Topic: What we know after ODU

[goherd24]

1. As expected, much tougher game than USM. ODU is tough, physical, and almost succeeded at drawing us into the mud. Luckily, our guys fought through it and we got the grinded out W.

2. Free throws - Man, continues to be a source of pain. 500 a day per player? Not sure what we can do to solve this but it needs to be priority #1. 50% is gonna lose games against tourney teams and true title contenders.

3. Curfman - Needed him tonight. Without Curfman, we lose this brawl, period. Made some nice 3s.

4. Taylor - seemed to have a rough game but when you look at the stats, not so much. 19 on 3-9 from 3 isn't terrible, though, i think being that most of thise were open, Taylor could have done better. Only 2 assists.

5. Kinsey - killed their zone defense. He is made for that. What a night, for him as he passes john taft on the scoring list.

6. Micah - little bit if a rough night as he got banged around a lot by ODUs bigs. And they completely took away our pick and rolls, so no offense really for him. He will bounce back big against texas state, who is an awful rebounding team.

7. Fricks and Conner - though conner played tough on D, need him and fricks to pick it up. Simply can not go scoreless in their time in the court. Need to make those open 3s.

8. Overall great atmosphere. 5719 announced attendance, few hundred empty seats but nothing we can do about it. Was nice and loud at times, but in truth, the atmosphere Thursday was better and louder, imo. Need this atmosphere every game.

9. Obinna - man, had 8 points, but could have had 14-16 easy. Kid needs to put in the work at the line, and just slow down just a bit under the basket. If Obinna can put his best effort together, it would allow us to have much more forgiveness for a night when Curfman or kinsey or taylor is off.

Great win by the Herd, puts us in great position to end this road trip in 1st place if we take care of business, and get away from this 6 team tie for first.

Up next - Texas State. 10-9 (3-3) and tied for 7th in the belt. They do nothing incredibly well, except defense (scoring defense 62nd in nation). Luckily that is paired with one of the worst offenses in the nation (over 300th nationally), and they don't turn the ball over much. They are also a very weak rebounding team, that we should pound on the boards. No really notable wins, did beat Cal but Cal is also 3-14 and horrible.

My prediction: comfortable win. Being a road game is inherently tough, but I feel comfortable we can overcome their defense and outscore them, while stopping them and crushing them on the boards for 2nd and 3rd chance opportunities. I expect Micah to have another 15-15+ game. I see no way that we play poorly enough for them to win, it would take a very bad showing from us to lose this one, they simply don't match up. Herd 75 Texas State 52.

[herdorbust2]

Only thing that has me a little concerned is they are always one of the SB best teams and they did beat JMU. So they are capable if we don't bring it on both ends.

[GreenWhite]

I agree the atmosphere was better Thursday night.

[saherdfan]

Southern Miss will beat ODU.  Its a style thing.

[muherd34]

First game of the season that I could make in person.  Great game and solid atmosphere.  They need to turn down the music a tad.  I am 39 and my daughter is 15 and both our ears were ringing during certain songs.   Fun team to watch and can't wait to be back. Really enjoyed the light show at the beginning. I have 4 season tickets and I can only make a few games a season, so I am one of those guys that people complain about on here.   

We really did struggle with free throws and Handlogten really did get pusher around under the basket.  All in all a great win. 

[elginherd]

The Herd's defense was devastating at times tonight.
Executing the variety of different pressures was impressive. ODU had a hard time identifying what type of back court pressure was going to be employed and whether or not the Herd was looking to trap, either jumping out of man-to-man or where the 2-2-1 was going to trap or play soft.

[Herdiowa]

I?m going preface because all my games have been on TV but Micah needs to shoot when he gets the ball 6 ft from the hole.

[MUonium]

I?m going preface because all my games have been on TV but Micah needs to shoot when he gets the ball 6 ft from the hole.

sometimes the extra pass is worse than not enough

[herdinphilly]

Good win. But zero bench points is gonna come back and bite them at some point.

[goherd24]

First game of the season that I could make in person.  Great game and solid atmosphere.  They need to turn down the music a tad.  I am 39 and my daughter is 15 and both our ears were ringing during certain songs.   Fun team to watch and can't wait to be back. Really enjoyed the light show at the beginning. I have 4 season tickets and I can only make a few games a season, so I am one of those guys that people complain about on here.   

We really did struggle with free throws and Handlogten really did get pusher around under the basket.  All in all a great win.

Appreciate your season tickets! But just sell or giveaway the ones you can't go to. Just need to take a picture of the barcode and send to whoever you want. Very easy.

And Bust, i see what you mean, but imo, JMU was a fluke, i believe we win that game 7 of 10 times, or more on a neutral court. They played with more energy and we were lethargic. Looking forward to the rematch.

That being said, I'm taking the herd -10.5 with bells on vs Texas State, even on the road.

[goherd24]

Good win. But zero bench points is gonna come back and bite them at some point.

It doesn't matter, as long as you have more points than the other team. We are still one of the best scoring offenses in the nation, bench or not. That being said, i do wish Fricks and Conner would be better offensively.

[herdfan129]

DD deserves a lot of credit tonight imo.

We continued to change our defense and it was effective.

Obinna does so many things that don?t show up on paper. I think some people aren?t giving him enough credit.

Go Herd!

[herdfan93]

I hope we do blow out TS but I think it'll be a lot closer.  I'm thinking a 5 pt win.

[ThunderDent]

Hard fought win.

After coming from the ESPN linear broadcast, my suggestion would be to put the microphones on the hoops so you can hear the nets/rims, etc. same with the floor mics.

Back to the game, I was glad to see positive changes made at halftime.

Solid win, IMO. 

[goherd24]

I hope we do blow out TS but I think it'll be a lot closer.  I'm thinking a 5 pt win.

You never know on the road, but I'm as confident in a blowout there as i was that we blow out USM. Our strengths are their weaknesses and their only strength is up against a strength of ours (high scoring offense). And our defense is pretty decent and their offense is atrocious. Everythinf points to a bad matchup for them

[bearmann64]

Kinsey and Curfman made good points during presser, saying they had time to watch ODU on tape but no time to actually practice on the floor for it. So made adjustments on the run.

[herdorbust2]

Appreciate your season tickets! But just sell or giveaway the ones you can't go to. Just need to take a picture of the barcode and send to whoever you want. Very easy.

And Bust, i see what you mean, but imo, JMU was a fluke, i believe we win that game 7 of 10 times, or more on a neutral court. They played with more energy and we were lethargic. Looking forward to the rematch.

That being said, I'm taking the herd -10.5 with bells on vs Texas State, even on the road.

I'll take a 1 point win at Texas St. they are traditionally very good and beat JMU this year. We should win but we play like we did at GS or UNCG and it will be a big L.

[Luke80]

Looking at Texas State conference games so far and the fascinating thing is all 6 of their games have been 1 possession contests with under a minute left.  Biggest final margin has been 6 points and 5 of the 6 were decided by 3 points or fewer.

[Herdalum83]

1. As expected, much tougher game than USM. ODU is tough, physical, and almost succeeded at drawing us into the mud. Luckily, our guys fought through it and we got the grinded out W.

2. Free throws - Man, continues to be a source of pain. 500 a day per player? Not sure what we can do to solve this but it needs to be priority #1. 50% is gonna lose games against tourney teams and true title contenders.

3. Curfman - Needed him tonight. Without Curfman, we lose this brawl, period. Made some nice 3s.

4. Taylor - seemed to have a rough game but when you look at the stats, not so much. 19 on 3-9 from 3 isn't terrible, though, i think being that most of thise were open, Taylor could have done better. Only 2 assists.

5. Kinsey - killed their zone defense. He is made for that. What a night, for him as he passes john taft on the scoring list.

6. Micah - little bit if a rough night as he got banged around a lot by ODUs bigs. And they completely took away our pick and rolls, so no offense really for him. He will bounce back big against texas state, who is an awful rebounding team.

7. Fricks and Conner - though conner played tough on D, need him and fricks to pick it up. Simply can not go scoreless in their time in the court. Need to make those open 3s.

8. Overall great atmosphere. 5719 announced attendance, few hundred empty seats but nothing we can do about it. Was nice and loud at times, but in truth, the atmosphere Thursday was better and louder, imo. Need this atmosphere every game.

9. Obinna - man, had 8 points, but could have had 14-16 easy. Kid needs to put in the work at the line, and just slow down just a bit under the basket. If Obinna can put his best effort together, it would allow us to have much more forgiveness for a night when Curfman or kinsey or taylor is off.

Great win by the Herd, puts us in great position to end this road trip in 1st place if we take care of business, and get away from this 6 team tie for first.

Up next - Texas State. 10-9 (3-3) and tied for 7th in the belt. They do nothing incredibly well, except defense (scoring defense 62nd in nation). Luckily that is paired with one of the worst offenses in the nation (over 300th nationally), and they don't turn the ball over much. They are also a very weak rebounding team, that we should pound on the boards. No really notable wins, did beat Cal but Cal is also 3-14 and horrible.

My prediction: comfortable win. Being a road game is inherently tough, but I feel comfortable we can overcome their defense and outscore them, while stopping them and crushing them on the boards for 2nd and 3rd chance opportunities. I expect Micah to have another 15-15+ game. I see no way that we play poorly enough for them to win, it would take a very bad showing from us to lose this one, they simply don't match up. Herd 75 Texas State 52.

Offensively, Micah did have a rough night, but still 9 rebounds and 4 blocks for him which in a game this close was big. As for Obinna, he is killing us at the line, but I truly think we lose this game without him. When he was in foul trouble and Conner had to be in the game for an extended period that was when ODU had their most success and even took a lead.

Obinna was great defensively last night, was 4-4 from the floor and in my opinion, the play of the night was late in the game, maybe 3 or 4 minutes left when he chased down an offensive rebound in the corner. He had an open three and peaked at the rim like he wanted to shoot it but restrained himself kicked the ball back up top which was then rotated over for an open 3 from Taylor. Gave us some breathing room and allowed us to really start to put them away. Had he not got that rebound or shot and missed that 3, think it could have went along way to giving them a chance at the end.

[herdorbust2]

Offensively, Micah did have a rough night, but still 9 rebounds and 4 blocks for him which in a game this close was big. As for Obinna, he is killing us at the line, but I truly think we lose this game without him. When he was in foul trouble and Conner had to be in the game for an extended period that was when ODU had their most success and even took a lead.

Obinna was great defensively last night, was 4-4 from the floor and in my opinion, the play of the night was late in the game, maybe 3 or 4 minutes left when he chased down an offensive rebound in the corner. He had an open three and peaked at the rim like he wanted to shoot it but restrained himself kicked the ball back up top which was then rotated over for an open 3 from Taylor. Gave us some breathing room and allowed us to really start to put them away. Had he not got that rebound or shot and missed that 3, think it could have went along way to giving them a chance at the end.

No doubt we have to have him because he does so many good things. But the things he isn't doing are the easiest things. FTs and bunnies around the basket. He has got to get better at those 2 things.

[Collis P]

I?m going preface because all my games have been on TV but Micah needs to shoot when he gets the ball 6 ft from the hole.

Yes he does!  He needs to have Fricks mentality!!!!!

[MUonium]

after reviewing stats-
steals, blocks, TOs were the differences, plus add more O rebounds=more FG attempts.

otherwise, ODU had better shooting %s across the board- so credit Herd's D as well, and once again, length and disruption to some extent.  next time we play them, if they get more attempts and protect the ball while everything else stays the same they could beat us

[Buffalo Bop]

Every time Kinsey plays, you're seeing one of the top 3 scorers in program history. Amazing.

[Herd2believe]

Handlogten has such a big impact on game, even if it doesn?t always show up in stats.

[herdorbust2]

Every time Kinsey plays, you're seeing one of the top 3 scorers in program history. Amazing.

And Kinsey is most likely guaranteed 14 more games. 12 season, 1 conference tournament and most likely some post season tournament. If he averages 21.5 pts in those games he will pass Jon Elmore for first place.