Team Looked Better

[Duke Blue Blood]

No moral victories but the team looked better.

Faye is a welcomes addition.

McCoy will be a special player.

Lets hope they gel in time for conference play.

DBB

[apisarna]

I think Faye really makes this team more interesting. I hope we'll get better and better.

[kent dorfman]

I think Faye really makes this team more interesting. I hope we'll get better and better.

Great yes you keep hoping for SMU athletics to get 'better and better.' The fact is that we need to go make water polo or whichever lame-a-zoid preppy sport look cool so we can be considered an athletic powerhouse again.

[MustangIcon]

we looked like we belonged on the court with that A&M team. to me, that bodes well for cusa play.

my first time to see mo faye on the court (game, pickup, practice, or otherwise) and he looks pretty talented. a couple people here tried to make the guy seem like a weak big who had no perimiter game at all (of course we would never see it bc there wasn't a chance in hell he would qualify ). in fact, he clearly has the green light to let it fly from downtown and appears to have a nice shot. with his size and skill level he could be a nice player for us.

our bigs just do not finish at the basket well. our inability to finish around the rim really killed our chances in this game.

malone may not see a whole lot of minutes going forward. with faye and nayakundi showing they need to be on the court, bamba and dia being the bigs (underachieving ones), and otis being the hustle forward, not sure what it is that malone brings to the table that one of those guys should be sitting. showed a lot of promise early last season but hasn't shown much this year.

we failed miserably at defending the inbounds play when a&m was underneath their own basket. 2 times that i can recall off hand. you must seal off the inside.

turning point in the game. 4 min left down by 4. come out of timeout having run a play to get bamba his jump hook. gets a great look and misses it. a&m scores. next trip down bamba with a good look from inside 5 feet, misses again. a&m went up by 8 and that was all she wrote.

overall i was pretty pleased with how we played. i didn't see the game on monday, although i am stung by the fact we lost it, but i am pretty sure that last year's team (or any team from the past few seasons) wouldn't have been in this game.

[RGV Pony]

thought this was going to be about the UNCA game.

[PonyPatrol]

I watched Malone much of the UAPB game and he just doesn't look very good. He's timid (what a surprise on this team) and dribbles and runs very awkwardly. Just looks lost much of the time. Harp as well, once he gets the ball he just can't wait to pass it away.

[Pony_Fan]

I watched Malone much of the UAPB game and he just doesn't look very good. He's timid (what a surprise on this team) and dribbles and runs very awkwardly. Just looks lost much of the time. Harp as well, once he gets the ball he just can't wait to pass it away.

Unfortunately, I think we'll see Harp on the floor. Doh talked about his "toughness" on the post game. Toughness?? huh? Maybe he runs wind sprints real well.

[papawasamustang]

Yes, they did. I was encouraged. I have watched the game twice & noticed many of the same things that have been discussed.

First, Fall & Dia were 3-15 from the field, most if not all in the paint.
If they aren't making the shots they need to @ least be drawing fouls.
Watching both, they have good position when they receive the ball.
They just do not go to the hole strong. Dia just doesn't seem to be explosive to the rim. His balance seems to be going back & both don't seem to know how to draw contact. Dia should make a living @ the FT line. Why Dia doesn't use a quick drop step to the hole I don't know? Fall takes to long with the ball allowing the opponent to merge on him with several players. Best thing Doh could do is spot up RN or McCoy on the same side as Fall & have Fall continue to draw the other defenders in then kicking it back out to our shooters for better looks. My preference would be to reduce both Dia & Falls minutes dramatically & go small ball. I have been preaching last year & this year that we should have an advantage in the paint. On paper we do, however, the facts are we don't & I was wrong. Dia is not improving & Fall is a role player. I really believe that the reason there is such a lack of improvement is because these guys just don't have any physical players to practice against everyday in the gym. They aren't challanged & are going up against TK & Hoge & u just can't have that or this is what u get.

Second, Poor FT shooting again. Aggies 19 of 26 & we were 6 for 11.
Game over. It will continue to haunt us if we don't improve this stat.
Simple fact, hit your FT's & we beat the Pine Bluffs.

Third, Ditch the zone on the out of bounds plays. Better yet, ditch it all together. However, if we do, I would love to see us start trapping out it.

Fourth, as I mentioned earlier, go small ball. Start McCoy, Williams, Faye, RN & Malone or Otis. Conference USA is a guard oriented league.
Its getting to the point where the 2 bigs are more of a liability than an asset. If Fall slams home that one easy opportunity late in the game who knows what happens.

Last, I question the overall basketball IQ of the squad. It appears our talent level is competitive but the execution of many plays both on O & D
are poor. We have to be able to know when to foul, who to foul etc.
We have to know who the shooters are & locate them & not give them wide open looks. The in bounce plays the Aggies were running & dunking on us are very basic.

Although I don't agree with some of the things that are happening with the program I am looking forward to watching the kids grow over the season. Last night was a game that was there for the taking.

Still alot of BB to be played & hopefully we can all have some fun watching things come together.

[The XtC]

[quote="MustangIcon"]we looked like we belonged on the court with that A&M team. to me, that bodes well for cusa play.

my first time to see mo faye on the court (game, pickup, practice, or otherwise) and he looks pretty talented. a couple people here tried to make the guy seem like a weak big who had no perimiter game at all (of course we would never see it bc there wasn't a chance in hell he would qualify :roll: ). in fact, he clearly has the green light to let it fly from downtown and appears to have a nice shot. with his size and skill level he could be a nice player for us.

our bigs just do not finish at the basket well. our inability to finish around the rim really killed our chances in this game.

malone may not see a whole lot of minutes going forward. with faye and nayakundi showing they need to be on the court, bamba and dia being the bigs (underachieving ones), and otis being the hustle forward, not sure what it is that malone brings to the table that one of those guys should be sitting. showed a lot of promise early last season but hasn't shown much this year.

we failed miserably at defending the inbounds play when a&m was underneath their own basket. 2 times that i can recall off hand. you must seal off the inside.

turning point in the game. 4 min left down by 4. come out of timeout having run a play to get bamba his jump hook. gets a great look and misses it. a&m scores. next trip down bamba with a good look from inside 5 feet, misses again. a&m went up by 8 and that was all she wrote.

overall i was pretty pleased with how we played. i didn't see the game on monday, although i am stung by the fact we lost it, but i am pretty sure that last year's team (or any team from the past few seasons) wouldn't have been in this game.[/quote]

I'm going to have to guess that the second paragraph is aimed at me, since I'm the only one who actually said that. What can I say, I posted my impressions based on what little I had seen of him in practice. The 3-pointer he hit against the Aggies was the first jumpshot I'd seen him make from any distance. I posted the truth as I saw it, based on my impression from having watched him a bit. All I can ever do is tell you what I saw and how I interpreted it. If you dont want to hear it, then dont ask me a question. If it turns out I was wrong, then OK, so be it. Sometimes it happens.

And for the last paragraph, I wont make any conclusions about last years team, but pretty much everyone they've played has been "in the game" with the Aggies. Before our game I scanned through TexAgs and read about a dozen threads complaining about how their team starts games slowly and plays down to the level of their competition. In the game before us, they beat Florida A&M by an almost identical score, 67-57. The Rattlers of FAMU are 2-8 this year. Stephen F Austin (7 points) and Kent State (6 points) played the Aggies closer than we did, KSU was winning at the half, and SFA was tied. The only team A&M has really blown out was our friends from Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

[BUS]

Thanks for then hlep last week X.
Peace be with you.
GSS/BUS

[MustangIcon]

we looked like we belonged on the court with that A&M team. to me, that bodes well for cusa play.

my first time to see mo faye on the court (game, pickup, practice, or otherwise) and he looks pretty talented. a couple people here tried to make the guy seem like a weak big who had no perimiter game at all (of course we would never see it bc there wasn't a chance in hell he would qualify ). in fact, he clearly has the green light to let it fly from downtown and appears to have a nice shot. with his size and skill level he could be a nice player for us.

our bigs just do not finish at the basket well. our inability to finish around the rim really killed our chances in this game.

malone may not see a whole lot of minutes going forward. with faye and nayakundi showing they need to be on the court, bamba and dia being the bigs (underachieving ones), and otis being the hustle forward, not sure what it is that malone brings to the table that one of those guys should be sitting. showed a lot of promise early last season but hasn't shown much this year.

we failed miserably at defending the inbounds play when a&m was underneath their own basket. 2 times that i can recall off hand. you must seal off the inside.

turning point in the game. 4 min left down by 4. come out of timeout having run a play to get bamba his jump hook. gets a great look and misses it. a&m scores. next trip down bamba with a good look from inside 5 feet, misses again. a&m went up by 8 and that was all she wrote.

overall i was pretty pleased with how we played. i didn't see the game on monday, although i am stung by the fact we lost it, but i am pretty sure that last year's team (or any team from the past few seasons) wouldn't have been in this game.

I'm going to have to guess that the second paragraph is aimed at me, since I'm the only one who actually said that. What can I say, I posted my impressions based on what little I had seen of him in practice. The 3-pointer he hit against the Aggies was the first jumpshot I'd seen him make from any distance. I posted the truth as I saw it, based on my impression from having watched him a bit. All I can ever do is tell you what I saw and how I interpreted it. If you dont want to hear it, then dont ask me a question. If it turns out I was wrong, then OK, so be it. Sometimes it happens.

And for the last paragraph, I wont make any conclusions about last years team, but pretty much everyone they've played has been "in the game" with the Aggies. Before our game I scanned through TexAgs and read about a dozen threads complaining about how their team starts games slowly and plays down to the level of their competition. In the game before us, they beat Florida A&M by an almost identical score, 67-57. The Rattlers of FAMU are 2-8 this year. Stephen F Austin (7 points) and Kent State (6 points) played the Aggies closer than we did, KSU was winning at the half, and SFA was tied. The only team A&M has really blown out was our friends from Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Lots of people had the belief that he wouldn't qualify. I think you just happened to be the poster who mentioned it most and also has one of the most respected opinions on the board. His ability has been widely speculated on the board. Some suggested he is a 3 with no inside game and takes people off the dribble and shoots jumpers. Some suggested he had next to no outside ability. Seems like he is somewhere in between, although I still think his ball handling is quite suspect to play many minutes at the 3 in a guard heavy CUSA.

Not saying that losing to A&M makes us a good team or that you would consider it an accomplishment. But, I do feel like we will be competitive against most CUSA teams if we play like we did at TAMU.

[EastStang]

Maybe if Fall is that undependable in or outside of the paint, we need to run a four man offense where he essentially has one role, try and get an offensive board when others shoot and to be close enough to the basket that if he is left totally alone, he can dunk it. Let him focus on the defensive aspects, defensive rebounding and blocking shots. If he can help neutralize inside scoring by the opponent that's worth 10 points right there.

[Pony4Life]

Before our game I scanned through TexAgs and read ...

You really need more to do. That had to be excruciating.