End the Season

[ibleedpurpleandgold]

this is not a D1 coach's forum, its for fans to bitch.lol... But I played bball in D1, and to me if teams lose in the 4th quarter it means the other coach made adjustments to beat you.. Most D1 coaches would agree.
Coach Wright keeps saying we have to find a way to close games out.. He is blaming the players without actually saying it. I dont like that. We only won the games we did because we were shooting like 60% from 3. That wasnt gonna last. Although Covington played great until recently, you wont win acting like he is Kobe... You cant rely on him every night.
.Here are some adjustments.... Our press works.. our players are athletic. Work plays so Fuller can use his athletism to get to the line. He shoots over 80+ % from the line. Ancrum has been injured but coach wasn't gonna use him correctly anyway just wasting talent , as far as meat on his bones, ?? he is about the same build as Cory Brewer and many others and about as athletic, has to be put in situations to use ability. Delo has shown he can ball, so bench Sandifer.
We foul way more than other teams, that would be ok if we blocked shots and got lots of steals but we don't. Klaar and Chapman and Morgan could come in to block shots and get the game more uptempo. offensive rebounding is non existent, so we get no second shots. This is fear of fast breaking teams.. I dont think anybody really fast breaks in the Summit league accept Omaha, so crash the boards more. Wright should platoon, sub 5 at a time like Northern Iowa, then we wouldnt be so predictable. Players are a reflection of the coach, Coach is playing "not to lose" so players reflect that. The big man Gilbeck needs to have a fire lit under his ass and play pissed off and aggressive and demand the ball, that will only happen if he is benched and told the truth about his game. He was probably promised to start in recruiting and is being treated soft so he wont transfer. He needed to redshirt anyway. I think this team would be at the .500 mark now in the summit league with better coaching.. Wright wont get better talent through recruiting, Gilbeck is a perfect example. Get athletic 6'7 JUCO players and play athletic and not scared.

Played D1 yet your clueless to the fact that they play half's not Quarter's Klaar isn't on the team sandifer is a very good point guard playing him and delo @ the same time i would agree with but thankfully you are not the coach.

[Blackjack]

I played over 30 yrs ago..lol.. my bad. fourth quarter meaning second half of second half. when the game is won!.. you missed the point. My point is you find a way to win by doing something different. the so called Covington Sandifer era isnt working out. Yes Sandifer is good but he is part of the losing in the second half. big part! because he is the point. Sometimes benching makes a player better. And Delo will make mistakes but at this point you gotta do something or expect the same results. I guess you like losing , oh well, I at least would have the balls to admit its my fault we are losing and make adjustments. It doesnt matter just opinions anyway. enjoy empty stands and paying a coach to lose and not have a clue for real.

[sealhall74]

Regarding Covington/Sandifer era, the numbers indicate

1) Covington is Mr. Steady Eddie. Still without that real "breakout year" but I cant name a single Leatherneck who had one of those during the last 7 or 8 years I have been paying attention (maybe Ceola). His shooting percentage has fallen way off since freshman year but now he always draws the best defender so unless someone else on team improves vastly, this is probably the best we will see from him.
2) After nice freshman year, Sandifer had a noticeable "Sophomore Slump" and it seems to be continuing into his junior year. Never has been a great shooter but is a better than average distributor. Will turn it over now and then. Yes Bruster has a better Assist/Turnover ratio (1.5 vs 1.2). I watched Jabari play one HS game up in Naperville. I created a mental note then that he puts way too much air under his 3 point shot to be a consistently good long-range shooter and that still seems to be the case.

2013-14 OVERALL & CONFERENCE
SUMMARY GP-GS Min/G FG% 3PT% FT% R/G A/G STL BLK PTS/G GP-GS Min/G FG% 3PT% FT% R/G A/G STL BLK PTS/G
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Covington, Garret... 29-27 32.9 .413 .387 .800 4.7 1.9 28 3 14.6 14-14 34.9 .437 .466 .815 4.9 1.8 11 1 16.1
Sandifer, Jabari.... 30-20 28.9 .392 .306 .723 2.5 3.1 35 1 9.0 14-11 32.1 .382 .268 .750 2.9 3.2 12 1 11.6

2014-15 OVERALL & CONFERENCE
SUMMARY GP-GS Min/G FG% 3PT% FT% R/G A/G STL BLK PTS/G GP-GS Min/G FG% 3PT% FT% R/G A/G STL BLK PTS/G
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Garret Covington.... 28-28 33.0 .376 .356 .828 4.3 2.3 31 6 15.5 16-16 35.1 .361 .337 .829 5.5 2.7 20 4 15.5
Jabari Sandifer..... 28-25 29.4 .358 .300 .603 3.0 4.3 25 6 7.4 16-16 29.6 .327 .222 .600 2.8 3.9 14 5 6.5

2015-16 CONFERENCE ONLY

## Player GP GS Tot Avg FG FGA FG% 3FG 3FGA 3PT% FT FTA FT% Off Def Tot Avg PF A Ast/G TO Stl Blk Pts Avg
31 Covington, Garret 7 7 246 35.1 37 96 .385 16 48 .333 23 24 .958 4 31 35 5.0 12 15 2.1 17 5 1 113 16.1
01 Sandifer, Jabari 7 7 245 35.0 15 47 .319 5 13 .385 13 17 .765 2 32 34 4.9 23 27 3.9 22 14 0 48 6.9

[cubsflag]

every team has BEST PLAYERS on it.the key is when your best players are better than the other team's best players.that is how you win.stats mean absolutely nothing in losses.the loyola game is a good example.all the great stats came after wiu was down by 20.and then when wiu got close,the great stats stopped.

[Blackjack]

Thanks! those are great stats, very impressive post ,, but there are intangibles in basketball.. I like Sandifer,, but now days point guards are scorers more than passers, thanks to the dribble drive ball screen offence and the way the refs make it easy to blow by defenders. Delo looks like he has a scorers mentality and he can blow by defenders. Like it or not the game is so different now. Its actually been simplified. ball screen dribble drive , pick and pop. swing pass do the same. So point guards don't really set the offence and run plays like the old days. I guess You could go small ball with both in, because Fullers game has fallin off also. If things get better and they start winning I will take all this back..lol.. like I say its just opinions.. problem I see with Covington is he can't really jump high enough to really be successful going to the basket against good teams, teams know his moves, His pump fake pivot moves don't work as well against good defenders and rotating shot blockers , so then he has to hit threes which this year has been great until last few games, and I cant forget last years 1 for 10 games he had. I like all the guys on this team ,, I want them to win as a team. I know they can.. Go Necks. Something to think about,, who would win this five on five game.. Sandifer Covington Fuller Tate gilbeck. vs Delo Ancrum Miklusak Chapman Morgan. (healthy ankle Ancrum).. I think it would be close, I would just platoon sub, these two squads,. it helps them play better and smarter together as a team. I know,, thank god I'm not coach..lol

[Blackjack]

Yes ,, very good point Cubsflag, who cares what your stats are when you are down by over 20 points.. .. sad but true. Some teams use "analytics" but they take into account a lot more factors and variables. Points per possession is one I hear a lot. . If you looked at our 3pt shooting percentage you would think we would win a few more games right.

[sealhall74]

every team has BEST PLAYERS on it.the key is when your best players are better than the other team's best players.that is how you win.stats mean absolutely nothing in losses.the loyola game is a good example.all the great stats came after wiu was down by 20.and then when wiu got close,the great stats stopped.

I wish we could explore stats in various contexts (e.g. score difference +-5, final 5 minutes of game). The data is in the Play-by-Play section of the game recap. That might be a good post-season project to work on.

[Necks2003]

every team has BEST PLAYERS on it.the key is when your best players are better than the other team's best players.that is how you win.stats mean absolutely nothing in losses.the loyola game is a good example.all the great stats came after wiu was down by 20.and then when wiu got close,the great stats stopped.

I wish we could explore stats in various contexts (e.g. score difference +-5, final 5 minutes of game). The data is in the Play-by-Play section of the game recap. That might be a good post-season project to work on.

The stats this year have gotta be horrendous. However, it seems odd that last year with the same players I think it would end up being positive. The big difference is that last year the team was always getting blown out the first half and then would have a second half comeback to try and get back in the game. This year, the team competes for the first half and then collapses toward the end.

This team has some talent when they play as a unit. We saw it the first 2 weeks. Other than Wisconsin, they blew out UIC and EIU both on the road to prove it. Those games also displayed much better ball movement leading to better shots and easy buckets down low to some of the bigs. An extra 8-10 points per game on easy transition baskets and easy dunks/alley opps down low would be a difference in many of these conference games.

Hopefully Wright comes up with some tricks up his sleeve to get the confidence back up and get the team headed in the Wright direction. I hate giving up this early in the season, but I still know none of the teams in this conference are unbeatable if you execute a solid game.

[cubsflag]

Thanks! those are great stats, very impressive post ,, but there are intangibles in basketball.. I like Sandifer,, but now days point guards are scorers more than passers, thanks to the dribble drive ball screen offence and the way the refs make it easy to blow by defenders. Delo looks like he has a scorers mentality and he can blow by defenders. Like it or not the game is so different now. Its actually been simplified. ball screen dribble drive , pick and pop. swing pass do the same. So point guards don't really set the offence and run plays like the old days. I guess You could go small ball with both in, because Fullers game has fallin off also. If things get better and they start winning I will take all this back..lol.. like I say its just opinions.. problem I see with Covington is he can't really jump high enough to really be successful going to the basket against good teams, teams know his moves, His pump fake pivot moves don't work as well against good defenders and rotating shot blockers , so then he has to hit threes which this year has been great until last few games, and I cant forget last years 1 for 10 games he had. I like all the guys on this team ,, I want them to win as a team. I know they can.. Go Necks. Something to think about,, who would win this five on five game.. Sandifer Covington Fuller Tate gilbeck. vs Delo Ancrum Miklusak Chapman Morgan. (healthy ankle Ancrum).. I think it would be close, I would just platoon sub, these two squads,. it helps them play better and smarter together as a team. I know,, thank god I'm not coach..lol

i love that you have strong opinions.and i definitely understand your idea of shaking things up.but u are so wrong thinking that 2nd 5 u mentioned would stay close to the 1st five.

[sealhall74]

Thanks! those are great stats, very impressive post ,, but there are intangibles in basketball.. I like Sandifer,, but now days point guards are scorers more than passers, thanks to the dribble drive ball screen offence and the way the refs make it easy to blow by defenders. Delo looks like he has a scorers mentality and he can blow by defenders. Like it or not the game is so different now. Its actually been simplified. ball screen dribble drive , pick and pop. swing pass do the same. So point guards don't really set the offence and run plays like the old days. I guess You could go small ball with both in, because Fullers game has fallin off also. If things get better and they start winning I will take all this back..lol.. like I say its just opinions.. problem I see with Covington is he can't really jump high enough to really be successful going to the basket against good teams, teams know his moves, His pump fake pivot moves don't work as well against good defenders and rotating shot blockers , so then he has to hit threes which this year has been great until last few games, and I cant forget last years 1 for 10 games he had. I like all the guys on this team ,, I want them to win as a team. I know they can.. Go Necks. Something to think about,, who would win this five on five game.. Sandifer Covington Fuller Tate gilbeck. vs Delo Ancrum Miklusak Chapman Morgan. (healthy ankle Ancrum).. I think it would be close, I would just platoon sub, these two squads,. it helps them play better and smarter together as a team. I know,, thank god I'm not coach..lol

i love that you have strong opinions.and i definitely understand your idea of shaking things up.but u are so wrong thinking that 2nd 5 u mentioned would stay close to the 1st five.

I have to go with BlackJack on this one. Healthy Ancrum could probably hold down Coverdale. Fuller is stronger than Miklusak. Everyone else about even IMO. I think it would be close. You pose an interesting question maybe NFS71 can answer. When teams do scrimmage, how do they go about it? I assume X % of time, it might be first squad and against second squad to try to build some cohesiveness and flow. Maybe Y % of time, you mix it up so that guys are working against other guys who will always challenge them. I do know they only way you get better in anything is to face someone who is a little (not a lot) better than you.