Usual good DMV job, though understates the horror.
Really had to see it for yourself on a blurry, dark Internet feed.
The 'Roos (what humiliation is losing to a team called Kangaroos) were spectacularly bad for about 30 or so of 40 minutes. A shooting percentage at some point that would have made them happy if they actually didn't have stats. We, playing not particularly well were conquering the Roos and we were up 23-7 or so at one point.They literally couldn't buy a basket.  It looked like a rout and those of who could see it could barely believe our eyes, nor probably the 4 to 6 fans present on ballroom chairs.
  We fall apart at around the 7 minute mark. The Roos go on a huge run, while we continue our usual 1 on 4 missing drives and inopportune shots, followed by a matador defense, which we never mix up. Not sure if we called timeout during the onslaught. No visible coaching or strategy as we folded.
As DMV pointed out Maceo was red hot early, but didn't get many shot attempts in the second half. Of course, he is not a new player. There were "media" timeouts. Total Roo dominance in the end and they were very, very bad Roos. Actual kangaroos would have a better shooting touch during much of the game.
    The good news is that our hard-nosed experienced guard with the toughness we so sorely lacked during our cringing fold to the Roos Rampage wasn't there to muck up the team's chemistry, or mojo, so to speak. Not like we could have used any help against UMKC.
     On the plus side, when one amortizes the wonderful Flo TV Internet and color commentary over the span of our "televised" games, the cost per GW loss is coming down rapidly.
 

Well last year's team started Mazz TNJr Toro and DJ Williams, none of whom played tonight.  Those guys would beat UMKC and Morgan St, today's starting 5 was nearly even money on a neutral court.

I'd that's personnel not Coaching X and Os.

Mojo of course, went from 20 wins to 15 wins to 9 wins as his personnel got worse, and ML went from 9 wins to 13 wins to 24 wins as his personnel got much better.
Because basketball is 95% about personnel.

I'd wager JC will have an arc more resembling the latter 

Totally agree with The Dude.  It’s personnel.  We will start to look better when we have Toro and Harris playing, but we are still several good players away. 

GWAA, what adjustments would you make?   We have literally no D1-level bigs healthy right now. 

I’ve said it before, but go back and watch Hood College or catholic in the exhibitions against us the last two years.  Javi would not even be one of the 2-3 best players on those teams.  He does his best, and gets a few stats on a bad team, but he would likely not start for Morgan state, AU, or UMKC.  In fact, without MoJo being desperate for a player and offering him off a Skype session and YouTube videos, Javi would probably not be a D1 player.

So there’s really no rim protection. 

In fact, our interior talent is so depleted without Toro (and Paar) that we have to five minutes to Ace Stallings - a guy who couldn’t contribute at Mt St Mary’s.


Then look at our other starters:

JNJ and Battle are freshmen.  They are talented and will likely be part of our resurgence over their careers, but they don’t have the luxury of learning on the job.  Walker is also a freshman, and is not good enough at this point to play major minutes for a top 250 tea, which is why he’s playing major minutes right now for a team that is losing to sub-300s. 

Potter is low major player.  He put up some stats at a sub-300 team and he appears to be what he is - a guy who can put up stats on a sub 300 team with some creativity, but given his defense he is not a guy likely to start for a top 250 team.  I mean, UMKC talent was bad, but their best players are at least equal to Potter. 

Maceo we know has offensive talent, but defense hasn’t clicked for him yet. Hopefully he improves on both ends  as the year goes on - I suspect having Toro and Harris to take pressure off will help him. I did expect more from him and my one real disappointment with JC is that he hasn’t yet figured out how to get the best from Maceo.

Mezzie is an enigma.  He shows flashes, but overall have you seen anything that would make you think he’d start for Morgan state? 

Juice plays hard but like Javi is probably not really a D1 level player (or at least not, a guy who could start for a top 250 team).  Again go back to Hood and Catholic - was Juice better than their players?  Not really.  At least not appreciably so.

I really don’t know what the adjustments or answers are.  We will win more than 1 game because we will have games where the shots go in or JNJ does what he did against Hood. Plus, if Toro was playing we probably win these last two games (don’t forget, we we’re playing without a guy who pulled down 42 rebounds in two games before he got hurt, that’s kind of a major loss on the glass when we have no other rebounders).

I do want to apologize for dogging the players in this post.  Hope they and their parents aren’t reading, or that if they do maybe it motivates them to prove me wrong and shut me up.  But I watch a lot of college hoops and I’m telling you, the talent level on our team is worse than almost anyone on the thread seems to understand (except maybe the dude). So sorry if it comes across harsh or mean, but our fans need perspective on what we are watching and, and least in part, why.

That said, I’ll continue rooting for them and remain hopeful that the return of Toro and Harris can help everyone improve by letting players slide into roles they are more naturally suited for, and by bringing more athleticism to a team that badly needs it right now.

Free Quebec wrote:

GWAA, what adjustments would you make? We have literally no D1-level bigs healthy right now.

Don´t think I am the one who has complained about adjustments (other than I hope they adjust the conference room from this morning´s Kwanis breakfast to a basketball arena in time for tipoff of the first game today). It is a sad state of affairs when UMKC and Morgan St come back to beat you because they are more talented.

“That said, I’ll continue rooting for them and remain hopeful that the return of Toro and Harris can help everyone improve by letting players slide into roles they are more naturally suited for, and by bringing more athleticism to a team that badly needs it right now.[“


FQ, big thumbs up to you comment!

You got to coach the talent you have, and the talent we have does not appear capable of playing the game that the coach is having them play.    A 3 point shot from a below average 3 point shooter is rarely a good game plan.    As is playing man to man against teams that are chewing us up and spitting us out in the lane.    Or not fouling in a tie game when we still had a foul to give.   Or not having your best 5 on the court as much as possible.  Or failing to make in game adjustments once the other team has figured us out.   Of course I will continue to root for them, but does it get any worse than being 1-4 against low majors, with the last loss being against UMKC in a game played in a virtually empty  ballroom?  Raise high?  I don't think so, at least not during the 2019-2020 season.   

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (11/23/2019 1:00 pm)