Umass Game Thread

[jb71]

Go Explorers

[calsufan]

Just joining now. Was Gill ruled out again for the game? Any word when he'll be back?

[explorer88]

Down 1 at the half and we got no production from Brantley not bad.

[victoriouslasalle]

nice close out to the half. Not able to watch have to listen.

[nyalum]

Frank Martin is all sunshine and rainbows on the sideline. Gotta love it.

[las71]

Down 1 at the half. Not a great offensive half. Just need to step it up offensively and we can win this.

[calsufan]

3-11 from 3 point land (27%). If they can improve on that they could possibly steal a win.

[GlitterBro #2]

3 quick fouls to start the 2nd half could come back to bite us.

[victoriouslasalle]

they are scoring we are not

[lasallejohn]

No defensive rebounding besides our guards..

[calsufan]

This would be a game if La Salle was hitting their average for 3 pointers.

[GlitterBro #2]

Getting killed inside and 3s not falling. We knew the inside game was going to be our biggest weakness in A10 play, and when the 3s dont fall we have no answer.

[victoriouslasalle]

putrid O execution

[calsufan]

Nothing is going right in this game. Outrebounded, shooting abysmally from 3 and from the charity stripe and the Killer B's only have 17 points between them.

[blueandgold]

I think my 30 minute NBC Sports trial period is going to spare me from the end of this game

[calsufan]

[nyalum]

Again, we are getting killed on the inside.

[calsufan]

Jan 10, 2024 20:49:04 GMT -5 nyalum said:

Again, we are getting killed on the inside.

That will be this season's sore point.

[victoriouslasalle]

Seems the bottom line is --the talent gap is too wide.

[GlitterBro #2]

With Gill hurt, it is hard to only run 7 guys against a physical team like UMass. We look worn out and need the extra ball handling Gill brings.

[las71]

Ditto victoriuslasalle's post. The talent gap means we have to play near perfectly to win in the A 10.

[samfrans]

Frustrating overall. The missed free-throws and second chance points really killed us. There were at least three fast breaks where Brantley failed to finish that were gut punches every time. La Salle doesn’t have to shoot lights out to win but the margin of error is so thin.

[explorer88]

Most of us said it over the summer we were shocked Dunphy and this staff did not get us frontcourt help. Tunde is a good pick-up but not
ready to bang and rebound in the paint.

We recruited a bunch of guys that are sitting on the bench and can’t get time in a program that has a boatload of frontcourt needs.

This is the result of not getting just one contributing frontcourt player. Rokas’ regression only complicates this glaring issue.

[diehardexplorer]

for la salle to win conference games, everybody in the rotation needs to make a positive contribution.  we got virtually nothing out of khalil and andres tonight.  not having anwar is a bigger loss than some people on here realize.  rokas once again played soft, letting cohen (who is okay at best) dominate him. no reason la salle can't beat umass when they come to gola.  they're just not that good.

  

[GlitterBro #2]

Jan 10, 2024 21:29:45 GMT -5 diehardexplorer said:

 we got virtually nothing out of khalil and andres tonight.  

  

I was OK with Andres, although a couple of his 3s came in garbage time. Tundi played great as a true freshman putting in 37 minutes but missed some switches that were needed to limit UMass' offense. Zan's line was more surprising to me - 2 points and 1 rebound in 12 minutes.  He had some solid defense at times in the first half and guarded the screens well, but kind of fell apart as well in the second half and had some dumb fouls that limited his minutes. UMass was just too much inside for our bigs. 

[roaddog77]

I didn’t watch the game, but l look at the box score and the highlights. It was the same thing after the loss, played well in the first 30 minutes and belly up the last 10 minutes of the game. Brantley ( 7pts 3\8 from the field) had an off night against UMass. We need Brickus and Brantley to score big for us to win. Also, Gill is sorely missed on the defensive side of the ball. Cohen (24 pts and 10 rebounds) and Hankin-Samford (10 pts and 13 rebounds) of UMass dominated our frontline players (Zan and Jocius). Fasasi (14 pts 4\9 from 3’s) had a nice game. This was a tough road loss for us and we need to dust our self up get ready for VCU. Let get it baby

[calsufan]

Jan 11, 2024 8:42:54 GMT -5 GlitterBro #2 said:

Jan 10, 2024 21:29:45 GMT -5 diehardexplorer said:

 we got virtually nothing out of khalil and andres tonight.  

  

I was OK with Andres, although a couple of his 3s came in garbage time. Tundi played great as a true freshman putting in 37 minutes but missed some switches that were needed to limit UMass' offense. Zan's line was more surprising to me - 2 points and 1 rebound in 12 minutes.  He had some solid defense at times in the first half and guarded the screens well, but kind of fell apart as well in the second half and had some dumb fouls that limited his minutes. UMass was just too much inside for our bigs. 

Ehhh, I'm not so okay with Marrero right now. He's been in a shooting slump since at least the Howard game. Over the past 4 games, his 3pt. average is 29%. The team needs him to bump that up by 8 to 10 percentage points.

[thelasallelunatic]

We've lost 2 A10 games by 15 points each, to mid-level A10 teams. We may not finish last as predicted, but the ceiling isn't much higher.

[GlitterBro #2]

Jan 11, 2024 9:39:47 GMT -5 thelasallelunatic said:

We've lost 2 A10 games by 15 points each, to mid-level A10 teams. We may not finish last as predicted, but the ceiling isn't much higher.

I'm not sure Mason or UMass are mid-level this season. Both have top 80 NET rankings and are tied for 4th in the conference standings. UMass crushed us and Duquesne and only lost by 4 at Dayton.  

[explorerman]

Jan 10, 2024 21:08:18 GMT -5 explorer88 said:

Most of us said it over the summer we were shocked Dunphy and this staff did not get us frontcourt help. Tunde is a good pick-up but not
ready to bang and rebound in the paint.

We recruited a bunch of guys that are sitting on the bench and can’t get time in a program that has a boatload of frontcourt needs.

This is the result of not getting just one contributing frontcourt player. Rokas’ regression only complicates this glaring issue.

Yeah, you and I have discussed it a few times this season.. The talent gap is becoming apparent.. Frontcourt, backcourt, shooting,... Really starting to show...

The really soft OOC might have given a false sense of hope even if some of us were flagging that 1-point/last minute wins against really poor teams is worrisome.

The last couple of recruiting cycles are starting to look pretty bad whether that is on the transition from Ash, Dunphy, Colleen, Tom Gola, Billy Raf, Kenny Brooks, the Message Board.. It is starting to look bad..

Marrero's slump could be a return to mean which has been really tough on overall team offensive production. Having those shooters make shots opens up everything for others... Even with his multiweek slump, he is still our second-best shooting threat behind Brickus per TS% but at 55%, this percentage is around now D1 average. To put into context, 3 weeks ago, Marrero was at 64%+, well above average, and top 125 in the country.