Game 9: Grand Canyon

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Marillac

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #260 on: December 06, 2017, 01:47:36 AM »
The GCU fans had a children of the corn vibe.

Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #261 on: December 06, 2017, 01:49:08 AM »
1-1 is what we had to get on this trip...Friday is gravy, no chance without LoVett

We need to go 2-0. I don't think anyone wanted to go 1-1. It's not a disaster like 0-2 would have been but if you want to make the tournament you have to win games like on Friday.

Of course, I wanna go 2-0 and feel we need to go 2-0 for a good boost to our NCAA resume'.  Before the start of the season, I thought we could and would go 2-0 on this west coast stretch. 

But, I'm not confident about winning on Friday.  I certainly hope our group proves me wrong.

QuanMan

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #262 on: December 06, 2017, 01:50:42 AM »
Business like W. Just like UCF it wasn't pretty, but a win nonetheless. Hoping GCU wins their conference easy.

I'm saying it right now, Kassoum should be starting again. Marv needs to bring a lunch pale role off the bench. We need Kassoum's consistent defense and limited offensive turnovers on a regular basis.

Hopefully Marcus is on a flight out to LA to see his family and get the biggest program W in the Mullin era tomorrow.
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thetruth8734

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #263 on: December 06, 2017, 01:51:51 AM »
1-1 is what we had to get on this trip...Friday is gravy, no chance without LoVett

We need to go 2-0. I don't think anyone wanted to go 1-1. It's not a disaster like 0-2 would have been but if you want to make the tournament you have to win games like on Friday.

Of course, I wanna go 2-0 and feel we need to go 2-0 for a good boost to our NCAA resume'.  Before the start of the season, I thought we could and would go 2-0 on this west coast stretch. 

But, I'm not confident about winning on Friday.  I certainly hope our group proves me wrong.

If Lovett plays they have a decent shot. They need contributions out of Owens, Ahmed and Clark who all looked horrible tonight. Owens couldn't even catch a pass tonight, Clark looked underwhelming, and it was the same old Ahmed with 0 basketball IQ out there tonight.

QuanMan

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #264 on: December 06, 2017, 01:52:11 AM »
The GCU fans had a children of the corn vibe.

Agreed, a very weird vibe.
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cjfish

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #265 on: December 06, 2017, 01:54:36 AM »
Good win.
Tough team in essentially a road game without our second best player.

You can talk about playing bad offensively but that is the 5th best scoring defense in the NCAA.
And a team thats probably going to win more games than us this year.




Agreed on all points.....they better win more than us, they are in the WAC.  Lovett has time to recover for St Joes and Iona, easy wins if he is healthy.  Next game will show just how much progress has really been made.  D looked good again, great quickness which will continue to give opponents problems.  Winning this game easily without Lovett a very positive sign.  Lovett is so important offensively that any win without him is a great win.....offense and ballhandling against the press are a problem without him.

Marillac

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #266 on: December 06, 2017, 01:57:22 AM »
Ponds had more offensive rebounds than the rest of the team combined. We need to get Simon and Clark on the glass. Ahmed more as well.

Yakwe played well. He hustled on the offensive glass, played good D, and he drew yet another charge. He should have played more.

I liked that Simon got the ball a few times at the FT line and faced up for 1-2 dribble takes. That's his spot. Much more of that is needed. Post him up too. But keep the ball away from at the end. 5 turnovers and it could have been 8-9 if GCU accepted some of his gifts.

Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #267 on: December 06, 2017, 02:53:23 AM »
Not an easy game as others have echoed but an important point is this game is not on campus and thus that crazy home court will be mostly negated so now we are just facing an average team on a neutral court. Missing Marcus is tough but even without him this should be a win. If NCAA is the goal this is a game we have to win. It won’t be easy but we should win.

Forget should win, they better f'ing win if they want in the NCAA tourny. I don't want to hear omg omg it's a tough game.
We're talking GCU, not a power 6 team, or Wich St, or Zaga.
Every team will give it their best, but we gotta win the winnable games.

Put up or shut up time, contenders or pretenders?
Bottom line is you gotta get it done, no excuses.

CHECK!!!!!!!
It wasn't pretty but got the w.

Now we're gonna see where we're at with the big boys, #16 Az St..

22 wins for the ncaa tourny?  10-8 maybe 11-7? that's 18-19 win  Need 3 more out of AZ St, Iona, St. Joe's and Duke.
Or split the 4 (20-21 wins) maybe a win or 2 in the BE Tourny?

I'm just really hoping we win Friday.

MCNPA

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #268 on: December 06, 2017, 05:58:38 AM »
Sounds like we played sloppy and again didn’t totally put together a  rounded performance.   We need Lovett back and to play much, much better to win Friday.  Our offense has not come together yet.   Sounds like our rebounding wasn’t great today either.   That isn’t gonna cut it because they’ll blow us out Friday.  Time to pick it up.  Needed this win today though.

TONYD3

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #269 on: December 06, 2017, 07:54:55 AM »
We won which is good. Especially without Lovett.
Terrible shot selection and getting killed on the boards vs an inferior team. Can’t win like that . The real season is starting soon. We are going to have to play a lot better.

Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #270 on: December 06, 2017, 08:04:43 AM »
I thought the team played really well. Different guys stepped up at different times and collectively never got rattled. I'm not so concerned with rebounding when the other team shot 32 threes and most of their twos were long. They're bound to get some junk boards.

I thought Trimble played a really good 27 min despite not making a shot from the floor. Had some good defensive moments and handled the rock well in the back court. Amar played 3 min and passed up two shots while someone open. That maturity is needed.

Clark got into foul trouble, turned the ball over, yet he still had 10 points in 18 min. He's an important part of this team.

Simon and Ahmed did work on the glass and great to see them hustling.

We lose this game last two years.
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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #271 on: December 06, 2017, 08:14:45 AM »
I like the idea of running the offense completely through ponds. He is overall careful with the ball and a capable passer out of the double team. Will allow for more open catch and shoot opportunities for Lovett/Ahmed. I also didn't mind seeing him with his back to the basket a few times. It gives him a lot of options.

Simon is this teams 2nd best player, IMO. He showed a great ability to score when needed last night. He can hit the open 3, can pass, rebound, and plays defense.

I like what Trimble brings as a freshman. He should be a good 4 year role player. He's been exactly what he was advertised as.

One of Yakwe/Owens/or Clark needs to take a big leap forward this season in terms of rebounding or else I don't see us finishing much better than .500 in BE play. Our guards should not be getting double digit rebounds while our bruising power forward gets 3.

But, if you told me prior to the season we'd be 8-1 going into the Arizona St. game, I would take that in a heartbeat. A win against them would be absolutely huge.
« Last Edit: December 06, 2017, 08:18:49 AM by redstorm212 »


Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #273 on: December 06, 2017, 08:48:16 AM »
We won which is good. Especially without Lovett.
Terrible shot selection and getting killed on the boards vs an inferior team. Can’t win like that . The real season is starting soon. We are going to have to play a lot better.

I'm not sure how inferior.  They were picked to win the WAC.  The announcer said there aren't many teams in the west that could beat St John's.  I thought the refs were screwing us at the end and we overcame that.  Good win!

Johnny23

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #274 on: December 06, 2017, 09:02:55 AM »
Valium for Ahmed

He’s what Fran meant when he said we play too fast. I agree he needs to calm down but as a senior he should have more control over his game. He’s still the bull in the china closet. Takes good and bad shots when he feels like it and drives when he feels like it, but only a handful of times does he do those things when it’s a good idea to.

It's who he is. He's a kamikaze and you can only hope that he has more good than bad moments. However he will always be somewhat out of control.

Johnny23

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #275 on: December 06, 2017, 09:11:09 AM »
I wish Clark was a little more aggressive in looking for his shot on O. He's playing good so far but he strikes me as a guy with a lot more potential.

MCNPA

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #276 on: December 06, 2017, 09:19:45 AM »
We won which is good. Especially without Lovett.
Terrible shot selection and getting killed on the boards vs an inferior team. Can’t win like that . The real season is starting soon. We are going to have to play a lot better.

I'm not sure how inferior.  They were picked to win the WAC.  The announcer said there aren't many teams in the west that could beat St John's.  I thought the refs were screwing us at the end and we overcame that.  Good win!

It’s a good point.  We haven’t been playing our best ball and putting together complete games, but we have been winning with relative ease, not playing our best ball.   That’s still a good sign.  Grand Canyon would have killed us last few years.  We used to be totally paranoid about losing to teams like St. Francis and LIU by big numbers at home.  Friday is an all together different test, but we’ve done a very good job in general, dispatching about most others..  Winning these types of games goes a long way when at the end of the year people are looking at your record.  Now let’s also hope GC wins the WAC..
« Last Edit: December 06, 2017, 09:20:27 AM by MCNPA »

Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #277 on: December 06, 2017, 10:03:36 AM »
Work is miserable right now but i can tell you what a win is making it somewhat better.......even though we were not able to pull away there was no doubt in my mind that they were going to lose this game. When they needed the bucket ponds or simon were able to iso there defenders to get a bucket or free throws. If we had Lovett it would have been a 15-20 point win as not one defender on Grand Canyon would have been able to guard him off the dribble. We are still a work in progress on offense with some players and Owens, Clark and Bashir (even Simon at end and Ponds turnovers) had those WTF moments last night its good to get a win.

8-1 with a huge opportunity to make a statement nationally with beating a very good Arizona State team in LA. This group might make mistakes were we pull our hair out but its a special group and hopefully we can get that big out of conference to come back to NY with.

Poison

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #278 on: December 06, 2017, 10:10:36 AM »
Sounds like we played sloppy and again didn’t totally put together a  rounded performance.   We need Lovett back and to play much, much better to win Friday.  Our offense has not come together yet.   Sounds like our rebounding wasn’t great today either.   That isn’t gonna cut it because they’ll blow us out Friday.  Time to pick it up.  Needed this win today though.

The Johnnies had a Mike Jarvis 2001-2002 squad feel last night. Played tough defense with only a few short lapses. Everyone chipped in defensively. And we couldn’t throw it in the ocean offensively from anywhere except for our one star guard, who’s awesome.

Team needs Tariq Owens to play better. You can make the case that everyone else played well. He was a mess. Get it together kid! You’re better than that.
« Last Edit: December 06, 2017, 10:13:42 AM by Poison »

Poison

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Re: Game 9: Grand Canyon
« Reply #279 on: December 06, 2017, 10:21:14 AM »
Biggest key I see so far is a team that couldn’t defend has now proven to be able to at a high level. They give up less points than any BE team this year. That shows me Mullin is teaching them well. My concern going into the season was player development and tonight was a great example of that. I think we can be a tourney team. These guys are working.