Topic: SBC WBB other action 2/28 : "If this was a fight they'd stop it."

[parshall2marshall]

Troy ESPN+ announcer comment after Troy jumped out to a 43-14 lead over App State in the first 15 minutes of play and coasted. Tall, solid inside passing. Many physical players. Meme Holman is a real baller at G.

Troy stayed in a zone the entire game. They have gotten 60 rebs in a game and regularly get 50-55 rebs. Bench looked pretty deep.

Appy shoots 24% with 13 TO in the 1st half. Alexis Black only player who came to play for Appy.

Troy looks formidable opponent for us in the SBC tnmt. finals.

[MUther]

Troy ESPN+ announcer comment after Troy jumped out to a 43-14 lead over App State in the first 15 minutes of play and coasted. Tall, solid inside passing. Many physical players. Meme Holman is a real baller at G.

Troy stayed in a zone the entire game. They have gotten 60 rebs in a game and regularly get 50-55 rebs. Bench looked pretty deep.

Appy shoots 24% with 13 TO in the 1st half. Alexis Black only player who came to play for Appy.

Troy looks formidable opponent for us in the SBC tnmt. finals.

Troy has dropped 3 games all against teams we've beaten.  I think the only reason they are still at the top is they didn't have to play us this year.  Our press has made good teams look silly.  ODU is top 4 and we crushed them twice on both sides of the ball.  We are 1-1 against the other top 4 team, but they had the benefit of knowing how to come after us the second time around and we now know how to mitigate that.  And, we haven't lost a game on the road.  There's no home team in Florida.  Everybody's on the road.  Advantage us.

[chris88]

Troy has won 17 of last 20. They lost at Georgia State on a last second shot. They also beat JMU.  Many games were closer than ours but they have the most offensive talent in the SBC and are very athletic. No way of knowing how they will handle our press but they have the players.  As it stands we wouldn't face them until finals.

The way tourney works is bottom 4 teams have a play in game 11vs14 and 12v13. Then those two winners play the other six seeded 5-10. The top 4 get double buys to Qrtrs. This means we would play winner of 8/9 matchup. As of now that would be Appy or Louisiana. If seeds holds we would play winner of JMU/UL Monroe BUT JMU still has to play at ODU Sat. If they win they would claim the 3 seed.  Actually preferable as we seem to match up well with ODU and either JMU or Troy would be out.

[elginherd]

Troy has dropped 3 games all against teams we've beaten.  I think the only reason they are still at the top is they didn't have to play us this year.  Our press has made good teams look silly.  ODU is top 4 and we crushed them twice on both sides of the ball.  We are 1-1 against the other top 4 team, but they had the benefit of knowing how to come after us the second time around and we now know how to mitigate that.  And, we haven't lost a game on the road.  There's no home team in Florida.  Everybody's on the road.  Advantage us.

If and when the Herd faces Troy, I would not be all that comfortable. The common opponent deal isn't a real good indication of how two teams match up head to head.

[GoHerd35]

We wouldn't face them until the finals and playing (in this case since they're a top four seed) three games in four days, is hard enough, but when you add in our constant '40 Minutes of Hell' and especially seeing it for the first time, good luck.

[parshall2marshall]

First off, the announcers comment lacked class, even though it was basically a true statement.

More importantly, I think a number of posters think our WBB is invincible against fellow Sunbelt teams. I assure that we are not. We give up around 74 PPG which is in the bottom of DIV 1 ( 300+ ). Certainly that is mostly due to our uptempo style. And did anyone consider that 3 games in 4 days would have an affect on our stamina as well ?

Hopefully we can build up a lead and salt away the 8 vs 9 winner next Friday morning. Saturday we will most likely face JMU again. Because they play at ODU today in the regular season finale in a battle for 3rd place. No other team is close enough to the top 4. They (JMU) are not playing particularly well but they did defeat us at the Cam earlier.

If we get past JMU it boils down to us vs. Troy, winners of 16 of their last 18. The GA State game was early in the conference season.

Troy has 3 quick guards that can handle and do pass well.  I don't believe our press will be particularly effective, and worse,  their bigs are taller and more mobile than most of our bigs. Getting Mo / Tree Matthews back was huge for us, but will it be enough. Oscar blocks out well and takes good paths to in-flight rebounds, but IMHO she is outmatched at the forward position against both JMU and Troy. Troy averages 48 REB/gm.

Troy goes 9 to 10 deep and their reserve bigs are just as tall if not taller than their starters. I saw one huge girl bringing the ball up (uncontested) against Appy. Troy would have difficulty containing our 3-point shooters with a zone defense. If they extend that to the 3-point line it will be up to Bee and CC to penetrate and hit short stop-and-pops.

I could envision a scenario where we are getting beaten for too many easy baskets by their guards beating our vaunted press. If that happens the best way to stop it might be to call off the press and roll out an "un-herdof" zone out to about 18 feet - a range which many Troy players easily have. But who am I to suggest a total identity change to a coach that has gone 17-1 ( by then 19-1 ) vs Sunbelt teams ?

Then there is potential politics, humans being humans by nature. In 20-21 Troy was within 2 points to #2 seed Texas A&M in the final minute and a potential over and back violation which could have given the ball to Troy was not called and Troy lost by 4. The Troy coach described the officials "calling foul after foul" on Troy ( final tally 25-13 fouls ). Then, in last year's tournament with the score tied in the final minute ODU had 6 players on the court and scored to win by those 2 points, causing the league to issue an official apology to Troy U. In my opinion SBC officiating has not been kind to MU in tournament play ( 2 bad MBB calls vs. TX ST last year and throw in ball/strike calls in softball ). Maybe not apropos, but I thought I would throw that out there.

In conclusion, I wanted to opine that the path for MU WBB in the post-season should not have us overly confident.



 

[MUther]

If and when the Herd faces Troy, I would not be all that comfortable. The common opponent deal isn't a real good indication of how two teams match up head to head.

I feel the margin of victory is getting better each game and the fact that we wear opponents down as the game goes on, we pull away more and more.  I would normally agree that head to head isn't a great indicator, but we are blowing teams off the court by the 3rd qtr and coasting in the 4th allowing them some semblance of dignity.  I feel like we could pretty much pick the score we wanted by the 2nd half.  I don't see Troy being able to do that.  Our style will be a bigger shock to them and confusing for them as something they haven't competed against, where we have seen it all.  It will be Troy that is uncomfortable if we play.  I just want to play them but we may not get a chance to.  Anything can happen and there are no gimmes, but this isn't Dan.  The girls will be ready.