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Buffalo @ North Texas


DooleyBull06

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3 minutes ago, clodney said:

You really think we're still obvious MAC favorites? Ohio is 3-0 with double digit wins over a top-75 Belmont team and a Cleveland State team that's pretty similar to North Texas. Miami is 2-0 with a win over an ACC team. Akron took Ohio State to the wire. Hell, even EMU had a better showing against Indiana than we've had in our first 2.

It looks to me like the MAC is just a wide open race with 3-4 teams that could all easily win the tourney. I think we all expected a bit more at this point given that this team is easily the oldest and most experienced in the conference.

Cleveland State isn't as good as North Texas.  North Texas composite 111 and Cleveland St 162.  That said Ohio did win by double digits - so still good result.  I do agree that Ohio has played the best basketball in MAC so far.   I am still not sold on Miami OH - but time will tell.  Akron also will need to do more too, but they looked good against Ohio St.

March is a long way off - and I think we all agree that more to be done by this Bulls team, but they gutted out a tough win over a good North Texas team - so let's try to enjoy that.

 

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23 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Just looking at the schedule…our toughest game before the Bona game will be SFA (and so far their two wins are against high school teams). This could be a nice time to get on a run before the rivalry game. First home game on Saturday afternoon. Fans better show up.

We also have final game in Cancun Challenge - possibly St. Louis.  St. Louis has yet to play a tough game - so not sure how good they are at 3-0.

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Finally got around to reading through this thread…. Sadly It went exactly how I assumed it would. 
 

Gotta love half the board writing off the team after a loss to a national title contender and one half of a game they ended up winning. I get it, we come here to vent but yikes. Did anyone expect us to be 2-0 on the road against Michigan and north Texas? LOL

its hilarious that people were calling for Whitesell to blow up on the refs, when a technical foul and the resulting free throws literally could’ve lost us the game. And come on, we’re seriously going to complain about Williams after he struggled to start the game? Dude just dropped 32 against Michigan and is one of the best players in the history of the program.
 

they definitely have some things to clean up, but this was a good road win regardless of how it happened. In the previous couple seasons we lose this one (the Syracuse and Ohio games last year come to mind). Pulling off a W against the odds in the 2nd half is a great sign going forward this year. 

the refs were awful tonight. Some phantom calls and some that were really soft. The one to foul out Mballa at the end was ridiculous, it was a jump ball and they just decided to call a foul. The north Texas announcers were a little tough to take as well, but at least they were trying their best to be objective (and failing). 
 

some positives from tonight:

Jack’s shooting was on, that’ll be huge if he can keep it close to that level 

I thought Skogman and Hardnett both looked good down low 

Mballa’s foul shooting has been money this year 

we stole a win against a quality opponent on the road in a game where we turned the ball over frequently and shot poorly for long stretches.

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10 hours ago, TML1000 said:

EMU losing by 6 to unranked IU is better than our showing against top 5 Michigan? Ok If anyone's taking that much stock in the first few games of the season, you're in for a long year.

Agreed, that one was a stretch but the other 3 mentioned are putting up a better or equal showing to anything we've done so far this year. The point is, we aren't clear favorites anymore given the way we've played.

Again, that UNT team lost 7 of its 12 players from last year's roster and 60% of its scoring, yet we were the team that had no chemistry, playing lazy defense and turning the ball over 15 times.

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13 minutes ago, Jeseph said:

This is THE year for JW. The team is showing signs that depth is not improved from last year, and with an experienced team there is a lack of offensive/defensive consistency. Are they seriously protected from criticism on this front, again?

We all agree expectations are high.  Your observations are fair - based on the two games played.  Improvements are needed during the rest of the season - not only for this year but the following as well.

Getting a healthy Hardnett back will help depth a little, but Skogman needs to start contributing solid minutes.  For comparison - here are Segu / Williams' numbers in their sophomore year through first 10 games:

image.png.a220ca16c7fbe8a7afecee3955715eee.png

Skogman is close in minutes at 21 per game, but is only averaging 4.5 ppg on six field goal attempts.  Hopefully he steps it up over the coming weeks.   Not calling out Skogman - but his development is integral to success of this team this year and in future.

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43 minutes ago, Jeseph said:

This is THE year for JW. The team is showing signs that depth is not improved from last year, and with an experienced team there is a lack of offensive/defensive consistency. Are they seriously protected from criticism on this front, again?

I completely agree about this being THE year. 100%. And we do need more consistency on both ends. Hopefully we progress in those areas. I will say this though, a younger team doesn’t pull off that comeback. The senior leadership stepped up last night. Williams was having a bad night but made some shots in the last 9 minutes. As did Rondo. We didn’t miss a shot in the final 9. So that’s a sign. Hopefully Skogman and the bench can progress bc we need the depth.

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12 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

I completely agree about this being THE year. 100%. And we do need more consistency on both ends. Hopefully we progress in those areas. I will say this though, a younger team doesn’t pull off that comeback. The senior leadership stepped up last night. Williams was having a bad night but made some shots in the last 9 minutes. As did Rondo. We didn’t miss a shot in the final 9. So that’s a sign. Hopefully Skogman and the bench can progress bc we need the depth.

Can Bertram not play so much also? Great work ethic and a big body but his offensive and defensive advanced stats are still awful. I would rather Skogman test out what he can do even if it doesn't always work.

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2 minutes ago, Gxtrex said:

Can Bertram not play so much also? Great work ethic and a big body but his offensive and defensive advanced stats are still awful. I would rather Skogman test out what he can do even if it doesn't always work.

Brock is playing so much because of opponent (Michigan and their 7 footer) plus injury to hardnett

I would imagine as hardnett gets healthy, we see a rotation of mballa/skogman/hardnett at the 4/5 spot with Fagan and Brock providing more limited minutes 

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My takeaways from the first couple of games:

-There were questions about who would step up and be a closer, Segu and Williams to me look like two guys that can get and make their own shot.  Graves was a good player, but I don't think him being a creator was ever the best role for him.

-I had concerns about Jack stepping in for Graves, but I think being a better shooter + lower usage is a better fit in an offense with the Big 3.  He's rebounding at about the same rate, I still need to see more defensively

-I'm not concerned about style points in the North Texas game.  Their brand of basketball is winning rock fights.  They were a top 50 defense last year and 350/357 in pace.  There were 65 possessions last night, the last time we played such a slow paced game was against Coppin St. 12/10/2016.  That's a style of game we've struggled with for the past 5 years, and we came out with a win on the road.  I'll take it.

-Hardnett being back is big, he doesn't post the rebounding numbers that Mballa does, so he doesn't get the love, but I think he's the best defender on the team.  I'd like to see Mballa/Skogman split the 5, and Hardnett/Mballa split the 4.  I like Brock but he's not one of our top guys, so if everyone's healthy I don't think he needs to start.  One of my main criticisms of Whitesell is that he tries to match other teams rather than making them match us.  Oats played 6'7" Jeremy Harris against 7'1" DeAndre Ayton, we don't need to be trotting Brock out just because the other team has someone 6'10"+

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58 minutes ago, trueblue32 said:

we don't need to be trotting Brock out just because the other team has someone 6'10"+

In general I agree with this,especially last night against smaller and quicker post players. The game changed with a quicker Hardnett in the game defensively. However,  I had no problem playing Bertram/Skogman against Michigan's Dickinson. 

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12 minutes ago, fosterclogfear said:

In general I agree with this,especially last night against smaller and quicker post players. The game changed with a quicker Hardnett in the game defensively. However,  I had no problem playing Bertram/Skogman against Michigan's Dickinson. 

Yeah I disagree, it feels like we're playing to lose by a close margin rather than trying to win.  We could play that match-up 100 times and I can't imagine Brock wins that match-up in any.  I know Hardnett wasn't healthy, but I can see a scenario where he or Mballa hits a couple threes, or blow by Dickinson a few times and get him in foul trouble.  One of the primary reasons he's not in the NBA is he doesn't defend well on the perimeter.  You gotta roll the dice in some of these situations if you're looking to pull off an upset like we did against Arizona.

A more egregious example to me is like Dylan Swingle on BG last year.  That kid was bad, but we'd start Brock as the token big guy as if Hardnett was going to lose us the game trying to defend Swingle.  Or when Hardnett was in the game, on offense we'd have him float on the perimeter or in the dunkers spot rather than letting him handle the ball and make Swingle defend a ball screen.

We've recruited a bunch of long, athletic, skilled bigs and I don't feel the staff has fully figured out how to utilize them yet

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6 hours ago, trueblue32 said:

A more egregious example to me is like Dylan Swingle on BG last year.  That kid was bad, but we'd start Brock as the token big guy as if Hardnett was going to lose us the game trying to defend Swingle.  Or when Hardnett was in the game, on offense we'd have him float on the perimeter or in the dunkers spot rather than letting him handle the ball and make Swingle defend a ball screen.

We've recruited a bunch of long, athletic, skilled bigs and I don't feel the staff has fully figured out how to utilize them yet

Don’t get me started on this. One of my issues with Whitesell has been his use of players and in game adjustments. Last year I felt he was better but in the championship game when things went south, he started grasping at straws. 

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I actually like starting Brock, but id make sure to pull him around 2 or 3 minutes in to get hardnett in

Think it would create a spark and keep the opposing team off guard and guessing since both players are so different size speed wise. Around that first media time  teams start to settle in and a switch from Brock to hardnett is something that will throw the pace off

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