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Post by jellybean on Jan 10, 2014 10:54:04 GMT -5
Nice to get a win, despite almost giving it away. Does anyone understand the substitutions for defense where G goes with 5 guards? He did it twice after foul shots. Isn't it usually the other way? Put the bigger guys in for defense and rebounding? With 5 guards on the court, this team can't get a defensive rebound. And refs consistently allow it to be a scrum under the basket late in the game. Even when GW missed down the stretch (which was rare), their guys were there to clean up the miss since our tallest guy was about 6'3". On a related matter: College b-ball is almost becoming unwatchable down the stretch these days. All games. It's a pretty good product for about 35 minutes and then is just terrible as the last 5 takes a half-hour to play. A million TOs, substitutions, foul shots, other clock stoppages, zebras re-checking the clock to 10ths of a second, etc. The NCAA probably loves all the additional commercials they can get in, but they are at risk of losing a lot of people if it doesn't get better. Are you John Feinstein? He is constantly talking about end of games. NCAA time outs. He drives me crazy with this time obession.
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Post by jellybean on Jan 10, 2014 10:59:47 GMT -5
Tremendous game on both ends of the court by Sam Mills. I thought before the game that he would be the key. Needed to shut down Creek and be a factor offensively by hitting 3's. He sure did that and more. One of Sam's best all-around games at La Salle. We need him this year.
Also, Rohan Brown came up huge in this game. Solid contributions by all the subs. We will need nights like this for us to win in this league.
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Post by coqui900 on Jan 10, 2014 11:23:24 GMT -5
Nice to get a win, despite almost giving it away. Does anyone understand the substitutions for defense where G goes with 5 guards? He did it twice after foul shots. Isn't it usually the other way? Put the bigger guys in for defense and rebounding? With 5 guards on the court, this team can't get a defensive rebound. And refs consistently allow it to be a scrum under the basket late in the game. Even when GW missed down the stretch (which was rare), their guys were there to clean up the miss since our tallest guy was about 6'3". On a related matter: College b-ball is almost becoming unwatchable down the stretch these days. All games. It's a pretty good product for about 35 minutes and then is just terrible as the last 5 takes a half-hour to play. A million TOs, substitutions, foul shots, other clock stoppages, zebras re-checking the clock to 10ths of a second, etc. The NCAA probably loves all the additional commercials they can get in, but they are at risk of losing a lot of people if it doesn't get better. Are you John Feinstein? He is constantly talking about end of games. NCAA time outs. He drives me crazy with this time obession. John Feinstein wrote one great book about Bobby Knight. After that, his body of work is really lacking. I have no idea how he has ended up as this expert on college basketball. He's the Ricky Gervais* of sports writing. (* Ricky originated/wrote/starred in the original version of The Office, which aired on BBC. It's truly amazing. But after that is a lot of nothing worth watching at all/stuff that's outright terrible.)
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Post by mookie on Jan 10, 2014 11:24:29 GMT -5
Tremendous game on both ends of the court by Sam Mills. I thought before the game that he would be the key. Needed to shut down Creek and be a factor offensively by hitting 3's. He sure did that and more. One of Sam's best all-around games at La Salle. We need him this year. Also, Rohan Brown came up huge in this game. Solid contributions by all the subs. We will need nights like this for us to win in this league. I completely agree and feel like I overlook the bench too often. Brown played great off the bench.
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Post by casey44 on Jan 10, 2014 11:27:47 GMT -5
Looked over Zach's 3 pt play and charge that Sam took and after slowing down frames, both calls were correct. This, despite whining by usual suspects on A-10 bd. Armwood was sliding over and Sam, was clearly outside the circle and appeared set. That one had me holding my breathe. We were the better team last night-end of story.
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Post by 23won on Jan 10, 2014 12:04:29 GMT -5
Explorerman makes a bunch of good points, but I disagree that GW played poorly and Creek was off.
I thought the GW returning players played exceptionally well and they kept the game tight at the end like a well coached (old) Big East team. Savage is hands down the most improved player in the A10, Armwood and Macdonald played well, Garino probably had his best game this year and Mikic is a dangerous shooting threat. The only weak spot was Creek, who laid a dud IMO largely due to Sam being in his shorts all night. Sam played an incredible 38 minutes on BOTH endos of the floor. I agree with jellybean that he and Rohan were key. I love how Rohan excels at putbacks, rebounds and 50-50 balls. Last night he went 4-4 from the line at key points where the momentum could have shifted in GW's favor.
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Post by broderickpresident on Jan 10, 2014 12:07:09 GMT -5
I thought Wright came out very strong on the glass and offensively and was taken out of the game by atrocious officiating. Our rebounding cratered and we gave up way too many offensive rebounds despite a strong effort from Brown off the bench. They had 17 offensive rebounds (compared to 23 defensive rebounds by us).
Duren and Garland both seemed much quicker than they have all season long to me. No idea if Garland had been hurt, but he looked a lot more explosive...maybe it's just because he was giving himself more room to get a full head of steam and we improved spacing a bit. This was also one of the first times this season that he was consistently looking for cutters/shooters as he attacked the rim. For so much of this season, his eyes were only on the rim and he ended up getting his shot blocked. He has a gift for drawing defensive attention and can be very dangerous if he's a threat to shoot and pass when he gets in there. We've been lacking his creative interior passing for much of this year. With Duren, we know he's been hurt. Hopefully he'll be good to go for the rest of the year, but I worry that he'll wear down again as the schedule picks up again for conference play.
Very sloppy execution down the stretch once again, but I don't care about style points in conference play. Fortunately the A-10 had a strong non-conference season once again, so with some success in A-10 play we can salvage the season. If our guards get some chemistry going and find their strokes, we're still capable of a top-5 finish, in my opinion. Those are very big ifs, unfortunately.
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Post by explorerman on Jan 10, 2014 12:22:44 GMT -5
I thought Wright came out very strong on the glass and offensively and was taken out of the game by atrocious officiating. Our rebounding cratered and we gave up way too many offensive rebounds despite a strong effort from Brown off the bench. They had 17 offensive rebounds (compared to 23 defensive rebounds by us). Duren and Garland both seemed much quicker than they have all season long to me. No idea if Garland had been hurt, but he looked a lot more explosive...maybe it's just because he was giving himself more room to get a full head of steam and we improved spacing a bit. This was also one of the first times this season that he was consistently looking for cutters/shooters as he attacked the rim. For so much of this season, his eyes were only on the rim and he ended up getting his shot blocked. He has a gift for drawing defensive attention and can be very dangerous if he's a threat to shoot and pass when he gets in there. We've been lacking his creative interior passing for much of this year. With Duren, we know he's been hurt. Hopefully he'll be good to go for the rest of the year, but I worry that he'll wear down again as the schedule picks up again for conference play. Very sloppy execution down the stretch once again, but I don't care about style points in conference play. Fortunately the A-10 had a strong non-conference season once again, so with some success in A-10 play we can salvage the season. If our guards get some chemistry going and find their strokes, we're still capable of a top-5 finish, in my opinion. Those are very big ifs, unfortunately. Especially adding in a favorable schedule.. I concur, while maybe detrimental to the conference getting 5 NCAA bids, La Salle could finish in the Top 5…
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Post by broderickpresident on Jan 10, 2014 12:37:44 GMT -5
This is going to sound crazy, but humor me for a moment...
Looking at our RPI info (which is not something I should even be bothering with), but we actually have nothing that would currently be considered a "bad" loss by the committee. Every team that beat us is in the RPI Top 100 (the lowest being PSU at 90). I'm not sure that's the sustainable, however, because Providence, for example, has been hurt by injuries and may fall apart in conference play (though they did just beat Gtown by 18). PSU could fall, but hopefully the strong RPI #s throughout the Big Ten keep them afloat.
There are numerious landmines remaining on our schedule as well (Duquesne, URI, Temple, Fordham). Those teams all have brutal RPIs and Mason and the Bonnies aren't pretty either. Losses to any of them would be very damaging. But...if we can avoid those losses, there are some impressive wins out there for us to get...
UMass is the in the top 10 of RPI this year and could be the equiavalent of last year's Butler (unfortunately we only get them on the road this year). GW, SLU and Dayton are all in the RPI Top 50 as well.
This is all highly unlikely and assumes some of these #s stay static, but on paper, there's at least the opportunity for us to head into the A-10 tournament with 5 RPI top 50 wins and zero bad losses, which would actually make a damn impressive NCAA Tournament resume.
One final request: let's please stricken this post from the record once we lose at Duquesne on Sunday.
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Post by 1stflooredwards on Jan 10, 2014 13:10:51 GMT -5
This is going to sound crazy, but humor me for a moment... Looking at our RPI info (which is not something I should even be bothering with), but we actually have nothing that would currently be considered a "bad" loss by the committee. Every team that beat us is in the RPI Top 100 (the lowest being PSU at 90). I'm not sure that's the sustainable, however, because Providence, for example, has been hurt by injuries and may fall apart in conference play (though they did just beat Gtown by 18). PSU could fall, but hopefully the strong RPI #s throughout the Big Ten keep them afloat. There are numerious landmines remaining on our schedule as well (Duquesne, URI, Temple, Fordham). Those teams all have brutal RPIs and Mason and the Bonnies aren't pretty either. Losses to any of them would be very damaging. But...if we can avoid those losses, there are some impressive wins out there for us to get... UMass is the in the top 10 of RPI this year and could be the equiavalent of last year's Butler (unfortunately we only get them on the road this year). GW, SLU and Dayton are all in the RPI Top 50 as well. This is all highly unlikely and assumes some of these #s stay static, but on paper, there's at least the opportunity for us to head into the A-10 tournament with 5 RPI top 50 wins and zero bad losses, which would actually make a damn impressive NCAA Tournament resume. One final request: let's please stricken this post from the record once we lose at Duquesne on Sunday. C'mon, BP. You, of all people, can't lose the faith.
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Post by vasalos on Jan 10, 2014 13:45:20 GMT -5
Hi everyone, I see a lot of NCAA talk on here. Just focus on the next game. We got our first quality win and we still don't have any resume of any kind. With the good press of yesterday's game, I couldn't help but post it to my bracket site. We have a lot of work to do: www.explorertownbracketologist.com
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Post by golasalle on Jan 10, 2014 14:06:40 GMT -5
That GW pregame reception must have been something else, boy oh boy their fans in W2 were hammered. If by hammered you mean gold-plated jackasses, then yes. Worse behavior by visiting fans that I have ever seen. Of course I was not sitting in the student section several years ago and didn't have to deal with the Temple a-holes.
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Post by broderickpresident on Jan 10, 2014 14:30:27 GMT -5
Hi everyone, I see a lot of NCAA talk on here. Just focus on the next game. We got our first quality win and we still don't have any resume of any kind. With the good press of yesterday's game, I couldn't help but post it to my bracket site. We have a lot of work to do: www.explorertownbracketologist.comVasalos, you're not humoring me! My only point was that, unlike years past, we don't have a bad loss...YET. And that the A-10 slate will provide us some opportunities to make a statement (and also plenty of chances to sustain awful losses). I am not insinuating that we are anywhere near the field
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Post by vasalos on Jan 10, 2014 14:53:36 GMT -5
Hi everyone, I see a lot of NCAA talk on here. Just focus on the next game. We got our first quality win and we still don't have any resume of any kind. With the good press of yesterday's game, I couldn't help but post it to my bracket site. We have a lot of work to do: www.explorertownbracketologist.comVasalos, you're not humoring me! My only point was that, unlike years past, we don't have a bad loss...YET. And that the A-10 slate will provide us some opportunities to make a statement (and also plenty of chances to sustain awful losses). I am not insinuating that we are anywhere near the field Ok, I'll humor you. Beat VCU on the 25th will all wins preceding that game and things get very interesting.
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Post by a10champion15 on Jan 10, 2014 15:35:44 GMT -5
Wow, I am only disgusted with some of you on this board, not that it is surprising seeing the same comments from the same negative explorer fans on here. I was at the game and actually have watched GW a lot this season along with the rest of the A10. GW has the best bigs in the conference hands down. We were able to shut them down for the most part. Foul calls were an inconsistency on both sides. Wright fouls were weak sometimes as well as Larsens. Larsen was lucky he was able to play with 4 fouls for literally ten minutes. The charge call at the end was also debatable but I thought Garland was mauled when they inbounded the ball. They called a very touchy foul on Duren around 1:30 to even give GW a chance to win this game. We were beating them the entire game on both sides of the court. Neither GW or La Salle bigs were going to play an outstanding game when neither had an advantage, very equally matched. Even though I was disappointed with Zacks performance tonight despite the numbers, Larsen is HUGE so I don’t blame him too much for the mistakes he made.
At this point, I don’t understand what some your expectations are or what you think the potential of this team is. Do you expect this team to fill up a stat sheet? THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAINST a team like GW, going into this game they had a number of votes to be ranked and is ranked 31 in RPI. La Salle shot so well from the three, had some great movement offensively, looks much healthier and played EXCELLENT defense. Garland finally doing what he does best using his speed and driving to the basket. Mills was all over Creek and by the way he shot one air ball and a few shots just didn’t drop for him, he rarely got an open look. It was a great team effort tonight.
Even when this team gets a very good win there is still so much criticism about it. I simply just don’t understand this board. This team doesn’t have one bad loss. Everyone thought @miami was going to be our bad loss but Miami is one of the best defensive teams in the ACC, almost beat Syracuse and beat UNC at home.
RANT OVER! LETS GO EXPLORERS! KEEP THE FAITH!
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Post by lwc4591 on Jan 10, 2014 16:07:09 GMT -5
Champion15 I didn't see very much criticism at all and even Angry Al was complimentary. Most on the board gave the players their due while in some cases pointing out the obvious. Do you think G will say OK you guys were perfect keep up the good work. You can have constructive criticism it is not a bad thing.
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Post by a10champion15 on Jan 10, 2014 16:27:03 GMT -5
Champion15 I didn't see very much criticism at all and even Angry Al was complimentary. Most on the board gave the players their due while in some cases pointing out the obvious. Do you think G will say OK you guys were perfect keep up the good work. You can have constructive criticism it is not a bad thing. I have no problem with constructive cristism. Exactly why I think that charge was debatable at the end but the refing was so inconsisent I just said the hell with it. I just have a problem with other teams don't give credit to our opponents when it is due. This is a huge win that honestly that is being down played by some. I was actually shocked by Angry Al on his comments, he first positive comments all season(new year new al) but there a those who simply focus on the negativity and it erks me like no other.
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Post by durenduren on Jan 10, 2014 16:45:32 GMT -5
A10, what you're seeing is very very cautious optimism. And you can you blame people for taking this with a grain of salt to a certain degree? As of now, it's one good win a very average season, and this team isn't exactly known for consistency from game to game.
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