Nic Moore needs to stay out of early foul trouble

[Rebel10]

If he doesn't we will not have a good chance to make a run in the dance. He has got to play smarter rather than pick up unnecessary fouls. Coach Brown commented about that in the post game interview on the radio. If he goes it is very different team. WE were up 14 when He went out int he first half and by halftime we were down by 2. I hope he learns to play smarter from this.

[Stallion]

Louisville took the game right out of our hands and certainly deserved to win-played like a championship team. But having acknowledged that Nic Moore's fouls were the story of the ballgame

[LHS81]

From where I was sitting & what was shown on the overhead screen. Nic had the look of frustration, and the look of someone who was bound & determined to have the referees blow the whistle for his 4th foul. . . That was frustrating.

[Stallion]

no excuse on that 4th foul-after sitting for 12 minutes of first half.

[GiddyUp]

ya think? You can't beat Lou with 1 point guard. Not gonna happen. We were very exposed tonight.

[malachi896]

That was stupid. As the play unfolded I said "he's asking for a fourth" right as it was called. Everyone in the stadium knew playing that up on the offensive players body was asking to be called for a foul. He will learn. Without another ball handler he is our most important player and has to learn to always stay composed

[SMU 86]

ya think? You can't beat Lou with 1 point guard. Not gonna happen. We were very exposed tonight.

If that 1 point guard stays out of foul trouble we can. Coach Brown said that he committed some silly fouls. Take those away and who know what would have happened. Especially if he did not have to go out when we have a 14 point lead.

[GiddyUp]

ya think? You can't beat Lou with 1 point guard. Not gonna happen. We were very exposed tonight.

If that 1 point guard stays out of foul trouble we can. Coach Brown said that he committed some silly fouls. Take those away and who know what would have happened. Especially if he did not have to go out when we have a 14 point lead.

My whole point is, he is our team and w/out him you lose...we were done when he was out. Game over. Nick and Manuel just can't handle the damn ball. Even last yr, it was pretty bad.

[SMU 86]

ya think? You can't beat Lou with 1 point guard. Not gonna happen. We were very exposed tonight.

If that 1 point guard stays out of foul trouble we can. Coach Brown said that he committed some silly fouls. Take those away and who know what would have happened. Especially if he did not have to go out when we have a 14 point lead.

My whole point is, he is our team and w/out him you lose...we were done when he was out. Game over. Nick and Manuel just can't handle the damn ball. Even last yr, it was pretty bad.

No problem. I hear what you are saying.

[mustangfan01]

All four of Nic's fouls were stupid.

There's no way to candycoat it, we need him in the game and he single-handedly deflated the sails quite a few times tonight. Just one of those nights but it was painful to watch him be a liability tonight.

The silver lining is he'll grow from it. Looking forward to him taking his anger out on Memphis.

[SMU Section F]

Nic did not have a good game. Simple as that. Only one of his fouls was even questionable and that fourth one was near unforgivable. It happens though. A player that brings the kind of energy Nic does is gonna step over the line sometimes.

I don't think the rest of the team gets a pass just because Nic was out of it though. We have a talented team and nobody stepped up. I'm not sure that a single SMU player outplayed his Louisville counterpart.

[PonyPlayer4]

He cost us the game. Dumb fouls. -16 with him on the bench.

[MFFL02]

From where I was sitting & what was shown on the overhead screen. Nic had the look of frustration, and the look of someone who was bound & determined to have the referees blow the whistle for his 4th foul. . . That was frustrating.

Yes, exactly. In fact, he fouled the guy twice but the ref initially didn't call it. Definitely let frustration get the best of him. It's easy to criticize but at the end of the day he's just a kid so you have to cut him some slack. Hopefully Brown's words to him tomorrow will ensure this doesn't happen again.

[PonyKris89]

In Nic's defense LB said 99% of players would not have even played with his ankle the way it was… He was not even sure if he would play. but that did not stop LB from criticizing Nic's decision making.

and I have always believed that when you bench a guy an extended amount of time because of foul trouble, you do so at your peril if your guys are not stepping up. Sometimes, you as a coach need to roll the dice and play through it. He held Nic out to long on both sit downs, and held out Sterling too long as well.

[MFFL02]

I don't think the rest of the team gets a pass just because Nic was out of it though. We have a talented team and nobody stepped up. I'm not sure that a single SMU player outplayed his Louisville counterpart.

I think the rest of the team does get a pass. I was impressed that we kept it a ballgame for as long as we did with Moore on the bench in the second half. Louisville is third in the country in steals and probably has the best press in the nation. Resultantly, they simply aren't a good matchup for us and with Moore out, they're a nightmare. Bottomline, we only have one legitimate point guard on our roster. If he's out with foul trouble, there really isn't any realistic way we can handle Louisville's defense pressure much better than we did. We will be able to handle a team like this much better next year when we have both Mudiay and Moore on the court at the same time.