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I'm more concerned with the way we have played, than the loses. Since the great performance against Cincinnati...
Rutgers, played average but won.
Temple, played poorly and lost.
Houston, average but won.
UCONN, played great and won.
UCF, poorly but won.
UL, gave up 52 points in 2nd half and lost by 13.
Memphis, gave up 41 points in 2nd half and lost by 9.

The strength of this team has been tough hard nosed play, rebounding, and out hustling the opposition. We got whipped in those categories today. Shawn Williams has become a liability shooting the ball of late...Sterling Brown and Ben Moore have regressed as scoring threats. Not exactly the way you want to finish the season, heading into tournament time.

We are fine. Let the kids rest a few days, win a game or 2 in the tournament and get ready for the NCAA. Life is good.

Bottom line, we have very few scorers.

Moore, Kennedy, and sometimes (luckily now most of the time) Russell are the only guys that can consistently put it in the basket. Sure Brown, Williams, Frazier, Ben can show some flashes, but they are nowhere near consistent.

Defense is good, intensity is good, but this weary road of so many tough games against good teams has shown a major flaw, we don't have enough guys that consistently put it through the hoop.

Not mentally tough. No consistent lineups anymore. No rhythm. I just hope we get past Houston now. I didn't really expect to beat UL or Memp however, yes we aren't playing very well. UConn game was great but haven't seen much other than that. Stick with Kennedy, Nic most of the game unless foul issues.

Did LB say why he didn't start MK?

GiddyUp wrote: Stick with Kennedy, Nic most of the game unless foul issues.

I think we are at nut cutting time now, even if Nic or Kennedy get in foul trouble, you have to roll the dice and let them play, especially Nic. when he sits 9 minutes, we are toast.

Perhaps the better teaching moment is, however, tell Nic to keep his hands in his pockets, give up layups, wide open shots, just don't foul.

Just like the Jet's coach told his offensive lineman, I don't care if you cost us 10 yards or 10 miles, you don't let anyone hit Joe Nameth. No fouls by Nic and Kennedy helps SMU, even if we give up some easy ones.

LA_Mustang wrote:Did LB say why he didn't start MK?

Maybe he knew the starting center was going to get two fouls in 18 seconds and did not want it to be Kennedy.

Grant Carter wrote:

LA_Mustang wrote:Did LB say why he didn't start MK?

Maybe he knew the starting center was going to get two fouls in 18 seconds and did not want it to be Kennedy.

LOL

When I saw that I thought well whatever the reasoning is for not starting MK, they are out the window now.

I figured it was because Kennedy walked off the court before clock expired against Louisville and sulked. Sent a message before the tourney

JasonB wrote:I figured it was because Kennedy walked off the court before clock expired against Louisville and sulked. Sent a message before the tourney

Wow,

You could be right, I did not even think of that. I figured he either broke a team rule or had a sub par practice, but now I think you may have figured out the mystery.

JasonB wrote:I figured it was because Kennedy walked off the court before clock expired against Louisville and sulked. Sent a message before the tourney

If you look at the replay half the team walked off the court and one player had even taken his jersey out. Actually Kennedy was the only one that was back. But he and one of the Louisville player had words right in front of Coach Brown in the 2nd half and Coach Brown did not like what it. Notice Crandall Head did not play either and he had words with Harrell during the game.

Grant Carter wrote:

LA_Mustang wrote:Did LB say why he didn't start MK?

Maybe he knew the starting center was going to get two fouls in 18 seconds and did not want it to be Kennedy.

Pretty much. MK has had early foul trouble and been taken out of the recent games. This was avoided by bringing him in off the bench. Of course I don't think the plan was for CC to pick up two fouls in fifteen seconds.

shadowman wrote:

JasonB wrote:I figured it was because Kennedy walked off the court before clock expired against Louisville and sulked. Sent a message before the tourney

Wow,

You could be right, I did not even think of that. I figured he either broke a team rule or had a sub par practice, but now I think you may have figured out the mystery.

I thought the announcers said something about a behavior issue. Or was that about another player?

No Quarter wrote:

shadowman wrote:

JasonB wrote:I figured it was because Kennedy walked off the court before clock expired against Louisville and sulked. Sent a message before the tourney

Wow,

You could be right, I did not even think of that. I figured he either broke a team rule or had a sub par practice, but now I think you may have figured out the mystery.

I thought the announcers said something about a behavior issue. Or was that about another player?

The announcers were trying to figure it out like the rest of us. They had no clue and asked our SID and he said he had no idea.

No Quarter wrote:I thought the announcers said something about a behavior issue. Or was that about another player?

That was just speculation.

I still figure either Markus was late for a bus or it was a LB trick to keep us out of early foul trouble at center (which obviously went wrong in grand style).