Season summary, please

[Hunter Green]

Even though I bought season tickets, I have only been able to attend a handful of games and have only kept up with them from afar. What happened this year? Do we have no talent? Too many injuries? Is JJ a flash in the pan?

I'd like someone's objective assessment, please.

[Buford_Julep]

I'm not sure how objective I can be as I am a Mean Green fan and like to see the team be a success. The season isn't over yet. There are three games and a tournament left for the guys to turn it around.

I am proud of the way our guys play. Hard but clean. There are no thugs on this team. I have been to enough practices to learn that the games are the easy part of Division I basketball. It is not true that there is a lack of effort or laziness or the team has quit.

IMO this team has more talent than any NT team since at least the 87-88 team and maybe even since the early Blakeley teams. If someone wants to dispute this please mention what particular team they think had more talent than this one. The Big West was much stronger than the Southland and the Sun Belt is yet another step up. Quality of opponents is a major factor in a won-loss record.

Last year this team, mostly the same players as last year, competed well in Conference. This year they haven't done so well. Why? I don't know.

Here is my theory. There is more to how well a team plays besides it's talent and preparation. What did Yogi say, "Half this game is 50% mental." That applys to basketball too. I think this team may have had too high of expectations this year. I know we fans did. When Hopkins was injured and the team had a few bad games, they may have suffered a loss of confidence that hurt even worse than the loss of Hopkins. I don't want to minimize the effect of Hopkins' injury. Losing Hopkins was a big loss. He is a great shooter on a team that doesn't have that many guys who can score.

[ScreamingEaglesFan]

I too was a season ticket holder and my wife probably wishes we hadn't attended so many games this year. But that said I saw most of the conference games and will offer my observations.

The biggest factor in our lack of success i'd say is either injuries or a lack of consistancy. When Will Smith and Scott Roniger went down it showed the lack of depth similar to the situation DD inherited when he got here. This will be JJ's first full season including a full recruiting class and i'd say we start seeing next year more of JJ's talent level. I also put consistency tied as a leading reason because it seemed like one game we'd need to pick up rebounding and turnovers would increase, then the next game fewer turnovers and less rebounds. That's just an example but it seemed like they'd focus on a certain problem and all of a sudden the others would creep up. I don't know if this is a coaching issue or not (maybe buford et al can help with that). Also with the lack of depth it put in my opinion too much of the load on Chris Davis and as we saw in the final minutes of the UNO game all they did in the final minutes was shut him down and closed the door on us.

My biggest surpirse (pleasant) has been the play of newcomers Michael Degrate, Ty Thomas, and Ron Harris. There is a reason Baylor wanted him M.D. that being his ability to make the plays in crucial moments. I've seen him get more comfortable as the season progressed and watched his fouls go down and scoring increase. I'm curious how much of a factor Mike Jones (teammate and MCC) will have in making MD a bigger impact with him here to help. The season has also been good in the sense it let JJ get TT and RH see some playing time which will reap the benefits next year. It's also been a nice surprise watching J Barnett step up, remember he's a RS freshman and if the end of this season is any indicator we have great things to expect from him in the future.

I think the true test will be next year with JJ finally putting his stamp on it, last year he really overachieved and raised my personal expectations to unreallistic levels just look back 2-3 seasons and that is what he inherited. I have full confidence in JJs ability and can't wait to see what happens next year. Just my .02

[CMJ]

I have to concur with injuies and raised expectations. Once things started going south they just spiraled out of contol. Though we lose Chirs, I expect we'll be stronger next season.

Johnny Jones will turn this ship around.

[EagleMBA]

Here's my two cents. JJ is the real deal and he has done well under the circumstances. He has proven to me that he can coach in adversity as well as when the ball is bouncing our way. How crucial was the loss of Hopkins? If we had the power to add just six more points per game, we would improve our record by four wins. Nine more points of offense per game would pick up three more wins, our season record to date would be 14 - 10, and our conference record would be 8 - 4.

With all of the difficulties the team has experienced this year, they are not that far away from having a much better record. Mega credit to all the guys for hanging tough and keeping a positive attitude, and an extra portion to JJ and his staff for keeping them motivated and striving for improvement.

I'll be there tonight for CD's last game in the Pit and I will be proud of our team.

[greendog]

I attended all of our home games and two of our out of town outings.

Here is my assesment for what it is worth:

1. Leonard Hopkins' loss probably cost us at least 3 or 4 losses.

2. Justin Barnett can be a factor but needs to get his back problem taken care of prior to next season. Our big men were ineffective overall.

3. The loss of our frosh point guard hurt us.

4. We don't have any shooters and I was shocked that Harris and Thomas weren't any better than they were offensively. Hopefully, they will be better next year with more experience and a different role.

The coaches have told me that the new kid Jones that is coming in is a better shooter and overall better player than Chris Davis.

The LSU transfer is going to turn heads next year according to the coaches and he is probably the best "big man" to ever be at NT. Shame we only have him 1 year.

NT will probably add 2 more players for next year.

[IronMan4]

Wow greendog, you hit the nail on the head. You should call the Small Time Sports Show sometime. Great first post.

I like what Buford said about this team not having thugs, Johnny's boys typically leave the refs alone and let him do his thing and I have'nt seen any un-needed hard fouls.

Here is my short recap:

1. JJ had the team play hard (exceptions against ULL and Baylor)

2. Our post presence was slim to none with a few decent games from Barnett, Smith has shown flashes, but not a full good game, this is the biggest weakness of the team.

3. Losing Roniger hurt more than is mentioned. Starting Boxell was not a good thing for him or the team. Lee Green and Jerome seemed to be in the dog-house some of the time.

4. Leonard Hopkins went down, and took what little offense we had with him. That allowed the opposing teams to gear completely around Chris, and that made it hard on him. He fought through it as well as he could, but the rest of the team did not pick it up scoring wise enough to make a difference.

5. The offense was stagnant. We have three guys who can create off the dribble- Leonard, Jerome, and Roniger. Two are hurt and the other is 5'8.

6. Jermaine Green is the perfect complintary player, too bad he doesn't have a good squad to compliment.

7. DeGrate showed a lot. His free throws with like .1 left on the clock to send that game to OT says a lot about him and his mental approach. He swished them both with no hesitation.

8.Things are not as bad as the record would indicate, JJ is a helluva coach and he knows these problems btter than we do and will fix them.

9. This team does have heart, we saw them crawl back into a WKU game they had no right to be in. Remember, they cut that lead to 6 in the second half, and WKU is twice as talented.

10. The dance team. Nuff said.

[NT80]

All of the above are right on. It's been a combination of many things: injuries, shooting slumps, turnovers, opposition, refs, and basic bad luck. Hopefully next season will be a turn-around, again.

[UNTLifer]

There's always next year