Game 4: Legends Classic Semifinal: Cal Bears (ESPN2, 970AM)

I think with this team you can tell early who's game it is. Rutgers it was clearly Heron, last night it was clearly Ponds. It feels good that it doesn't have to be the same person every night.

Great post old timer. Your not stupid just a little senile. Not sure if you are able physically to stay up this late. But we should be 5-0 by this time tomorrow. Temple and VCU are even worse. Trust the process!

Age brings experience and experience brings knowledge.  When I read some of the posts by you young boys I just have to laugh.

I have to key in on Dixon more. I'm not seeing the lackluster energy you are but I haven't paid close attention. He did have 2 ties ups on the ground last night. I also thought he's been driving the ball aggressively. He got stuffed at Rutgers but converted nicely last night. Keep in mind he has 4 games under his belt over past 18 months.

I don't think he's as much of a liability on defense as Mussini was. Is that fair?

It's fair, but you could put a chair at the top of the key and it's be less of a defensive liability than Mussini.

Trimble is playing ahead of Wright and Williams. What does that say about them?

That they're freshmen and like his mentor LC CM thinks freshmen should be neither seen nor heard. It could be that he's giving his rotation players a chance to gel a bit against the tougher part of the OOC schedule and intends to work the new ones in against the real cupcakes.

So many guys on this site complain about shots early in possessions and blame the coaching for kids doing this...      it's their game plan in general and they are coached to take the open look and with guys that can actually get hot quickly, it's a good strategy.

Can they take better shots at time, of course, but to complain about when shots are taken in the possession is silly. If they give our wings open looks 3 - 5 seconds into a possession, it's going up and you are crazy if you think it changes...

We have a coach that was an incredibly intelligent player but make no mistake, he thought he was open the second he got in the gym. He is going to teach the players to be aggressive offensively.

That said, this team needs to play better overall defense and the staff has to figure out how to get 6 - 8 minutes  out of Roberts while they are short up front...

Agreed with everything you wrote. Except this strategy hasn’t worked. When we had worse players it was beyond dumb. No reason those beat downs should have been as bad as they were.
With better (really good players) I don’t think it works this year. We are going to find out.

Agreed with everything you wrote. Except this strategy hasn’t worked. When we had worse players it was beyond dumb. No reason those beat downs should have been as bad as they were.
With better (really good players) I don’t think it works this year. We are going to find out.

Averaging 82 ppg shooting 48% with no low post presence and 41% from three.
Defense is the problem and if we play with more effort we will be fine.

Averaging 82 ppg shooting 48% with no low post presence and 41% from three.
Defense is the problem and if we play with more effort we will be fine.

Paper champions. Schedule is a real issue. Even though it bores you. What were the numbers last year after 6 games?

Paper champions. Schedule is a real issue. Even though it bores you. What were the numbers last year after 6 games?

Not sure but even if points per game was close I doubt the shooting % were.
My point is so far our offense has been pretty efficient. Should we be winning by more? Yes. We haven't because D has been terrible.

What were the numbers last year after 6 games?

After 8 games last year the guy who was scoring 15 ppg and averaging 33 minutes pg quit. Did you notice a correlation between the way the team played before and after that? Because "a Big East coach [aka Jay Wright] speaking on condition of anonymity, believes criticism of Mullin and his staff is unfair":

“They’re playing really damn competitive and they’re playing everybody really tough,” the Big East coach said. “They had an offense set up to have two scoring guards. They lost a really good player. That’s a tough adjustment to make on the fly.”

But you know best, because you coach third grade girl's CYO and "coaching is hard." And also spelling. Hopefully they lose tonight and you can sign on to this important interweb forum and say eye toled ewe sew.

After 8 games last year the guy who was scoring 15 ppg and averaging 33 minutes pg quit. Did you notice a correlation between the way the team played before and after that? Because "a Big East coach [aka Jay Wright] speaking on condition of anonymity, believes criticism of Mullin and his staff is unfair":

“They’re playing really damn competitive and they’re playing everybody really tough,” the Big East coach said. “They had an offense set up to have two scoring guards. They lost a really good player. That’s a tough adjustment to make on the fly.”

But you know best, because you coach third grade girl's CYO and "coaching is hard." And also spelling. Hopefully they lose tonight and you can sign on to this important interweb forum and say eye toled ewe sew.

You can believe anything you want. Doesn’t make it true. Real coaches are laughing when they prepare for this team.
Defense after about 60 real games (bowling green and worse doesn’t count) has been abysmal. Cal who almost won last night is terrible.
This team hasn’t rebounded well. Check the numbers. Stats guy.

Offense- explain it to me. No screens. Little to no movement. Sometime it looks good because of great players making shots.
PG- last year quit- double the players quit or leave then gradute

Imagine if a player quit on Lavin- he wouldn’t be likely to be given a pass

You continuously disparage w/o any credible evidence a player who passes both the eye test and stat test. Simon is a very efficient player who despite occasionally being careless with the ball plays within his limitations. He is 6-5 and what 205. He is not a power forward. He is a very skilled wing player.
Yet you are defending a kid who has publicly been scolded for his D during a game by a coach that most on here are convinced barely watches the game. Fran even pointed out his lapse last night and the cute girl and chubby announcer who barely paid attention to our game pointed it out the 2nd or 3rd game.

Lol Stop!

I've seen videos of hunters bringing down bears with a spear that didn't throw it as hard as some of Justin's layups! He's always 100 mph. He has a horrible hande, a horrible shot, and he completely lacks the skill to be able to play on the perimeter for a winning team. Heron and Figueroa have exponentially more skill.

Tonight Fran said multiple times he wouldn't even guard Simon! The kid can't replicate any movement the same way twice. He doesn't have the skill to setup or counter defenders.

As for Dixon, the kid is max effort all the time! You couldn't be more wrong oh him. He has had several mental lapses but his effort is crazy. The kid neber stops competing.