Postgame featuring Coach May and Johnell Davis.

Just disappointing, not much insight to offer. The role players aren’t making shots like we are used to and I’m not sure why every team is lighting up our defense. 

OwlPT15 said

Just disappointing, not much insight to offer. The role players aren’t making shots like we are used to and I’m not sure why every team is lighting up our defense. 

Posted On: Jan 6th 2024, 7:24 PM #419962

Yeah, no sense of urgency until it's too late on both sides of the ball. We can't properly defend any team at any level right now. Last year this team was "on" on every play – tough and in the chest of the other team, and totally locked in for 40 minutes. Loose balls were ours, not this year. This year we can see the tentativeness, bad body language/frustration and lack of focus.  

Really all the players by and large have been inconsistent, disappointing or have regressed.

Everyone said and did the right things going into the season, and we've certainly had moments. But what is transpiring now is heartbreaking considering the expectations.

Coach May and staff have their work cut out for them to right the ship because this team looks broken.

From watching our games this year, I believe our gaps are the following:  very little production near the rim by our big guys, no effective dribble penetration by the guards, very little rebounding leading to second chance points, and opposing teams not scared to go to the hoop on us.

OwlPT15 said

Just disappointing, not much insight to offer. The role players aren’t making shots like we are used to and I’m not sure why every team is lighting up our defense. 

Posted On: Jan 6th 2024, 7:24 PM #419962

It's seems like the Man upstairs is pulling the strings for whatever reason.

It's one thing to say Bryant shots lights out, but totally another to say a completely depleted FGCU squad shot lights out with reserve players.

Then there was the Illinois guy who absolutely went off…

Today Charlotte goes off for one half and we just can't answer to put it away when we finally start playing defense.

One thing is for sure though:

Everyone is completely fired up to play us and we don't seem to be fired up ourselves at times.

Rick said

OwlPT15 said

Just disappointing, not much insight to offer. The role players aren’t making shots like we are used to and I’m not sure why every team is lighting up our defense. 

Posted On: Jan 6th 2024, 7:24 PM #419962

It's seems like the Man upstairs is pulling the strings for whatever reason.

It's one thing to say Bryant shots lights out, but totally another to say a completely depleted FGCU squad shot lights out with reserve players.

Then there was the Illinois guy who absolutely went off…

Today Charlotte goes off for one half and we just can't answer to put it away when we finally start playing defense.

One thing is for sure though:

Everyone is completely fired up to play us and we don't seem to be fired up ourselves at times.

Posted On: Jan 6th 2024, 8:29 PM #419965

Teams are coming out of the gates ready to fight and we seem to be a little too relaxed. Bryant and FGCU we missed a good amount of free throws that could have been the difference. Illinois just found mismatches we couldn’t defend. I can’t really point to anything glaring or weird that happened this game. We just didn’t look good. If I hadn’t seen these teams play before I would think they were evenly talented and Charlotte took advantage of home court. 

Maybe folks are shooting lights out for a reason. Could it be laxk of D

Local Owl said

Maybe folks are shooting lights out for a reason. Could it be laxk of D

Posted On: Jan 6th 2024, 8:38 PM #419967

This. Players at the D1 level are going to hit shots if they feel comfortable with whatever defense is being thrown at them.

I don't disagree with this sentiment, we have to play better defense overall.

But do have to say that we aren't standing 10 feet away - we are defending. The shots are still going in. To me it appears as a form of divine intervention coupled with serious UPS from a motivational standpoint by the competition.

It's just not reasonable to say that players who have beaten us are that good, with the Illinois guard being the lone aside. Honestly. They are all having career / season outings. The FGCU guy? C'mon! NO. The Eagles got BLOWN out by UNF tonight by 20 points at home in Ft Myers. He had 10 points and they shot 22% from 3PT to 42% against us. UNF is NOT a better defensive team than we are. They simply are "not us".

The BIG mistake that we have made, IMHO, is having us have to reach into the emotional tank every single game with a schedule that is simply way too much for a team at our level. We spent our bank in Orlando. After that, we were never the same. Yet we still have to get up for Bryant, FGCU, ECU, and now a Charlotte. All teams that want to destroy us because of our status. The others are in the same boat, so what's the need for motivation? Arizona - no. Texas A&M - no. Even VA Tech - no.

Every team we face now aside from the conference home and homes and Memphis wants to beat the Final Four team and they only have ONE game that like ALL YEAR. Memphis has utter motivation because we sent them home last season.

Bottom line, this year we have to defend that "title" to every single one of them. It's like playing someone on methamphetamine every night. No let up. Everyone we play is treating this like their monumental game of the season.

Not making excuses here, we do need to improve. Just much easier to slide into these games without all of the attachments, IMHO. Like we did last year for the most part. We were just a hot team who didn't lose in conference.

Even with the loss, and being 11-4, not so sure we are capable of doing that. People are still going to want to beat the Final Four team and will spend all of their emotional bank to do so.

Rick said

The BIG mistake that we have made, IMHO, is having us have to reach into the emotional tank every single game with a schedule that is simply way too much for a team at our level. We spent our bank in Orlando. After that, we were never the same. Yet we still have to get up for Bryant, FGCU, ECU, and now a Charlotte. All teams that want to destroy us because of our status. The others are in the same boat, so what's the need for motivation? Arizona - no. Texas A&M - no. Even VA Tech - no.

Personally, I agree this is likely the primary issue. Team appears to have exerted all of its emotional energy with the pre-season schedule up to Arizona, and don't seem to have anything in the tank right now -- seemingly overlooking these 'weaker' teams during such a long season. I do think the defensive issues are real and were noticeable even when we were winning by largely outscoring good teams. However, our offense was probably masking some of the problems. It is striking to me how disruptive we looked last year compared to this year. Now we are just sputtering in all facets with no offensive flow against even subpar teams. Vlad's recent play in the paint is indicative of our issues imho – not finishing strong up close, getting pushed around in the paint, not corralling rebounds/loose balls etc.