Teams like Houston can get away with fouling because they have a reputation as a great defensive team. They foul a ton, but the refs won’t call it every time down the court. We’re going to get called for a lot of fouls until we can get the reputation of a “physical team.” There will be growing pains from that perspective.
Would still like to see some better ball movement on offense, but the intensity was great.
So why didn’t all the guys play?
Got to watch most of the 2nd half and the offense was pretty disappointing. Honestly reminded me of the stupid “5 out” offense that the Pelicans run which almost always ends up with one guy dribbling the air out of the ball until going ISO for a poor shot late in the possession
Effort can get you a long way though, so we’ll see
It’s not the fact we lost. We might win a lot of games. It’s the figure 8 offense handing the ball around till the shot clock almost runs out than jacking up a bricked 3. That was last years offense. Than on the other end of the court guys penetrate in 1 on 1 matchups and score or get to the FT line. Well of course they will out shoot us at the line playing like that. And our “lock down defense” gave up over 50% shooting. Not great.
Like I said. We may win a lot of games. But that looked like last years team that didn’t win a lot of games.
Sunbelt went 4-9 against the MAC last night. All on the road. 7 of the 9 losses were by 14 or more points. So the belt is winnable even with no offense and poor shooting.
First game, they get some grace. Effort/Intensity was there. Inside game was not.
Onto the next. Let’s get our offense figured out in these next couple games, and the rest will follow.
My thoughts from game 1:
Defense will keep us in most games. The only issues I saw were when we didn’t get back in transition. If we were allowed to set up our D they really struggled to get a good look.
Our guards need to penetrate more specifically Keller. Offense seemed stagnant for the most part but I think that will come with time.
Kyran Ratliff needs to play more. Hes definitely our most seasoned big on the offensive side. I believe the staff may think he is lacking on the defensive side but that doesn’t matter when Jeremiah cant stay on the court with foul trouble.
I would like to see Mike Collins get a little more time on the floor.
I would like to see Woodson shot fake from 3 and take the ball into the lane as we need more high percentage mid range shots and not 25ft three pointers.
Jaxon Olvera can be a star. He needs to be defending the other teams worst player so he stays out of foul trouble.
Refs were not great but we didn’t lose because of them. Ball State forced them to make the calls by taking it inside. We did the opposite. I was impressed with Ball State for the most part. I think they have some good players and have a chance to make some noise in the MAC.
Overall pretty disappointing night but definitely see things that they can and will improve on. I have no doubt.
Just now seeing UNO beat TCU on Monday night. Privateers led the Horned Frogs 44-28 at the half. Held on to win 78-74.