Active hands

[CalallenStang]

Midwestern came in and played defense with active hands and forced a lot of turnovers inside. We need to be ready to see that going forward.


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[Pony_Law]

Msu played hard but well over half of our trn overs were definetly unforced errors on our part.

[Terry Webster]

Everyone who played except Justin Martin had at least one turnover. That is pretty sad. 14 assists and 19 turnovers against a d2 school. That won't cut it when we play aac teams.

[smusportspage]

Yes, the turnovers have been a problem the entire season so far. Have to get that fixed.

[Pony81]

The play that drives me crazy is the awful pass in transition. Nic or KF get a defensive rebound and try to make a perfect play by passing to a guy down court. He of course either 1. drops it, 2 catches it and travels, 3 catches it and steps on the end line or 4 it sails over his head and all the momentum is lost.

Just hold the ball. Slow it down. LB needs to tell them not to attempt the pass if it is contested AT ALL. We can't make a contested long pass down court.

[1983 Cotton Bowl]

You forgot one other option 81. . . 5. catches it and commits an offensive foul. I agree with you that the transition offense has basically stunk this year.

[ojaipony]

My biggest complaint is that our bigs don't play "big". Yes, YM had 9 blocks. That's amazing!

That, and Nic is a quintessential shooting guard in mind and spirit but in a point guard's body. Next year we should see him really tear it up if Sed or Shake can come in and be a "pure point guard" and Nic can play off the ball consistently.

[JasonB]

I expect a lot of teams to go small against us and try and force turnovers.

[ojaipony]

I expect a lot of teams to go small against us and try and force turnovers.

Agreed. And we have to make them pay for it (solid perimeter D and feed the big dogs on offense).

I'm not sold that this team, for whatever reason, has the will to win against tough teams (Cincy, Temple, UConn) and that will keep them out of the tourney. We'll see.

See the Arky game for example. We played scared the whole game. Even LB said it. Not sure what's going on but the only ones I've seen play with any swag at all have been Keith (who is still too inconsistent offensively for what he's capable - he should look to score a lot more as he's learning more and more how to pick his spots) and Nic (who has been a turnover machine lately). And then Sterling always plays tough, but for whatever reason, has had his minutes severely reduced and he never really looks to score. JMart and Cannen always seem to have just finished smoking a fat one before gametime. BenE looks lost. RM has been a bright spot actually. B Moore has been extremely inconsistent and just doesn't look strong at all. YM should have a "no layup rule". (don't allow any and don't make any - offensively they should all be dunks and defensively they should all be blocks)

</pontification>

[gostangs]

Oja - i think you are basically correct - but I would just point out i think Arky will end up being better than any team in our conference - so that game will look better as the season progresses. The only real egg has been Indiana.

What is frustrating about this team is it should be better than last years - tons of potential here - but we don't see that spark yet. It might take the conference opponents and some better home courts to get the "Magic" back in moody.

[JasonB]

RM was a big problem against Arky, and he is much better now. So, he helps. But our perimeter defense is nowhere near as good as it was last year. Our D kept things close on the road last season. This year we are susceptible to runs that will put us out of the game on the road. The team has the potential to improve, but as they are playing right now, I think we will lose an unexpected game or two at home and go .500 on the road.