Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Young team returns in 2018-2019 with tons of promise. Can they get back to the NCAA Tournament?
Mhawk37
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by Mhawk37 » Sun Mar 10, 2019 11:45 pm

Jimk- I very much agree with your assessment. I think at the end of the day, players are going to play to their tendencies and it’s the job of the coaches to push players to get away from bad habits and keep a consistent culture. I do not feel that we do a great job at that.

Two thoughts on this season and next.

1) Not enough was discussed this year about the loss of Kharon Ross. He was a true point guard’s point guard that the coaching staff could rely on to settle the team and make the right play. They essentially got to ignore coaching the position for 4 years because it was handled. His primary focus was making sure he got his teammates going. He had all the right DNA and instincts. I don’t think our coaching staff was ready to replace him or prepared to reign in our guards when necessary. Jordan and LT undeniably had some incredible games for us this year, but I don’t think I’d really describe either as a facilitator. They’re shoot first scoring guards, which every team needs at least one of, but when those two guys have the ball in their hands for 90% of possessions (which I think is by design) I’d expect more oversight from the staff. They obviously had the talent to carry us against the weaker comp, but it wasn’t enough against top teams. In a lot of ways I feel like our coaches ignored the writing on the wall and set up everyone for failure. Our bad habits were either going to get us today or against Colgate.

2) Can we hire a big man coach? Not a single coach on our staff played power forward or center in college (and to the extent necessary make changes in the coaching staff to accomplish this). That is a glaring hole to me. Our 5s show a ton of heart and effort but what we really need is development and a consistent low post presence.

Oh well, rough ending to a frustrating year. Feel bad for all the kids, obviously no one tries to have the sort of outcome we had today. Everyone gave their best effort. And even though I think the staff is almost entirely responsible for the outcome, I feel bad for them too. I hope the coaches look at this season and make drastic changes in their approach to next year. The current approach isn’t working. It’s good enough to tread water and be above-average, not enough to win anything of meaning. In the end though, it is just basketball...


ArtVandelay
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by ArtVandelay » Mon Mar 11, 2019 8:42 am

97 points....woof....enough said about this team.
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RichH
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by RichH » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:07 am

ArtVandelay wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2019 8:42 am 97 points....woof....enough said about this team.
Apt capper for the season ;)
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jimk72
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by jimk72 » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:23 am

Mhawk37 wrote: Sun Mar 10, 2019 11:45 pm Jimk- I very much agree with your assessment. I think at the end of the day, players are going to play to their tendencies and it’s the job of the coaches to push players to get away from bad habits and keep a consistent culture. I do not feel that we do a great job at that.

Two thoughts on this season and next.

1) Not enough was discussed this year about the loss of Kharon Ross. He was a true point guard’s point guard that the coaching staff could rely on to settle the team and make the right play. They essentially got to ignore coaching the position for 4 years because it was handled. His primary focus was making sure he got his teammates going. He had all the right DNA and instincts. I don’t think our coaching staff was ready to replace him or prepared to reign in our guards when necessary. Jordan and LT undeniably had some incredible games for us this year, but I don’t think I’d really describe either as a facilitator. They’re shoot first scoring guards, which every team needs at least one of, but when those two guys have the ball in their hands for 90% of possessions (which I think is by design) I’d expect more oversight from the staff. They obviously had the talent to carry us against the weaker comp, but it wasn’t enough against top teams. In a lot of ways I feel like our coaches ignored the writing on the wall and set up everyone for failure. Our bad habits were either going to get us today or against Colgate.

2) Can we hire a big man coach? Not a single coach on our staff played power forward or center in college (and to the extent necessary make changes in the coaching staff to accomplish this). That is a glaring hole to me. Our 5s show a ton of heart and effort but what we really need is development and a consistent low post presence.

Oh well, rough ending to a frustrating year. Feel bad for all the kids, obviously no one tries to have the sort of outcome we had today. Everyone gave their best effort. And even though I think the staff is almost entirely responsible for the outcome, I feel bad for them too. I hope the coaches look at this season and make drastic changes in their approach to next year. The current approach isn’t working. It’s good enough to tread water and be above-average, not enough to win anything of meaning. In the end though, it is just basketball...
Great points. On #1, if as good as advertised, Jake Betlow is a true premium point guard and may be the answer next year. Fingers are crossed.

On #2, Karnick busted his tail on one bad wheel yesterday. Limped off when he got a breather all second half. He would be so much more effective if he had better offensive moves or technique. I thought Lynch had promise early on but looked a bit lost after the first third of the season.
Travis23
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by Travis23 » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:34 am

Is betlow or Fenton supposed to be the better player. I know one of them can shoot well and is very athletic
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RichH
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by RichH » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:55 am

Betlow does seem to be a top PG. Elite competition thru HS and AAU. Fenton a 6'4 SG. He really looks pretty good on video. Caveat he has not faced a tough level of competition in Latrobe..
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jimk72
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by jimk72 » Mon Mar 11, 2019 3:40 pm

Travis23 wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:34 am Is betlow or Fenton supposed to be the better player. I know one of them can shoot well and is very athletic
Fenton is from Latrobe (think Rolling Rock) in western Pa. just outside the Pittsburgh suburbs. They compete in Pa. 6A, the biggest category and play the suburban Pittsburgh and Altoona areas. Pretty good competition in district 7. At 6'4" he's a prototypical shooting guard/slashing small forward against high school players. Mostly a scorer who can rebound with some handle ability. Still relatively small town environment. I did not see that he had a lot of high level AAU exposure. But there's very little newspaper coverage over there so hard to say on that. Very hard to compare the two until they get here.

The other signee is Jakob Alamudun. 6'5" small forward. And from what I've read, he's an athletic scorer. His high school coach said; " Jacob has done everything in his power to earn this next step in his life, I have never seen a work ethic like Jakob’s, at any level. I could not have been more proud of a kid, no one is more deserving.” Alamudin picked us over offers from Montana, UC San Diego, Cal State Fullerton, Army, Cornell, and Dartmouth. Jakob will graduate from Marina High, California with extensive experience against big time competition. Marina is on the coast about forty or so miles south of San Jose/Frisco/etc, but the team travels widely. You gotta like all of that. Jakob is why I'm cautiously giddy about this class.
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by Lehigh65 » Tue Mar 12, 2019 3:12 pm

Late to comment but certainly enjoyed all your posts and those throughout the year. Seven months is far too long to wait!

As a fan, I’m disappointed, first and foremost, with our “D.” Not only in this game but throughout the year. Can’t we please be happy and win games played in the 70’s?! And, not rely on scoring 80 or more, as we did this campaign, in posting 11 PL wins. The second disappointment had to be injuries. I know and understand that come with the turf. But, losing MW right out of the box this year (he did score 7 in PL Game 1) and CB after 13 games (6.2ppg average) hurt. As does looking down the bench each night to see 3, 4 or 5 dressed in street clothes. And, now as we get set to face off against Bucky in the Semi’s, we – for all intents and purposes - go it with without Andree and Karnick. PA, who went down with a head injury a couple of couple of weeks ago and missed the AU and LOM games to close regular season play, did come back against both AWP and Bucky in the Playoffs. But, at best, his efforts could be described as ineffective (6pts. on 2 for 7 shooting against AWP and 2 pts. on 1 for 5 shooting against Bucky). Lingering effects of injury? Perhaps, but certainly concerning nonetheless. He was certainly not the PA we remember from earlier action (13.6 ppg and 6.3 rpg). And, as for Karnick, who we are told - after the game – had injured his leg (assume knee), you were hoping for more than 4 points (2 of 6 shooting) and 3 boards in 22 minutes. JK was typically good for 9 pts and 6 boards going into the game. Hey, Bucknell’s D had a lot to do with it, as well. Nice work, Bison.

And, to the Bucknell and Colgate fans who may be reading this post and thinking “sour grapes.” Forget it. I’m just stating, what are to me, obvious facts. Bucknell and, for that matter, Colgate fielded far superior teams than us this year. And, I’ll close by wishing you – as I’m sure my fellow LU fans do as well - nothing but success in the NCAAs. You each deserve it.

PL Only Stats of Interest

Scoring D
1st Colgate @ 69.8 ppg
4th Bucknell @ 71.3 ppg
10th Lehigh @ 79.3 ppg

3 Point D
2nd Bucknell @ .327
5th Colgate @ .362
7th Lehigh @ .365

FG% Defense
1st Bucknell @ .426
2nd Colgate @ ,450
4th Lehigh @ .454
Hawk85
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by Hawk85 » Tue Mar 12, 2019 3:47 pm

MHawk37, read through your posts. Not sure what to make of them...help me out here. Lets say we remove Reed and replace him with you. Then, remove LT and JC and replace with KR (add another guard in this league of your liking). How do you beat Bucknell and Colgate?
Mhawk37
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Re: Semi Sunday.....LU and Others

Post by Mhawk37 » Tue Mar 12, 2019 6:17 pm

To me, it's all about culture and style of play. In the three games we lost to Bucknell this year, we got flustered at tight points of the game and forced offense. Colgate completely manhandled us in both games. If you watched all 5 of those games you'd see both teams move the ball with an ease we just couldn't replicate. That's not talent, that's culture.

As we've seen several times this season, our tempo and our shot selection largely has impacted our defense. When we play too fast, and our guards over penetrate, our misses or turnovers lead to quick easy points for the opposition. When we play with a solid tempo and allow our defense to set itself and play in the halfcourt, it's actually not terrible (not great either, but not 97 points allowed bad). Not to mention, when all five guys are involved in the offense and feeling good, it naturally lends itself to better defensive effort. Defense, after all, is all about picking up your teammates and making sacrifices for the team and buying into a team concept. It's not all that easy to really buy into a "team first" concept when the guards are constantly breaking off plays for dribble penetration opportunities.

To be clear though, I was not advocating for the replacement of LT or JC. They obviously have talent. My point is that when you replace a guard like KR with two "score first" guards, it's the job of the coaching staff to step in and ensure that the offense does not become overly iso heavy and stagnant. I don't feel like our coaches did a great job of that this year. In fact, I think they focused on the result of the shot rather than the quality of the shot. As another thread has pointed out, that style of offense was excellent against bad teams, yet when we went up with equal or more talented opponents we fell flat on our face.

To answer your question though, to beat bucknell and colgate, it will require a culture adjustment, not a gameplan adjustment. To even get on their level, we need to start seeing better consistency and development. I don't see consistency offensively or defensively (i've noticed certain players getting punished for mistakes while others mistakes get ignored and the focus of our offense completely changed once PL play started and the talent of our opponents dropped) and as others have pointed out, I see very little development. As i said previously, perhaps we'd see more development out of our bigs if we had a single coach on the staff that played the position.

So I guess I don't mind your idea for replacing Reed, just not with me. I do think that if we swapped coaches with Bucknell or Colgate that we'd be one game away from an NCAA tournament birth (and probably our 3rd appearance in the past 4 years). To be fair, 20 wins is 20 wins, and the small group in this forum are just about the only people that seem to care about Lehigh basketball, so I know that nothing is going to happen. I simply don't like the trajectory of this program. I think we're a lot closer to becoming Lafayette than we are to becoming Bucknell.
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