Pulling out of the "tail spin"

[vu72]

I know, two of the three losses were without Mo but something is clearly different about how we are playing the game.

My observations:

We are shooing the lights out (last night) and still losing

Dan has become far less effective

Our defense, which on occasion, has been very good (trapping, pressing) has become ineffective, to say the least.

Is the loss of Jimmie and Shawn that big of a deal? Apparently. It gave us two very quick defenders who could also rebound. Now all of a sudden when Jarryd went down we end up playing the freshman for the second half.

Shawn most probably is gone for the duration but hopefully Jimmie and Jarryd will be back for the next game. Homer will fix the Oppland situation and we should be OK--However, I also may be "whistling in the dark"!!

[walldozer]

That is my thought as well VU72. I did not think that the loss of Jimmy and Shawn would be that big of a deal. At least not that big of a deal when playing teams we generally beat on a regular basis.

[valpo84]

Walldozer, the team is less effecetive when you take out 2 players who log minutes. This was clearly seen last year when Ali went down, Kenny was part time and Moose was in and out of the lineup. The talent in the starting 5 is sufficient to play to any other starting 5s level; however, in college hoops depth is critical for a couple reasons. Primary is that your starters are able to be fresher longer and down the stretch. Seth is probably wearing down (as he did last year from logging too many minutes). As a shooter, you lose your shot when your legs are tired. This was obvious in losses to Butler and in the Mid-Con last year. They were gassed. Second, our depth has been historically better than others depth. So when you play 6-8 against others' 6-8, we have won. Think Antii, Tony V, Jenkins, Nunness (frosh year). Brandon, Jake and Urule are going to be good, but they're not yet ready to be Jimmie, Shawn and Moose (who has been severely limited in minutes this year). Those guys would start other places in the Mid-Con. Further, think about the depth this team lost from last year and the year before. Debate how good Sylla, Aris Williams and Vincent Humphrey are, but a 6'7", 6'9" and 6'4" would be very helpful right now. I haven't even mentioned the emotional and other losses of Kenny. We were thin without losing Kenny now add that. We picked up Kone and deredshirted Jake. Kone was just starting to gel in the team concept and boom out for 2 games. Add in that the last 3 were on the road, including the killer SUU trip and we have hit the dead zone. However, I will be positive. A win against oooeeey-poooeeey and Rick will be off "twinkie-binge" watch, valpower will smile, albeit briefly again, and we will start talking about figuring out how to win 3 in Tulsa.

[fwalum]

valpo84 said:

Walldozer, the team is less effecetive when you take out 2 players who log minutes.

Could not agree with you more valpo84. Our Indiana Tech team had two of our top 7 or 8 players sitting out academic suspensions the first semester. Without them we are 6-11... since we've gotten them back for second semester we are 5-1. Having good depth helps significantly in almost all aspects of the game. It doesn't surprise me that not having Shawn and Jimmie has had an effect on the team. Add in the readjustment for Kone and last nights loss seems somewhat understandable.

[jmill]

walldozer said:

That is my thought as well VU72. I did not think that the loss of Jimmy and Shawn would be that big of a deal. At least not that big of a deal when playing teams we generally beat on a regular basis.

I never thought I'd say this, but the way things have gone since he went down with an injury, I'd say Huff is the MVP of this team, not Oppland.
I know Oppland's getting killed with double and triple teams, but with Mo back and VU still losing, looks like Huff is the missing link.

[humbleopinion]

After scoring 31 points at WIU (before he scored an additional 4) he threw up an air ball on a free throw. Was that the start of his scoring funk?