Leatherneck Nation

Cant see it but radio broadcast all i am going on.  Playing a decent D1 team on the road after 2 against much lower level competition not easy.  Add in a week of final exams and you probaby have a train wreck waiting to happen.

Tough first half to illustrate my point.

89-66 the final.  They got to the charity stripe 36 times, we only 8.  Merry Christmas is all i can think of to say.  We do need more point production from the bigs but nothing new there.
 
 

South Dakota won the game 89-66

South Dakota's largest lead was 30 points (67-37).

Western was 10 of 19 (53%) on three-pointers.

Attendance at South Dakota = 1,550

Game Stats:
https://goleathernecks.com/sports/mens- ... core/14064
 

Really disappointing thought this team was going to be deeper but really only 6 guys 

Coach Mo's words from long ago will forever ring in my mind: "We don't have a lot of guys who can create their own shot".  IMHO, that is the one thing that differentiates a D1 player from all others.  They can fairly reliably score (or stop a score) in contested 1 on 1 situations. We have some kids who can score but mostly from deep range and not necessarily so when closely guarded and they need to do it off the bounce.
 
 

Not surprised that we lost this game, but the way we lost it is just another big sign of trouble for this year's version of the team. Another very slow start offensively leads to another lower end point total (averaging 64.5 in 8 DI games) while our opponents have no issues running up the score as we gave up over 80 points for the 4th time in eight DI contests (allowing 75.8 points on average) so far this season. A big part of that is how were not getting good offensive production from our inside guys. They're not making shot attempts, which also helps to explain why were only averaging 13.4 FT attempts per game in our eight DI games. Definitely not following coaches goal of making having more free throw attempts then opponents have total made free throws. Also, as has been mention numerous times in these discussion threads, the deep bench that was advertised in the preseason and was going to feature a quality 8 - 10 player rotation, has simply not materialized. On the good note, our free throws made % has been a huge improvement, as well as we still out rebounding most of the teams we've played. Still though, I am very concerned for what will come as we transition to conference play with Tennessee Tech coming to Macomb next week.
 

sealhall74 wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2024 1:00 pm 89-66 the final.  They got to the charity stripe 36 times, we only 8.  Merry Christmas is all i can think of to say.  We do need more point production from the bigs but nothing new there.
 
 

 

I missed listening to the game, so I missed what Coach B said, but he has been harping on getting more from the bigs.
 

leatherneckcountry wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2024 2:20 pm Really disappointing thought this team was going to be deeper but really only 6 guys 

 

Coach B is so honest, but he mentioned there were a couple guys last year he kinda suggested they look elsewhere and he said after one of the games that he kinda regrets that now, would have been good depth pieces for them.