Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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 12-30-16 10:15 PM - Post#217049
Terrible loss of a winnable game. Great game by Smith, decent game by Luke despite two early fouls, and a bizarre game by Hickman, who made a few highlight plays but killed us at the foul line with the game on the line. While there were some decent defensive series, literally nobody else other than those three presented any offensive threat. And what made it worse was that our non-scorers, because they are afraid to shoot, hold the ball and then make poor passes leading to turnovers. This is now officially Smith's team-- he is the best player, followed by Luke and then Hickman. We had one good run but not enough offense to keep it up. And we also had some bonehead fouls.
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RHunter3
Junior
Posts: 281
Reg: 12-02-14
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Re: Albany by 3
12-30-16 10:33 PM - Post#217052
In response to Chet Forte
We have got to get guys other than those 3 to shoot. Not sure why othe guys aren't taking shots.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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12-30-16 11:04 PM - Post#217059
In response to RHunter3
I think the others are afraid to shoot because they are afraid of a quick hook if they miss a few shots. With a rotation 10 or so deep there aren't enough minutes to go around and guys are very tight about shooting. And our lousy free throw percentage made the difference tonight.
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Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts: 2180
Reg: 02-14-06
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12-30-16 11:13 PM - Post#217060
In response to Chet Forte
I agree with you that this was a winnable game primarily because our best three players -- Smith, Petrasek and Hickman--were much better than Albany's best three players. However, for whatever reason, our supporting cast contributed much less than the Great Danes' supporting cast. Frankly, I remain confused by what is happening this year which seems reminiscent of the Joe Jones era at Columbia when the Lions were plagued by a pattern of untimely, multiple substitutions of even players with a hot hand. Maybe our coaching staff feels that it still needs to tinker with the starting line-up and offensive schemes, but Conference Play is imminent and therefore it is time to put the five best players on the floor and keep them there for as long as possible.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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12-30-16 11:53 PM - Post#217064
In response to Columbia 37P6
But Albany's two best guys seemed better able to create easy shots. Albany had a 7 man rotation (an 8th player had 4 minutes) and its best 4 guys each had over 30 minutes. Yet they had plenty of gas in the tank at crunch time. We had four guys in our rotation with at least 15 minutes who failed to score. One of our starters failed to score. So we have three scorers, two of whom seem to get into early foul trouble in every game. We could live with an Isaac Cohen not scoring because he did so many other things. But we don't have a Cohen on this team. If we want to compete in the IL we need a lot of improvement.
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Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts: 2180
Reg: 02-14-06
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12-31-16 10:09 AM - Post#217080
In response to Chet Forte
You are right on with your commentary about last night's game and the situation last year with Isaac Cohen. We should have easily won last night's game, but inter alia the coaching staff chose to limit Luke Petrasek's playing time to only 22 minutes because he incurred two early personal fouls. It's ridiculous that Petrasek only played 22 minutes. There is a continuing pattern here where as soon as one of our three best players gets called for two personal fouls he goes to the bench for the rest of the first half leaving the rest of the team to struggle. Albany kept their "glue guy" on the floor for practically the whole game despite his personal fouls. So what that he ultimately fouled out --res ipsa loquitur-- Albany won the game. More than that, the coaching staff needs to address the issue you highlighted about the total lack of scoring by anyone but the top three players. Hunter and Adlesh each scored over 20 points per game in high school and yet they are not involved at all in the offense. Tape has a better touch than any center we have had at Columbia in years and yet he sees very little playing time supposedly because he is inexperienced, but he already does things inside that few players can do in the Ivy League. McComber is a 6'8" 245 natural power forward who hasn't developed at all because the coaching staff has him playing a small forward position instead of instructing him to play near the basket. He should be a double digit guy in the Ivy League this year..
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internetter
Postdoc
Posts: 3400
Loc: Los Angeles
Reg: 11-21-04
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12-31-16 10:36 AM - Post#217085
In response to Columbia 37P6
Coming in, Albany's rebounding ability was known. If nothing else, that was the difference: +12. It seemed pronounced on their O board.
Overall, it may have been expecting too much this early, given all of the changes.
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hoopsfan
Masters Student
Posts: 647
Reg: 12-26-04
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12-31-16 10:42 AM - Post#217087
In response to Columbia 37P6
I might agree that substitution patterns and lack of multiple scorers were an issue except for the fact we were up by 9 half way through the second half. Old fashioned issues like rebound margin and missed free throws seem to me to be the main culprits. Plus, losing Castlin and Meisner for any game this year was going to present a challenge.
Others have covered our problems. A few of the positives to me were: we played much harder and better on defense than before the break. I worry that better shooting Ivy teams will hurt the zone especially from the corners but we employed it well last night and had 6 blocks and 9 steals; also when we rebound a miss or get a steal we can really run. Finally, so far Smith is a marvel. Very economical and clutch at the same time.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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12-31-16 12:32 PM - Post#217097
In response to hoopsfan
As much as I like his game, Hickman killed us with his 4 missed free throws, including a pair at crunch time which were killers. As far as the zone, I think we need to stay with that defense to protect Smith from drives by bigger PGs.
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SRP
Postdoc
Posts: 4917
Reg: 02-04-06
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12-31-16 02:00 PM - Post#217102
In response to Chet Forte
A Hickman dunk was the #3 Top Play on SportsCenter last night.
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RHunter3
Junior
Posts: 281
Reg: 12-02-14
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12-31-16 07:25 PM - Post#217131
In response to Chet Forte
Luckily the issues are easily correctable. Others guys just need the green light without worrying about anything.
Couple of games to make adjustments before Ivy starts.
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Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts: 2180
Reg: 02-14-06
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01-01-17 03:22 PM - Post#217154
In response to RHunter3
Yes, it is easily correctible, but the players should not expect the light to be changed suddenly from red to green. In my experience that rarely happens. They need to change things by positioning themselves closer to the basket as we saw Jeff Coby do at the beginning of the Albany game. Also, no one will complain if the forwards become more active on the court by cutting back and forth which often results in one of them becoming free for an easy shot or getting an offensive rebound. Things will definitely change for the better if our guys become more active on the court.
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RHunter3
Junior
Posts: 281
Reg: 12-02-14
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01-02-17 09:45 AM - Post#217174
In response to Columbia 37P6
I'm not meaning just firing up shots just to be shooting them., but they definitely need to start shooting more.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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01-02-17 10:28 AM - Post#217175
In response to RHunter3
In our half court offense we seem to have to work harder to get off our shots than our opponents. We seem to play better at a faster pace.
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RHunter3
Junior
Posts: 281
Reg: 12-02-14
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01-02-17 11:38 AM - Post#217177
In response to Chet Forte
We need to make sure that they are constantly moving and not standing around. They are definitely better when they can play at a faster pace. I think this also allows us to be in a better rhythm offensively.
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