Reality, facts?  Both men's and women's teams are losers. Women's team is worse off. Coaching is critical. We have lost to many lower level programs who have lesser talent.
I feel that coaching players today is much harder than it was 50 years ago. Then, the players listened and were less "out of control".  i.e. turnovers and shot selection. If they kept making errors they were benched, not coddled. I just wonder if Wooten, Chaney, or our own Bill Reinhart would have been successful today.  

JC didn't post his "excited to compete" tweet on gameday, so he must have not been excited to see the team compete yesterday I kid I kid. Interestingly enough, the last time Bonaventure won by 40+ points was when they faced JC and Siena a couple seasons ago.

Obviously not the result we wanted (we did our best Mississippi Valley State impression!), although my thoughts about the team's prospects for the future hasn't changed. The team got blown out and part of that is due to playing three games in six days after a 36 day pause. It is the kind of loss that can get players to lose hope/confidence though, and I hope that it isn't the case. Thankfully, we aren't ending the season with this loss. The biggest thing this team could use next season is roster continuity, and hopefully we keep the key pieces for next year.

JC has mentioned stressing the process more than the final result, and I think those are the things that should be discussed as we head into the offseason in a week or so (realistically). We will certainly go into that more in the offseason, but wanted to touch on certain things on both sides of the ball.

Offensively, we have averaged roughly 20 points in the past three halves, clearly less than ideal. Mason (in the second half) and Bona both denied Bishop going to his left and getting any passes to Jamison to operate. Understandably, we have slowed down the tempo from earlier in the year as the number of guys we have available has decreased and we are coming off an extended pause. However, whenever this team is playing long possessions in the halfcourt, there is a lot of standing around and taking bad shots with a couple seconds left in the shot clock. A guy like Dean will be standing with the ball at the top of the key and we will be wasting several seconds waiting for Bishop to come up to collect the ball. A few more seconds will be wasted just dribbling the ball at the top of the key before Bishop makes a predictable drive halfway down the lane and either looks to make a bail out pass or take a contested fadeaway shot. The result is that the opposition has to use very little energy to defend us. If we spent some of this time actually passing the ball around instead and giving every player a touch while players are moving off the ball, perhaps we get a better quality look from most of the shots we've taken. We spread out the assists in the Rhody game and fared much better offensively.

Additionally, guys like Brown/Dean/Paar have virtually no role in the offense. They don't necessarily have to become high usage players in the system, but when James and Jamison aren't getting open, we need to get others involved. Mason's bigs and Bona's bigs were actually in a bit of foul trouble in both games and when Ricky found some success he was getting baskets down low. This will open stuff up for Bishop and Battle to operate along the perimeter as well. We play a bit too much iso ball for periods of the game. It was clear yesterday that Bishop and Battle weren't on the mark shooting the ball (which is understandable some games), but the quality of looks wasn't too strong as LSF mentioned.

Defensively, there are going to be a lot of questions moving forward. I am a bit more concerned about this side of the ball than the offense long-term, but that will be hashed out in the offseason. I thought we had turned a corner somewhat in the Mason game, but we were back to losing shooters around the perimeter as we were switching. The times we actually closed out on Bona they front rimmed their shots, but it was very rare. The funniest parts of the game were when a Bona player picked up their dribble and we inexcusably left them with the expectation that they were going to pass the ball before they actually did it. It happened once when Adaway picked up his dribble and Ricky just turned his back and headed for the hoop leaving him wide open from three. Another play where we double teamed a guy down low, and then the help man (I think it was Lincoln) left, allowing the Bona player to just put up an open floater. Overall, this side of the ball has been disastrous this season and if we are to ever become competitive again it needs to clean up next season.

I have mentioned this before, but I can maybe count on the fingers of one hand how many jump balls we have generated all season, which says a lot about our activity defensively. Honestly, the number is more than zero only because Ricky began suiting up for us. He is the lone guy on the team that I see fighting for extra possessions and really wanting it. I think he did create a jump ball yesterday. Say what you want about Mojo's teams and even our current WBB team, but they are scrappy and definitely make efforts to defend. I have yet to see this team do that with any consistency. I feel like the word talent is overused. We certainly have a team with skilled players, but we are lacking players who are gritty right now and go after it. I find myself a few times every game just not understanding why we aren't diving for the loose balls, and this started before the COVID pause. We are young and are still learning to communicate, but these are simple effort plays.