So RMU falls to Lafayette in the opener by 27. It was RMU's first loss in a home opener in 16 years. It was also their worst home loss since February 19,1996 when they lost to Ryder 94-67. Let's talk it our folks...
First, some stats:
-Lucky Jones, Kavon Stewart, and Marcquise Reed each had a team-high ten points. Lucky had an especially rough night, shooting 2-14. We'll get back to him later. Meanwhile, Kavon Stewart went an encouraging 7-9 from the free throw line and Reed did neat things in transition, hit a three ball (with many more to come), and created his own shot.
-As a team, RMU shot 25.0% from the field and 22.7% from three. They were outscored in the paint 34-14 and outrebounded 43-27.
-They had six total assists.
-I actually liked some of the splits. I like 22 three point attempts. I like just 11 turnovers. These are good. You'll win a lot of games with only 11 turnovers.
-The concern with the frontcourt is very real. The combination of Elijah Minnie, Stephen Bennett, and Lionel Gomis resulted in zero points, 5 rebounds, four turnovers, and eight fouls. This, obviously cannot happen. Someone has to step upand show any ability to play with their back to the basket.
-Speaking of Minnie, he got the start at power forward today. He immediately got into foul trouble and really didn't get a chance to impact the game. Some of his fouls were bad fouls too. His fourth came a minute into the second half with an over the back foul. He also set an illegal screen in the first half. These are the things he'll learn to avoid with time.
-Lucky Jones also was in foul trouble early. Toole on the impact of Minnie and Lucky in foul trouble:
"It changes them (the game plan) drastically because now your rotations are pretty much out the window because you've got to save some guys because of foul troubles. We've got some guys playing some different positions that maybe they haven't worked on previously in practice," he said.
"Again, that all comes down to detail. Elijah gets an illegal screen, that's a detail thing, we talk about screening all the time. You've got to wait, Lucky's got to wait on the screen, Elijah can't move on the screen. We get a couple loose ball fouls where I think we were just a step behind with our urgency, or try and take a shortcut and grab instead of doing it with our feet or whatever the case might be. Elijah's third foul that he got was probably a bad decision by me to put him back in with two. At that point we had to try and figure out something and he just was out of control, a little bit undisciplined, and he just gambles and you can't gamble like that in Division-I basketball. You're going to pick up a foul more times than not.
-Lucky Jones may have had a rough game but I'm coming away really, really impressed with him. This year he has talked a lot about being a leader and having a better understanding of his teammates. After a 2-14 shooting performance, he owned it. He described his performance as "tremendously terrible, very bad." He also sacrificed his body by diving into the stands late in the game, despite the final outcome being set. I like that attitude a lot.
-RMU started the game out in a 2-3 before switching to a man defense the final 6-7 minutes. I didn't really have an opinion on it. Wasn't good but wasn't bad. Lafayette is a tremendous offensive team. They move the ball well and shoot even better. If there was one glaring weakness the D showed, it was again an inability to stop the high post, as Lucky Jones explains:
"The high post was wide open. When I say it's wide open I mean, in our zone, once the ball gets to the high post we're supposed to have the big mans job to pressure it so it won't get so easily to the short corner. Obviously our forwards, we just didn't get to the rotations fast enough and they just got into our zone. once you get into our zone it's easy to pick it apart."
-Starting 5: Kavon-Appolon-Lucky-Minnie-Bennett. First off the bench: Gomis-Reed-Pryor. Was a little surprised to get no Chuck Oliver until about 6:30 eft in the half. For what it's worth, i thought Chuck earned some more PT today. Maybe not the best shot selection, but he trusts his shot, got to the paint more, grabbed four rebounds in 15 minutes, and played with energy.
That's all for now. Feel free to comment share...
--@C_Cappella
This post was edited on 11/14 11:24 PM by Chris Cappella
First, some stats:
-Lucky Jones, Kavon Stewart, and Marcquise Reed each had a team-high ten points. Lucky had an especially rough night, shooting 2-14. We'll get back to him later. Meanwhile, Kavon Stewart went an encouraging 7-9 from the free throw line and Reed did neat things in transition, hit a three ball (with many more to come), and created his own shot.
-As a team, RMU shot 25.0% from the field and 22.7% from three. They were outscored in the paint 34-14 and outrebounded 43-27.
-They had six total assists.
-I actually liked some of the splits. I like 22 three point attempts. I like just 11 turnovers. These are good. You'll win a lot of games with only 11 turnovers.
-The concern with the frontcourt is very real. The combination of Elijah Minnie, Stephen Bennett, and Lionel Gomis resulted in zero points, 5 rebounds, four turnovers, and eight fouls. This, obviously cannot happen. Someone has to step upand show any ability to play with their back to the basket.
-Speaking of Minnie, he got the start at power forward today. He immediately got into foul trouble and really didn't get a chance to impact the game. Some of his fouls were bad fouls too. His fourth came a minute into the second half with an over the back foul. He also set an illegal screen in the first half. These are the things he'll learn to avoid with time.
-Lucky Jones also was in foul trouble early. Toole on the impact of Minnie and Lucky in foul trouble:
"It changes them (the game plan) drastically because now your rotations are pretty much out the window because you've got to save some guys because of foul troubles. We've got some guys playing some different positions that maybe they haven't worked on previously in practice," he said.
"Again, that all comes down to detail. Elijah gets an illegal screen, that's a detail thing, we talk about screening all the time. You've got to wait, Lucky's got to wait on the screen, Elijah can't move on the screen. We get a couple loose ball fouls where I think we were just a step behind with our urgency, or try and take a shortcut and grab instead of doing it with our feet or whatever the case might be. Elijah's third foul that he got was probably a bad decision by me to put him back in with two. At that point we had to try and figure out something and he just was out of control, a little bit undisciplined, and he just gambles and you can't gamble like that in Division-I basketball. You're going to pick up a foul more times than not.
-Lucky Jones may have had a rough game but I'm coming away really, really impressed with him. This year he has talked a lot about being a leader and having a better understanding of his teammates. After a 2-14 shooting performance, he owned it. He described his performance as "tremendously terrible, very bad." He also sacrificed his body by diving into the stands late in the game, despite the final outcome being set. I like that attitude a lot.
-RMU started the game out in a 2-3 before switching to a man defense the final 6-7 minutes. I didn't really have an opinion on it. Wasn't good but wasn't bad. Lafayette is a tremendous offensive team. They move the ball well and shoot even better. If there was one glaring weakness the D showed, it was again an inability to stop the high post, as Lucky Jones explains:
"The high post was wide open. When I say it's wide open I mean, in our zone, once the ball gets to the high post we're supposed to have the big mans job to pressure it so it won't get so easily to the short corner. Obviously our forwards, we just didn't get to the rotations fast enough and they just got into our zone. once you get into our zone it's easy to pick it apart."
-Starting 5: Kavon-Appolon-Lucky-Minnie-Bennett. First off the bench: Gomis-Reed-Pryor. Was a little surprised to get no Chuck Oliver until about 6:30 eft in the half. For what it's worth, i thought Chuck earned some more PT today. Maybe not the best shot selection, but he trusts his shot, got to the paint more, grabbed four rebounds in 15 minutes, and played with energy.
That's all for now. Feel free to comment share...
--@C_Cappella
This post was edited on 11/14 11:24 PM by Chris Cappella
