Mullins needs to take a good look in the mirror on this one, St Louis game too. I hope he has in him to admit he’s wrong and make changes.
Even my wife said “We played good when number 4 was in there”.
Mullins needs to take a good look in the mirror on this one, St Louis game too. I hope he has in him to admit he’s wrong and make changes.
Even my wife said “We played good when number 4 was in there”.
Is this Berruh?
Here’s the thing: there is more than enough talent to win this conference on this roster.
It just needs to be utilized much better.
hard disagree on this. Drake is clearly better.
Bradley and obviously Indiana State are too. Murray/Missouri State's athleticism will give SIU fits, guessing they split both of those.
My son and I went to this game - my first since Carlton Fay put up 38 on W. Mich.
We both conclude that we probably had more talent, much of which warmed the bench, and that Mullins was completely outcoached from the start.
While BM started D'Amico at center (allowing them to run up a 12 pt lead) and switched lineups 15 times, after many of the timeouts, Schertz ran a very nice play and scored off it.
When Wonders and Rupert came in the game 2nd half, we caught up. Rupert has some chops. Should be playing 25 minutes a game at center and CH the other 15. Got some rebounds, blocked a layup shot (the scorer is wrong) and scored in his measly 8 minutes! CR was actually tremendously effective, preventing the offensive rebounds that were numerous when Brown and D'Amico were playing center (or some other tiny SIU lineup). Cade Hornecker, 7' tall, also did some great cheerleading from the bench.
Mullins of course took Rupert out (8 minutes total), killing momentum (fans were screaming, excited). INSU coach Schertz immediately started attacking inside, and stupid shit happened like 6'2" Brown guarding 6'10" Avila, who easily got a couple of critical bunnies inside. Game over. BM did put our starting small center D'Amico back in. No effect.
The 5 guard lineup should ensure we're a Thursday night team.
The dogs at halftime were great though.
Listening to Mullins in post-game it’s completely wild to me that he seemed more concerned about taking away the Sycs 3 point shooting than guarding the paint, and particularly named Avila; a 6’10” freshman center as a focal point for this defensive strat and excuse for the 5 guard lineup that saw such heavy minutes.
This is a serious coaching problem. Why on earth would any basketball coach prepare a team to start a game more concerned about 3’s than layups?
And we’re subsequently burned for nearly 50 points in the paint. Are we seeing an issue here?
Wow.
--Insert something witty here--
Sadly, I've got one foot off the Mullins train. He's an inexperienced coach who continues to make the same mistakes over and over and doesn't seem to have a clue who should be on the floor, thus the constantly changing lineups that often make no sense. That bulldog point guard mentality has got to be replaced with flexibility.
At the end of the game, when they were torching us in the paint - getting offensive rebounds and making bunnies, he had the munchkin lineup in there.
A good number of fans in our area booed at the end of the game. What does that tell you?
This was exactly my take after listening to Mullins post game in the car. They scored almost all their points on mismatches in the lane and Mullins is more concerned about Rupert (supposedly) not being able to guard Avila outside the 3 point line. That displays an incredible lack of awareness as to what is going on in front of his eyes and an inability to adjust.Listening to Mullins in post-game it’s completely wild to me that he seemed more concerned about taking away the Sycs 3 point shooting than guarding the paint, and particularly named Avila; a 6’10” freshman center as a focal point for this defensive strat and excuse for the 5 guard lineup that saw such heavy minutes.
This is a serious coaching problem. Why on earth would any basketball coach prepare a team to start a game more concerned about 3’s than layups?
And we’re subsequently burned for nearly 50 points in the paint. Are we seeing an issue here?
Wow.
Rupert should have played more in the 1st half and Hornecker should have played some to spell Rupert. Indiana State scored often and at will in the paint on mismatches and because we had no defensive low post presence. The only time they didn't score on us at will in the paint was when Rupert was in and we made our run. As soon as Mullins took Rupert out they again started scoring down low due to mismatches and no low post presence. Also, Mullins took out Newton who was a big spark on defense and rebounding during the run. Playing Domask and D'Amico at the 5 when we are getting killed inside just blows my mind.
Mullins lost this game for us.
Also, it's obvious Lance is not 100%. He hurt his hip at the end of the Tennessee State game and hasn't been the same since. It was obvious to me he was favoring it at times tonight. Mullins has sat him much more than normal lately, which kind of confirms my suspicions. Hope he can play through it and hope it gets better.
Seems the staff for whatever reason has a game plan and a philosophy and are reluctant to adjust in game it is a great way to do things if you are ahead in the game to make the other team adjust but if you keep staying behind and getting beat on the same set of plays that causes mismatches you have to adjust hoping it works isn't going to be successful change must be a part of the game
He needed to hire an EXPERIENCED offensive minded assistant. Now we are stuck with what we have because he’s not going to fire or demote his brother. Being stubborn is not a good trait and don’t hire family unless you are also willing to fire them.
He needed to hire an EXPERIENCED offensive minded assistant.
Exactly what I said to my son. Except for that 8-10 minutes in the 2nd half with Rupert, Wonders, Xman, etc. doing their thing and taking the lead, our offense struggled all night. Just mostly pass it around the outside until time runs out then fire up a bad shot. I don't know if there's an assistant responsible for offense.
I also think Scherz had his team well prepared to stifle Domask and Jones. Every time Lance drove they would block off those lanes, block his shot, etc. Domask was usually double teamed if he got anywhere near the basket - still had 16 points.
I don't know Mullins, know nothing about the relationship he has with his assistants. I do believe that good coaches listen to their assistants and don't create an atmosphere in which assistants can't be honest.
When we were good - Falker, Tatum, Shaw, Young, etc - seems like we always had periods when we would really get into an intense offensive/defensive flow and either blow by teams or take the lead.
Saw that briefly last night in the 2nd half and the whole arena was rockin', until Mullins killed it.
He needs to get off this idea that a really small lineup can play effective D against a much bigger, skilled opponent. That just doesn't work with our team, which is not a great defensive team like our Sweet 16 teams were.
Was that a smattering of boos I heard?
Yes I was at the game and the place was rocking when Rupert, XJ, Wonders, etc. got it going and took the lead. After some bad coaching decisions, at the end of the game some people were booing!
(and darn sure they weren't booing our players' effort)
"I dont know why they don't shift away from the mediocre motion they play. With players like Hornecker and Rupert they could run a very good high post offense with set plays."
Absolutely true! We have some size with some skill and we're just ignoring it for the most part with running the ball around the outside.
Hornecker was a 72% FT shooter in HS. I say get him the ball inside and let them foul him.
I'm even more confused at the staff's big man rotation strategy when I think back to Kyler (who I really enjoyed watching play, and who was a huge asset to the team): how did Kyler get so much runtime as a freshman but Rupert and specifically Cade do not?
I know Kyler was really polished offensively, but it just further muddies the waters as to how one garners playing time down low for Mullins.
Listening to the post game with Reis, BM seems like he doesn't know what to do. He and Reis argued a bit about when Rupert was in the game and when he wasn't. He does seems to have a fixation on stopping the 3 pointer. Seems like he was a bit lost after this one.
