Howard Game Thread

[1863]

How embarrassing!

This one takes away some of the credibility we built up during the non-league games. We're in trouble against George Mason.

[lasallejohn]

It’s a shame because if we just had a big guy who could rebound we’d be in better shape. Someone mentioned Jocius may be hurt, but that doesn’t affect heart on the defensive end. No aggression going for boards. Lack of basketball IQ. If we need a big man out there, time to see what Kovacevic can do, but I’d stay small. Hope to get this bad taste out of our mouths vs. Mason.

[roaddog77]

This don’t make no damn sense. How the fuck we lose to Howard. No energy, no inside presence, no hustling equal one big fat loss. Harris (18 pts & 13 rebounds), Dockery (21 pts) and Towns (18 pts & 12 rebounds) combined for 57 points and 28 rebounds for Howard. Jocius produced 0 point and 2 rebounds that is inexcusable. Coach Fran need to bench Jocius and go with a smaller lineup. This is a bad loss to end the year out. We need a formidable front line player quickly because Jocius is not the answer. Our first A10 game against George Mason and started the conference 1-0 baby. To everybody on the board Happy New Year’s and many more.

[explorer88]

Rokas isn’t even going hard for the ball.

He looks lost but whatever is going on he has regressed considerably.

[las71]

Just got home from the game. Howard shot very well and seemed like a more talented squad. 0 and 31 shot the lights out and they went 8 deep with quality players. As someone mentioned above maybe we should see if Mercandino can play some 5. We're just such a small team and Shepherd can only do so much boardwork. We have to play near perfect games to win and certainly we missed the mark today. Hopefully we play a solid game in our conference opener vs. GMU.

[GlitterBro #2]

This is why we shouldn't be scheduling a D3 Rosemont squad.

[fvp47]

I am not happy with the loss either but. This is the first loss of the year where we were favored to win and did not. You knew it would eventually happen. On the other side I recall that we not favored going into either the Drexel or Penn game and won both.
Howard averages 77.5 points per game and they scored 71. They averaged 41% from three compared to 36.6% in their prior games.
We on the other hand scored 66 as compared to a season average of 78.8. We went 28% from three compared to 36.2% prior. Marrero was 20% from three compared to 47.5 prior.
Rebounding is an issue not doubt. On to the the next game.

[explorerman]

Rokas was obviously terrible. Only played 10 mins..

But the telling takeaway for everyone wishing that we go small is you see we are not good enough to go small… Rokas, again, barely played and you see the result…

Both offensively and defensively… The idea behind going small is that you give up boards and try to front the post and try to make entries tough… but the concept is you make up for the lack of defense by taking advantage of your speed and shooting and space out the other team’s defense.. We do not have the personnel at least the way it is used.. Today it wouldn’t have mattered with Marrero’s line.. and certainly he has had a great start this year… but overall the numbers do not lie… Sample size is plenty big..

Make no mistake Howard is not a good basketball team and they pretty much had the upper hand and we were playing catch up all game.. Unfortunately, I fear the really soft schedule gave us a false sense of comfort and A-10 play is going to be harsh..

When you lose players like Josh and it really hurts..

I didn’t mention it at the time but that assistant coach that I had drinks with did wonder what Dunphy’s play was with the 3-4 scholarships that are not playing at all… “that is a lot of wasted space on the bench for a team that doesn’t have a lot of margin for error”… He likes the Euro angle but the statement above does express concern

[explorer88]

I have the same concerns about 2nd year and older scholarship players getting no run.

[walkon]

I am going to avoid so much negativity like others on this board. I will give Howard credit. They played well throughout the whole game, And I just felt like they wanted it more than we did today. I think being off for that long didn’t do us any favors, with our last game being nine days ago against a D3 school. I will say,  like others on the board that Rokas has really digressed, and I can’t figure out why. Has anyone noticed that he literally never leaves his feet? He’s the biggest guy out there most nights, but he plays from the floor.

In any event, happy new year to explorertown. Let’s hope we come back tough next week and start the new year off of the right way.

[blueandgold]

Howard won their conference tourney and made the NCAA tourney last year. I’m not going to get too upset with this loss. You all can blame me for attending for first time in a year or two for messing up the mojo. Howard played a good second half, and I thought size wise they matched up well with us, not having a respectable big was a problem today for certain. I loved our defensive effort. Agree with someone who highlighted Marrero’s 3pt% - my question as I watched second half without looking at stat sheet, why did he get so many minutes? Unclear how much value he was providing.

[GlitterBro #2]

My most positive takeaway from yesterday was that the hand-made "Dispenser Broken" sign which has adorned one of the paper-towel holders in the Hideaway men's room for over 13 months was finally removed.  In fact, their solution was to simply remove the faulty dispenser from the wall, leaving behind only the screw holes as a memorial to what once was.  Problem solved.

[calsufan]

Dec 30, 2023 16:24:35 GMT -5 nyalum said:

Might want to consider increasing Zan's minutes and moving someone into the rotation that we haven't played. Mercandino, maybe?

I'm sorry, but I don't think Zan is the answer. I think he gives us pretty much nothing right now. Yes he hustles, but his defense is bad, he's undersized for his position and he gets outmuscled. His offense is nonexistent as well. Maybe he'll develop over time, but right now, he's not ready for primetime.

[explorerman]

Dec 30, 2023 20:31:39 GMT -5 walkon said:

I am going to avoid so much negativity like others on this board. I will give Howard credit. They played well throughout the whole game, And I just felt like they wanted it more than we did today. I think being off for that long didn’t do us any favors, with our last game being nine days ago against a D3 school. I will say,  like others on the board that Rokas has really digressed, and I can’t figure out why. Has anyone noticed that he literally never leaves his feet? He’s the biggest guy out there most nights, but he plays from the floor.

In any event, happy new year to explorertown. Let’s hope we come back tough next week and start the new year off of the right way.

Since it is obvious now to the common folk he is playing with a lower half injury.. He didn’t forget how to move or jump all of sudden.. Obviously that is silly to think that the same Rokas that just 90 days literally took over the first possession of the season and completely tooled the reigning CAA player of the year would all of sudden forget how to move. I hate to share it because you obviously don’t want that out there… but to any D1 coaching staff it is pretty obvious at this point.. So I am not sharing anything to secretive..

The question for the last month has been do you keep rolling him out there so we have at least some presence or do we attempt to go small in which we do not have the horses to play it well.. When you have only 2 shooters (maybe 3 on the roster -Tunde- I think gets better with more PT) you just can’t play it and expect to win against average to above average teams…

And this ties back into what explorer88 and I are talking about.. There is a lot of personnel that is just taking up space.. Do we not have anyone that can shoot effectively to actually play small ball well? I know there was a lot of chatter about Efe when he committed..

[calsufan]

Dec 30, 2023 16:52:44 GMT -5 1863 said:

How embarrassing!

This one takes away some of the credibility we built up during the non-league games. We're in trouble against George Mason.

We are in trouble against George Mason regardless of this game, but a loss like this is not how you want to go into conference play.

[victoriouslasalle]

Dec 31, 2023 10:05:28 GMT -5 explorerman said:

Dec 30, 2023 20:31:39 GMT -5 walkon said:

I am going to avoid so much negativity like others on this board. I will give Howard credit. They played well throughout the whole game, And I just felt like they wanted it more than we did today. I think being off for that long didn’t do us any favors, with our last game being nine days ago against a D3 school. I will say,  like others on the board that Rokas has really digressed, and I can’t figure out why. Has anyone noticed that he literally never leaves his feet? He’s the biggest guy out there most nights, but he plays from the floor.

In any event, happy new year to explorertown. Let’s hope we come back tough next week and start the new year off of the right way.

Since it is obvious now to the common folk he is playing with a lower half injury.. He didn’t forget how to move or jump all of sudden.. Obviously that is silly to think that the same Rokas that just 90 days literally took over the first possession of the season and completely tooled the reigning CAA player of the year would all of sudden forget how to move. I hate to share it because you obviously don’t want that out there… but to any D1 coaching staff it is pretty obvious at this point.. So I am not sharing anything to secretive..

The question for the last month has been do you keep rolling him out there so we have at least some presence or do we attempt to go small in which we do not have the horses to play it well.. When you have only 2 shooters (maybe 3 on the roster -Tunde- I think gets better with more PT) you just can’t play it and expect to win against average to above average teams…

And this ties back into what explorer88 and I are talking about.. There is a lot of personnel that is just taking up space.. Do we not have anyone that can shoot effectively to actually play small ball well? I know there was a lot of chatter about Efe when he committed..

If Rokas is dealing with an injury this is really helpful to know. I have watched every game so far and have not heard this mentioned or discussed. Now I do have old man ears....

[explorer88]

If Rokas is dealing with an injury and performing
Like this he should have been shut down and the injury addressed. Either this is not the case or he re-injured himself.

Where we are at now is this:

If he is hurt and that is causing his lack of effort he should be removed to deal with the injury and get himself right. This at the very least for his future in the program. Putting Milos in for his minutes won’t hurt us more because we are getting negative impact from him on defense. At least Milos will try to play defense and rebound the ball.

Or is is something entirely different which Fran only knows.

Either way he is hurting us when he plays.

[23won]

Dec 31, 2023 9:04:57 GMT -5 GlitterBro #2 said:

My most positive takeaway from yesterday was that the hand-made "Dispenser Broken" sign which has adorned one of the paper-towel holders in the Hideaway men's room for over 13 months was finally removed.  In fact, their solution was to simply remove the faulty dispenser from the wall, leaving behind only the screw holes as a memorial to what once was.  Problem solved.


View Attachment

If you can't fix it, nix it!

[walkon]

Dec 31, 2023 11:36:33 GMT -5 explorer88 said:

If Rokas is dealing with an injury and performing
Like this he should have been shut down and the injury addressed. Either this is not the case or he re-injured himself.

Where we are at now is this:

If he is hurt and that is causing his lack of effort he should be removed to deal with the injury and get himself right. This at the very least for his future in the program. Putting Milos in for his minutes won’t hurt us more because we are getting negative impact from him on defense. At least Milos will try to play defense and rebound the ball.

Or is is something entirely different which Fran only knows.

Either way he is hurting us when he plays.

agreed, 88.


 As per explorerman, the Adrian Wojnarowski of La Salle basketball, he is injured. Didn’t everyone know this? 

[weston2]

Dec 31, 2023 9:04:57 GMT -5 GlitterBro #2 said:

My most positive takeaway from yesterday was that the hand-made "Dispenser Broken" sign which has adorned one of the paper-towel holders in the Hideaway men's room for over 13 months was finally removed.  In fact, their solution was to simply remove the faulty dispenser from the wall, leaving behind only the screw holes as a memorial to what once was.  Problem solved.


View Attachment

"Brilliant".

[GlitterBro #2]

Dec 30, 2023 17:58:38 GMT -5 fvp47 said:

We on the other hand scored 66 as compared to a season average of 78.8. We went 28% from three compared to 36.2% prior. Marrero was 20% from three compared to 47.5 prior.

The Rosemont game has inflated those stats a bit. If you take that out, the ppg and 3-pt % looks a bit lower. PPG would also drop if you normalize for the 4 OT periods we've played that amount to an extra half game. 

Factoring all that, we are now averaging 72.4 ppg against D1 opponents per 40 minutes.

[diehardexplorer]

Dec 31, 2023 10:05:28 GMT -5 explorerman said:

Dec 30, 2023 20:31:39 GMT -5 walkon said:

I am going to avoid so much negativity like others on this board. I will give Howard credit. They played well throughout the whole game, And I just felt like they wanted it more than we did today. I think being off for that long didn’t do us any favors, with our last game being nine days ago against a D3 school. I will say,  like others on the board that Rokas has really digressed, and I can’t figure out why. Has anyone noticed that he literally never leaves his feet? He’s the biggest guy out there most nights, but he plays from the floor.

In any event, happy new year to explorertown. Let’s hope we come back tough next week and start the new year off of the right way.

Since it is obvious now to the common folk he is playing with a lower half injury.. He didn’t forget how to move or jump all of sudden.. Obviously that is silly to think that the same Rokas that just 90 days literally took over the first possession of the season and completely tooled the reigning CAA player of the year would all of sudden forget how to move. I hate to share it because you obviously don’t want that out there… but to any D1 coaching staff it is pretty obvious at this point.. So I am not sharing anything to secretive..

The question for the last month has been do you keep rolling him out there so we have at least some presence or do we attempt to go small in which we do not have the horses to play it well.. When you have only 2 shooters (maybe 3 on the roster -Tunde- I think gets better with more PT) you just can’t play it and expect to win against average to above average teams…

And this ties back into what explorer88 and I are talking about.. There is a lot of personnel that is just taking up space.. Do we not have anyone that can shoot effectively to actually play small ball well? I know there was a lot of chatter about Efe when he committed..

common folk.  nice one.

here we go again.  for someone who's in the business of being correct, you get a lot of stuff wrong.  rokas played a fine game against drexel but he by no means "tooled" amari williams.  it was a standoff at best (rokas with 10 pts, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks, williams with 16 pts, 7 rebounds and 4 assists).  as far as efe goes, none of us common folk knew much about him ..... the only chatter came from you. what happened?  he hasn't been able to get off the bench.  can you give us the scoop, scoop?

explorertown.proboards.com/post/133564

Tahmaz is going to be very interesting. Staff is very excited. Drame twins replacement.

Where Drame twins were rangy, athletic, and still rough around the edges..

Efe is polished with a better jumpshot… the question will be foot work and athleticism..

I am really excited about this one.. it is not too often that you could find a 20+ minutes per game player that will produce at an above average level in August but that is where we are now in the new recruiting landscape.

[diehardexplorer]

Dec 31, 2023 11:36:33 GMT -5 explorer88 said:

If Rokas is dealing with an injury and performing
Like this he should have been shut down and the injury addressed. Either this is not the case or he re-injured himself.

Where we are at now is this:

If he is hurt and that is causing his lack of effort he should be removed to deal with the injury and get himself right. This at the very least for his future in the program. Putting Milos in for his minutes won’t hurt us more because we are getting negative impact from him on defense. At least Milos will try to play defense and rebound the ball.

Or is is something entirely different which Fran only knows.

Either way he is hurting us when he plays.

not sure if any of the common folk noticed, but milos was not at the howard game and he was not on the bench for the second half of the rosemont game after playing some good minutes in the first half.  when he walked off the court at halftime that day, there was nothing indicating he got hurt. hopefully he is okay.

[diehardexplorer]

Dec 30, 2023 19:35:48 GMT -5 explorerman said:

Rokas was obviously terrible. Only played 10 mins..

But the telling takeaway for everyone wishing that we go small is you see we are not good enough to go small… Rokas, again, barely played and you see the result…

Both offensively and defensively… The idea behind going small is that you give up boards and try to front the post and try to make entries tough… but the concept is you make up for the lack of defense by taking advantage of your speed and shooting and space out the other team’s defense.. We do not have the personnel at least the way it is used.. Today it wouldn’t have mattered with Marrero’s line.. and certainly he has had a great start this year… but overall the numbers do not lie… Sample size is plenty big..

Make no mistake Howard is not a good basketball team and they pretty much had the upper hand and we were playing catch up all game.. Unfortunately, I fear the really soft schedule gave us a false sense of comfort and A-10 play is going to be harsh..

When you lose players like Josh and it really hurts..

I didn’t mention it at the time but that assistant coach that I had drinks with did wonder what Dunphy’s play was with the 3-4 scholarships that are not playing at all… “that is a lot of wasted space on the bench for a team that doesn’t have a lot of margin for error”… He likes the Euro angle but the statement above does express concern

in reality, small ball kept la salle in this game.  rokas was a minus 6 in ten minutes, ryan was a minus 5 in five minutes, and tunde was a minus 11 in eight minutes.  that's the game right there, along with at least four shots in the middle of the second half (threes by brickus and marrero, a drive to the rim by gill, and a foul shot by brantley) that were down and literally popped out of the basket.  in addition, the refs let bryce harris get away with murder for most of the day. he should have fouled out by the middle of the second half. one time he threw tunde to the ground going for a rebound and they got a score off of that. twice on drives to the basket he used straight arms to bull his way to the basket and the calls went against la salle.   

the team did not play well but the ball didn't bounce their way much either.  need to put it behind them and come ready to play against mason.   

[GlitterBro #2]

Jan 3, 2024 1:06:57 GMT -5 diehardexplorer said:

not sure if any of the common folk noticed, but milos was not at the howard game and he was not on the bench for the second half of the rosemont game after playing some good minutes in the first half.  when he walked off the court at halftime that day, there was nothing indicating he got hurt. hopefully he is okay.

Noticed Milos wasn't there last night either. 

[explorer88]

Jan 4, 2024 8:04:05 GMT -5 GlitterBro #2 said:

Jan 3, 2024 1:06:57 GMT -5 diehardexplorer said:

not sure if any of the common folk noticed, but milos was not at the howard game and he was not on the bench for the second half of the rosemont game after playing some good minutes in the first half.  when he walked off the court at halftime that day, there was nothing indicating he got hurt. hopefully he is okay.

Noticed Milos wasn't there last night either. 

Is he leaving? Time would be after the 1st semester.

[coachd]

Dec 31, 2023 9:04:57 GMT -5 GlitterBro #2 said:

My most positive takeaway from yesterday was that the hand-made "Dispenser Broken" sign which has adorned one of the paper-towel holders in the Hideaway men's room for over 13 months was finally removed.  In fact, their solution was to simply remove the faulty dispenser from the wall, leaving behind only the screw holes as a memorial to what once was.  Problem solved.


View Attachment

They are awaiting your donation of a hand dryer.