This one had its moments despite being a worse loss than we suffered at Illinois. This team lost to Cal State Bakersfield and Houston Baptist of all teams.
SIUE trailed 20-5 early. Cal State Fullerton had 12 rebounds before the Cougars got one. They were crashing the offensive boards and scoring on second chance opportunities while anything the Cougars did was pretty much useless.
Out of nowhere, the Cougars suddenly appeared. They were the athletic, hot handed team of talented players we knew we had.
Then, after Kris Davis dunked off of a steal with 15:30 remaining in the second half, Bob Burton called a timeout and his Titans responded, and suddenly the four point deficit that seemed to be something we could rid ourselves of in a minute or two became an insurmountable mountain of defeat.
I didn't even know Kris could dunk.
The momentum in this game shifted gears faster than I could imagine on more than one occasion. It was an exciting game for about 20 minutes, the last 10 of the first half and the first 10 of the second. The bread in this game's sandwich, however was stale.
Head Coach Lennox Forrester noted after the game that the Cougars allowed too many wide open looks. D.J. Seeley, a transfer from Cal made them pay. He was 4-6 from 3-point distance and scored 24 points to lead the Titans. Forrester said the Cougars were struggling to get settled into their offensive system, evidenced by all of the bad looks they took. They were sloppy on the glass, while Burton said his team played its best basketball of the year and for the first time in a long while looked like a cohesive team, which is believable because four of his starting five are transfers from other Division I schools and many of his players were redshirted last year.
If Cal State Fullerton plays like they did Saturday, they will have a winning record. If the Cougars play like they did though, they probably won't win a game.
No Candy Land here.
Kevin Stineman tweeted that he "played like a $%@$*." I like that the guys feel bad about this one and love Kevin taking some blame. He scored three points, but I really couldn't point out anything he did wrong.
The Cougars did not make the extra pass. They had seven assists in this one, and I feel as though this team is so much more successful when they share the basketball and make plays. They were tentative, and sometimes looked confused. Forrester blamed the team's lack of execution, but I know these guys and you can draw your own conclusions.
Jerome Jones was 0-4 shooting the three. I don't like Jones shooting the three and will say it again. I think Jones is incredibly dynamic and can be a presence in the paint, working inside out. There are better options to shoot the three. Kris Davis leads the freaking nation in 3-point percentage and was 2-3. The Titans did a good job defensively closing the gaps preventing Davis from getting open looks, and they learned their lesson from facing Mark Yelovich last time when he dropped 34 on them in Fullerton. Mark was held to 14 points, which still led the team. I asked coach about Jones' 3-point shooting and he snapped back at me about it. Figured I would ask. He also noted Yelovich was 0-4 from 3-point range as well, which I note as well, but if I had to chose between Yelovich or Jones taking a big shot I would have to go with Mark. If it is a three, I will take Davis, Corey Wickware, Stineman and Reggie Reed all before Jones. Punish them inside young man.
A loss like this is tough to take, because it could mean we are in for a very long year if we already were not in for one.
The Cougars shot under 40 percent for the third time this season. They grabbed under 30 rebounds for the fourth time this season. I don't buy into those numbers too much at this point.
Ball State is going to be a very tough test Tuesday. They have shown thus far that they are a substantially improved team from last season. The Cougars have the potential to be a much improved team. We have seen glimpses of brilliance. I just hope it all comes out at once. This team is a 7 footer and a better set of plays away from being really good.
5 comments:
Agree with everything in this article. I also said I didn't know he can dunk after that play.
I too agree. Would love to see a stat of how many shots we take before, say, 15 seconds left on the shot clock. I feel we shoot way too quickly and that our 'bigs' want to be guards. As the Rock once said "Know your role and shut your mouth." Parallel to this, i believe Forrester deserves to take his role in the unemployment line very soon.
If you listen to the press conference, Forrester says his "bigs" were not getting down low in the dirty areas and criticized them for that, but says Jones is allowed to shoot threes whenever he wants. Its contradicting, yes.
I noticed a lot about our team this game. First of all, we came out with a little spunk. The coaches were loud and the players seemed like they wanted a W. That ended at about 15-17 minutes in the game.
Let me give you clear cut reasons why this game was just sad to watch:
Kris Davis-The #1 3 pt. shooter in the nation shot only 2 3's (2 for 2). He had plenty of looks, but it seemed like Forrester had him out of the game too much.
Stineman-couldn't have played any more sloppy. He was played wayyyyyyyy tooo much. Everytime I looked up, he was in the game. How can a he struggle, but still be played a lot?
Mark- tried, but exploited the drive too late. He is great at getting fouls, but he did this too late. We could have done better in drawing fouls.
Defense was weak in the 2nd half. At this point, Kris and Mark looked like the only 2 people who actually cared about playing.
I could go on and on, but I will continue to say that Forrester must go! We are getting out coached. A coaches job is to inspire, bring together, and help a team. To say that our players are mostly uninspired is absolutely true. To say that our players are discoured is absolutely true too. A good coach will squash these feelings and bring up a team. We are getting out-coached. Time to bring in the janitor to clean house. Also, Eric mentioned that Forrester talked about how that the fan and alumni turnout is lower than expected. Forrester's response, according to the presser, is that that doesn't really concern him. Eric and I both believe that is a slap in the face to those who support the team. Those words alone would not fly in another school. That's surely not professional. Very long email to Hewitt-T-minus 10 hours.
Did Forrester really say that was not his concern????? This is a marquee program for a school struggling to make it into Division I....And when I mean marquee I mean the only program that can actually drub up money for a fledgling program..Yeah our baseball, softball, track, soccer teams have been doing ok so far in Division I but they are not revenue gainers, basketball is...And I would like to point out I have paid 50 bucks for two games so far this year and we won but they were joke games and I still came out pissed off....I am ashamed that Forrester said that, Hewitt should be pissed off...this program is the face of the school and it is his job to win and bring in the people..go to other colleges the coaches are the ones out getting money and stuff. seems like Forrester doesnt care enough and hasnt cared for a long time.....TIME TO GO
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