Game 16: 2022-23 La Salle (1/11)

[Floyd]

You guys need to start a Daddy's little boy chant next game and then you can stop complaining behind the scenes. Frank will then hear ya loud and clear.

Sounds like something an opposing team's fans would do, not ours. I'd say let's not do that. Why take it out on him, he's a player doing what he's asked to do. Hope he doesn't read this board, it's gotta suck

[BR72]

You guys need to start a Daddy's little boy chant next game and then you can stop complaining behind the scenes. Frank will then hear ya loud and clear.

Sounds like something an opposing team's fans would do, not ours. I'd say let's not do that. Why take it out on him, he's a player doing what he's asked to do. Hope he doesn't read this board, it's gotta suck

I really don't get all the harping about B. Martin after this game. He was 7th in minutes played and would have been 8th if DD didn't get benched. Gapare has immense talent but his rawness was on full display last night, including saving the ball under LaSalle's basket for an easy two for them. BM has actually improved notably on offense and, as long as he doesn't take any shots longer than 15 feet, he is a serviceable player. Would I start him? Probably not, but his minutes are not out of line IMO.

[minutefanjsf]

What was the tweet that Dyondree deleted that FightMA247 posted?

is what he tweeted.

[MakeMullinsGreatAgain]

You guys need to start a Daddy's little boy chant next game and then you can stop complaining behind the scenes. Frank will then hear ya loud and clear.

Sounds like something an opposing team's fans would do, not ours. I'd say let's not do that. Why take it out on him, he's a player doing what he's asked to do. Hope he doesn't read this board, it's gotta suck

I really don't get all the harping about B. Martin after this game. He was 7th in minutes played and would have been 8th if DD didn't get benched. Gapare has immense talent but his rawness was on full display last night, including saving the ball under LaSalle's basket for an easy two for them. BM has actually improved notably on offense and, as long as he doesn't take any shots longer than 15 feet, he is a serviceable player. Would I start him? Probably not, but his minutes are not out of line IMO.

totally agree - if Gapare put up his numbers from last night everyone would be talking about the Gapare coming out party. I'm sorry but Brandon is not the problem right now.

[inthescoop]

You guys need to start a Daddy's little boy chant next game and then you can stop complaining behind the scenes. Frank will then hear ya loud and clear.

Sounds like something an opposing team's fans would do, not ours. I'd say let's not do that. Why take it out on him, he's a player doing what he's asked to do. Hope he doesn't read this board, it's gotta suck

I really don't get all the harping about B. Martin after this game. He was 7th in minutes played and would have been 8th if DD didn't get benched. Gapare has immense talent but his rawness was on full display last night, including saving the ball under LaSalle's basket for an easy two for them. BM has actually improved notably on offense and, as long as he doesn't take any shots longer than 15 feet, he is a serviceable player. Would I start him? Probably not, but his minutes are not out of line IMO.

I agree..

I thought that his productivity over the last couple of games has been solid

But the hate here still continues

[Camby4Life]

Every player on this roster chose to play for Frank. There is a certain standard he sets and the players must hold themselves accountable. As fans we wanted to see DD on the floor in the 2nd half, but if he did say something stupid to the refs, that’s on him, not Frank. He’s not benching these guys or subbing them out quickly out of spite.

[Floyd]

I think we need the full seasons results first and see where we end up. If we improve and peak late season, all this stuff will be forgotten. So as much as I hate losing these games we should win, if we put it together and end strong, I'm good

[RagingCager]

Not much more to be said…. it’s becoming obvious and overdue, IMO and many others here, for a shakeup in the starting lineup and distribution of minutes…. Why not try a starting lineup
of DD, Fernandes, Cross, Luis, and Levesque, with Gapare, Kante, and Weeks in the main rotation coming off the bench? Try it and see what happens!

Another topic worthy of discussion is the marketing ( or lack there of); if you’re going to invest this much in a coaching staff and facilities, you have to generate the revenue to sustain it and provide the players with a legitimate Div 1 home court environment. The attendance at Mullins has been pathetic for years now and is a disservice to the players and the fans that do show up. Last night’s crowd was an embarrassment, like many others we have seen in recent history. Ok, so the students are gone…. how about visiting local school systems with free tickets and a chance to meet the players? How about promoting some of the players in a local media campaign, in a collaborative effort…. you can’t promote a coming out party for Tafara Gapare after the Harvard game, only to see him get buried on the bench in subsequent games. The same could be said for some of the other players. When Cal was here, he had an attendance clause in his contract, and he took pride in building the fan base to the point where you had to know some one to find a ticket. The marketing dept, athletic dept, and Head Coach need to do a much better job working together to provide the players with a real home court advantage…. they deserve that and will need the support to reach a level of success we all hope to attain.

[stevemaz]

Also,

The great Maz continues to pick every game ... incorrectly.

That was one long ass hallway at Van Meter..

[NilesGold]

I really don't get all the harping about B. Martin after this game. He was 7th in minutes played and would have been 8th if DD didn't get benched. Gapare has immense talent but his rawness was on full display last night, including saving the ball under LaSalle's basket for an easy two for them. BM has actually improved notably on offense and, as long as he doesn't take any shots longer than 15 feet, he is a serviceable player. Would I start him? Probably not, but his minutes are not out of line IMO.

Brandon Martin had a good game vs La Salle by his standards, and if you only look at the boxscore you could convince maybe yourself he was actually good (3-5 FG). The problem is that teams don't respect him on offense, they ignore him and make life miserable for the other 4 UMass players while they dare Brandon to take uncontested jump shots. UMass might be able to get away with that if Brandon started taking (and miraculously consistently making) a large volume of shots and either carrying the team, or making opponents defend him, or if he was a game-changing defender. Brandon is a low-volume non-threat on offense, and a mediocre defender.

He may have only been 7th in minutes played vs La Salle, but he played 17 minutes, when he should only be playing about 5mins depending on circumstances. Look at it this way, UMass was playing 4 vs 5 on offense for almost half of the game.

[baseline47]

Tough loss. We had a chance to grab a win at the end, but didn't. We had too many turnovers; La Salle's guards were better than ours, we couldn't guard them; La Salle was quicker than us, they beat us down the court too often.

[RagingCager]

Agree with Niles 100%…. if many of us can see this, then the players and opposing teams certainly can too.It’s upsetting to realize that a coach that is supposedly so astute at seeing all aspects of the game, and is constantly focusing on, and bitching about his own team’s defense, would purposely ignore this or somehow be oblivious as to how this affects the offense while giving the opposing defense an advantage.

This dynamic makes Noah’s job that much tougher and is wearing him down; it also affects Week’s ability to get going with more open looks, thus contributing to his struggles this year as well. The question is, does this also contribute to the teams one step forward, one step back regression / stagnation seen so far, when they should be further along in development and team chemistry at this point in the season? This is not a personal attack on Brandon Martin, it is a question about how he and some of the other players are being utilized on the team.

[minutefanjsf]

Agree with Niles 100%…. if many of us can see this, then the players and opposing teams certainly can too.It’s upsetting to realize that a coach that is supposedly so astute at seeing all aspects of the game, and is constantly focusing on, and bitching about his own team’s defense, would purposely ignore this or somehow be oblivious as to how this affects the offense while giving the opposing defense an advantage.

This dynamic makes Noah’s job that much tougher and is wearing him down; it also affects Week’s ability to get going with more open looks, thus contributing to his struggles this year as well. The question is, does this also contribute to the teams one step forward, one step back regression / stagnation seen so far, when they should be further along in development and team chemistry at this point in the season? This is not a personal attack on Brandon Martin, it is a question about how he and some of the other players are being utilized on the team.

Weeks has struggled due to his own inconsistent play, IMO, especially on defense. Sometimes he is fantastic other times he disappears.

[RagingCager]

Agree Minutefan…. Yesterday a perfect example; he hit a couple of 3s, but not much else; you need more out of that position in the A10… hopefully when RJ is healthy, he can take over with Weeks coming off the bench

[bobolink]

RJ has great potential, but if you look at plays that won yesterday's game, you'll see TJ took a charge late in the game to squelch a URI comeback, and later nailed a 3 that did it. He also broke URI's press late (a concern with Noah out) and went 2 for 2 at the line. TJ's stats (%3s, %FTs, especially turnovers) are much better than RJ's. The team needs both guys to get minutes and both could improve.