Earlier this afternoon, the Cougars took on Webster in the team's lone exhibition before Terrance Williams, Dane Fife and the IPFW Mastodons come to the Vadalabene Center Friday.
Let's put it simple here: The Cougars have a lot to work on.
If you were at the game, watching it on SIUE.Tv or reading along with the live chat here on ecougarzone.com you knew what was going on, and that was that nothing of substantial value was actually going on on the court.
Let's face it guys.
We looked awful out there today.
SIUE escaped with a 74-67 win over Division III Webster.
Sure, Mark Yelovich, Abel Tillman, LeShaun Murphy, Dob Mavrak and Gerald Jones did not play. That's really a non-issue. This was a game SIUE should have dominated, and from all accounts a game we all felt like we would have dominated going into it.
Forrester said after the game Yelovich didn't play because he was saving him for IPFW and the rest was "injury related," whatever that means. Someone had a concussion, but he didn't go into specifics.
The biggest problem I had with this game is this: The Cougars struggled where they struggled last season. It is an entirely different team, and the group on the court was nothing like last season. Chatt, Mitchell, Wickware, Boarden and Messer were your starting five.
We were out-rebounded by a Division III team 43-40. We turned the basketball over 18 times. We forced 18 turnovers, but gave up 18. The Cougars seemed to have gotten out of their system fairly easily in the second half and it resulted in a very sloppy back and forth game. There were not many clean, dominant rebounds. Guys had to go out of their way to pick up loose balls. Webster worked harder than we did for loose balls as well.
Webster also out-scored us in the paint, 26-20 and beat us 10-5 on second-chance points. They beat us on the fast-break 6-2. If SIUE didn't have as much depth, getting 27 points off the bench Webster would have won this game. The drop-off in talent is simply not as much going from Chatt to Rincker as it is for Webster. They only went 8 deep too, so there was a fatigue factor. They couldn't roll for 40 minutes, but damn, they were close.
The Cougars shot 40 percent from the field compared to 32 percent for Webster. That's good. The turnovers and offensive rebounds they allowed: a very unnecessary 14? that was bad and kept Webster in the ball game despite getting outshot. We saw that statistic a lot last season if I recall correctly.
Three point shooting: You can go ahead and say 9-22 is decent, after all, that's 40 percent. Coach said the three point shooting was a positive, but in my opinion you can't shoot it 22 times a game from deep. That's too much. Feed the ball inside. Zeke Schneider looked to be a much improved player in the post (six rebounds, four points in 14 minutes.) Zeke was the best big man on the floor today. #SCARY!
The threes work if the right guys are shooting it. We learned this afternoon Chatt is the real deal, 4-7 3PFG% and 13 points. Corey Wickware is also pretty good, (3-6 3PFG% 15 points.) Cody Rincker is probably still a sniper, but had an off-night and played more minutes than he is used to. (0-3, 2 points)
Please, shoot the three more sparingly.
Free throws have to improve as well. 13-26 won't cut it in any league.
Bottom line is the Cougars showed us they have PLENTY of work to get done before they tackle IPFW Friday.
Honorable mention to Michael Messer, didn't play the greatest game, but showed some promise.
And as the lone media member, I am a youtube celebrity. This is the post-game umm, "press" conference with me courtesy of siuecougars.com
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4 comments:
Mark has a slight concussion. One of my friend's friends was able to find that information out. Other than that, everyone else should have been good.
After looking back I realize the way Forrester played the 6 guys actually could somewhat help us. I would have loved to see the other guys play though. I think its key to have the majority of the team at least get in for a few minutes. The players who didn't play....dob, murphy, mark, tillman, jones, newlin, and reed will have a rough start. I can't see that sitting out will benefit them in any way shape or form. There was only one injured person to my knowledge...Mark. I hope he will be in fine form come Friday.
If you look at it this way, we lost roughly 30 points today(Mark+Murphy). Tillman and jones would have added 15 if they played. So with all that together we would have won by at least 40 if all the guys played.
I do like that wickware and chatt got playing. Overall Wickware seemed to leave an impression on me. He has the ability to start that point position day in and day out. Thank God we have someone better than Stineman. Thats not really tough to find anyways. I think the team was out of sync, confused, and downright sloppy at all times.
Positives:
Messer-Fundamentally sound-made some fundamental moves that most freshmen would not make.
Wickware-can shoot the 3 (also our best Aamir replacement
Chatt-also can shoot the 3.
Negatives:
Rincker-Out of touch-confused-bad night (I believe someone hit him in the eye. His eye looked messed up from a distance)
Mitchell-Playing Forward position (He is not a Denyko replacement) If there is a player that we should be playing more I think its Mitchell, but we need him elsewhere.
Team overall:
The team seemed to struggle to keep up with the pace of Webster. Webster played a more fundamental and high tempo game. We played their game and not the other way around. We had guys running around with their head chopped off and we also had some not even running. Disappointment at best. I am not going to write this team of yet, because I know they have potential. TRUTHFULLY, FORRESTER FINDS A WAY TO ALWAYS F' UP WHEN IT COMES TO COACHING. I JUST HOPE TO GOD THAT WE WILL COME TO PLAY FRIDAY. Also another note, ticket prices are more. No one will come to our games when they have to pay 12 dollars for the mess of a game like today. SIUE has it all wrong in its thinking.
Also, I forgot to mention. It looked like IPFW barely won their exhibition game. They won by single digits to a D3 squad. I am pretty sure the team they faced (Olivet) was even worse than Webster.
Secondly, I believe Mark is mostly recovered, but I think they are taking precautions. I don't see him being out or questionable for IPFW.
IPFW is worse this year than last, so any improvements you've made *should* counter theirs. Should. No promises.
Either way, BEAT THEIR ASSES. I hate IPFW.
I hope they are. From my quick research it looks like you are right. Looks like IPFW's bench is very very weak. They have a decent 5 squad, but if they get gassed look to see their team dissolve. Im ready for Friday's game. I hope we come out with a win. I believe we deserved last years home game against them. SIUE should have one that.
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