MBB vs. Louisiana game thread

[Pony81]

It’s going to be a long year

[Arkpony]

It’s going to be a long year

It appears so.

[shadowman]

Just back from the game.

For most of the game, this is the best the team has played all year and the Cajuns do have a pretty decent team.

You can point to many things that contributed to the loss:

Poor foul shooting
Missed layups

My biggest knock though, is against the guy that had a statistically great game, Phelps. He never looks to pass and ended up taking multiple contested, low percentage shots, foregoing the guy standing wide open near the basket. I think about the last 4 possessions, he got the ball past half court and never made another pass, turning it over a couple of times and getting his shot blocked. On each occasion he could have dished to a wide open teammate for a better look, but was in hero mode instead. Hopefully he will see this film and learn from it and he is young with a very high ceiling.

SMU did a lot of things well tonight and seemed to gel better as a team, just a shame to still walk away with an L.

[Arkpony]

What seemed to me was so distressing was our lack of shooting ability, as had been pointed out by others. So many missed layups or shots missed/blocked. The 34 point in the first half by SMU was the most in half this year is not a good testimonial to our scoring ability.

[JasonB]

Louisiana is a good team. Our offensive efficiency took a big step forward last night. Signs of progress. Free throw shooting and second chance points killed us. And some shot selection. Those are all fixable problems. Need to start benching Odigie any time he takes a 12 foot jumper or a 3. Send a message. Phelps is forcing a lot also. Just need to get more disciplined.

Limitations that can't be fixed - We don't have anyone who can finish strong at the basket - nobody can dunk. We don't have anyone who can hit a mid-range jumper.

[geezerdonk]

8-17 free throws sub junior high level
15 turnovers many unforced
undisciplined careless

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Just ridiculous to be 8 of 17 on free pitches which is something totally in your control.

[DC-Pony]

Louisiana is a good team. Our offensive efficiency took a big step forward last night. Signs of progress. Free throw shooting and second chance points killed us. And some shot selection. Those are all fixable problems. Need to start benching Odigie any time he takes a 12 foot jumper or a 3. Send a message. Phelps is forcing a lot also. Just need to get more disciplined.

Limitations that can't be fixed - We don't have anyone who can finish strong at the basket - nobody can dunk. We don't have anyone who can hit a mid-range jumper.

JB, I’m quoting your second paragraph in particular. A) I agree. B) We’re also not particularly good from 3…So, no es bueno down low for easy strong buckets, no es bueno from mid-range, and no es bueno from 3. I wouldn’t want to be the assistant responsible for putting together offensive game plans for this team

[ponyswim]

Either Phelps is really selfish, or he is trying to figure out what "taking charge" or "taking responsibility" means for him with this team. He would not be fun to play with - as Nutall and others are finding out. My hope is the he will start blending in more ball distribution off his drives because there have to be people open for 3's when he draws people to him. Big improvement from Evansville team wise. I hope they figure out how to get Jalen Smith more involved in the offense. He can shoot and has good ball skills - hopefully he can finish at the rim.
I remember when they were trying to get Shake to drive more - it took a while for him to be good at that. Hopefully we see the same improvement from some of the guys this year.

[JasonB]

Louisiana is a good team. Our offensive efficiency took a big step forward last night. Signs of progress. Free throw shooting and second chance points killed us. And some shot selection. Those are all fixable problems. Need to start benching Odigie any time he takes a 12 foot jumper or a 3. Send a message. Phelps is forcing a lot also. Just need to get more disciplined.

Limitations that can't be fixed - We don't have anyone who can finish strong at the basket - nobody can dunk. We don't have anyone who can hit a mid-range jumper.

JB, I’m quoting your second paragraph in particular. A) I agree. B) We’re also not particularly good from 3…So, no es bueno down low for easy strong buckets, no es bueno from mid-range, and no es bueno from 3. I wouldn’t want to be the assistant responsible for putting together offensive game plans for this team

Yeah, right now we are in the lower half of the NCAA in effective FG percentage, turnover percentage, offensive rebound percentage, and free throw rate. Basically every indicator that you would use to calculate offensive efficiency. ZP and Odigie are killers on the offensive efficiency and effective FG percentage, they are two of the worst players in the league on that end. In fact, there are only 15 players in the league who have played over 200 possessions and have a negative offensive efficiency, and SMU has 4 of them... and those are the only 4 players for SMU who have played over 200 possessions. The challenge is that although his efficiency wasn't this bad, Odigie did not have a positive efficiency last year for Troy. He certainly isn't going to shoot 35% this season like he is right now, but it isn't like he was shooting 60% as a big in his previous stops.

Bottom line, we need Foster to get healthy and fit and be the starter in the middle. Odigie is a really nice piece to have off the bench. And Zurich is going to need to find the open players off the bounce and not just force bad shots. Smith, Todo, and Nutall can all shoot from 3, but we have to get them good looks.

[Charleston Pony]

More turnovers than assists is never a good recipe and yet that's where this team sits through 5 games against mediocre competition. Zhuric definitely needs to grow into the PG role and be a guy who can make everyone else better. I had high hopes for him and this team coming into the season and the schedule gets much more challenging as we move forward. The jury is out on whether this team has the talent to significantly improve and we can only hope they do. Otherwise, Lanier and staff better be great recruiters or his seat could get warm in a hurry.