My notes on SC’s 59-57 victory over Vermont.
In a nutshell: this was an ugly game, but ugly wins are still wins!
The University of Vermont is a public university in Burlington, VT, with an enrollment of 10,585 students. Its mascot is the Catamount:
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They are out of the America East conference, and came into the game (1-2) with a win over Brown (80-65) and losses to St. Mary’s (79-53) and CSU Fullerton (94-85 2OT). They next play at Pepperdine and at San Jose State on this 8-game road trip.
This was SC's second meeting with Vermont. They last met in 2014, and SC won 64-56 at Galen. Guard Tyler Murphy in 2000-01 transferred to SC from Vermont and started 1 game and appeared in 30 other games for the Trojans.
The crowd in the Founder’s Room was maybe the smallest I have witnessed, excuse 1: Tuesday 8pm tipoff is tough for working people, excuse 2: it’s just Vermont, not like it’s anyone good. ---well actually, Vermont was 28-6 last season and qualified for the NCAA Tournament, losing to Arkansas in the first round. They have won their conference 6 consecutive seasons – so not chopped liver.
One of the TAF Directors, kicked off the program, mentioning that “Today was a great day for Lindsay Gottlieb!” From the subdued response and puzzled looks on faces, I could tell many had not heard the news about the WOT signing the No. 1 recruit in the nation, Juju Watkins. ‘Ya think maybe he should have been more explicit in his news delivery? He introduced Associate Head Coach Chris Capko, who thanked everyone for coming and updated us on the team, going back to the season opener and saying the FGCU game shocked them and was totally atypical of what they had seen all camp and in scrimmages. It is obviously still a sore spot for the coaches. As it is for us fans, too.
Coach was asked what was emphasized this week in practice. Answer: rebounding, especially not allowing offensive boards, an issue in the 2 prior games. Turnovers have also been too high and they worked on making good passes, but not over-passing.
Capko said the young guys need to grow up fast, not just this year’s frosh, but last season’s too.
They will go with the same starting lineup: Drew, Boogie, Josh, Reese and Kobe. Tre will play a lot because of his rebounding (leads team with 8.0 /g, Drew has 7.7 reb/g in 9 min/g more). Because Iwuchukwu is out and Iaroslav is still coming up to speed, they need all guards to crash the glass, especially since at times they have four guards on the floor.
He was asked how Iaroslav was doing and Capko replied that “Euro” is really still learning English and the terms the coaches use. The style of play in the American game is different and he needs more time to become comfortable, not just with basketball, but with the whole USC experience. Capko commented that he will be so much better next season.
The Catamounts like to shoot the 3-ball, averaging 26 attempts/game. Their top scorers are Dylan Penn (14.8 ppg), Aaron Deloney (14.3 ppg) and Finn Sullivan (10.5 ppg), no other players average double digits.
Now, on to the game.
It was a small crowd of 1838, the student section was barely half full. Of course, student fan Crash was present, DJ Malski joked he was there with his friend Burn -haha
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The TMB was there, along with the Song Girls, Dance Force and Spirit Squad members. I think to myself that the Cardinal Divas might want to try basketball games, as their exposure at football games seems to have decreased since they initially went viral. Also, they have to be cold at the football games in those outfits – right? Galen is a lot more comfortable.
It was a slow start for both teams. How slow? SC had 2 pts more than 5 minutes into the game, luckily Vermont only had 4. In this first half SC seemed to be offensively challenged, appearing disorganized and confused. When the threes didn’t go down (only 1 was made in the first half), they seemed to lack a plan for what to do next. They don’t really have a semblance of an inside game. Josh Morgan rushed his shots and compounded things by taking bad shots. He was 1-5 in the game. Too often our players put on blinders, ignored their teammates, and played one-on-one with their opponent. They are down 27-22 at the half, having shot 25.9% FGs and going 1-8 from beyond the arc! I don’t think they could play any worse (memories of the FGCU game creep into my thoughts).
The Catamounts are not physically imposing; SC is actually taller than they are. I wonder then, why we are making ourselves small?! We should be playing big and taking it strong to the hoop. I love Drew and his creativity, but does every shot have to be a back to the basket fade away jumper? He needs to take his man to the hoop and go up strong, especially when he is bigger than they are.
With 4 minutes gone in the second half, SC is down 30-23. At this point Drew would start to ‘feel it’ and SC managed to tie the game at 30-30. He kept this up thru the balance of the contest and was the game’s high scorer with 20 pts.
The formula for us to win games is to have consistent scoring contributions from Drew, Boogie and Reese and hold our opponents to below 40% FGs. Drew did his part in the second half and Enfield repeatedly called plays for him to post up on the smaller player that guarded him. Vermont was held to 36.8% FGs - check.
I was worried that Boogie would pull a disappearing act, as he did several times last season, when for instance he scored only 2 pts against SDSU and was held scoreless in another game. We need Boogie to be more consistent. He had only 2 pts going into the last part of this game before he found his range and knocked down a couple of threes.
SC would make only 3 of 16 (18.8%) three pt. attempts in the game. That was nearly as bad as the FGCU game, where SC shot 3-19 (15.8% 3FGs). For the season, SC is 11 for 55 on threes (20%), I doubt we will be able to call ourselves a ‘small ball’ team, shooting that poorly.
Reese finished with 13 pts but shot only 33% FGs. He rarely picks up assists, he is a shooter.
Tre White once again led the team in rebounding with 10 and Drew had 8. Where was our big guy, Josh Morgan, in this? Against Alabama State he grabbed only ONE rebound. In this game he had 4, but we need more!
Drew continued to stuff the stat sheet with 8 of our team’s 10 assists and had our only 2 steals. TWO steals for the whole team, that is pathetic, our team needs to get turnovers to get out in transition for easier scores.
Can Kijani help us, well he did not make a case in this game that suggests that he can, but he has to step up for us to have a chance with some of the bigger lineups that we will face. He has the physical tools - 'dude is a specimen' - he just needs to step up and not defer to the older guys. Help may come in the form of the 7-ft Russian Iaroslav or the top recruit in our last signing class Vincent Iwuchukwu, but who knows when that will happen.
The same goes for Oziyah, he acts like the game is too big for him at times, and needs to have more confidence that he can positively impact the games. He knows what his role on the team is supposed to be and he knows that he can make threes, he just has to start doing it.
It’s a long season, but time is wasting away and we have not yet come together as a team. Our next opportunity to do so is Friday at 8 pm at Galen Center against Mount St. Mary’s.
The following week the Trojans will be in the Bahamas, for the Battle 4 Atlantis. They will be thrown into the crucible, playing formidable teams the likes of BYU, Tennessee, Butler, Dayton, Kansas, Wisconsin or NC State. That tournament will go a long way toward determining whether SC can finish in the top third of the conference or whether we are overrated and undeserving of the 4th place prediction.
Fight on! Beat the Mount!
In a nutshell: this was an ugly game, but ugly wins are still wins!
The University of Vermont is a public university in Burlington, VT, with an enrollment of 10,585 students. Its mascot is the Catamount:
[IMG alt="Click image for larger version
Name: 1.jpg
Views: 0
Size: 20.9 KB
ID: 25559"]https://www.uscbasketball.com/filedata/fetch?id=25559&d=1668663198[/IMG]
They are out of the America East conference, and came into the game (1-2) with a win over Brown (80-65) and losses to St. Mary’s (79-53) and CSU Fullerton (94-85 2OT). They next play at Pepperdine and at San Jose State on this 8-game road trip.
This was SC's second meeting with Vermont. They last met in 2014, and SC won 64-56 at Galen. Guard Tyler Murphy in 2000-01 transferred to SC from Vermont and started 1 game and appeared in 30 other games for the Trojans.
The crowd in the Founder’s Room was maybe the smallest I have witnessed, excuse 1: Tuesday 8pm tipoff is tough for working people, excuse 2: it’s just Vermont, not like it’s anyone good. ---well actually, Vermont was 28-6 last season and qualified for the NCAA Tournament, losing to Arkansas in the first round. They have won their conference 6 consecutive seasons – so not chopped liver.
One of the TAF Directors, kicked off the program, mentioning that “Today was a great day for Lindsay Gottlieb!” From the subdued response and puzzled looks on faces, I could tell many had not heard the news about the WOT signing the No. 1 recruit in the nation, Juju Watkins. ‘Ya think maybe he should have been more explicit in his news delivery? He introduced Associate Head Coach Chris Capko, who thanked everyone for coming and updated us on the team, going back to the season opener and saying the FGCU game shocked them and was totally atypical of what they had seen all camp and in scrimmages. It is obviously still a sore spot for the coaches. As it is for us fans, too.
Coach was asked what was emphasized this week in practice. Answer: rebounding, especially not allowing offensive boards, an issue in the 2 prior games. Turnovers have also been too high and they worked on making good passes, but not over-passing.
Capko said the young guys need to grow up fast, not just this year’s frosh, but last season’s too.
They will go with the same starting lineup: Drew, Boogie, Josh, Reese and Kobe. Tre will play a lot because of his rebounding (leads team with 8.0 /g, Drew has 7.7 reb/g in 9 min/g more). Because Iwuchukwu is out and Iaroslav is still coming up to speed, they need all guards to crash the glass, especially since at times they have four guards on the floor.
He was asked how Iaroslav was doing and Capko replied that “Euro” is really still learning English and the terms the coaches use. The style of play in the American game is different and he needs more time to become comfortable, not just with basketball, but with the whole USC experience. Capko commented that he will be so much better next season.
The Catamounts like to shoot the 3-ball, averaging 26 attempts/game. Their top scorers are Dylan Penn (14.8 ppg), Aaron Deloney (14.3 ppg) and Finn Sullivan (10.5 ppg), no other players average double digits.
Now, on to the game.
It was a small crowd of 1838, the student section was barely half full. Of course, student fan Crash was present, DJ Malski joked he was there with his friend Burn -haha
[IMG alt="Click image for larger version
Name: 50.jpg
Views: 0
Size: 95.7 KB
ID: 25561"]https://www.uscbasketball.com/filedata/fetch?id=25561&d=1668663702[/IMG]
The TMB was there, along with the Song Girls, Dance Force and Spirit Squad members. I think to myself that the Cardinal Divas might want to try basketball games, as their exposure at football games seems to have decreased since they initially went viral. Also, they have to be cold at the football games in those outfits – right? Galen is a lot more comfortable.
It was a slow start for both teams. How slow? SC had 2 pts more than 5 minutes into the game, luckily Vermont only had 4. In this first half SC seemed to be offensively challenged, appearing disorganized and confused. When the threes didn’t go down (only 1 was made in the first half), they seemed to lack a plan for what to do next. They don’t really have a semblance of an inside game. Josh Morgan rushed his shots and compounded things by taking bad shots. He was 1-5 in the game. Too often our players put on blinders, ignored their teammates, and played one-on-one with their opponent. They are down 27-22 at the half, having shot 25.9% FGs and going 1-8 from beyond the arc! I don’t think they could play any worse (memories of the FGCU game creep into my thoughts).
The Catamounts are not physically imposing; SC is actually taller than they are. I wonder then, why we are making ourselves small?! We should be playing big and taking it strong to the hoop. I love Drew and his creativity, but does every shot have to be a back to the basket fade away jumper? He needs to take his man to the hoop and go up strong, especially when he is bigger than they are.
With 4 minutes gone in the second half, SC is down 30-23. At this point Drew would start to ‘feel it’ and SC managed to tie the game at 30-30. He kept this up thru the balance of the contest and was the game’s high scorer with 20 pts.
The formula for us to win games is to have consistent scoring contributions from Drew, Boogie and Reese and hold our opponents to below 40% FGs. Drew did his part in the second half and Enfield repeatedly called plays for him to post up on the smaller player that guarded him. Vermont was held to 36.8% FGs - check.
I was worried that Boogie would pull a disappearing act, as he did several times last season, when for instance he scored only 2 pts against SDSU and was held scoreless in another game. We need Boogie to be more consistent. He had only 2 pts going into the last part of this game before he found his range and knocked down a couple of threes.
SC would make only 3 of 16 (18.8%) three pt. attempts in the game. That was nearly as bad as the FGCU game, where SC shot 3-19 (15.8% 3FGs). For the season, SC is 11 for 55 on threes (20%), I doubt we will be able to call ourselves a ‘small ball’ team, shooting that poorly.
Reese finished with 13 pts but shot only 33% FGs. He rarely picks up assists, he is a shooter.
Tre White once again led the team in rebounding with 10 and Drew had 8. Where was our big guy, Josh Morgan, in this? Against Alabama State he grabbed only ONE rebound. In this game he had 4, but we need more!
Drew continued to stuff the stat sheet with 8 of our team’s 10 assists and had our only 2 steals. TWO steals for the whole team, that is pathetic, our team needs to get turnovers to get out in transition for easier scores.
Can Kijani help us, well he did not make a case in this game that suggests that he can, but he has to step up for us to have a chance with some of the bigger lineups that we will face. He has the physical tools - 'dude is a specimen' - he just needs to step up and not defer to the older guys. Help may come in the form of the 7-ft Russian Iaroslav or the top recruit in our last signing class Vincent Iwuchukwu, but who knows when that will happen.
The same goes for Oziyah, he acts like the game is too big for him at times, and needs to have more confidence that he can positively impact the games. He knows what his role on the team is supposed to be and he knows that he can make threes, he just has to start doing it.
It’s a long season, but time is wasting away and we have not yet come together as a team. Our next opportunity to do so is Friday at 8 pm at Galen Center against Mount St. Mary’s.
The following week the Trojans will be in the Bahamas, for the Battle 4 Atlantis. They will be thrown into the crucible, playing formidable teams the likes of BYU, Tennessee, Butler, Dayton, Kansas, Wisconsin or NC State. That tournament will go a long way toward determining whether SC can finish in the top third of the conference or whether we are overrated and undeserving of the 4th place prediction.
Fight on! Beat the Mount!
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