Topic: 96 Points in the Paint

[pembrook burrows III]

That is what the Herd has yielded in the last two losses on defense. Yes, you can question our free throws, our timeouts, our basketball IQ, our lack of bench, all points with legitimacy. But until we stop the flood of easy baskets at the rim, nothing else is going to matter. And to be clear, I put this problem squarely on our three guards. Not on our center.

[FilmJunky]

God thing they have a 7 footer and OAK who cant rebound who protect the paint

[The E-Man]

That is what the Herd has yielded in the last two losses on defense. Yes, you can question our free throws, our timeouts, our basketball IQ, our lack of bench, all points with legitimacy. But until we stop the flood of easy baskets at the rim, nothing else is going to matter. And to be clear, I put this problem squarely on our three guards. Not on our center.

We are missing a legit big man like Whiteside that can eliminate so many points in the paint. I've talked about this several times this season. I like Handlogten, but reality is he's to soft inside. There's no way a player several inches shorter should be scoring inside. OAK is also allowing smaller players to score at random on him. As for our guards, we have very slow players that are easily exposed playing quicker teams. I don't know who's teaching out big men inside, but they need an overhaul on how to defense smaller players coming inside the lane.

[Stripeshrt]

That is what the Herd has yielded in the last two losses on defense. Yes, you can question our free throws, our timeouts, our basketball IQ, our lack of bench, all points with legitimacy. But until we stop the flood of easy baskets at the rim, nothing else is going to matter. And to be clear, I put this problem squarely on our three guards. Not on our center.

PB , you are a knowledgeable poster whom I agree with most times and I do agree with this post BUT...........Good Coaches put their players in positions to succeed and this is NOT being addressed IMO! This group has so much upside and underperforming so much that its insane. B a COACH , not a buddy damnit!

[MLBULL]

The majority of the made shots in the paint by JMU and Georgia Southern were less than 5 feet from the basket. GSU lost December 14 to the same Morehead team we beat 83-59. The loss of Wyatt Fricks is evident.

[herdorbust2]

The majority of the made shots in the paint by JMU and Georgia Southern were less than 5 feet from the basket. GSU lost December 14 to the same Morehead team we beat 83-59. The loss of Wyatt Fricks is evident.

The loss of Fricks is much bigger than people think. I'm not blaming this on one player at all. But as soon as our rotation started with Goran and Early we started looking a lot like last year. We were playing great defense until about 4 games ago. Active, closing out with quick length from inside out. Now it seems with this rotation the whole team is out of sync.

[Rockin Herd Fan]

The loss of Fricks is much bigger than people think. I'm not blaming this on one player at all. But as soon as our rotation started with Goran and Early we started looking a lot like last year. We were playing great defense until about 4 games ago. Active, closing out with quick length from inside out. Now it seems with this rotation the whole team is out of sync.

This is why players like Early and Goran should have been sent packing in the offseason and replaced with at least one athletic guard.  I'm not talking about sending all of them packing, but you have even said that we are one guard away from being a great team.  We have no depth in the back court and Danny's stubborn refusal to address his recruiting errors is maddening!!! 

[herdorbust2]

This is why players like Early and Goran should have been sent packing in the offseason and replaced with at least one athletic guard.  I'm not talking about sending all of them packing, but you have even said that we are one guard away from being a great team.  We have no depth in the back court and Danny's stubborn refusal to address his recruiting errors is maddening!!!

I won't argue with that part.

[herd2win]

The loss of Fricks is much bigger than people think. I'm not blaming this on one player at all. But as soon as our rotation started with Goran and Early we started looking a lot like last year. We were playing great defense until about 4 games ago. Active, closing out with quick length from inside out. Now it seems with this rotation the whole team is out of sync.

The other 4 players are not playing well and that has nothing to do with Fricks.  We are not seeing any effort on D and the other teams are strolling through the lane.  Fricks was not a rim stopper by any means.  Fricks also did not play point guard and that is a glaring weakness how slow our guards are.

[herdorbust2]

The other 4 players are not playing well and that has nothing to do with Fricks.  We are not seeing any effort on D and the other teams are strolling through the lane.  Fricks was not a rim stopper by any means.  Fricks also did not play point guard and that is a glaring weakness how slow our guards are.

Sure it does. The rotation is now different. One guy can screw everything up if they don't close out or give weakside help. Then others try and compensate and your cohesion as a unit is completely destroyed. It just takes one guy and two is even worse. We are starting to look like last year and there is a reason for that. Go back and watch tape of our first 10 games or so and our D was way better than it has been for the last 2-3 games. We rotated, closed out on shooters very well. Now it looks chaotic exactly like last year.

[gochneaur645]

Fricks was averaging only 11 minutes a game. We were down by 12 in the first 5 minutes of the game before he would have even been playing if he were healthy.

It's fair to blame some of the struggles on losing him, but his return isn't going to magically fix what appears to be much bigger defensive problems.

[MUonium]

That is what the Herd has yielded in the last two losses on defense. Yes, you can question our free throws, our timeouts, our basketball IQ, our lack of bench, all points with legitimacy. But until we stop the flood of easy baskets at the rim, nothing else is going to matter. And to be clear, I put this problem squarely on our three guards. Not on our center.

you are correct, and you are correct that it's the fault of only some players -and- coaches

[MUonium]

fricks being out is partly Fricks fault.  but once again, 99% of blame goes directly to DD for being stubborn and not getting more ready-to-play bodies from the portal.  i'm about fed up with his team's inconsistencies and lack of focus, discipline and defense

[GreenWhite]

Our guards can't stop dribble penetration. It forces our big men to come over and defend leaving the post wide open.

[Garbanjo]

Our guards can't stop dribble penetration. It forces our big men to come over and defend leaving the post wide open.

A glaring problem that should have been addressed with recruiting but it is what it is

We can still win the conference but it's on DD 100%

Go Herd!

[pembrook burrows III]

We are missing a legit big man like Whiteside that can eliminate so many points in the paint. I've talked about this several times this season. I like Handlogten, but reality is he's to soft inside.

Handlogten is 8th in the nation currently in blocked shots, and 11th in the nation in blocked shots per game. The opposing center scored 7 points last night; JMU's center scored 11 points last weekend. Those are winning defensive numbers from our freshman center.

[cincyherdfan]

Giving up that many points inside off of drives and direct passes in the lane is lack of effort. Simply can?t happen. It?s not lack of skill it?s lack of accountability.

When DD said in his postgame that he called timeout and changed the defense but then we went back out and nobody changed??? What happened?? Nothing!!
If you?re a head coach and during a timeout you change say something and your team goes out and doesn?t do anything and nobody?s butt goes to the bench, nobody gets chewed out and just roll on like no big deal?.then you get a team that goes on cruise control and loses the competitive edge.

[whf]

Fricks may be hurting us by being out, but Goran and Early are putting in some pretty good minutes; I don't agree with the comments about their play and the rotation being a problem at all.  With the game decided by the ten minute mark, i don't think having any depth issue would of concern.  This game was lost by the five starters before they had a chance to pull their jocks up for the first time. Please quit trying to blame anyone other than the starters, they got their axxes kicked and they need to take the blame.

[MUther]

Our defense looked good against the 331st ranked SoS.  They shouldn't look this bad against a 200ish conference schedule.  I think they were playing above their heads AND against a weak schedule and made it look like there had been improvements that weren't there, to some people.

The worst thing is we've seen this slide before.  What we haven't seen is our coach successfully fix it during a season.  Lot of postgames last year where the coach was standing their like he'd been knocked out and had no answers on how to move forward.

[herdorbust2]

Our defense looked good against the 331st ranked SoS.  They shouldn't look this bad against a 200ish conference schedule.  I think they were playing above their heads AND against a weak schedule and made it look like there had been improvements that weren't there, to some people.

The worst thing is we've seen this slide before.  What we haven't seen is our coach successfully fix it during a season.  Lot of postgames last year where the coach was standing their like he'd been knocked out and had no answers on how to move forward.

Yes Georgia Southern is so much better than Toledo lmao!!!!

[The Right Stuff]

They were that night. :o

TRS
MU 71

[herdorbust2]

They were that night. :o

TRS
MU 71

Yep but are they a better team if those 2 played head up? This constant weak schedule, like every game was a complete cupcake is balancing on stupidity and I don't care who it hits. Would Duquesne compete for the top half of the SB? I'm sick of hearing how those schools aren't at the level as the mighty SB and we destroyed them but now we aren't prepared for Georgia Southern lmao!!! Agenda???