Ball State- Post Game Discussion

Lets hear it...

Polee 10 mins?

Polee is a freshman. We can't expect him to put up great numbers every game.

What a roller coaster ride this team is going to be all year. Seven minutes without a point to start game and a 12 point lead at halftime.
A drought of epic proportions in the second half to fall behind 7 points and a furious rally late to force OT. Steve Lavin's hair will be gray soon with this bunch. DJ needs to impose his will on every game early. He disappears for stretches and seems like he's deferring to others much too often. Brownlee is very up and down but you can see the potential to carry a team at times. Hardy needs to be more consistent on his threes and use his driving ability to draw fouls. The Maliks are what they are...ride the hot hand when it shows itself. Burrell needs to be an option on offense. I don't expect great things from this team but I think from a senior laden team there should be more consistency. On to Drake.

NIT bound

Looks like it, but it's still early.

Polee only played 10 minutes because of foul trouble. Stupid fouls too. One foul was on a guy taking an off balance jump shot. I believe the other 3 were when he was trying to trap 30 feet from the basket. Polee played his worst game but others stepped up.

Half the game we played great. Great defense, 3 point shots were contested. We rebounded much better. Paris played lock down defense he also hit some shots. Coker and Evans played well. Hardy hit a few shots. Stith and Boothe handled PG duties well and shut down their PG. DJ played great down the stretch but he has to look to score more.
Even though we only played well for half the game I am happy with the outcome. We seem to be getting better. Ball St. got no easy looks and we rebounded better. We just can' have 7 minute scoring droughts.   

Hopefully NIT bound...

Lack of energy in the half court offense was alarming.  Hard cuts...hard screens anyone?  How do they expect to get open?

Stith needs more minutes at PG than Boothe at this point.  We play better with Stith in the game so far. 

The lineup changes were a bit much but Lavin had the right combination (for this game) in at the end of regulation and most of overtime.

We need a big to step up.... Burrell hopefully....Polee will not hold up on the boards or on defense in the Big East at PF without another big in the game.  Polee has impressed me so far though.

AP Story

Justin Brownlee scored 20 points and St. John's rallied from a six-point deficit late in the second half before beating Ball State 78-73 in overtime Wednesday night in the opening round of the Great Alaska Shootout.

D.J. Kennedy added 15 points and Dwight Hardy had 14 for the Red Storm (2-1), who won their second consecutive game after dropping the season opener under new coach Steve Lavin. St. John's squandered a 13-point lead in the second half and trailed 62-56 with 2:15 to go.

Brownlee shot 8 of 11 from the field and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. He scored the final two baskets in regulation, including a layup in the lane with 32.3 seconds left that tied it at 63. Ball State's Randy Davis airballed a fadeaway jumper just before the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.

Brownlee scored off the OT tip and Paris Horne, who had five of his 11 points in overtime, nailed a jumper. After a 3-pointer by Kennedy, Horne hit an acrobatic layup in transition to give St. John's a 72-65 cushion with 57.9 seconds remaining.

Jesse Berry led the Cardinals (2-2) with 18 points. Davis had 14 points and nine assists.

Kennedy was 3 for 3 from 3-point range. St. John's advanced to a semifinal matchup Friday with Drake, a 78-59 winner over Southern Utah.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2010/11/25/2010-11-25_justin_brownlee_nets_20_points_as_st_johns_rallies_past_ball_state_in_ot_in_grea.html#ixzz16JQ4ikae

Polee only played 10 minutes because of foul trouble. Stupid fouls too. One foul was on a guy taking an off balance jump shot. I believe the other 3 were when he was trying to trap 30 feet from the basket. Polee played his worst game but others stepped up.

Half the game we played great. Great defense, 3 point shots were contested. We rebounded much better. Paris played lock down defense he also hit some shots. Coker and Evans played well. Hardy hit a few shots. Stith and Boothe handled PG duties well and shut down their PG. DJ played great down the stretch but he has to look to score more.
Even though we only played well for half the game I am happy with the outcome. We seem to be getting better. Ball St. got no easy looks and we rebounded better. We just can' have 7 minute scoring droughts.   

I did not see ther game, just the boxscore. But who exactly did Paris lock down?

ESPN Rapid reaction

BACK AND FORTH: This was a game of wild runs. It took St. John's almost seven minutes to score its first point of the game -- courtesy of a free throw by Sean Evans with 13:07 left to play in the first half. Yet once St. John's got on the board, it dominated the rest of the half, leading 34-22 at the break. But then Ball State stormed back to take a six-point lead late in the second half, 59-53, before St. John's rallied to tie the game and send it into overtime. And then the Red Storm ulimately prevailed in the extra session.

Read More:
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-yorkcolleges/post/_/id/903/rapid-reaction-st-johns-78-ball-state-73-ot

ESPN Rapid reaction

BACK AND FORTH: This was a game of wild runs. It took St. John's almost seven minutes to score its first point of the game -- courtesy of a free throw by Sean Evans with 13:07 left to play in the first half. Yet once St. John's got on the board, it dominated the rest of the half, leading 34-22 at the break. But then Ball State stormed back to take a six-point lead late in the second half, 59-53, before St. John's rallied to tie the game and send it into overtime. And then the Red Storm ulimately prevailed in the extra session.

Read More:
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-yorkcolleges/post/_/id/903/rapid-reaction-st-johns-78-ball-state-73-ot

We just cant have those types of scoring droughts like we did at the beginning of the game and the middle part of the second half. If we would have just scored a few baskets this would have been a different game. Its sometimes tough for us to score because we dont get very many easy baskets. Its either people arent getting open well enough or the system just isnt working for the team yet because there is too much 1 on 1 going on in our offense.

Quote from: TONYD3 on November 25, 2010, 10:42:05 AM

Polee only played 10 minutes because of foul trouble. Stupid fouls too. One foul was on a guy taking an off balance jump shot. I believe the other 3 were when he was trying to trap 30 feet from the basket. Polee played his worst game but others stepped up.

Half the game we played great. Great defense, 3 point shots were contested. We rebounded much better. Paris played lock down defense he also hit some shots. Coker and Evans played well. Hardy hit a few shots. Stith and Boothe handled PG duties well and shut down their PG. DJ played great down the stretch but he has to look to score more.
Even though we only played well for half the game I am happy with the outcome. We seem to be getting better. Ball St. got no easy looks and we rebounded better. We just can' have 7 minute scoring droughts.   

I did not see ther game, just the boxscore. But who exactly did Paris lock down?

Hard to tell the exact # he was guarding no HD picture wasn't good. But I think he was guarding Berry (freshman- hit some shots in 1st half) down the stretch. At the end of the game Paris was all over him.

DJ-Brownlee-Paris  were a combined 20-27 from the field. 5-9 from 3.

Everybody else was 8 for 28. 1-6 from 3.

Tells you about all you need to know.


Honestly there's ZERO excuse for somebody who plays best handling the ball(D.J. Kennedy) that is CLEARLY our best player, to go 6-9 from the field and 3-3 from 3 point range in a game that went to Overtime. He really needs to take initiative before we're down 6 points with 2 minutes left against a fairly bad team. Not to mention he didn't shoot one free throw.

I think it's too early to judge if we're NIT bound or NCAA bound or whatever. The team is getting used to a new system, and although they looked awful last night, I think that this is still a pretty good team, and we may be able to make a run to the NCAAs if we win the games we're supposed to win non-conference then pull off some upsets in conference, and finish with an about .500 record in the Big East. Hopefully last night will wake this team up and they will play to their potential for the rest of the year.

At the end of the day, we won. We live to fight. Let's see how they come out against Drake.

free throws made me angry, how are we a team full of seniors and can't hit free throws?

At the end of the day, we won. We live to fight. Let's see how they come out against Drake.

Is Drake any good? I know we will have a break down soon but are they better than Ball St?

Never saw Drake play but from reading their fan board:
 Only 10 point underdog but lost by 48 to Iowa ST.
Beat S. utah easily but S. Utah really wasn't good
Have a bunch of new players- lost last years PG and he has been missed
Haven't been shooting or rebounding well on the season

Last night was like watching a bunch of high schoolers play... not college seniors... even if they only improve their play slightly they still should be able to beat a less experienced Drake squad