Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › HC 84 LU 78
This topic contains 7 replies, has 1 voice, and was last updated by norcalfan 13 years, 1 month ago.
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January 7, 2012 at 10:23 pm #4464
Disappointing loss. Somehow we decided only to play the 2nd half. To say we were atrocious in the 1st half would be an understatement. CJ coudn’t hit at all and we played Ole defense. Mackey killed us all game on offense. Pitiful
January 8, 2012 at 3:09 am #4466I am really disappointed as I thought this was the game where Lehigh made a statement to the league. Obviously, they didn’t show up ready to play and blame goes to players for lack of focus for league play. You can’t just show up the road in league play and expect a win. Every game is huge as you need the home court in the final of the tournament. You can’t give away games. I can only assume the Coach had them primed, and players started to believe their own press.
Defense was abysmal, and as I have said before you can’t win unless you defend especially on the perimeter. You have to move your feet. You can’t let teams shoot over 50% against you at home and/or shoot under 40% on the road.
Nobody was very good. CJ scored 27, but it took 25 attempts, which is too many, and he only hit 10. MM was brutal on 2 for 12. And, at this point you have to start to wonder whether JH and AD can get it done as the 5th and 6th men. In my opinion, CS in pushing for even more minutes if those 2 can’t get it done. It would be tough to start him as with MM and CJ on floor, they would be very small, but you have to start considering it. Those other 2 are giving you nothing.
January 8, 2012 at 1:12 pm #4473Everyone on the team, from the head coach to the last back bencher, should be ashamed of how they started out League play….what a pathetic debut. Perhpas the excelent OOC play fuled their over confidence. You can;t mail it in…you have to play every game / every minute.
January 8, 2012 at 2:12 pm #4474After a game like that it’s better to not post right away or even post at all but here are some thoughts.
Mackey did take some ill advised shots at key moments. (three times after stops when we were down 11 that I remember) They don’t show up as turnovers but they have the same result.
I agree we need more out of Jordan and AD. 1 point 3 rebounds and 0 for shooting out of a starter and sixth man combined isn’t going to cut it.
A couple thoughts on options even though OOC has passed and it is tough to experiment now. However, I don’t know why coaches weren’t looking for some other options as staying this course could be fatal. You could see this coming and it has sort of been Jordan’s career MO. It could be that he’s a really good practice player.
1) If we go small, I actually like the idea of putting in Corey as the fifth starter. He’s plays smart team ball and is playing better every time out and appears to have some significant upside.
2) If we go big, Justin is playing the best he’s ever played. Why not Justin instead of Jordan? The coaches seem to think it’s either Gabe or Justin. Why not both? Justin’s production was better than AD & JH combined. Justin was 3-4 shooting, 6 points and 5 rebounds in 13 minutes. This isn’t the first time either. A very nice effort.
3) That said, I think we need Gabe on the floor. Gabe’s production is as good as any starter other then CJ’s yet Gabe is doing in fewer minutes then any starter other then Jordan.
All that said, it is tough place to play and it is better that it happened now rather then later. HC came to play and probably had their best game of the year. They were ready we clearly were not.
January 8, 2012 at 2:36 pm #4475Someone involved with the Holy Cross program said that was their best performance in three years.
I agree with the poster who said Lehigh had started to believe its own press.
Hopefully what happened will be a wake-up call.
American is only days away and they just won by 28January 8, 2012 at 3:56 pm #4478Short term memory loss………..
2/26/11 (just 10+ months ago) we traveled up to the Hart Center and got blown out in the second half of that game and eventually loss by 13 dropping us down to a 4 seed in the tournament that was soon to begin. Reed was quoted as saying, "We weren’t able to stave off their run…..The Crusaders came storming out of the locker room………." Only difference this year, it was the first half of play that did us in. This year, the coach could be heard as saying in the postgame interview, "We knew Holy Cross would run in transition, put us on our heels and take it to us right from the beginning." Yup, they did. We will ever learn from our mistakes?
Our last 2 up at the Hart Center:
Game 1 (2/26/11): LU 37.9% HC 51.7%
Game 2 (yesterday): LU 39.0% HC 51.7%P.S. In both games CJ, MM, HG, and GK all started for LU. No excuses, gentlemen. How could you all forget!
Who did we think we were playing yesterday!? Holy Cross always wins (well most always) up in Worcester. While they were 6-8 in OOC play this year, they were 4-1 at home, losing only to a strong Harvard team back on Nov. 15th. And, they had played a much tougher OOC schedule than us and were returning some top notch scores and promising new talent. How could we have overlooked them! Did we think we were playing a JV squad after showing-off in front of Michigan State and the nation? Well, we got what we deserved. Can we now move and learn from our mistakes?!!@#$ Thankfully, there are 13 games remaining in the schedule and no one is going to win them all – especially on the road. That said, congrats to BU and LC for doing just that yesterday in beating Army and Navy.
Other observations from yesterday………..
When we shoot a 3 will someone please follow up the shot! I know we were worried about getting back on transition D but really, all five players nearly all the time!
Hamilton becoming invisible…….0 for 3 yesterday and 2 for 10 in last three. Rebounding no better…..3 boards in last three covering 53 minutes. Seems to have lost a step, too.
Dudzinski’s strong showing……..23 points and 5 blocks (had average 11 and 1). At 6’9" seemed to play taller and with greater agility than imagined. Will be a force to be reckoned with for us and the rest of the league.
Cavataio back and as good as ever. Ditto on the force to be reckoned with above. Just what the leagues needs to hear.
Jordan Stevens. Every time you looked up, it was JS making a basket – and it was always a killer putting an end to any comeback effort we might have had underway. Who is this guy? Tripled his usual output with 17 and I’m convinced no one on the Lehigh sideline could see it coming or game-planned for him.
CJ. Always a thrill to watch. So what if he takes 1/3 of all shots like he did yesterday. Still our best weapon.
CS. Second best weapon yesterday. Not phased at all by the big stage. Kid doesn’t turn the ball over and with his shot (all types) deserves more playing time especially when MM is struggling with his as he was yesterday for much of his 36 minutes on the court. If AD and SC can’t step up when called upon – as seems more often to be the case – it may be time to consider a small lineup of: MM, CS, CJ, GK, and HG.
JM. Third best weapon – maybe second. 6 points and 5 boards in 13 minutes (only one PF). Looking more comfortable with each passing game. Will we go big someday with: GK, HG, JM, MM and CJ? See Hamiton note above.
Heading to Stable on Wednesday to see what had better be a turnaround game for us. Anyone else going?
January 8, 2012 at 6:52 pm #4479Wow. Talk about a reality check. That was brutal.
That said, all of this teams goals are still within reach and this loss doesn’t change anything. This team has responded well to other losses this year and hopefully this is the wake up call they needed and a good thing in the long run. Mackey getting destroyed by a frosh and dudzinski going off was painful to watch. Like the Cornell game, our miserable 3 pt shooting on the road killed us.
Nothing to be done about this loss except use it for focus and motivation going forward.
Last thought: I REALLY hope this team wasn’t overconfident after it’s borderline pathetic OOC schedule. Decent losses to good teams and demolishing terrible ones isn’t reason for overconfidence. In future seasons I hope we can schedule more challenging yet winnable OOC games against teams in the 80-180 RPI range that can help prepare us for games like yesterday.
January 8, 2012 at 11:55 pm #4481"Lehigh808" wrote: Everyone on the team, from the head coach to the last back bencher, should be ashamed of how they started out League play….what a pathetic debut. Perhpas the excelent OOC play fuled their over confidence. You can;t mail it in…you have to play every game / every minute.
That says it all. Right on point. Add to that, the coach doing a question and answer session before the game. Looks like him, coaches and the team needed to be watching more film. I thought Wyche scouted them. Oh well!
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