St Louis game Dec 5

[TIgreen01]

Thought the team did a lot of the little stuff much better. Hard to say if we'll be able to hang with LeHigh...still giving up way too many open looks from 3. Also felt like we went longer stretches without subbing, and packaged lineups when we did to better effect.

[GrandGreen]

I thought it was easily the best game of year for NT. St Louis is not near as strong as predicted like NT but a lot of positive signs tonight. Watched tape delay version and they chose to not show the middle part of the first half were apparently Mitchell had a good game. Mitchell played better in part I saw but nothing great. Too bad, refs called two non-existent fouls on him in about 30 seconds. Jones had his second great game in a row. I thought the overall team looked much better, thought both Niko and Coleman contributed. Kudos to Benford, he didn't sub like a mad man.

Team still could not hit the broad side of a barn from outside, but should have won despite it. I thought SL played a lot smarter but didn't have as many athletes as NT.

Edited December 6, 2012 by GrandGreen

[Green P1]

I don't think we saw much of an effort from St Louis with their coach still freshly dead, but hopefully Benford has finally realized that this thing needs more Niko.

[TIgreen01]

I don't think we saw much of an effort from St Louis with their coach still freshly dead, but hopefully Benford has finally realized that this thing needs more Niko.

Agreed, niko had a good game. Any word on why Patton didn't play? I thought we were hearing that he'd be back soon (or already)?

[letsgiveacheer]

Listening to the game over the Internet, I thought I was in a time warp. All that was missing was Bill Mercer and sponsorship from Braniff Airlines.

[GangGreen]

Thought the team did a lot of the little stuff much better. Hard to say if we'll be able to hang with LeHigh...still giving up way too many open looks from 3. Also felt like we went longer stretches without subbing, and packaged lineups when we did to better effect.

The only real problem I had with the subs last night was not using Patton. Last game, he showed a spark of the bench (4-6 FG, couple of boards, 3 steals in 10 min).

Last night he comes in for 2 minutes in the 1st half, picks up 2 fouls then is benched for the rest of the game. Meanwhile, Holmen, Jordan and Franklin, the three guys it would have made sense to sub him for, put up a collective 1-18 from the field.

Edited December 6, 2012 by GangGreen

[MeanGreenTexan]

Very promising effort from the guys, and it was like watching a hockey game with both coaches subbing heavy at each stop in play.

Watching SLU in the first half was like watching a mirror image of our team sans Tony Mitchell: Shots not falling, lapses on defense, lots of perimeter passing. SLU played lots of man-defense. I think that worked in our favor as our guys are simply more skilled than theirs.

Part of Tony's foul problems are that he's so big and good. I didn't see the UL-La game, so I don't know what those fouls were like, but 3 of his fouls last night were horrible calls on a guy that is simply bigger and more powerful than his opposition (or flat-out flopping by that Evans kid - 2X). He also had a goaltend called on him when I think he unbelievably got to the ball while still on its way up. Of course, if I were a ref and was not used to seeing a guy with Tony's ability & skill set against inferior opponents, I'd probably call those same goaltend/fouls.

I saw the player I believe CJ is last night. I think high pick & rolls/pops with him and Tony (or even Holmen/Niko) would be simply devastating if we had other reliable outside shooters. Benford employed a little of that last night.

More play like last night and this thing could get turned back around.

[Harry]

Listening to the game over the Internet, I thought I was in a time warp. All that was missing was Bill Mercer and sponsorship from Braniff Airlines.

+1

[CMJ]

Good god, the basketball forum is so beat down that the fans are excited about a loss...

Well, I did expect to be blown out so that's something. I quit listening with about 4 minutes before halftime and we were only down two because I had something else going on last night. I still figured we were gonna get run out of the gym in the second half.

[RushnStudies]

Listening to the game over the Internet, I thought I was in a time warp. All that was missing was Bill Mercer and sponsorship from Braniff Airlines.

Mercer used to do radio for the basketball games? I didn't know that. Growing up outside Houston, my only exposure to him was his announcing for World Class Championship Wrestling. Or "rasslingg-uh" as he used to pronounce it.

Back to basketball... I'm sorry to see another loss, but it sounds like there were more bright spots performance-wise.

My husband asked one of the players (who's in his class) right after the UTA loss what's going on. According to the player, most of the team isn't fully getting what Benford is trying to do and during games, they're reverting to their thinking from the Jones days. I don't know what I think about that answer, but that's at least one player's opinion.