** This probably won’t be a season where I will be offering post game comments all year long. After all, how many different times and ways can someone say how bad a team is?
** Nonetheless, I'll go at it again this evening, because there might be a few things that we can eke out of it.
** First, as much as many of us were grumbling (or worse) during the game, when the final whistle sounded the score ended up right about where I thought it would be when game started. Again, we aren’t a good team at all, and a close game against Monmouth is just about our speed.
** But what is more problematic was the journey we took to the four point loss, which was one of the worst first halves I’ve ever witnessed at the Pete.
** Just before the second half, at the Pete on the scoreboard they played what was announced as “first half highlights.” It was kind of laughable seeing about 30 seconds of 6 made Panther baskets.
** So props to the guys for joining the fight in the second half, but we will never be the kind of team who can come back from 17 point deficits, no matter how much life we finally bring to the floor.
** What it doesn't look like we bring to the floor, in my opinion, is an offense. Sure, we can’t shoot, and we don’t have anyone who comes close to being a natural scorer.
** But there is almost nothing that can be found from Capel’s offense to manufacture points. Everything in on offense is based off the dribble, using an inadequate high ball screen which rarely, if ever, opens the floor for penetration.
** Six assists speaks volumes.
** Speaking of inadequate ball screens, how many times did we watch a high ball screen leave the dribbler trapped in a double team? Too many.
** I almost wonder what Capel’s philosophy is with the high ball screen. With as quickly as all of our screeners roll off it (too quickly), you almost have to wonder if that’s what our guys are being taught.
** Next, Monmouth had a game plan to thwart Pitt’s offensive that worked almost too easily. Force Big John to the baseline as the only place to receive an entry, and then run a flash double team at him from there. And without any kind of workable screen and roll (see above) to get him the ball, what we watched was a whole lot of dribbling without much purpose.
** As the Panthers were mounting their second half comeback, they managed to get some points, but at least three of our second half baskets, including Burton’s three, came from offensive sets that amounted to next to nothing, followed by a player barely making a shot to bail it out. This also happened during another trip when Monmouth bailed us out with a foul with two second on the shot clock.
** I don't think it's much more complicated than all that Capel offers from his offense is nothing more than asking his players to beat their players one on one. And our players just aren't good enough to do this.
** So without any offense, we were left to our defense to win this game. And there was about 32 minutes of defense that was good enough to almost do that. But we failed on that end of floor too, surrendering 18 points in the final 8 minutes of the first half. There was the ballgame, actually.
** Still, with Capel’s move to the zone in the second half, our guys scrapped and clawed the best they can to cut the lead to 5 with Hugley’s free throws with 1:23 to go. At that moment, @Franb (who joined me and @4Mark_Marty ) noticed that we only had 2 team fouls. We all agreed, looking at the timing of everything, it would have been wise to sub in someone like Santos to draw three quick fouls in next few seconds before trying to defend.
** Too bad our staff wasn’t doing the math on the timeclock that Fran was doing because even after a stop and score, there simply was not enough time to extend the game.
** And while I’m looking at coaching tactics for reasons for this loss, maybe the simplest problem is that Monmouth clearly just has better players than we do. That’s the most discouraging comment that I can come up with I suppose.
** I’ll leave it that for the night. Picking Capel apart any further doesn’t do much to explain the current situation any better than a 3-7 record already does.
** Even though I was more or less expecting a loss tonight, I was holding out hope for the Panthers to win these last three OOC games. Now I’m expecting a 4-7 OOC season, which is well … you know. Like I said, I’m running out of words for this.
** Nonetheless, I'll go at it again this evening, because there might be a few things that we can eke out of it.
** First, as much as many of us were grumbling (or worse) during the game, when the final whistle sounded the score ended up right about where I thought it would be when game started. Again, we aren’t a good team at all, and a close game against Monmouth is just about our speed.
** But what is more problematic was the journey we took to the four point loss, which was one of the worst first halves I’ve ever witnessed at the Pete.
** Just before the second half, at the Pete on the scoreboard they played what was announced as “first half highlights.” It was kind of laughable seeing about 30 seconds of 6 made Panther baskets.
** So props to the guys for joining the fight in the second half, but we will never be the kind of team who can come back from 17 point deficits, no matter how much life we finally bring to the floor.
** What it doesn't look like we bring to the floor, in my opinion, is an offense. Sure, we can’t shoot, and we don’t have anyone who comes close to being a natural scorer.
** But there is almost nothing that can be found from Capel’s offense to manufacture points. Everything in on offense is based off the dribble, using an inadequate high ball screen which rarely, if ever, opens the floor for penetration.
** Six assists speaks volumes.
** Speaking of inadequate ball screens, how many times did we watch a high ball screen leave the dribbler trapped in a double team? Too many.
** I almost wonder what Capel’s philosophy is with the high ball screen. With as quickly as all of our screeners roll off it (too quickly), you almost have to wonder if that’s what our guys are being taught.
** Next, Monmouth had a game plan to thwart Pitt’s offensive that worked almost too easily. Force Big John to the baseline as the only place to receive an entry, and then run a flash double team at him from there. And without any kind of workable screen and roll (see above) to get him the ball, what we watched was a whole lot of dribbling without much purpose.
** As the Panthers were mounting their second half comeback, they managed to get some points, but at least three of our second half baskets, including Burton’s three, came from offensive sets that amounted to next to nothing, followed by a player barely making a shot to bail it out. This also happened during another trip when Monmouth bailed us out with a foul with two second on the shot clock.
** I don't think it's much more complicated than all that Capel offers from his offense is nothing more than asking his players to beat their players one on one. And our players just aren't good enough to do this.
** So without any offense, we were left to our defense to win this game. And there was about 32 minutes of defense that was good enough to almost do that. But we failed on that end of floor too, surrendering 18 points in the final 8 minutes of the first half. There was the ballgame, actually.
** Still, with Capel’s move to the zone in the second half, our guys scrapped and clawed the best they can to cut the lead to 5 with Hugley’s free throws with 1:23 to go. At that moment, @Franb (who joined me and @4Mark_Marty ) noticed that we only had 2 team fouls. We all agreed, looking at the timing of everything, it would have been wise to sub in someone like Santos to draw three quick fouls in next few seconds before trying to defend.
** Too bad our staff wasn’t doing the math on the timeclock that Fran was doing because even after a stop and score, there simply was not enough time to extend the game.
** And while I’m looking at coaching tactics for reasons for this loss, maybe the simplest problem is that Monmouth clearly just has better players than we do. That’s the most discouraging comment that I can come up with I suppose.
** I’ll leave it that for the night. Picking Capel apart any further doesn’t do much to explain the current situation any better than a 3-7 record already does.
** Even though I was more or less expecting a loss tonight, I was holding out hope for the Panthers to win these last three OOC games. Now I’m expecting a 4-7 OOC season, which is well … you know. Like I said, I’m running out of words for this.
