I was thinking that even if we won this game, I would say that this was the absolute worst basketball game that I have ever watched, in regards to extremely poor play by both teams. It looked like an up-and-down AAU game where everyone was just chucking away from 3. Add on to it with the lack of defensive rebounding, missing about 5-6 bunnies around the basket, throwing passes before looking to see if our guy is open/available, an absolute bone-headed technical by McNair in a crucial situation, and Darius fouling with 5 seconds left on the shot clock, after already playing solid defense on that possession (why not foul much earlier, if you were going to take a dumb foul??). I mean seriously, that was horrendous basketball to watch. Some of you are going to come here and say that you didn't mind it as that is the way that the NBA and college basketball are moving with pace and 3s, but that is almost unwatchable. If Belmont made their wide open 3s, this wouldn't have even been close, but they couldn't hit anything from deep in the second half. I would have been pleased with a win, but I still would have mentioned that this was absolute sh!t to watch, though we had the positives of McNair and Shaw showing what they can do on offense.
Last week I was going to say that the test of this team's development will come after they've lost a couple of games in a row, but I didn't want to sound like a party pooper.
Well, here we are, and I don't say that negatively. I think this juncture starts another important indicator of how far this program has developed.
Turned it over too much and still not forcing the issue on offense. Getting a goosegg from Monegro and near gooseggs from Darius and Sepp (although in limited minutes) don't help. I also disagree with Powell on the fouls situation and "feeding it to Cooper" as quoted in Paul's article. That may be for the next game but Cooper, in my view, is still not aggressive enough on offense. He took 10 shots. He's the best player...supposedly....on the team and lesser players are putting up more shots. For Valpo to win beyond games in which the team shoots very well, he's got to become more of a force on offense instead of a guy who the offense works through.
Turned it over too much and still not forcing the issue on offense. Getting a goosegg from Monegro and near gooseggs from Darius and Sepp (although in limited minutes) don't help. I also disagree with Powell on the fouls situation and "feeding it to Cooper" as quoted in Paul's article. That may be for the next game but Cooper, in my view, is still not aggressive enough on offense. He took 10 shots. He's the best player...supposedly....on the team and lesser players are putting up more shots. For Valpo to win beyond games in which the team shoots very well, he's got to become more of a force on offense instead of a guy who the offense works through.
I actually have the opposite opinion on Cooper down low. He gets the ball and tries to be aggressive, but either doesn't have the call go his way, or brings the ball down low and defenses crash to stop him. I have seen doubles, and even triples on him to stop him from getting to the tin. He draws a considerable amount of contact, but seems to get the opposite of the "big man" effect and the zebras swallow the whistle. Saw a lot of it last night. Team is probably going to have to play soccer from here on out and sell contact to extremes. Other teams are doing exactly that and getting calls.
