Vs. Tennessee Tech - 11/26/06

[milwsport]

After the game I asked RJ and Bid about Avo and Ricky. Ricky was taken to the hospital with a head injury. It appears that there was a disagreement between Avo and the staff. RJ said Rickey will be okay.

As for the game, this was a team we should've beaten. There were signs of improvement though. They worked hard to get the ball inside (for most of the game). They drew fouls (but then didn't make the FT's) and they played some tough D. Several times Tech was down to the last second on the shot clock and heaved it up (making some of those shots).

We should have won but we didn't. We missed too many FT's and open looks at the basket from inside. The shots will start falling though.

[famouspnthrfan]

panthers6thman said:

I'm at EVERY game----------------the end

I don't know 6thman...I remember correctly you weren't at the UAB game...just giving you some crap...


What is ridiculous is letting teams come to our home floor and win. Our student section needs to be there to support our team. It's hard for me to say this since I wasn't even at the game due to travel restrictions, however, I think the lack of a student presence is hurting the "home court advantage"

[boosyourdaddy]

I agree, I can understand why people may have missed the last two Sunday games but when the band is the only noise that comes out of either end of the floor its just bad. I took the bus from the dorms last night and there were six of us who walked a few blocks to get on the bus and we waited 15 minutes and only two other people got on the bus after us. The ride back was maybe twice that. I know it would help if we could close out some games and come away with wins, but we aren't getting anyone besides the diehards out to the games. I will still wait until after winter break to make a fair assesment of student attendance this season, but at this point I could have everyone in the students section over at my tiny 2 BR apartment for a pregame party.

[goldenshower]

“...lack of a student presence...” is a complete understatement; there is NO student presence.
Although I do not know what happened between Avo and the coaching staff - I hope that it clears up. Avo is one of the only players who can consistently bring it into the paint and make, yes, MAKE the basket. In the past two games he has actually been passing the ball too, looks like the coaching staff has been getting on him about that.
The block by Marcus Skinner was awesome.
Mauldin needs to pick it up.
We need to get offensive rebounds.
We need to make shots – especially free throws.

[boosyourdaddy]

I also like to see Messiah as close to the paint as possible. 0/5 from the floor last night, if I am not mistaken his only points came as a result of free throws he got from a foul in the paint. He has only hit one three going back to the Michigan game, and while he only attempts a few from the other side of the arc, he has shown that he belongs inside and not out. It also looked like we had problems reading their D and making adjustments. It looked like they went to a zone a few times and we got stuck with our big guys out on the perimeter and settled for a one and done unless we gathered a long rebound. One positive was the hustle of Gentry on the offensive end in the first half and it was good to see Charlie getting on the floor when we made that small run at the end of the first half and the crowd react.

[brewtownbrian]

panthers6thman said:

We don't play tough D ahhh if you look at the Parkside game and then this game it's night and day Tenn was averaging like 85 points a game, we make mistakes on assignments Kevin does quite a bit but he grabbed 8 rebounds.

I don't necessarily disagree with you...they have improved, but they are still not where they need to be, to be considered a team that plays tough D.

Tennessee Tech ran their motion offense really well. And had UWM dead tired and sloppy by the end of the game. It seemed that UWM was almost always a step or 2 behind.

As I said though...they have NOT shown ANY signs of giving up, which is extremely encouraging.

I hope Ricky recovers quickly and I hope the "disagreement" between the coaching staff and Avo gets resolved and/or put in the past.

[brewtownbrian]

boosyourdaddy said:

I also like to see Messiah as close to the paint as possible. 0/5 from the floor last night, if I am not mistaken his only points came as a result of free throws he got from a foul in the paint. He has only hit one three going back to the Michigan game, and while he only attempts a few from the other side of the arc, he has shown that he belongs inside and not out. It also looked like we had problems reading their D and making adjustments. It looked like they went to a zone a few times and we got stuck with our big guys out on the perimeter and settled for a one and done unless we gathered a long rebound. One positive was the hustle of Gentry on the offensive end in the first half and it was good to see Charlie getting on the floor when we made that small run at the end of the first half and the crowd react.

I totally agree. Massiah is tough inside, not so much a threat outside of 12-15 feet. He seems to have a nose for the ball though when it comes to rebounding.

I noticed the switch to zone too and it really stalled the offense. Rather than having the perimeter passes and "swings" happen near the 3-point arc, our guards were catching passes 30 feet from the hoop.

The zone really extended the offense and, like you said, it was one and done most of the time. The best way to breakdown a zone is shoot well from outside. UWM isn't quite the outside shooting team it needs to be, therefore the zone worked well against them. I'm sure HL teams will zone up against them quite often.

[gman2]

OK, in the future listening will be referred to as " based on Bill Johnson's play by play of the game."

I think it would be wrong to attempt to make observations on how a particular player played or how the team played a particular aspect of the game based on solely listening to Bill's play by play. But...

I don't have to be at the game to realize that when the other team has ten fouls and you are firing three's instead of trying to take it at the other team, something isn't right. This indicates bad decision making (coach? players? both?) and you don't need to be at the game to understand that.

Some of us with school age children don;'t have the time or financial resources to attend every game.

So, some comments can be made by listening to the game and some comments can only be made by attending the game.

[dylanrocks]

I most definitely wouldn't guess Avery as a starter at the moment. In fact, I wouldn't even guess him to be a regular member of the rotation.

[damasa]

panthers6thman said:

brewtownbrian said:

After seeing it with my own 2 eyes, I might have to agree with you. Now, I'm not throwing in the towel or being negative or saying the season can't still be productive...BUT...

...they don't play tough enough D, they don't shoot very well from the perimeter and even have trouble capitalizing on easy 2 footers. Nothing that can't be improved on, but if they don't 7th place MIGHT be the destination.

A couple of more things about tonight's game...

-What happened to Avo? Looked to me like he got benched.

-What happened to Ricky? He left early to mid 2nd half, sat at the end of the bench with the trainer and never returned.

-Bidlingmeyer looked like he was on Charlie (and a few others) at every time-out. I loved it. We would have never seen him that animated last season.

-I think having Charlie, Al, Ricky, Paige and Sam as the starting 5 makes sense. Charlie plays the point better than Al, pure and simple. And Al is better suited for the wing. Again, I think this line-up makes sense.

-The guys still play hard and there is ABSOLUTELY no sign of them giving up...I'll pay to see that any day of the week.

I swear it really pisses me off that people post and are not even at the game. I never ever ever wanna hear "from what I heard listening to the game" I understand not everyone can make it to the game but please don't past and act like your audio intake of a basketball game will lead to a insightful assessment. I'm at EVERY game----------------the end[/quote

I swear it really pisses me off when someone on this board tries to blast another poster for such an odd reason.

I'm going with gman on this one. Congrats for being at every game. But just because someone isn't there doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to comment simply because they were "listening" to the game.

Bill does a pretty good play by play and he keeps his stats updated. It's pretty easy to tell how a team is playing even by listening to the broadcast. They were missing several FT's, losing the rebound battle horribly, missing several shots. I think at one point toward the end of the game Bill mentioned that UWM was losing the points in the paint battle with something like 16 points to TTU's 38...

You don't have to be at the game to comment on that.

gman, thanks for being a fan and listening even when you can't get a chance to get to the game.

[BBFran]

I'll tell you what -- Bill Johnson is a very capable play by play man. He is MUCH better than Homer True. I like True as a call-in host but his game calling is impossible to listen to.

It is hard to get to all the games. I had to miss yesterday as I was out of town -- but at least my brother-in-law used my tickets. I hate missing games. I wait all year for college hoops -- it's just too much fun to miss!

[bball30]

Just a thought here, but for people who post as panthers6thman did, has it ever crossed your mind that attitudes like that stop a section/crowd from growing? I think it's rather ridiculous to even write something like this, especially since the people on the board generally shouldn't be criticized for attendance, seeing as they usually frequent games. I had to catch the game on the radio as well last night, it's not a crime. You don't have to be at a game to know what 8-of-31 from the foul line and shooting 35.6 percent from the field looks like.

[namuwm]

I'd have to agree with what has been said about this game...I think there are signs of improvement from the team and they certainly do not give up. This is a game that should have been won, plain and simple. Free throw shooting and rebounding wasn't all that great in this game, so those are items most defintally to work on. On the defensive end, things have gotten better here I think. Comparing this game's defensive efforts compared to earlier games...improvements have been made. One thing I did like is that we made some key shots when we needed to. Very dissapointed in the student turnout...hopefully next few games that will improve.
I'm looking forward to Rob's radio show tonight

[mcdadenets50]

bball30 said:

You don't have to be at a game to know what 8-of-31 from the foul line and shooting 35.6 percent from the field looks like.

While it seemed like 8 - 31 from the foul line it was actually 18 - 31.

uwmpanthers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/112606aaa.html

[bigcatlover]

Now that most of us have reversed our position regarding having Avo as a starter, because he has improved his play in so many areas, is he temporarily suspended from play, although unofficially? This is disheartening. I had hoped for a Charlie, Al, Avo, Paige and Sam lineup.
If not Avo, who will step in and make things happen? I do not see Franklin or Gentry filling his shoes; although Gentry has been making some good shots, they are outside shots.