Make a dam layup Lindo
 

Lindo likes fouls. P on a 12-1 run. Sick
 

We dribble too much.

4 assists, 11 turnovers, outrebounded 30-19.   

Could be dead legs, but a LOT of overcommitting in passing lanes leading to open shots for Pepperdine. 

I have been lamenting our lack of speed (quickness) for some time.  This is on full display tonight.  We are just not quick enough to guard anyone.   Shades of last year.    As I have said so many times over the past few years, look at the shots they take and look at the shots we take. 

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (12/23/2022 11:31 pm)

Might as well go to whoever we have on the bench. Body language is not good, along with tiredness.
See if anyone can light a spark, unlikely or not.
Try Harvey with some 3s and whoever else is on the thin bench.

It seems like Pepperdine has scored in every one of its possessions over the last 10 minutes.

Maybe I’m being overly defensive because it’s the holiday season but man, I think some of y’all are judging our performance as if it’s the 2016 NIT Team out there. You really expect our current team playing back-to-back games to not come out sloppy and give up rebounds?

Clearly CC has us playing better, but this is still mostly the same team we’ve seen the last couple of years. The only real guy CC brought on board is Edwards and he’s immediately become one of our best players. The rest have flaws that I don’t think 6 months of CC is going to fix.

Our current team is also not well suited for an MTE (and also the A10 tournament when we get there). We have no depth whatsoever so our normal reliance on like 3.5 guys is going to be exposed quickly.

Our roster construction also limits our match ups.  We don’t have a tall lanky guy like Pepperdine’s Pitre who can slash to the basket and also take outside shots.  As was mentioned, our guys are really slow both on defense and on offense.

We can be successful when we have enough time to get rest between games and give effort on defense. Outside of that we just don’t have the personnel or depth to do much.

Agree with GW0509. Not sure how we can compare this roster to that one when it was known going into the year that the roster is highly flawed. This is basically the same team from last year. The goal was to remain competitive in our matchups and I think we've done that in the two games so far. The team is playing hard but is likely fatigued. Overall liking the buttons CC is pushing so far (minus the timeouts tonight - I noticed Romar smartly called TO on both our big runs in the game. I think CC should have maybe called some earlier to halt Pepperdine's momentum but it probably wouldn't have made a difference honestly). At least the 50/50 balls bounced our way a bit more than it has usually all season. Am still holding out hope for one win, but it was known going into the tournament that we were the weakest team in the field so it's not completely unexpected. As others have mentioned, for the first time in years it looks like the team is moving in the right direction despite some speed bumps due to talent issues. That's what matters.

It was clear that we just didn't have the requisite talent to match up against an uptempo team like Pepperdine for 40 minutes. Hope EJ can make a speedy recovery. The guard depth was already thin, but with EJ out of the fold we are down to literally JB, BA, and Amir. I'm sure it was tough for CC to watch along the sidelines realizing he couldn't really do anything. Max and Amir aren't really true guards either. BA was noticeably limping towards the end of the game. I can only hope he and JB can hold up the rest of the year because they may have to play basically 40 minutes the rest of the way if EJ is out an extended period of time.

The offensive gameplan tonight was to pretty much get to the rim as often as possible and finish close to the basket. Unfortunately, Pepperdine adjusted and just packed the paint resulting in us eventually missing every attempt that was tried. Early concerns about not having much three point shooting on the team may be justified as the team seems to be regressing to the mean of late. CC clearly told the team not to settle for perimeter shots tonight. Max may finish the year as the best three point shooter on the squad.

Defense is again very much predicated on personnel which we don't quite have yet. I think the effort was there, especially along the perimeter but fatigue also played a role. Need better communication from the bigs when a guy like Lewis was slashing to the hoop to rotate over. Happened countless times in the second half.

JB is money from the midrange but has and will probably always be a streaky three point shooter. Based on his struggles the past couple games, I would expect a game where he goes like 5-9 or something in the next few weeks.

BA overall still made the right decisions. Like the rest of the team, he had a number of layups rim out. Liked that he wasn't settling for threes. Between tonight and the Wazzu game, I can safely conclude that I officially hate the rims at Hawaii. Stan Sheriff has the reputation of having shooter friendly rims, but everything seems to rim out.

Max has been a major positive the past few games. His performance tonight quite frankly made the loss sting less. Excited to watch him continue to grow into next year.

Hunter did a good job of pump faking and then dunking (outside of one missed layup in the first half that was a balance issue). When it comes to rebounding, he has to learn to stand his own ground better because he often gets pushed under the hoop. It's what led to the basket interference make for Wazzu yesterday and a number of baskets for Porter for Pepperdine tonight.

Ricky's body language dictates his play. When things aren't going right he whines excessively. He needs to develop a next play mentality and have a short term memory when making a mistake. He just isn't a polished offensive player although he has some skills. Defensively, he does a bit too much which leads to picking up ticky tack fouls. He hasn't fully understood when to be aggressive when defending. I'm going to be honest, the fact that he's getting so much playing time again reveals the little depth on the roster. In an ideal world, he would be better off playing closer to 25 minutes a game because he isn't offensively developed enough to be in the game constantly (and foul trouble wouldn't be an issue). If we had any confidence in the bench whatsoever, Ricky could have used a mental reset for a few minutes in the game. Perhaps too much was expected of him going into the year. As FQ mentioned, him praying that he didn't pick up a third foul was one of the highlights of the game.

Amir played well defensively but man offense is rough. I was questioning why Pepperdine was guarding him so tightly along the perimeter. Happy for him that he had that basket in transition but sadly I knew the FT was going to be missed when he was fouled.

It was interesting to see Q not enter the game tonight. Wonder if he's lost his spot in the rotation or not. This team has no depth so I'm fine with him playing 5 minutes in the first half. Unfortunately, not sure Keegan was an upgrade tonight. When Harvey is in the game, why is he not getting shot attempts?

If we decided to not turn over the roster this past offseason to allow the senior class to go out on a high note, I still wish we had added a couple more pieces to help them out via the transfer portal. This roster is neither here nor there. Next year, I'd like to see Max (obviously) and Hunter back. I guess Noel as well, and JB if he wants to. To contend we probably need to replace the rest. We largely struck out in the transfer portal this offseason (partly due to Caputo being hired late, part due to not being able to fully close the deal on some graduate students), but we really need to be aggressive early in the transfer portal next offseason. Hopefully there are at least 6 guards on the roster next year.

I said in the last preview I wasn't overly impressed with whatever little of Seattle U I've seen, but this team has such little depth any game will be hard at this point. That's just the reality. Would rather play them than Iona if we had won tonight with what we have on this team. At least there's a day off tomorrow.