Another rough one

[rebelfan]

I DVR'd the LMU game last night and watched it when I returned home from the Rebel game last night. I felt bad about the loss. They just don't quite know how to win yet. Three close losses that could have gone either way, that hurts.

LMU has some individual talent for sure, but Coach has gotta tighten up alot of things with the squad. The carelessness with the ball has to be first. Wow. Some really bad, completely avoidable turnovers. Some of the decision making by the guards was questionable too. And the free throws, you know I don't have to go there. And the LMU defenders were way easy to get by at the point of attack. UCI was able to beat the defender with some not so special moves and then the entire defense would break down resulting in easy score.

All fixable.

The good things are the team is playing hard and they want to win. They compete well. I expected ALOT more out of Davis, but Viney is better than I thought. Young cannot disappear like that either. And Garibay gave some good minutes. Teel seems like the kind of player that you love even though he drives you crazy. Can't hit free throws, careless with the ball, but talented. I think the team just needs to go through these growing pains and learn from them before you start seeing the results you desire.

[ironlions]

Growing pains is a nice way to put it. What let down it was!

[uncurselmu]

Davis was nothing but off last night, that happens. However he's been picking up a few travel calls in the last few games, and on simple plays where he's pivoting at the top of the key, can't happen. Teel is great at attacking the basket, but teams pickup on that, he can cut down on those charge calls by pulling up for a short j or floater instead of trying to take it all the way every time. He's got enough size and talent to where it's gonna be hard to count on refs not falling for a defender's flop.

As disappointing as it is, I think your assessment is spot on in that these are fixable issues. I'm still happy to see the talent we have develop, they put up a solid effort and this is a way more digestible loss than last year's.

[irishlion]

The thing with Vernon is I would like to see him drive, and pass the ball to a cutting post. Of the spot up shooter. I don't trust in his pull up jumper or floater - he's a layup kind of player. But if he could start mixing in some solid passes with the layups, he'll be harder to defend.

Also - when he drives and does choose to pass - he waits until he's too deep in the paint. He needs to make that decision about 3-4 feet sooner.

I love Vernon's competitive drive and passion. He just needs to add a couple more options to his repertoire, and he'll get it done. I still want him on the court for the tough ones.

[thx4leavinjimlynam]

rebelfan, thanks for the feedback. Agree that it is fixable. However, Young had 8 points and 6 rebounds in 18 minutes. It may have seemed like he disappeared, but that's because he was on the bench. Double those numbers, and in 36 minutes (a number he reached a lot last year) he would have 16 points and 12 boards. The coach pulled the disappearing act.

I think we need Ashley to become the platoon with Edgar. I think the fact Ashley forgot to take the court after a first-half timeout last night is the reason Good didn't play him in the second half. We could have used Ashley's rebounding, that is for sure.

[irishlion]

Did I miss something? In the very few minutes I've seen of Ahsley compete since he arrived last summer, I haven't seen anything to merit putting him in the top 8. He appears to be generally athletic, but I have yet to witness the basketball skills or IQ that would have me place him in a rotation. On top of that - he hasn't played ANY significant minutes in games, scrimmages or practices since last November due to injury. He was sidelined all season, all Spring, all summer - not cleared for full contact practice/play until the start of this year. And then he was injured again. What am I missing?

On top of that - I witnessed his melt down in the Notre Dame game last year, right before the injuries ended his season. Does anyone else remember him yelling back at the coaches in the middle of a game?

Giving Ashley limited minutes until he is in game condition, and proves himself ready to complete at this level seems far more reasonable than putting him in a rotation.

[lmu2008]

Nov 19, 2009 19:01:24 GMT -5 irishlion said:

Did I miss something? In the very few minutes I've seen of Ahsley compete since he arrived last summer, I haven't seen anything to merit putting him in the top 8. He appears to be generally athletic, but I have yet to witness the basketball skills or IQ that would have me place him in a rotation. On top of that - he hasn't played ANY significant minutes in games, scrimmages or practices since last November due to injury. He was sidelined all season, all Spring, all summer - not cleared for full contact practice/play until the start of this year. And then he was injured again. What am I missing?

On top of that - I witnessed his melt down in the Notre Dame game last year, right before the injuries ended his season. Does anyone else remember him yelling back at the coaches in the middle of a game?

Giving Ashley limited minutes until he is in game condition, and proves himself ready to complete at this level seems far more reasonable than putting him in a rotation.

+1

He hasn't proven anything to me yet, the only thing I've seen is the brick 3 he put up last night...

[thx4leavinjimlynam]

I thinking Ashley could at least grab a rebound, but if Tim and Ashley can't (and Armstead does seem to be a player without a role), who is next, Osborne?

[LIONS90045]

Ashley needs to show more intensity on the court for me. I don't see the drive I want to see from him when on the court. Contrast Given Kalipende! (I am a Given fan.)
At one point after a time out, we went back on the court with four players until Ash was sent in late - not sure what went on here? I missed the "incident" at last season's Notre Dame game - does not sound good.
Great physical talent, is he disiplined and coachable enough for DI ball? In practice, his shot has been off consistently, so I am not sure of his future. It could be great with his cooperation and step up to the challenge, or it could be otherwise.

[ironlions]

I don't know what incident you talking about. I sit right behind the bench and all I remember Ashley battling Harengody with a broken back. He was in immense pain and kept going back in.

Ashley needs to be battling in the post and this is something the coach staff seems to stress. That is probably why he got benched for the ill advised 3 point attempt. As he gets his health back and chooses to go to war in the paint he will get more minutes.

[waterboy]

I was told that there was some shots of me and the gang on TV at the UCI game. So I decided to reveiw the tivo'd game to see what I looked like on TV.

I became engaged in the game and have a different perspective on the loss after reveiwing it.

Substitution was not a big factor in our loss...it was turnovers...turnovers and more turnovers. The subs and the team in general did a decent job of stopping the Anteaters, but every time we stole the ball, pulled an offensive rebound, or blocked a shot, our gaurds (primarily) would lose the ball, either by misdribbling, going too fast before they had ball control, forcing shots and getting blocked or simply bad passes. Over and Over our runs would be thrawrted by a turn over. Several times we turned the ball over 3 to 4 times in a row. This happened in the first half as well as the second half.

The coach's focus on a point guard recruit shows me that the coach understood this was a week point on this years team. Vernon, Larry and JD have to protect the ball and get it to the players doing the play!

[lion99]

I agree with waterboy. The biggest "problem" in the first four games seems to be the high amount of turnovers. We have lost each game by no more than 6 points. The difference was the TO's. Free throw shooting seems to be improving. These guys can play but they need to focus on protecting the ball. I'll be at the USC game tomorrow and we'll be keeping a close eye on turnovers as the key to the game.

[dedicatedlionfan]

I think that we also have to credit the lack of o-boards!!! I think if we at least made an attempt to rebound the ball....we would have many second chance opportunities!!! Timmy D. had 0....thats right 0 boards!!!!

[lionfan24]

I agree turnovers is our biggest problem during the first four games. Not only turnovers but real sloppy ones that should never be stolen. For instance the one for Viney in the UCI game at the top of the key was just terrible. We seem to like to throw weak lob passes and telegraph them as well. This is the fault of both the passer and the receiver as we need to work on throwing a crisp pass maybe with a ball fake and also seal the defender to recieve these passes. Just basic basketball but we seem to be missing these fundamentals.

[lionfan24]

Aside from turnovers I haven't seen much from our bigs aside from Garibay. He looks to have a real promising future at LMU and should be our starter for the foreseeable future. Tim has done virtually nothing and shows know promise of being a defensive force. For a guy his size he should be more of a factor inside. I think with the players we have rebounding will be done more as a team effort than any one individual I don't see anyone who really wants to assume the role of dominating the boards on offense and defense. Which is why you see guards like Vernon Teel pulling down 6 or so a game. All in all we have actually been doing okay on the boards besides the UCI game so hopefully that was a fluke. Too many offensive boards given up for easy put backs.