Game 15, 2022-23: at GW (1/7)

[Floyd]

It was a strange watch yesterday. Didn't think GW was that good that we shouldn't have got the W. Thought the lineup with Noah, RJ, Kante, DD, and Tafara matched up well with their pace and provided us with good offense and defensive intensity.

BM still gives us good defense, TJ seemed a little out of the flow for a bit but when he's on, can score in bunches. Cross has been a tough player, but he looks to be pressing a bit. Looks to be forcing his drives where he gets out of control. He's a talented kid, but might be trying to do too much. We miss WL on the inside, his size and presence inside takes a little pressure off Kante, those 2 are a nice combo.

The end goal is to peak late season so I trust Frank's process to make that happen.

[bobolink]

Not sure, but it looked like one of Tafara's mistakes was stepping over the end line when in-bounding the ball after a made basket. That's how bad the mistakes were.
Wholeheartedly agree that Rahsool shows flashes of excellence but needs consistency. Often he seems to play 20 seconds of great defense but it's a 30-second clock. Like the whole team, his offense comes and goes. That will come around if he keeps working and the team improves around him. Driving vs defenses in the A10 is very hard, unless you loosen them greatly with ball movement and 3-pt shooting. And even then.

Not sure what's up with Matt Cross. Sometimes seems to be trying too hard to do it on his own, which is crazy to say given how hard he always plays and what a good passer he is. Calls haven't gone his way. Happens in A10 road games and that's a difficult adjustment.

UMass is 0-3 in Saturday games. That can't continue, as close the half the remaining games are Saturdays.

Winning can solve a lot a problems. With a couple winnable home game coming and prospect of Wildens' return, I'm hopeful. But concerned.

[jrdupe]

I agree that Diggins should play a little more. When he takes the ball to the hoop he's tough. He doesn't shoot great but he certainly has a better shot than Keon. I have no idea how Keon went to one of the better prep schools with that outside shot of his. He's not fast enough to have blown by everyone so Frank must have loved his size and defensive ability. RJ seems to be settling in nice right now, love the way he's playing on both ends of the court. Need to get these next two at home...VCU away won't be easy but looking at the rest of the schedule we could really make a run. I know we suck on the road right now, but with the exception of the VCU game, every single one of those games looks winnable. I know they won't win them all but 11-4 the rest of the way is not unrealistic.

[Berkman]

They were wearing those jinxed black uniforms. Rarely win when they are wearing them.

[69MG]

There's been a lot of talk here and on Twitter about why we aren't winning more with such an improved roster. While I don't always like Frank's rotations and players' minutes, I think we might be 7-8 if MM were coaching this roster. I'll probably get blasted for this (it's OK, I can take it) but I don't think this roster is much, if any, better than last year's. I compared the rosters, player vs player based on position and performance. I know it's a different style, but the skills don't lie. A couple of my ground rules:
1. I projected this year's freshmen based on upside from what we've seen so far.
2. For this year's transfers, what we've seen is what they are. For last year's transfers, I projected them to stay the same for 2 more years.

Leveque vs Steadman Steadman wins. Better production and about the same on D
Kante vs Greg Jones Kante wins. Better production and about the same on D
Cross vs Buttrick Tie About the same in many stats, and others offset each other
Martin vs CJ CJ in a landslide
Keon vs Rich Kelly Kelly wins. Much better scoring and a better A/TO ratio. Keon is a much better defender but might never be a scorer.
Luis vs Garcia Luis wins. Potential to be all A10 in a year or two. JG had a much better year in 2020-2021
Gapare vs Dibaji Gapare wins. A lot more potential

I pretty much discounted 2 other matchups due to lack of playing time or production (Diggins vs Kolton, Gianni vs Santos).
So that's 3 wins for each roster and 1 tie. As for the returners, I give a ++ for DD and about the same production from Noah and TJ.

[Floyd]

69, I think this year's team would beat lasts years team 7 out of 10 games, maybe 8. The D is waaaay better

[bobolink]

the D is better and our guy DD is much better

[69MG]

69, I think this year's team would beat lasts years team 7 out of 10 games, maybe 8. The D is waaaay better

I agree about this year's D. I think the reason this year's less than stellar offensive team would win is because they could score 80 against last year's D.
But my point was about talent, and I think last year's offensive talent is much better than this year's. I don't know that this year's defensive talent is much better than last year's, they just play harder and have a better scheme.

Frank would have won 20+ games with last year's roster if he could have gotten them to play defense and DD played like this year's DD.

[minutefanjsf]

There's been a lot of talk here and on Twitter about why we aren't winning more with such an improved roster. While I don't always like Frank's rotations and players' minutes, I think we might be 7-8 if MM were coaching this roster. I'll probably get blasted for this (it's OK, I can take it) but I don't think this roster is much, if any, better than last year's. I compared the rosters, player vs player based on position and performance. I know it's a different style, but the skills don't lie. A couple of my ground rules:
1. I projected this year's freshmen based on upside from what we've seen so far.
2. For this year's transfers, what we've seen is what they are. For last year's transfers, I projected them to stay the same for 2 more years.

Leveque vs Steadman Steadman wins. Better production and about the same on D
Kante vs Greg Jones Kante wins. Better production and about the same on D
Cross vs Buttrick Tie About the same in many stats, and others offset each other
Martin vs CJ CJ in a landslide
Keon vs Rich Kelly Kelly wins. Much better scoring and a better A/TO ratio. Keon is a much better defender but might never be a scorer.
Luis vs Garcia Luis wins. Potential to be all A10 in a year or two. JG had a much better year in 2020-2021
Gapare vs Dibaji Gapare wins. A lot more potential

I pretty much discounted 2 other matchups due to lack of playing time or production (Diggins vs Kolton, Gianni vs Santos).
So that's 3 wins for each roster and 1 tie. As for the returners, I give a ++ for DD and about the same production from Noah and TJ.

I think the age/experience from last year’s squad was squandered. You’ve got some guys winning based on potential and others based on performance. I don’t disagree that in the current make up and experience the differences in production are not drastically improved at this moment, and that Frank likely would have won more than MM. I am hopeful that growth for the newcomers will come as this season continues and the skills will then eclipse the veteran/experience from last year.

[Floyd]

9 out of 10

[vanmeter]

Buttrick and both Kelly’s could shoot and score but were terrible defensively.
Leveque is limited offensively but is good defensively - where Steadman was poor in both aspects.

[Jackson96]

I feel like the team has been struggling defensively in these first three conference games — teams are shooting about 61% on non-threes over that stretch. Combine that with the sporadic offense that has had turnover issues, well it’s not a surprise we’ve been struggling (yes the St Louis game was a nice win but the offense kind of overshadowed some defensive issues we had.)

Leveque is pretty limited offensively but they are a better defensive team with him out there. Just not sure how much he and Martin should be playing together as that really bogs down the offense. Could use him back though for sure.

[eldonabe]

I decided to let that game sink i before commenting. In one word - Pathetic.

I see lots of people mentioning that kid who had the whiteboard taken away and Franks death stare..... That indirectly was the end of the game for me. Frank rips the board away, then stands there and draws up some kind of play for the last shot of the half. Noah proceeds to hold the ball and dribble around for that last 22 seconds in order to force up a 3 (that gets blocked to boot.....) What the Actual FUCK!

2 simple questions:

1 - Was that the actual play Frank drew up? In simplest terms - there was no "play" there?
2 - If that is not what he drew up - WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK were they doing?


Neither answer is a good one unfortunately.

[Plano Minuteman]

I question a couple of things about that game:

1) I know they had at least one turnover on an inbounds after a made basket with zero D pressure applied, that should never happen. In fact, it might have been 2 of that same violation.

2) Why didn't they just sit Cross after he got his 2nd foul in the 1st half. I think he was mostly out of rhythm because of his foul issues. Starting the 2nd half with 3 doesn't bode well for settling into the game.

Missed opportunity. Hope they grow from it.

[Juice Stand]

^regarding the inbounding turnover, yes, Tafara did that early, and then Brandon did the same thing in the second half. It's the kind of thing you see maybe once a season, but to have it happen twice in one game means these guys didn't have their heads screwed on right and just weren't focused coming into the game. lackadaisical play in consecutive road games.