We should just fast forward to the end of the season, where they'll finish 15-14, win a game in St. Louis, then lose the next one... season over. I just can't get my hopes up for this particular team right now, as there's not enough talent to make any serious run at either the MVC crown or any magical run in St. Louis in March.
Harsh but accurate. Mullins better be hitting the transfer portal....hard.
I believe the talent is there to win the Valley, but until we play 2 strong halves we will continue to come up short. We got 15-20 pints from the bigs, but the 15 turnovers hurt us, especially in the first half and couple bad ones down the stretch. Finally, we have to hit 75-80% of our free throws to have a chance to win these close ones. Go Dawgs!
Until we get more scoring punch and better rebounding, this program will continue to struggle. I think BM really need to take a hard look at his recruiting model.
Coupet took 1 shot. Not acceptable. We need him to contribute on offense.
Thought Brown played well tonight. Hit a couple of big 3s.
We'll beat Indiana St.
Might beat Indiana State. Not a given, and if they have their heads down after two hard losses, it won’t be pretty.
Indiana State is a good team. They took UNI to OT on the road, battled Loyola hard twice. It's not going to be an easy game. And if you drop that, you drop to 0-3 at home. You can pretty much lock up Thursday at that point.
Never said it would be easy - that new coach is improving them.
Ok finally time for a barkeep rant.
there is zero excuse to not get a shot. We were down one and should have gotten a shot in at about 10 seconds at the latest. No reason to play score or lose. If you miss you can foul and still be down at the most 3 points. That is on Bryan 100%. He made great halftime adjustments but I am floored by the end of the game.
I don’t know if Lance is hurting worse than we think. He among others were just standing around the three point line watching on offense. No movement at all. They were missing one of their best players and it was there for the taking. This one hurts
No excuse for not getting off a shot - poor play drawn up IMO.
No question Jones aggravated his injury in the 1st half. Reis said he was wincing when he walked past them on the way to the bench.
I believe the talent is there to win the Valley, but until we play 2 strong halves we will continue to come up short. We got 15-20 pints from the bigs, but the 15 turnovers hurt us, especially in the first half and couple bad ones down the stretch. Finally, we have to hit 75-80% of our free throws to have a chance to win these close ones. Go Dawgs!
I like your optimism - but you may be the only one on here who thinks we have enough talent to win the MVC.
Every loss this season feels like the same thing. SIU will spot a team a lead in the first half, made a comeback in the 2nd half, and not have enough to win in the end. Like I said in the last game thread, I'm thrilled with the effort this team gives every game. They fight with every team. There's just not enough here right now and I'm not sure when that's going to happen.
Getting Hornecker is a huge win but I felt like last year's poor season impacted their recruiting. They lost local product NJ Benson to Missouri State and a few other targets to fellow Valley teams.
And I know this game got moved from another night and SIU sold over 4,000 tickets but the Banterra Center was as empty as I've seen it for a Valley game the last 3 seasons. This program was building a lot of momentum 2 years ago and it feels like that's drifting away.
I just don't get the logic of going for a last second shot down 1 with 10 seconds left. Worst case scenario is you miss and you foul and Drake either makes 0, 1, or 2 FT's and at the very least you have a shot to tie. Best case scenario outside of making it, you can get a rebound and an extra shot. Hard to blame Marcus here
"I was backing down and I didn't realize there wasn't enough time for Dalton to get the shot off," Domask explained. "I put him in a bad position and it was just the wrong play."
I just don't get the logic of going for a last second shot down 1 with 10 seconds left. Worst case scenario is you miss and you foul and Drake either makes 0, 1, or 2 FT's and at the very least you have a shot to tie. Best case scenario outside of making it, you can get a rebound and an extra shot. Hard to blame Marcus here
"I was backing down and I didn't realize there wasn't enough time for Dalton to get the shot off," Domask explained. "I put him in a bad position and it was just the wrong play."
You can't blame him for the loss. Without his efforts, it's a blowout, but that last shot he messed up. However, it was a poor play and BM has to take the blame for that.
Let's hope we put together two good halves against the Sycs.
The Drake game, playing against 6th year seniors has me wondering... Does anyone know if Mullins and co. plan on having the likes of Jones, Domask and Brown for 2 seasons after this one or just one? Does he consider Banks and Kyler freshmen? I am curious what the mindset is. I would hope they have started to have these conversations but nobody really talks about it...
Until we get more scoring punch and better rebounding, this program will continue to struggle. I think BM really need to take a hard look at his recruiting model.
This 100%. It feels to me like the recipe for success in the early/mid-2000's was in recruiting athletes, developing them and teaching them how to be basketball players. Bryan's roster feels like the exact opposite; recruiting basketball players and trying to teach them how to be athletic.
Overall, the personnel doesn't seem to fit the desired style all that well as of yet.
--Insert something witty here--
I am not sure how you watch SIU and think they are miles off. If there is a no call last night on Drakes last possession, which there should have been no call, would you feel different? They are right there in every single game, even tough ones. I think like Domask said, they are closer than people realize. I think the Lance Jones injury has been a killer for this team, do you remember how good he was last year? unstoppable at times.
I am not sure how you watch SIU and think they are miles off. If there is a no call last night on Drakes last possession, which there should have been no call, would you feel different? They are right there in every single game, even tough ones. I think like Domask said, they are closer than people realize. I think the Lance Jones injury has been a killer for this team, do you remember how good he was last year? unstoppable at times.
I think injuries have absolutely hampered them this year. Harvey hasn’t really played much this year and honestly didn’t look 100% even when he was out there. Brown has been gone most of the year and is still getting up to speed (nice to see him knock down a couple threes last night). Jones has definitely not been himself but is fighting through it the best he can. Can you imagine if we didn’t have Coupet this year…he’s really been huge.
All that said, you have to figure out how to win that game last night. They had enough to win that game.
I am not sure how you watch SIU and think they are miles off. If there is a no call last night on Drakes last possession, which there should have been no call, would you feel different? They are right there in every single game, even tough ones. I think like Domask said, they are closer than people realize. I think the Lance Jones injury has been a killer for this team, do you remember how good he was last year? unstoppable at times.
The only 5th year Senior Drake was playing was Ayo Akinwole who played 13 minutes and Drake played their true Freshman DeVries 31 minutes and he was maybe the best player on the court. Drake was also missing Hemphill, one of their best players.
And it's not like SIU is young. SIU's starting lineup has 4 Juniors and 1 5th year Senior in Coupet.
DeVries built up a Tournament team at Drake with this group in 3 seasons.
@siudawgs It's hard to rebound when there is no willingness to work for a rebound. Vast majority of the time when we shoot there 5 Dawgs running down court and not even attempting to get a rebound. Rebounding is 50% effort. What's with Coupet losing the ball twice after a rebound. He's got to have better hands than that. He passed up several semi open shots, and didn't seem "to be there" last night. Hate to say it, but play is not much different than with the previous coach who shall remain nameless.
