Men's basketball

[YSU1]

it appears that the interest in men's basketball is as much as the interest in football.  Basically none.

[ytownchief22]

How many new threads do we need.. The team is young and is building something but it ain't happening this year.

[YsuPride]

That is what we said last year. Looks like another year misery. I like this coach I believe he is a good hire but right now he's got to get this fixed this year. Young or not we look terrible. We can our shoot, too many turnovers, missed free throws we look very very bad.

[ytownchief22]

The roster is completely from last year so it's not the same. Calhoun has his guys now and it's gonna take time to build. Year 3 is always the big year for a new coach. Next year folks.

[ucfpengbuck]

Needed to compete against RMU. These are the type of games that YSU must win and even their announcer said  YSU would be in the top tier in their conference.   Didn't look like it last night. Tired of the young team excuse even though it's true,still need to come out with intensity. Can't just jack up 3s and hope to win.  No inside scoring last night.   Bring on the Mountainqueers.

[mudclods]

Definitely a young team and a lot of inconsistencies.  Not only is it a young team, but it's basically a totally different team from last year.  You figure 3 of the 4 returning players were freshman last year.   

Some of the positives I've seen are we have a pretty deep bench with a lot of guys that can play.  I think we're more athletic and faster than teams in the past.  Simmons really impresses me at times for being a freshman.  We've been in all 8 games at halftime and led many of them.  We're +47 rebounds, +11 blocks & +11 steals.  Our foul shooting is better than it's been in a long time.

The negatives.  We really don't have that go to guy like in the past with KP & Cam and even Hartfield.  I feel like at the moment it's Hampton, who is our leading scorer and hasn't started a game this year. Reminds me a little of Matt Donlan when he got hot.  No go to guy seems like that's really hurt us in games when we've went on scoring droughts.  While maybe Hartfield didn't fit in with the style or whatever, I feel he was a huge loss. The turnovers have been a real concern.  We're averaging 16 a game. 

I was really excited about Pederson after the first 3 games but he really hasn't been a factor since.  Naz has been strong on the boards but I was hoping for more on the scoring end.  Morgan has yet to really impress me yet.  I thought Akuchie showed flashed last year and was hoping for more of that this year but he has seemed to really struggle.  We really need an inside presence and not have to rely on outside shooting.

The rest of the non-conference is going to be tough with WVU, Ohio State and both Central & Western Michigan appear to be good.  The best chance of winning looks like Binghamton.  If we could pick up a couple wins over that final stretch it would be improvement over last year when we failed to win a D1 game in non-conference. 

 

[Penquin68]

With all the new players the defense has really been poor.  On the women's team as long as the 6 players from last year are on the court, we are ok.  Bring in 4 or 44 and the turnovers begin and the defense suffers. The men's team just has too many new players.  They seem to have talent, but no defensive coordination.  In my opinion, we need to try to get the ball inside rather than taking quick 3s all the time.  And mix in the press only occasionally so we don't give up so many open shots. It could be a very poor year for the men.

[Double ET]

With all the new players the defense has really been poor.  On the women's team as long as the 6 players from last year are on the court, we are ok.  Bring in 4 or 44 and the turnovers begin and the defense suffers. The men's team just has too many new players.  They seem to have talent, but no defensive coordination.  In my opinion, we need to try to get the ball inside rather than taking quick 3s all the time.  And mix in the press only occasionally so we don't give up so many open shots. It could be a very poor year for the men.

Right on....
I went to one of the home game. The guys acted as if they all had green light to put up the 3 balls any time they wanted. If they could not find a team mate to pass to, they just jacked up the 3 from any where behind the arc.
If the other team broke the preens, our young guys had no idea how to play half court defense.
We didn't seem to have a regular go to guy. At this time, the go to guy is the guy with a hot hand that night.
We might win some games when we were hot on 3 balls that night. If the 3 balls from most of the guys were not dropping in, we would lose since we played poor team defense and we would not have pre-designed plays to set up the guy with the hot hand.

My 2 cents

[Double ET]

Watched the WV game on Tv... The street ball continued as we got blown out again.

[Penguin Nick]

I watchYSU has shown positives but the street ball mentality of not passing the ball around and just jacking up 3's has been painful to watch.  They are sloppy and undisciplined."

[Penquin68]

The continued shooting of 3's without trying to work the ball inside will kill us as it has.  Need to work for inside and outside shots, not just 3's without trying to get open shots etc. Not sure if they are coached this way or it just happens.

[Double ET]

I watched on TV the half time court side interview of Huggins by the reporter asking how he plans to stop YSU making the 3s. He said that he would keep them moving. It would be difficult to shoot 3s while moving.
We were not making those 3s in the second half. It must have worked.

That reminded me of a post game interview of a D1 coach many years ago when he was asked why and how he lost the game with so many good 3 point shooters. He said "my guys thought they were a bunch of good outside shooters. Unfortunately, we play the game indoor.

Some time in the first half in the WV game, the commentators said, "YSU has already taken 29 3 points shots ...it is not even half time.. This is rediculous ....."

[mudclods]

I thought we got a lot of good looks on 3's in the first half and couldn't knock them down.  I was surprised of how many uncontested 3's WVU gave up. After we got down 10 quick to WVU and settled in, you could almost make the case where we out-played them for a good stretch of the first half.  We were down 7 late in the first half despite missing a lot of open 3's.  Thought we did a nice job even of taking care of the basketball.  The 11-0 run to end the half was killer.  Huggins obviously wasn't happy in his halftime interview.  They obviously made adjustments at halftime.  After several mins in the second half, you could tell we were gassed and WVU showed their strength and the turnovers started.

We really need to establish an inside game.  Wish we could get Pederson going.  He just continues to be non-existent since the first few games.  Need that or Naz to produce more.   

[ucfpengbuck]

We really need to establish an inside game.  Wish we could get Pederson going.  He just continues to be non-existent since the first few games.  Need that or Naz to produce more.   

100%.  No inside presence.