Rider Got Away

The Maroon · Rider Got Away

We gave a good Rider team too many chances this afternoon and it's a shame because for a while it looked like we had their number. Dead crowd as usual but I had good seats Cool

. Hard to expect the students to turn out much for this one given timeslot and the fact that they had a lot to do this weekend.

Assuming that this is Andrew Brown's team, it's no surprise we lost as he was not on his game today. He shot poorly, was drained as time ran down and his two missed free throws near the end of the game pretty much ended our hopes. I'm not trying to get down on Brown--he's a heck of a player--my larger point is that we played these guys very well even though Andrew had a sub-par game.

Darion Benbow is showing amazing potential, but I'm not seeing enough ofit because he's committing stupid fouls. He's trying to make plays that just aren't there. At the same time, he has skills that not many of our players have.

We got 13 and 9 out of Willen with a 3-pointer to boot. Believe the hype, he's as good a freshman as I've seen in a long, long time.

We're still living and breathing by the 3....We shot 8 for 27...THe fact that the line has moved back is going to hurt that philosophy too. Mintz even took one that made my daughter cringe and shake her head. Jared is coming along well though---he has nice strong post moves, doesn't back down and managed 16 today. The Toronto Jewish league...who knew?

Maybe I'm getting the John Leone "glass half full even when your down by 40" disease but I kind of like this team. I really don't think we're nearly as bad as the rest of the league thinks we are (OK...or as bad as I thought we were going to be 2 weeks ago.)

Oh....Fran got a technical. I HATE BENCH TECHNICALS!! I think "working the refs" is the most over-rated art in the game of hoops and the T couldn't have come at a worse time. I'm not saying Fran's got a problem with this, over the years I don't recall him being whistled often--but Fran deserves a wet noodle for that one.

Steve

To me, it was a pretty disheartening loss, because (a) it's always disheartening when we have a good lead for most of the game only to collapse at the end, and (b) it points out what appears to be a longer-term problem that this year's team is going to have, with turning the ball over when opponents who are trailing turn up the defensive pressure late in the game. When Kari hit his 3-pointer with about 4 minutes left, we were up by 8; unfortunately we didn't score again until there were only 4 seconds left and the game was over. Rider was a considerably taller and more athletic team than us, and we had a lot of trouble dealing with their pressure when they turned it up late in the second half. After Kari's three, we turned the ball over on 4 of our next 5 possessions to cost us the game.

Turning the ball over against pressure has been a problem for the past several years, and it looks like the problem will be at least as bad, if not worse, this year. Most of our opponents will be more athletic, and taller than us; this places us at a disadvantage in dealing with pressure. Also, our big men, who are needed to help in dealing with zone pressure, are inexperienced, and at this point, are having difficulty in helping us against pressure D. Hopefully, as the young frontcourt players gain more experience, they can do a better job of posting in the middle in the backcourt against zone pressure, and learn not to quickly throw the ball back to our guards when they are barely inside the baseline, and can be trapped easily. We had trouble dealing with Stony Brook's pressure, but our lead was so large in that game that we could absorb some turnovers; plus, Stony Brook didn't have as much of an advantage in height and athleticism as did Rider. Although I don't want to sound overly negative, our weakness against late-game pressure has been a real problem in the two games I've gotten to see this year, and it's always a shame when you can outplay a team for 35 minutes of a game, only to see leads disappear quickly against late game pressure D.

There were a lot of positives in today's game. Kari continues to impress with his scoring ability. He was perfect from the free-throw line as well. Although I've hoped since last year that Mintz could develop into a good inside scorer for us, and have seen flashes of that ability in the past, this was easily the best I have seen him be an offensive force down low over the course of an entire game; hopefully, he'll continue to deliver such performances more consistently over the course of the season. It helped that he was able to avoid foul trouble today. Willen continues to show the ability to score inside and outside, and seems to have a knack for coming up with rebounds as well. Petkovich definitely is a capable outside shooter, and I even like the way that Orchowski comes off the bench and contributes in ways other than scoring.

Unfortunately, Brown had another tough game today. I agree that the number of minutes that he played appeared to take a toll down the stretch. It would be great to get him more of a breather; unfortunately, he's our best dribbler against pressure, so it was would have been tough to take him out of the game for longer stretches today.

I dislike technicals also, and Fran doesn't get too many of them. He must have used some of the "magic words" after the offensive foul call against Willen, because he hadn't been riding the refs too badly before that, so it wasn't one of those technicals that was given for cumulative work over the course of a game. Watching live, it did look like a bad call to me. The defender has to give the offensive player a chance to land both feet on the floor after catching a pass, and it appeared that Willen hit the Rider defender on his way down after catching the pass, without taking another step (although I'd be interested in seeing a replay to confirm that). Even though it was a tough call in a big situation, the T compounded the damage, and I wish Fran would've avoided it.

The Maroon

Great analysis.

You pointed out some other freshman---I like what I see out of them as well. There is a lot of talent in our freshman/sophomore classes. Also..These are DEFINITELY scholarship level players. They are a step quicker, a step stronger, a hair smarter. We may not be happy with the pace, but we are building a base. If we hadn't lost the swede and the kid from COlorado we might actually have a decent team this year.

I think Gruner could help the situation a little. He's not a pure PG like Brown but any kind of minutes would've helped. I don't know how long we'll be without his services, but we need someone to spell Brown for at least 4-5 more minutes.

It did suck watching us blow such a nice lead, but with a young team like ours we can't get too worked up over losses in NOvember.

I think we got some surprises in our bag.

Xboreturns

Gruner has been cleared to return on Tuesday.

Kiltedpard

I too had great seats. It was your typical LC crowd, older types (self included) who love the game and LC hoops but aren't going to chant "defense!". Unfortunatley, we outplayed Rider for 30 minutes (except first and last 5 of the game) and the officials let them mug us into turnovers. I was impressed with the level of play of our "babies". It's D1 big boy basketball and these guys are diving right in. This AAU stuff really gets these guys ready. Willen is the real deal. Seems bery comfortable out there. Has a great "feel" for the game and always seems to be in the right position. (the offensive foul was just a poor call. The Rider player stepped under him) Hope he continues to progress.
Agreed that Brown has a bulls eye on him and everyone is going to key on him. He is working too hard to get his shot and can't get into a rythm. He went through a cold stretch last year as well. Maybe returning home to CO will bring his stroke back.
Kari is a big time player. He plays hard, he distributes the ball, can get his own shot, and is a pain in the a#% on defense.
2-2 at this point it totally acceptable considering the seniors we loss the schedule we have and the # of inexperienced players.
Was it me or did we dribble the ball more than a normal Fran team? Is this due to the lack of experience with the system or a change in scheme?
It's gonna be a fun year!

P.S. Biggest thrill of the day was my son making the foul shot to win 2 tickets to the next home game. Had 2 chances to make one and didn't need the second. NBN! A proud moment in fatherwood! Very Happy

The Maroon