Providence Thread

[joeabe]

....Point guard play, better shooting and a wake up call to start the game and we win! We are at the turning point of our season in my opinion. We could either rebound and kick butt or continue in the slump and fade away to NITville. We have the players we just are not putting the ball in the hoop efficiently. I'm thinking positive since I got my tickets to the BE tourney. Go X

[bluegrass]

We hold Watson scoreless, only commit 8 turnovers and still lose.That hurts. Johnson is in a serious slump.If he doesn't get out of it, we are in for a rough February. All of our losses are to teams in the Top 25 but at some point we need to win some of these,especially at home. When do we play Seton Hall? lol They're really struggling too.

[skyhops]

Point guard play, better shooting, and coming out ready to play are kind of big deals and hard to remedy. Scruggs is not a PG at least not in the offense we run.

[Anti-Homer]

The last two times out of timeout we have a Freemantle fadeaway two and then another bad end of shot clock shot by Scruggs. That folks is on Steele once again.

I will defend Steele this game relative to treys, because our two best shooters (other than Tandy) took the majority, and they were just off. Nothing wrong with most of those shots, and even Tre took some bad ones. Great shooters are and should be afforded extra rope.

The last two shots you mentioned bothered me as well. Everyone one knew Scruggs was going to get the ball and throw up a shot no matter what. Anyone who has watched the end of any close game with X knows that is the only play Steele draws up at the end, and Scruggs has not been finishing well at the rim the last few games. It did almost go in, but again, drawing the D then passing off to Nunge would have been my preferred option.

[Anti-Homer]

I don’t think they have any good three point shooters. Maybe a game here or there one might make 3 or 4 but no one on this team can make threes with any consistency. I think we over rate this team. Maybe they have potential but potential does score points, defend or win games. And with a sub average coach they don’t really give me a lot of hope. Let’s be real. Doesn’t help either that they dig a hole in most first halves that they can’t overcome against good teams.

Good shot selection and demanded discipline by the coaches would do wonders to the shooting percentages.

[longliveskip]

the usually objective BOTP nails it.


https://www.bannersontheparkway.com/202 ... basketball

[X-lucidity]

The BOTP piece is fair and makes some valid points 'Skip. Those on this board, like me, that may come off somewhat negative - are not disloyal fans. I am also not a pessimist. But we should be realists. This is trending towards the 3rd season in a row where Steele's teams have faded in late jan / early Feb., while the proven successful coached programs seem to ascend. Even the commentator, (the color guy on Prov telecast), stated numerous times about the questionable shot selection. 2nd last possession, Prov inserts Watson who has 4 fouls. That is a potential coaching blunder. Because they could have left him on bench then called TO for their potential last possession. Were we smart enough to clear lane, post up jack, and pass him the ball to work over Watson who would have played tepid D to avoid his 5th? Nope, Freemantle decided to take a fade away 8 foot jumper. Then the aforementioned predictable Scruggs drive to the left side into 3 defenders for our last gasp. (Odom was effective and scoring during our comeback yet not even on the floor during the vital last 3 minutes). Hey, I know these kids care and try, but where is the collective B-Ball IQ both on those two plays and throughout the game? Where is the focus, energy and swag to start these games? Why do we always seem lately to dig a hole that takes 60% of the game working to overcome leaving very little margin for error down the stretch. WHY ARE WE DISCUSSING THE SAME ISSUES AFTER EACH GAME? I am not bitter nor unappreciative of where this program has ascended to over the past 40 years since we hired Bob Staak and made a determined effort to make D-1 bball our bread & butter. It has turned out well. That does not mean we can't take a hard look at trends and our coaching staff. The last 3 games have been alarming particularly. Our offense seems to have degenerated into forced individual efforts. Our D is erratic and lacks physicality. All of this when a team should be gelling, coming into their own, with well defined roles and cohesion. I hesitate to do this, but feel I must to prove a point. If we put forth an effort that this latest trend implies, Creighton will win tomorrow by 8 or more. Should that happen, I would expect some of these rose-colored-glasses to come off. (I want so badly to be wrong you can't even imagine it) Please make me eat those words Coach Steele.

[muskieman]

The last two times out of timeout we have a Freemantle fadeaway two and then another bad end of shot clock shot by Scruggs. That folks is on Steele once again.

I will defend Steele this game relative to treys, because our two best shooters (other than Tandy) took the majority, and they were just off. Nothing wrong with most of those shots, and even Tre took some bad ones. Great shooters are and should be afforded extra rope.

The last two shots you mentioned bothered me as well. Everyone one knew Scruggs was going to get the ball and throw up a shot no matter what. Anyone who has watched the end of any close game with X knows that is the only play Steele draws up at the end, and Scruggs has not been finishing well at the rim the last few games. It did almost go in, but again, drawing the D then passing off to Nunge would have been my preferred option.

the fact that Nate took some bad contested shots(as you would call them) and Kunkel had one that hit only the backboard and one that hit the side of the net and you call them just off while being critical of Scruggs who was the guy that made 7 of the last 9 points for X shows you didn't watch the game as close as you think you did. Paul had a decent shot and while the play was called to go to the right and not the left, the fact was the ball had a very good chance of going in, watch the replay. Had it gone in X might have been able to set up a D that would have kept the Bynum shot from being taken. Providence Bynum played hero ball, and he was also the right guy to take the shots, but X did not let him get to the basket so his shot was much like Colby's shot from last year.

At the 8:40 mark X was down 53-46 from that point on see who were the scorers in the game and tell me why you would not have ridden the hot hand? The only thing I would have done differently would have been to put a better shooter in the corner for a kick-out pass option, but then both of our best three-point men were 0er at the time.

Jack was on the other side of the basket and had the ball come out that side he would have been there for the put-back. In fact, had the ball come out front Colby was there for a put back so it was unlucky where it came out of the basket. You would have liked to see Jack take the shot but they had packed in the lane and the last time a pass went there it was knocked off Jack's chest better he was set up for the putback

BTW anyone here that thinks Paul should not be the go to guy then look at who is left and don't give me that Odom should have been there because you were not watching the same game

[Jesseandrippers]

the usually objective BOTP nails it.


https://www.bannersontheparkway.com/202 ... basketball

I disagree. This article is justifying mediocrity. Of course the numbers look poor, that is the problem. The team passes the eye test in terms of depth, skill, length, mix, experience, etc… to be better than they are performing. As soon as apathy sets into the core of the program, it ceases to grow.

[skyhops]

That article is ridiculous. When we play one half of a decent game against CU and McDermott eats Travis' lunch again we will be 4-5 in BE, hope I am wrong. I agree with MM that Johnson has lost confidence and played bad last game, but Scruggs is supposed to be a 1st team guy (and Free). Odom should have played more.