WBB. Valpo @ Youngstown State 2/2/12

jack · February 02, 2012, 06:52:08 PM

Down by 1 at the half. It appears that we are in a 6 player rotation once again. What is it now? We are down to a team we should be dominating right now. I love the lady crusaders, but I have to ask the coaching staff - how do you recruit that many kids that really can't shoot? It's not just a matter of missing a lot of shots, we really have very poor fundamentals. Thank gosh for Timmerman or we'd really be getting embarrased right now. I'm hoping we can limp through this one with a W, but it's not likely with 6 players. Where is Carr tonight?

jack · February 02, 2012, 07:51:42 PM

Tough to win when you have a guard that is a zero threat to shoot the ball. I've finally hit the wall on this one. It's time to clean house, and rebuild. Period. We just got beat by an awful team. Again.

valporun · February 02, 2012, 08:39:43 PM

Richards is your prototypical point guard. She doesn't shoot, unless necessary. She'll just bring the ball down, and everyone else scores. It doesn't help to keep your point guard in that situation, if she has a shot, she should be greenlighted.

jack · February 02, 2012, 09:31:02 PM

If she's not shooting because of the coaches, shame on them. If it's her choice, shame on her. That's highschoolish, at best. I haven't seen many sucessful college teams that have a non-shooting point guard. She passed up many open looks tonight. And they knew she wouldn't shoot, which makes us much easier to guard. We need retooled, top to bottom, period. Or get the hell out of the HL league. We just got beat by one of the worst teams, fundamentally, in our league. They were knocking down 3's tonight, which is why they won. We don't even have players that are average, at best, at shooting jump shots. Injuries aside, we just can't score. When your shooting desperation shots 5 minutes into the game, there's a problem. Does anyone know why Carr didn't play tonight. Even she is struggling to score, but at least she isn't passing up open looks. 3 times tonight we didn't get a shot off before the clock expired. That should never happen. As the saying goes, injuries expose a lot about a program.

StlVUFan · February 02, 2012, 10:06:24 PM

Quote from: jack on February 02, 2012, 07:51:42 PM
Tough to win when you have a guard that is a zero threat to shoot the ball. I've finally hit the wall on this one. It's time to clean house, and rebuild. Period. We just got beat by an awful team. Again.

YSU isn't awful anymore. They're not good, but they're not awful.

KL31NY · February 02, 2012, 11:02:04 PM

Two points: Carr appeared to have some kind of lower body injury that I don't know much about. She did some passing in warm ups but did not run any more than some very light jogging to test out the issue. I'm hoping it's a minor tweak and will be better for CSU Saturday. We need her to get some minutes and give Laura any breaks at the point.

Also, YSU is turning itself around. No juggernaut, but definitely not the perennial doormat anymore. Tonight was their 10th win, more than the past three seasons combined. With Brandi Brown's ferocious inside play and their trigger-happy 3-point shooters locked on, they are a much better team.

jack · February 03, 2012, 07:29:17 AM

I hope you are right about Carr. Shooting woes aside, I think she brings more to the table then just providing rest for others. YSU does have 10 wins this season, but look at the apponents they beat. Now, including us. The only reason they beat us is they got hot from 3 point range.
I don't believe I've ever seen a team at this level miss so many baskets from point blank range. And it's been happening for 3 games now. Our short bench, for once, wasn't the reason we lost tonight. Our lack of concentration, and ability to shoot the basketball cost us this one. If you catch the next game, try to block out everything else, and watch our fundamentals when we shoot inside. It's like watching a Saturday afternoon intramural high school game. I'm not trying to be mean spirited here, but I've been paying close attention to our offensive inside game to try and figure out how we shoot so poorly. We just don't have the skill set we need inside. This is the biggest issue we miss with Ladd leaving. Unfortunately, If you look at the recruiting class for next season, we don't have any help coming in that will improve this. It appears we will be a very guard heavy squad. Like I said, if our short bench all season has shown us anything, it's shown us just how fundamentally lacking we are in certain aspects of our game.
I wish the ladies well tomorrow.

IndyValpo · February 03, 2012, 07:59:49 AM

Was Horton dressed? If so, what possible excuse do we have for playing her a grand total of two minutes in the last 4 games, all losses.
Why is Jansone only playing 11 minutes with this short bench.....someone (reporter) ask these questions, there really can't be much else to talk about that this point.

valpo64 · February 03, 2012, 09:01:36 AM

Both the men's and women's team have a point guard that wont and cant shoot!!

jack · February 03, 2012, 10:31:10 AM

Horton was dressed last night. Couldn't tell you why she isn't playing. In fact, I haven't a clue at this point why Lang, Adams, and Calloway aren't playing either. Something just doesn't add up. Are any of these players red shirting this season? Are any of them expected to return next year? And if they do, will they contribute? There seems to be something at work here, but God only knows what. As for the point guard situation, I don't believe I've seen any program that has a point guard that either doesn't shoot, by design, or choice. Possibly that's why we recruited Carr, but who knows. I do like the fact that she shoots when the shots there. She's in a slump right now, but has a record of being able to knock them down. A good point guard runs the floor, distributes the ball, and shoots when needed. I like Richards. She's a good player. She passed up a half dozen wide open looks last night, and on a couple of accasions, force the ball into a player in a bad situation. We are far too easy to guard if she isn't a threat to put it up occasionally. YSU knew this, and were playing off of her to help inside. When your point guard won't shoot, it makes it dificult for your inside players to get open looks. it's all relative.

vuweathernerd · February 03, 2012, 10:32:21 AM

Quote from: valpo64 on February 03, 2012, 09:01:36 AM
Both the men's and women's team have a point guard that wont and cant shoot!!

who are you thinking of on the men's side? i know we used to rip on buggs for not scoring at all, but that's not the case this year. so i'm going to assume you're referring to kurth, who doesn't even see enough playing time to count, and apologize for the thread-jacking.

IndyValpo · February 03, 2012, 01:11:12 PM

Quote from: jack on February 03, 2012, 10:31:10 AMHorton was dressed last night. Couldn't tell you why she isn't playing.

Given this and Jansone's minutes part of this short bench problem is due to coaching ineptitude as far as player usage. It really is not correct to say four staters "had" to play 39 minutes last night (see Times article) when it simply is not true.

Valpo89 · February 03, 2012, 01:30:04 PM

Quote from: vuweathernerd on February 03, 2012, 10:32:21 AM
who are you thinking of on the men's side? i know we used to rip on buggs for not scoring at all, but that's not the case this year. so i'm going to assume you're referring to kurth, who doesn't even see enough playing time to count, and apologize for the thread-jacking.

Nerd, you must not have seen the men's game against Detroit. They were playing farther off of Buggs than any team I've ever seen. He took 1, maybe 2 3-pointers. One of them, the rebound popped back out to him, he handed off to Matt Kenney right next to him and Kenney drained the 3.
All Horizon teams know to back off Buggs, but foul him if for some reason he's on the floor during crunch time.

Sorry, back to this lively women's discussion.

vuweathernerd · February 03, 2012, 05:42:37 PM

Quote from: Valpo89 on February 03, 2012, 01:30:04 PM
Quote from: vuweathernerd on February 03, 2012, 10:32:21 AM
who are you thinking of on the men's side? i know we used to rip on buggs for not scoring at all, but that's not the case this year. so i'm going to assume you're referring to kurth, who doesn't even see enough playing time to count, and apologize for the thread-jacking.

Nerd, you must not have seen the men's game against Detroit. They were playing farther off of Buggs than any team I've ever seen. He took 1, maybe 2 3-pointers. One of them, the rebound popped back out to him, he handed off to Matt Kenney right next to him and Kenney drained the 3.
All Horizon teams know to back off Buggs, but foul him if for some reason he's on the floor during crunch time.

Sorry, back to this lively women's discussion.

actually, i was watching it. and yes, buggs still can't drain much in the way of jumpers. but at least he'll take the ball to the rack, which is far more than he would have done before. but i will concede the argument that he's not a primary scorer.