|
Post by stlvufan on Feb 13, 2011 1:26:32 GMT -5
By the way, I started working on my annual seeding analysis, but just when I thought I had all the 1 seed scenarios figured out, something dawned on me. Then I looked at the clock and decided to call it a night. I think I might have all the ones that give Valpo the 1 seed, but I'm not absolutely positive.
Guess what: one of the scenarios that gives it to CSU involves RPI, wouldn't ya know it? Unless a differential of 13 can be made up on bracketbuster Saturday, of course (I suppose it's theoretically possible).
|
|
|
Post by stlvufan on Feb 13, 2011 1:38:40 GMT -5
One last set of thoughts before I turn in for the night:
Fans of both teams can find things to be disappointed about. Both teams had mental lapses. Both teams took questionable shots. Both teams had unforced errors. Both teams got lucky breaks. Both teams were victimized by bad calls (which means both teams benefited from bad calls). Both teams recovered time and time again.
Somehow, I think all of that was kept to a minimum, and what we were left with was about 80% titanic struggle, which is always exciting and breathtaking. Both teams delivered punches and both teams suffered counterpunches. It was like Rocky II (I think?) where only one boxer was able to get up before the count reached 10. They both battled each other until the bell rang and never slacked off.
In other words, it was an outstanding basketball game.
|
|
|
Post by valpofan56 on Feb 13, 2011 1:40:22 GMT -5
By the way, I started working on my annual seeding analysis, but just when I thought I had all the 1 seed scenarios figured out, something dawned on me. Then I looked at the clock and decided to call it a night. I think I might have all the ones that give Valpo the 1 seed, but I'm not absolutely positive. Guess what: one of the scenarios that gives it to CSU involves RPI, wouldn't ya know it? Unless a differential of 13 can be made up on bracketbuster Saturday, of course (I suppose it's theoretically possible). I am eagerly awaiting your analysis! You and 'Hoops are always good for figuring that stuff out.
|
|
|
Post by stlvufan on Feb 13, 2011 8:43:58 GMT -5
By the way, I started working on my annual seeding analysis, but just when I thought I had all the 1 seed scenarios figured out, something dawned on me. Then I looked at the clock and decided to call it a night. I think I might have all the ones that give Valpo the 1 seed, but I'm not absolutely positive. Guess what: one of the scenarios that gives it to CSU involves RPI, wouldn't ya know it? Unless a differential of 13 can be made up on bracketbuster Saturday, of course (I suppose it's theoretically possible). I am eagerly awaiting your analysis! You and 'Hoops are always good for figuring that stuff out. I hope to have something up later today, and/or tomorrow. Not exhaustive yet. There are, after all, still 32,768 different scenarios. Some -- probably many -- can be reduced because they produce the same result, but until you get to that point, it's still a humongous number (15 games left; 2^15 = 32,768)
|
|
|
Post by lowposter on Feb 13, 2011 11:12:27 GMT -5
Regarding comments on our point guard situation... 1. Eric Buggs add a defensive intensity that wasnt here a year ago. I strongly disagree with the comment regarding all the D2 players out there that could be taught defense and step in. This young man brings it game in and game out. That being said, he struggles (kind description) with free throws and his outside shooting is suspect. Are we better off with him in the lineup? 2. Jay Harris is going to be a fine player. I love his ice water in the veins attitude. Is he a point guard? Or a dimunitive shooting guard? Or a combo guard? I think he is a basketball player. He flat out has a stroke, either from the 3 point line or free throw line. He also had 4 turnovers in the 1H. Should a player who shoots 33% from the FT line be a division 1 player? In the case of Eric Buggs - hell yes. Homer will have to be very active in managing the PG situation down the stretch in close games. I believe he will be able to do so. The blueprint has been established. The early foul to Buggs will no doubt be expanded to perhaps the final 3 minutes. This will be a challenge. Negetive fans? You are going to get them. The attitude is their $10 gives them the right. Fair enough. I personally am put off by negetive demeaning commentary about young men and women who are competing. It is probably better if you make such a comment that it be kept to a small circle, but that certainly cannot be legislated. One of the outstanding attributes of Homer Drew is his overall positive attitude. How fortunate we are to have had him at the helm over the years? lowposter
|
|
|
Post by wh on Feb 13, 2011 11:15:19 GMT -5
Now wait a sec, let's see if I've got this straight: Coach Drew has been coaching/teaching how many years now? 32? He has how many wins as a D-I coach? 635, isn't it? Seventh winningest still-active coach? He spends hours and hours every week--nearly every day, actually--with each of his players, and knows all of their pluses and minuses, strong and weak points, more than many parents know their offspring? And some of YOU are presuming to tell him what he's doing wrong, who should be playing, and when?? How Absolutely Ludicrous. Some of you sound like a guy who sits behind me in the ARC (hmmm, maybe one of you IS that guy!?) who seems to enjoy nothing so much as giving a running shoutout at the Coach, "advising" him what to do. Also screams at the players--ours, not the opposing team! Must be a season ticket holder, because this has been going on for years now. How ridiculous. We won at the very end tonight because our #15 would not let their #11 get the ball down court far enough fast enough in those six seconds to shoot a basket, or even to pass it to someone else who could. Lord love him--as do I! Go team-- Had we lost this game, the decision to leave Erik in on offense at that point and put the ball in his hands so he could be intentionally fouled would have been the coaching blunder of the year - period. The fact is other teams have not taken advantage of several "hack a Shaq" opportunities in previous games. We were lucky. Finally, a coach was smart enough to do it, and our luck ran out. It would be one thing if you came on here and said 'Hey guys, don't you think Homer deserves the benefit of the doubt? He's done a brilliant coaching job all year, we wouldn't be in the position we are without him, etc., etc.' That would have been a credible post and good food for thought. But instead, you try to defend the indefensible with a lecturing tone no less, on what - you're 5th post ever? You sound like some political hack, trying to spin something that was clearly wrong into a brilliant decision. You have lost all credibility before you ever had any. Congratulations.
|
|
|
Post by vusupporter on Feb 13, 2011 11:28:40 GMT -5
There was more rationale behind the move than just putting Erik in on offense. Wright State had gone zone (I believe for just the second or third time all game) the possession before, and we got no penetration into the zone, ended up with a fall-away 3-pointer by Howard with the shot clock running down.
They showed zone again the next trip, Homer calls timeout to put Erik back in at the point because he has that ability to penetrate the zone and create open shots for others. That's the trade-off there, do you put your best PG in and run the risk of them fouling him, or do you risk another stagnant offensive possession with a bad shot at the end of it? I don't necessarily agree it was an easy call for Donlon to make there to foul...it might seem obvious to us, but it was a one-possession game with 80 seconds to go and he's coaching a team that had given up just three field goals in the last 10 minutes.
By the way, Buggs comes out for the next offensive possession, offense goes back to stagnant, shot clock violation. Obviously at that point, the tone had been set and you knew WSU would foul Buggs if he was in there, but it just shows again why Homer would have wanted Buggs in there at the point the possession before.
|
|
|
Post by valposition on Feb 13, 2011 13:14:49 GMT -5
In an earlier thread I talked about the difference between this years team and last years team: Erik Buggs. Our offense may have a little different flow (more team oriented since buggs is a distributor where last year Brandon M was a scorer) but our defense has improved immensely. It is BECAUSE of Erik Buggs. He is not only one of the quickest players in the country (IMHO) but plays great defensive position and has improved into a solid offensive facilitator on the other end. I also heard some comments about whether we are better off without him in the lineup - let's observe games where Erik played less than 21 minutes (mostly due to foul trouble): @ Kansas - 20 min - Loss @ohio - 13 min - Loss TAMU-CC - 18 min - Win Purdue - 16 min - Loss @toledo - 8 min - Loss @oakland - 20 - Win @bulter - 19 min - Loss Clev St - 19 min - Win @clev St - 14 min - Loss Our record when Buggs plays 20 minutes or less is 3-6. Our record when buggs play more than 20 minutes is 16-1. He is the biggest factor to this teams improvements from last year. (Still credit is deserved to improvements across the board individually and the team buying into the team approach - lots of assists and high percentage shots! What a great job of coaching to get 9 guys on the same page.) And the comments that he should not play D1 basketball because he is not a good shooter and that you can just bring up shooters from D2 and teach them defense.... I guess those comments speak for them self about your basketball knowledge.
|
|
|
Post by valpofan56 on Feb 13, 2011 14:35:08 GMT -5
There was more rationale behind the move than just putting Erik in on offense. Wright State had gone zone (I believe for just the second or third time all game) the possession before, and we got no penetration into the zone, ended up with a fall-away 3-pointer by Howard with the shot clock running down. Go back and watch the archived video. You are now just making stuff up to fit your point. The three pointer by Little was wide open. He got his feet set and had a great opportunity, unfortunately he just barely missed it.
|
|
|
Post by valpofan56 on Feb 13, 2011 14:48:30 GMT -5
And the comments that he should not play D1 basketball because he is not a good shooter and that you can just bring up shooters from D2 and teach them defense.... I guess those comments speak for them self about your basketball knowledge. Some people really need to work on their reading comprehension skills. Where did I ever say that I don't think Buggs should be playing D1? In fact, I said I really like him 90% of the game. What I DID say was that there are plenty of guys with the defense and intangibles that Buggs brings that are stuck in D2 because they never got an opportunity due to their size. Buggs was one of the few lucky people who get an opportunity to play D1 basketball at his size. I have personally played basketball with guys who were as fast as Buggs and way better shooters and I'm telling you that given the proper coaching they could be great defensive players while still maintaining the ability to shoot free throws. Also, my basketball knowledge is just fine, trust me.
|
|
|
Post by superfan on Feb 13, 2011 15:04:09 GMT -5
Thus the #5 in the nation ranking in 2 pt shot % referenced elsewhere in the forums.
|
|
|
Post by drewsaders11 on Feb 13, 2011 15:22:41 GMT -5
In an earlier thread I talked about the difference between this years team and last years team: Erik Buggs. Our offense may have a little different flow (more team oriented since buggs is a distributor where last year Brandon M was a scorer) but our defense has improved immensely. It is BECAUSE of Erik Buggs. He is not only one of the quickest players in the country (IMHO) but plays great defensive position and has improved into a solid offensive facilitator on the other end. I also heard some comments about whether we are better off without him in the lineup - let's observe games where Erik played less than 21 minutes (mostly due to foul trouble): @ Kansas - 20 min - Loss @ohio - 13 min - Loss TAMU-CC - 18 min - Win Purdue - 16 min - Loss @toledo - 8 min - Loss @oakland - 20 - Win @bulter - 19 min - Loss Clev St - 19 min - Win @clev St - 14 min - Loss Our record when Buggs plays 20 minutes or less is 3-6. Our record when buggs play more than 20 minutes is 16-1. He is the biggest factor to this teams improvements from last year. (Still credit is deserved to improvements across the board individually and the team buying into the team approach - lots of assists and high percentage shots! What a great job of coaching to get 9 guys on the same page.) And the comments that he should not play D1 basketball because he is not a good shooter and that you can just bring up shooters from D2 and teach them defense.... I guess those comments speak for them self about your basketball knowledge. Thanks for this great insight. Also, Buggs helped to hold Norris Cole to only 10 points (3-12 shooting in 36 minutes...19 minutes for Buggs), in our very important win against Cleveland State earlier this season. It was lowest point total on the season. I strongly doubt that there are "hundreds of players" who can play that kind of defense at the d2 or d3 levels, if there are none in the Horizon League (besides the guys who helped Buggs when he was getting a reset on our own team), on West Virginia and about ten other teams that couldn't do it. That is basketball knowledge..what the stats say.
|
|
|
Post by wh on Feb 13, 2011 16:35:27 GMT -5
In an earlier thread I talked about the difference between this years team and last years team: Erik Buggs. Our offense may have a little different flow (more team oriented since buggs is a distributor where last year Brandon M was a scorer) but our defense has improved immensely. It is BECAUSE of Erik Buggs. He is not only one of the quickest players in the country (IMHO) but plays great defensive position and has improved into a solid offensive facilitator on the other end. I also heard some comments about whether we are better off without him in the lineup - let's observe games where Erik played less than 21 minutes (mostly due to foul trouble): @ Kansas - 20 min - Loss @ohio - 13 min - Loss TAMU-CC - 18 min - Win Purdue - 16 min - Loss @toledo - 8 min - Loss @oakland - 20 - Win @bulter - 19 min - Loss Clev St - 19 min - Win @clev St - 14 min - Loss Our record when Buggs plays 20 minutes or less is 3-6. Our record when buggs play more than 20 minutes is 16-1. He is the biggest factor to this teams improvements from last year. (Still credit is deserved to improvements across the board individually and the team buying into the team approach - lots of assists and high percentage shots! What a great job of coaching to get 9 guys on the same page.) And the comments that he should not play D1 basketball because he is not a good shooter and that you can just bring up shooters from D2 and teach them defense.... I guess those comments speak for them self about your basketball knowledge. As to whether Erik should be running the offense when the other team is intentionally trying to foul him, the only statistic that matters is how well he shoots free throws. Over the past 4 games, he is 3-14 at the line. That's about 20%. He has been at the line 7 times. He missed both FT's on 4 occasions, made 1 of 2 on 3 occasions, and never made 2 of 2. These numbers are an opposing coach's dream. As to someone's point that WSU intentionally fouled Eric sooner than our coaching staff should have expected given the situation at the time, that's the whole point. By having Erik in the game, we gave them an opportunity to do something they normally wouldn't do, and they took full advantage of it. It was a bad moment, but we got away with it. I seriously doubt we will put ourselves in that same position again.
|
|
|
Post by dcvalpo on Feb 13, 2011 17:07:48 GMT -5
Defense is an attitude and it can definitely be taught. There are hundreds of guys playing d2 basketball right now that could play as good of D as Buggs and are just as fast and can hit 70%+ of their FTs. Wow, this is far more ignorant than Homer leaving Buggs in the game.
|
|
|
Post by dcvalpo on Feb 13, 2011 17:10:30 GMT -5
And the comments that he should not play D1 basketball because he is not a good shooter and that you can just bring up shooters from D2 and teach them defense.... I guess those comments speak for them self about your basketball knowledge. I have personally played basketball with guys who were as fast as Buggs and way better shooters and I'm telling you that given the proper coaching they could be great defensive players while still maintaining the ability to shoot free throws. Also, my basketball knowledge is just fine, trust me. If this is true, why isn't every coach in the country coaching their players to play defensive as good as Buggs does?
|
|