenBacker said:

These games are awfully tough to swallow, but I still feel like Mac is getting the most out of these players. I was pretty excited about his hire, but didn’t think that we would be able to be in games with the top few teams in the league this year. Was hopeful for year two, but not this year. We are still improving, and haven’t given up despite these tough losses. I’m hopeful we can make some noise in the tournament, and then be incredibly competitive year two.

McCasland is a great coach and anyone watching the team knows what a great job they are doing this year compared to it seems almost forever. Maybe this delay offense is the best thing for this team, but it sure is not serving them well at the end of games. NT has won their share at the end but it seems it is despite the plays they try to run instead of because of them.

This is not the beginning of the year when everybody would have been amazed at NT's current record. This was a match up of two very close teams in a home game that mattered.

Mean Green Matt · February 18, 2018

We've essentially given the top 4 teams in the conference all they could handle including two pretty bad blown leads in the last two games. It's encouraging to be competitive with the top of the league this quickly. But we should have won at one of these home games. And given our short bench it was imperative to get a bye which is out of reach now. It's disappointing but at the same time we cannot ignore the fact there is life again in NT basketball.

Eagleisland · February 18, 2018

Hard not to see hope with this team. They should be even better next year.

FirefightnRick · February 18, 2018

10 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Yes, they are a high scoring team; but holding the ball and eliminating the number of touches an opponent gets. does not count as good defense. NT did do a good job on the exterior but allowed too many layups and dunks.

McCasland is a great coach and anyone watching the team knows what a great job they are doing this year compared to it seems almost forever. Maybe this delay offense is the best thing for this team, but it sure is not serving them well at the end of games. NT has won their share at the end but it seems it is despite the plays they try to run instead of because of them.

This is not the beginning of the year when everybody would have been amazed at NT's current record. This was a match up of two very close teams in a home game that mattered.

You said questionable defense, I said decent, not good.

Either way we out rebounded and held a high scoring third place team with an 18-7 record and is much better than us to under 11 of their average, and had a great chance to win in the end. Maybe the best defense against them was a controll offense...with the talent we currently have on the floor? I don't know but Im just amazed at the turnaround so far. We will only improve as the days go by.

Rick

GrandGreen · February 18, 2018

Just now, FirefightnRick said:

You said questionable defense, I said decent, not good.

Either way we out rebounded and held a high scoring third place team with an 18-7 record and is much better than us to under 11 of their average, and had a great chance to win in the end. Maybe the best defense against them was a controll offense...with the talent we currently have on the floor? I don't know but Im just amazed at the turnaround so far. We will only improve as the days go by.

Rick

Agree with most, but not that Marshall is much better than NT. Woolridge and Smart, I thought were just as dominating as Burks and Elmore.

The future is very bright with possibly everyone back but Temara, who is now the forgotten man, and three promising redshirts.

However, I am much more concerned with the now and the upcoming tournament which NT with an obvious location advantage. I think NT is capable of beating any team, but stringing out 4 wins is going to be tough.

BillySee58 · February 18, 2018

17 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

Agree with most, but not that Marshall is much better than NT. Woolridge and Smart, I thought were just as dominating as Burks and Elmore.

Watching Penava, I feel like that is what Tikhonenko can bring us. Really going to be a welcomed addition to the guards we have and Simmons.

17 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

The future is very bright with possibly everyone back but Temara, who is now the forgotten man, and three promising redshirts.

However, I am much more concerned with the now and the upcoming tournament which NT with an obvious location advantage. I think NT is capable of beating any team, but stringing out 4 wins is going to be tough.

Time to get hot. The best thing JJ did during his tenure was get his team ready for conference tourney time. 4 of JJ's last 6 seasons we made the SBC Tourney finals.

As Tasty pointed out when we hired Mccasland, his contract makes it so we basically have to make the NCAA tourney to break even in basketball. Even if Mccasland's teams are consistently near the top of the conference and winning around 20 games a year, if they aren't having success in the CUSA tourney then, truthfully, we would be overpaying for Mccasland. He's getting paid the big bucks, so tourney time is when it's time for him to separate himself from the pack of other coaches we could have hired for less, and prove he is worth it.

Mean Green Matt · February 18, 2018

32 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

Agree with most, but not that Marshall is much better than NT. Woolridge and Smart, I thought were just as dominating as Burks and Elmore.

The future is very bright with possibly everyone back but Temara, who is now the forgotten man, and three promising redshirts.

However, I am much more concerned with the now and the upcoming tournament which NT with an obvious location advantage. I think NT is capable of beating any team, but stringing out 4 wins is going to be tough.

Did you go into this year with the expectation of winning the conference?

FirefightnRick · February 18, 2018

19 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

Watching Penava, I feel like that is what Tikhonenko can bring us. Really going to be a welcomed addition to the guards we have and Simmons.

Time to get hot. The best thing JJ did during his tenure was get his team ready for conference tourney time. 4 of JJ's last 6 seasons we made the SBC Tourney finals.

As Tasty pointed out when we hired Mccasland, his contract makes it so we basically have to make the NCAA tourney to break even in basketball. Even if Mccasland's teams are consistently near the top of the conference and winning around 20 games a year, if they aren't having success in the CUSA tourney then, truthfully, we would be overpaying for Mccasland. He's getting paid the big bucks, so tourney time is when it's time for him to separate himself from the pack of other coaches we could have hired for less, and prove he is worth it.

That didn't happen until year 6 mind you.. I'm giving McCasland more than a season before I consider the value of his hire.

Rick

meangreenJW · February 18, 2018

46 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

Watching Penava, I feel like that is what Tikhonenko can bring us. Really going to be a welcomed addition to the guards we have and Simmons.

Time to get hot. The best thing JJ did during his tenure was get his team ready for conference tourney time. 4 of JJ's last 6 seasons we made the SBC Tourney finals.

As Tasty pointed out when we hired Mccasland, his contract makes it so we basically have to make the NCAA tourney to break even in basketball. Even if Mccasland's teams are consistently near the top of the conference and winning around 20 games a year, if they aren't having success in the CUSA tourney then, truthfully, we would be overpaying for Mccasland. He's getting paid the big bucks, so tourney time is when it's time for him to separate himself from the pack of other coaches we could have hired for less, and prove he is worth it.

There isn't a single CUSA team that breaks even in any sport which is why they need student fees and campus help to make a budget. I agree NT stepped up with Mac and staff (just like FB), but I can't imagine any NT athletic program "breaking even" in terms of total expenses = total revenues.

GrandGreen · February 18, 2018

2 hours ago, Mean Green Matt said:

Did you go into this year with the expectation of winning the conference?

What does that have to do with anything? Actually I thought the team would be about were they are. A middle of conference team.

This again is the end of the basketball season, so my current expectations are based on what I have seen this year, not what I expected before the first jump ball.

This team can play with anyone in the league, but they can't keep blowing leads at the end of the game.

Not sure why some apparently believe that this coach and team are beyond critism.

BillySee58 · February 18, 2018

3 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

That didn't happen until year 6 mind you.. I'm giving McCasland more than a season before I consider the value of his hire.

Rick

Was he getting paid the way Mccasland was relative to the other Sun Belt coaches? I don't know. Either way, the investment was not on par with Mccasland.

You're giving him more than a season. So is everyone else. Sounds like you're implying I'm not. That's not the truth. Point is, we're heavily invested in Mccasland and, given that this has been a one-bid league for a while, the conference tournament results are a heavy portion of determining how good or bad an investment he ends up being.

If you include the Arkansas State buyout and prorate it over his contract, we are investing more annually in Mccasland than what MTSU pays Kermit Davis, more than what WKU pays Rick Stansbury, and more than what ODU pays Jeff Jones. That level of investment means the conference tournament results Mccasland produces are paramount, and expected to be on par with the investment, which would mean giving us chances almost annually to win the tournament.

Long story short, the weight of the conference tournament is huge for us being in CUSA, so Mccasland really needs to get his team to perform well there given how much has been invested in him. He has done well so far, and I expect his teams to be competitive in March and win one under his current contract.

Edited February 18, 2018 by BillySee58

GrandGreen · February 18, 2018

2 hours ago, meangreenJW said:

There isn't a single CUSA team that breaks even in any sport which is why they need student fees and campus help to make a budget. I agree NT stepped up with Mac and staff (just like FB), but I can't imagine any NT athletic program "breaking even" in terms of total expenses = total revenues.

I think you are probably taking the comment too literally. I interpret his statements has meaning that NT spent the money on Maclasland for more than just a good showing in CUSA.

You are correct for 80% of Division teams in any sport, actually making a profit is not even a dream. NT would have to improve attendance just to cover McCasland's salary and benefits.

BillySee58 · February 18, 2018

2 hours ago, meangreenJW said:

There isn't a single CUSA team that breaks even in any sport which is why they need student fees and campus help to make a budget. I agree NT stepped up with Mac and staff (just like FB), but I can't imagine any NT athletic program "breaking even" in terms of total expenses = total revenues.

I haven't seen our standalone P&L for basketball, but from what I've seen you are right. Point is, given how much we have invested in Mccasland, he needs to be making the NCAA tournament under his contract for this to be a good contract. And for that to happen, we likely have to win the CUSA tourney given the conference we are in.

Otherwise we could have paid a cheaper coach to come in and be competitive here but not actually win the conference tourney. Mccasland's pay means he should be more than that.

BillySee58 · February 18, 2018

5 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

I think you are probably taking the comment too literally. I interpret his statements has meaning that NT spent the money on Maclasland for more than just a good showing in CUSA.

You are correct for 80% of Division teams in any sport, actually making a profit is not even a dream. NT would have to improve attendance just to cover McCasland's salary and benefits.

Exactly

Matt from A700 · February 18, 2018

I hope the Mean Green faithful represent in Frisco in March. UAB was the fourth seed in 2015 but used homecourt advantage to win the conference. Maybe the Mean Green have the same luck in 2018 or 2019.

meangreenJW · February 18, 2018

1 hour ago, BillySee58 said:

I haven't seen our standalone P&L for basketball, but from what I've seen you are right. Point is, given how much we have invested in Mccasland, he needs to be making the NCAA tournament under his contract for this to be a good contract. And for that to happen, we likely have to win the CUSA tourney given the conference we are in.

Otherwise we could have paid a cheaper coach to come in and be competitive here but not actually win the conference tourney. Mccasland's pay means he should be more than that.

I can agree with that.

FirefightnRick · February 19, 2018

18 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

Was he getting paid the way Mccasland was relative to the other Sun Belt coaches? I don't know. Either way, the investment was not on par with Mccasland.

You're giving him more than a season. So is everyone else. Sounds like you're implying I'm not. That's not the truth. Point is, we're heavily invested in Mccasland and, given that this has been a one-bid league for a while, the conference tournament results are a heavy portion of determining how good or bad an investment he ends up being.

If you include the Arkansas State buyout and prorate it over his contract, we are investing more annually in Mccasland than what MTSU pays Kermit Davis, more than what WKU pays Rick Stansbury, and more than what ODU pays Jeff Jones. That level of investment means the conference tournament results Mccasland produces are paramount, and expected to be on par with the investment, which would mean giving us chances almost annually to win the tournament.

Long story short, the weight of the conference tournament is huge for us being in CUSA, so Mccasland really needs to get his team to perform well there given how much has been invested in him. He has done well so far, and I expect his teams to be competitive in March and win one under his current contract.

Yeah, that's how it read to me. That....and saying later on in your post..." they aren't having success in the CUSA tourney then, truthfully, we would be overpaying for Mccasland".

Rick