Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2014 13:44:19 GMT -6
Watching this game last night, I kept thinking man, OSU is playing flawlessly... They did, indeed play pretty good (on averages):
FG: 50.0% 3pt: 38.9% FT: 82.1% .....
......but ironically, so did we:
FG: 49.1% 3pt: 40.9% FT: 83.3% .......
We even out-rebounded OK St. 32-26 and won the offensive board battle 9-6. But(!)...... We turned the ball over 17 times and dug too deep a hole in the first half with 11(?) (reversion to the mean- we were averaging only 9 turnovers a game- which can't last forever).
And... more glaring than anything else... the FTs. We we 5-6... the Cowboys were 23-28(!)- and there was no Hack-a-Shaq at the end of regulation to inflate that number of attempts for them. I rarely complain about bad officiating anymore because it is usually just awful both ways and tends to even out. But we were getting tic-tacs thrown at us all over the place despite being extremely closely guarded all night with almost no tic-tacs against the Cowboys. If we would have gotten half of OSU's attempts (14)- I could understand that- just a lil' home cooking. But this was a home backyard BBQ! This game seemed particularly one-sided in determining what is just hard-fought (Big 12?) basketball, and what is an indisputable foul.
But I suppose... maybe we just gotta get to the rim and draw more fouls there... Those fouls are impossible not to call- either one way or the other (pull up before, or get around the charge trap!).
It's too bad we are without Arians, but I think this team has pretty played well without him and his return next season will be a huge boost. The pool of freed up minutes provides invaluable experience for Jordan, the Prahls, Lyle, Wichman, etc. But we are not nearly as deep of a roster as anyone should be comfortable with... If we stay healthy and play smarter (the talent is obviously there)- we can win a lotta games yet and have a pretty good season, even without a postseason. This is no '12-'13 Panther squad (no offense to that team, but... the highlight(?) of that season was that one of the players who played on that team eventually made an NFL roster...).
'15-'16 could be amazing. As for Austen transferring as a grad student? I dunno about that. Maybe if we went bonkers next year and he followed Jeter out of town. But I don't think that'll happen.. And if it did? (We reach the Elite Eight in March 2016? lol)- I think most would agree that it would be worth it. Austen is his own man and can decide to do whatever he wants with his life (just like Roman Gentry, Brad Carroll, KJ, Tim Flowers, the Bogas, Ja'Rob McCallum, etc.). Though I don't think he will leave Milwaukee- there seems to be pretty good comradery among this group and the people he will be playing with for the next 3 years- maybe he just wants another shot at the postseason- AND- to stay in college, and live the student-athlete college life another year (hell, looking back I would have loved to have taken 5 years and had an extra year before the "real life" 9-5 became the new normal for me..).
I don't mind our 3pt shooting at all- in fact, bombs away. It has been our M.O. from Clay to Ed/Boo/Joah to Paige to Rick to Tone to to Tony to Paris to.... ahhhhhrrrrggggghhh (Austen 3pt Powers lol. :/). But! Right now, Tiby, McQuarter, Lyle, Panoske, and esp. Wichmann have been stroking.... Without their outside shots, we would have been blown away in all of our losses. That being said, yes, our inside-outside game is not working very effectively on the "inside" side... Gotta get better looks and go straight to the hoop- putting the ball on the floor when a player has a wide open layup/dunk down low is one of the most cringe-worthy sights for me. Forget the force of habit (dribble). Just shoot it!
And it's still early, but until Springs can start to light it up from 3, maybe he should get into the lane more?- we NEED FTs (attempts and MADE FTs). Springs is way too dynamic/big/strong to not be nearer to the hoop more often. Springs was 0-7 from 3pt vs. Auburn! Had he dialed it down from outside and scored a couple more easy lane buckets- we might have won... but, he still has almost 3 more seasons to fine-tune his game. I hate to sound like I am writing off this season (McQuarter is one of my favorite all-time Panthers and will be a HUGE loss)- but this season has the potential set the stage for something serious in '15-'16...
We are still pretty dangerous this season- wait until conference before you judge how good our league chances will be- our non-con schedule is obviously irrelevant this season (no arguments there- beating AUB, OSU, UW and ARK wouldn't increase our chances of winning the Horizon League Reg. Season Title...- but they all could have been/WOULD BE huge program-morale boosters). If we had Arians we would be incredibly more dangerous. But this being the first season I have ever followed a team banned from the post-season or for any sort of reason- I like the lowered expectations. We are expected to be not-incredibly-sucky (5th in Horizon?); and we could very well end up winning the regular season league title banner- even without Arians. I stand by that statement.
And please... no more Techs from Tiby. We can't afford to have him on the bench so much and disrupt momentum with those.
And.... if somehow miracles do exist, I hope this team can be the beneficiary of one- and beat Wisconsin at the Arena.
Hey, any given game... Let's TCB against Louisiana-Lafayette and Oral Roberts and Concordia-St. Paul and get things rolling....
PS: That one foul last night that was called 2-3 seconds after the play and the OSU player took about 5 steps... Yeah, that was not even funny. Pretty much summed up the awesome officiating abilities of Andrew Walton, Jeb Hartness and Joe DeRosa. But we were shaky and that made it look all the more plausible to the refs to affirm those calls. We gotta play strong. We gotta play smart. And sometimes, on the road especially, we gotta play the other team's 5 guys- and the 3 guys in black & white stripes.
FG: 50.0% 3pt: 38.9% FT: 82.1% .....
......but ironically, so did we:
FG: 49.1% 3pt: 40.9% FT: 83.3% .......
We even out-rebounded OK St. 32-26 and won the offensive board battle 9-6. But(!)...... We turned the ball over 17 times and dug too deep a hole in the first half with 11(?) (reversion to the mean- we were averaging only 9 turnovers a game- which can't last forever).
And... more glaring than anything else... the FTs. We we 5-6... the Cowboys were 23-28(!)- and there was no Hack-a-Shaq at the end of regulation to inflate that number of attempts for them. I rarely complain about bad officiating anymore because it is usually just awful both ways and tends to even out. But we were getting tic-tacs thrown at us all over the place despite being extremely closely guarded all night with almost no tic-tacs against the Cowboys. If we would have gotten half of OSU's attempts (14)- I could understand that- just a lil' home cooking. But this was a home backyard BBQ! This game seemed particularly one-sided in determining what is just hard-fought (Big 12?) basketball, and what is an indisputable foul.
But I suppose... maybe we just gotta get to the rim and draw more fouls there... Those fouls are impossible not to call- either one way or the other (pull up before, or get around the charge trap!).
It's too bad we are without Arians, but I think this team has pretty played well without him and his return next season will be a huge boost. The pool of freed up minutes provides invaluable experience for Jordan, the Prahls, Lyle, Wichman, etc. But we are not nearly as deep of a roster as anyone should be comfortable with... If we stay healthy and play smarter (the talent is obviously there)- we can win a lotta games yet and have a pretty good season, even without a postseason. This is no '12-'13 Panther squad (no offense to that team, but... the highlight(?) of that season was that one of the players who played on that team eventually made an NFL roster...).
'15-'16 could be amazing. As for Austen transferring as a grad student? I dunno about that. Maybe if we went bonkers next year and he followed Jeter out of town. But I don't think that'll happen.. And if it did? (We reach the Elite Eight in March 2016? lol)- I think most would agree that it would be worth it. Austen is his own man and can decide to do whatever he wants with his life (just like Roman Gentry, Brad Carroll, KJ, Tim Flowers, the Bogas, Ja'Rob McCallum, etc.). Though I don't think he will leave Milwaukee- there seems to be pretty good comradery among this group and the people he will be playing with for the next 3 years- maybe he just wants another shot at the postseason- AND- to stay in college, and live the student-athlete college life another year (hell, looking back I would have loved to have taken 5 years and had an extra year before the "real life" 9-5 became the new normal for me..).
I don't mind our 3pt shooting at all- in fact, bombs away. It has been our M.O. from Clay to Ed/Boo/Joah to Paige to Rick to Tone to to Tony to Paris to.... ahhhhhrrrrggggghhh (Austen 3pt Powers lol. :/). But! Right now, Tiby, McQuarter, Lyle, Panoske, and esp. Wichmann have been stroking.... Without their outside shots, we would have been blown away in all of our losses. That being said, yes, our inside-outside game is not working very effectively on the "inside" side... Gotta get better looks and go straight to the hoop- putting the ball on the floor when a player has a wide open layup/dunk down low is one of the most cringe-worthy sights for me. Forget the force of habit (dribble). Just shoot it!
And it's still early, but until Springs can start to light it up from 3, maybe he should get into the lane more?- we NEED FTs (attempts and MADE FTs). Springs is way too dynamic/big/strong to not be nearer to the hoop more often. Springs was 0-7 from 3pt vs. Auburn! Had he dialed it down from outside and scored a couple more easy lane buckets- we might have won... but, he still has almost 3 more seasons to fine-tune his game. I hate to sound like I am writing off this season (McQuarter is one of my favorite all-time Panthers and will be a HUGE loss)- but this season has the potential set the stage for something serious in '15-'16...
We are still pretty dangerous this season- wait until conference before you judge how good our league chances will be- our non-con schedule is obviously irrelevant this season (no arguments there- beating AUB, OSU, UW and ARK wouldn't increase our chances of winning the Horizon League Reg. Season Title...- but they all could have been/WOULD BE huge program-morale boosters). If we had Arians we would be incredibly more dangerous. But this being the first season I have ever followed a team banned from the post-season or for any sort of reason- I like the lowered expectations. We are expected to be not-incredibly-sucky (5th in Horizon?); and we could very well end up winning the regular season league title banner- even without Arians. I stand by that statement.
And please... no more Techs from Tiby. We can't afford to have him on the bench so much and disrupt momentum with those.
And.... if somehow miracles do exist, I hope this team can be the beneficiary of one- and beat Wisconsin at the Arena.
Hey, any given game... Let's TCB against Louisiana-Lafayette and Oral Roberts and Concordia-St. Paul and get things rolling....
PS: That one foul last night that was called 2-3 seconds after the play and the OSU player took about 5 steps... Yeah, that was not even funny. Pretty much summed up the awesome officiating abilities of Andrew Walton, Jeb Hartness and Joe DeRosa. But we were shaky and that made it look all the more plausible to the refs to affirm those calls. We gotta play strong. We gotta play smart. And sometimes, on the road especially, we gotta play the other team's 5 guys- and the 3 guys in black & white stripes.