Reply To: Game 12: Bryant

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Game 12: Bryant Reply To: Game 12: Bryant

#8702

lehigh90
Participant

We can bitch about the schedule all we want, and I have probably been one of the loudest bitchers.  But, in reality, for Lehigh, the only thing that matters is the 14 games we will play in the PL regular season and the PL tournament.  We can post strength of schedule figures until the cows come home, but this is a ONE BID LEAGUE, period.  The strength of schedule is nice for fans like us who attend the games to see bigger opponents, and judge how we stack up.  But, it is all pretty irrelevant, unless there is a tie atop the PL standings after 14 games for homecourt.  And, we didn’t have homecourt last season, and it didn’t matter.  We are not getting an at-large bid ever, and neither is anybody else, so really who cares about your KenPom rating, or your Sagarin rating, or your SOS rating.  It is really about as relevant in the grand scheme as how many fannies pack Stabler.  We could play Maryland Eastern Shore and Muhlenberg in front of 7 people, and it doesn’t matter if we win the PL tournament. 

I have a bigger problem with the way Reed has used his team in the OOC, than our SOS.  We are through 12 games, mostly irrelevant ones, and we still have no clue whether or not CB, JG and DC can play.  I fear that we do know that CB can’t play, and looking like JG is a long long long term project.  But, we know nothing about DC, who was perhaps our top recruit.  You have to get the guy some minutes to see what we have in him.  We have also showed pretty much exclusively a man to man defense, and have not worked on any real wrinkles that we could use in the league or in either tournament (assorted zones, box and one, triangle and two, half court trapping 1-3-1, or full court pressure).  The coach needs to build this team for the future, always, not just rely on 3 guys who will be gone in a few months.  Can MM play the 2 in a lineup with CS at the point, we don’t know, but we should have found out, as that may be a viable option next season.  Can AD and SC coexist on the floor at the same time, we don’t know, but would be nice to know for next season.  Can CS play off the ball, again we don’t really know?  Can CB play the 4 with JG at the 5, unknown.  You need to use these games to build for something.  I would rather beat a team like St. Francis in a tighter game and figure out what I have on the bench and roster.  We have continued to roll out the 7 or 8 known quantities on the team, and have found out really nothing about the other half of the roster.  And, even though we played our big 3 30+ minutes every night, we still have shown no real ability to play with major teams (Pitt, Baylor, VCU we will see).  What will be the role of BJB going forward?  Is he a starter, is he a bench player?  If he starts, what is the role of AD, is he the first shooter, or does he fall behind SC?  Questions, questions.

I think Reed is spending more time figuring out his post-CJ coaching exit, and polishing his post-game press conference thoughts, than tweaking this roster and potential strategies moving forward. This looks like the end of the Fran McCaffrey era more and more.  And, he needs to get all hands on deck on the recruiting trail.  This team is woefully short of big bodies and it looks to be killing us for this season and the future.