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Username Post: Albany        (Topic#20725)
Cooper 
Sophomore
Posts: 143

Reg: 11-22-04
11-22-17 10:57 PM - Post#237418    

First thought after 91-73 loss to 5-0 Albany tonight is that Dartmouth won't be much worse without Boudreaux. There might be a little more space and a few more shots available.

The Big Green shot 55 percent from the field and 8 of 17 from outside the arc. Athletic freshman Chris Knight was 6 of 8 from the field and 4 of 4 from the foul line and looks like a player at 6-8. Miles Wright, Brendan Barry and Guilien Smith give Dartmouth three pretty good long range shooters and Will Emery can clog up the middle a bit.

The bigger problem might be on the defensive side with Albany shooting 66 percent from the field in the first half and 53 percent on the night.

 
hoops123 
Freshman
Posts: 97

Age: 53
Reg: 12-14-16
Re: Albany
11-23-17 12:16 PM - Post#237453    
    In response to Cooper

Back from Europe after two months to watch this and...we lost. I don't share your optimism. Do you really think we are going to shoot this well every game? Unlikely. Not having Boudreaux is a huge miss on the glass. Has been every game so far this season. Our 3 big men had 13 total rebounds tonight. He used to get nearly 10 a game by himself for two straight seasons. After 3 games, Miles Wright is our leading rebounder at 5.7/g! That includes D3 patsy Emerson. Guess who our leading rebounder was in that game? Brendan Barry with 7. Huh? We may replace Boudreaux's two seasons of consistently scoring 17.5 ppg by spreading the scoring out, but it is asking a lot of a historically inconsistent scoring team (see Miles Wright) to consistently replace Boudreaux's scoring.
Tonight's starting 5 had 12 turnovers. Guilien the Junior 3-10 from the field. Same lower your head, drive to the basket stuff from last year. Exactly the same player as his freshman year. He is much too slow defensively for a 2 guard and cannot stop his man when they drive to the basket. I saw Albany post up our guards on the block multiple times and they scored at will. Taylor is, well, the same erratic no defense player he's always been. Miles 21 pts but little to no defense and his shot selection is very iffy. Oh,and 4 TO's. Barry shooting consistency a bright spot, as is Chris Knight (a true rim protector)who's got potential but is a very raw young talent. Other than Knight, no freshmen contributing much. This is Mclaughlin's first recruiting class. Mclaughlin game coaching generally ineffective as usual. How does he not start Chris Knight??? He starts Aaryn Rai 3 straight games as our starting Forward, averaging 4.7ppg and 3 reb/g in 3 games. He got 5 pts and 3 rebs in 21 mins against D3 Emerson.....Huh? Knight averaging 13.7ppg and 4.7 reb/g this season. And Knight is athletic while Rai is....not. I don't get this at all. And you can set your watch by this: Anytime someone makes a couple of shots in a row, Mclaughlin pulls him out of the game. UGH. Finally, I think Mclaughlin has to get dinged by Sheehy for letting Boudreaux get away. Someone is going to get a great player for two years and he used to be on our team. Happy for Boudreaux, but very frustrating that our coach(es) couldn't get him to stay. I'm trying to stay positive, but just like I wouldn't use the D3 Emerson patsy win as a marker, I don't think using this game as a marker works either. And I, like you, realize Boudreaux is gone for good and its time to move on. But after this season is over, I think we'll all wish we still had Boudreaux. I know Mclaughlin and Sheehy will. And as usual, I hope I'm wrong...


 
Go Green 
PhD Student
Posts: 1124

Age: 52
Reg: 04-22-10
11-25-17 07:27 PM - Post#237590    
    In response to hoops123


On the bright side, our women are finally playing at traditional levels.

They're 3-0 with victories over BC and URI. That ain't bad...

 
Go Green 
PhD Student
Posts: 1124

Age: 52
Reg: 04-22-10
11-26-17 12:17 PM - Post#237940    
    In response to Go Green


And by the way, Cooper, according to mrjames, Dartmouth was not only one of the worst teams in the country last season, but also historically bad. I disagreed with him on both counts, but I will fully acknowledge that we were not a good team.

So saying that we won't be worse without Bordreaux isn't really cause for cheering. Personally, I have a hard time seeing us win a handful of games in league play. And if we do, it will say more about the league being worse than us being better from last season.

 
mrjames 
Professor
Posts: 6062

Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
11-26-17 12:32 PM - Post#237941    
    In response to Go Green

Hopefully, I said "since the league got good." Because in the 2000s and further back, it was pretty routine that the worst team in the league (and often more than one) would be worse than Dartmouth was last year. From 2011 - 2017, though (since the league has been a teens league), that Dartmouth team was only really eclipsed by that truly awful Cornell team in 2014 and the mostly awful Brown team that got Jesse Agel fired.

 
flinder 
Freshman
Posts: 72

Age: 45
Reg: 11-16-16
11-26-17 05:08 PM - Post#237962    
    In response to mrjames

I was at the Albany game. I was surprised by how easily we kept ourselves in it AND by how easily we let the lead slip right away again.

In the first half, we couldn't stop David Nichols, who burned us for 19 points en route to leading the team to shooting 67% from the field. That should never happen against any reasonably comparable team. What's crazy is that Nichols did not score in the second half (anyone notice any match-up switches on him?), and Dartmouth actually wound up with a better shooting percentage than Albany; the two biggest differences in the stats were that they had eight fewer turnovers than us and they took 15 more field goals than us, making 7 more. Everything else was pretty even, against a team that's a legit 5-0.

Miles Wright's energy seemed to be the biggest factor in whether the Green were in it or not. Big plays by him got everyone else pumped up, but that fire just didn't last. I had zero use for Will Emery or Aaryn Rai; Guilien Smith was playing with a clearly injured finger on his left hand. Wright, Knight, and Barry were all right. Even though he's probably not at the same level as others skill-wise, I would love to see Cameron Smith play more: he's a captain along with Wright, and his positive energy and relentless hustle alone would help lift the other four people on the floor. They slept-walked through parts of the game.

These are not your first Ivy champions in 57 years, but they certainly ought to play like they can beat anyone, because why not? It starts with a singular focus on significantly better defense—when Albany's big guards backed ours down in the post, the help was SO SLOW coming over. We got burned essentially every possession in every way, especially in the first half of that game. Use this season to show good high school players that we work hard and we're scrappy and you'll attract some gamers.

My two cents.



 
hoops123 
Freshman
Posts: 97

Age: 53
Reg: 12-14-16
11-27-17 12:07 PM - Post#238062    
    In response to flinder

Totally agree. Defense wins ball games.

 
Cooper 
Sophomore
Posts: 143

Reg: 11-22-04
11-27-17 12:30 PM - Post#238068    
    In response to hoops123

I wrote, "First thought after 91-73 loss to 5-0 Albany tonight is that Dartmouth won't be much worse without Boudreaux.

To that another poster responded: "I don't share your optimism."

To be clear, I wasn't suggesting they were going to be better than the 4-10/ 10-18 record of last year, just that they wouldn't be that much worse. There's a difference between being optimistic and being a little less pessimistic.


 
Go Green 
PhD Student
Posts: 1124

Age: 52
Reg: 04-22-10
11-27-17 03:57 PM - Post#238118    
    In response to Cooper

I'm looking at the schedule now.

Assuming good health, I can see us beating Bryant, Sacred Heart, and Maine. I can also see us splitting with Cornell and Brown.

I'm having a hard time seeing us win anything beyond that. But I'd be delighted to be wrong.

 
SomeGuy 
Professor
Posts: 6391

Reg: 11-22-04
11-29-17 09:06 PM - Post#238398    
    In response to Go Green

It's early, but right now Dartmouth is 260 in kenpom -- 45 spots higher than where they finished last year.


 
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