App vs UTA - MBB

[agentpaul001]

App faces UTA at 3:30 this afternoon on ESPN3.

Hopefully we can come out with the same energy we did last Saturday, but keep it consistent throughout the game.

Our last matchup against UTA was close at halftime, but they quickly pulled away as the game went on. Both teams shot poorly, but they forced several more turnovers and beat us on the boards.

We're still attempting a ton of three point field goals (fine), but as a team we're shooting #153~ in the country. Hopefully our better shooters will start shooting more of those attempts. We're attempting a TON of three point shots, so we have to get this right.

Patrick good is shooting 44% on the season which is Top 100 in NCAA if you blend FG% and attempts ( limiting to over 30 makes, etc).

If you take out Good/Shabazz/Hinton/O'Boyle the rest of the team is shooting 30% on the season. We're attempting about 2-3 more three point FGs a game right now, so it's important we get this right.

[agentpaul001]

Up early 21-10

Shabazz has been on fire. He picked up a charge on a steal unfortunately and sitting for a bit.

UTA is shooting poorly but they've gotten a couple easy baskets off offensive rebounds.

[agentpaul001]

28-16 with free throws coming. Shabazz is still shooting very well, but the difference maker has been our defense. Rebounding with some intensity.

UTA's shooting has been very poor in every regard so we need to take advantage while we can.

[agentpaul001]

Up "just" 32-24. While it's good to head into the half with a decent lead, it really feels like we missed some opportunities to stretch the lead further. Other then Shabazz team is shooting 25%, so hopefully that picks up. Although Shabazz shooting 5/7 from three is fantastic and he's at 21 for the half (even being on bench for fair bit).

UTA has three starters with two fouls each, includind Hervey their best player. Hopefully he picks up an early third.

[agentpaul001]

Continuing the self flagellation this season from home, watching every last minute of this game

Mountaineers drop it 83-67.

UTA scored 59 in the second...

App shot 15/28 from the free throw line, had sixteen turnovers, and got outrebounded by eight. That seemed to make the difference... well that and UTA shooting well in the second half.

I don't want to single any players out as playing particularly poorly, but the turnovers to end the first and begin the second in particular just killed us. UTA's pressure worked exceedingly well and we really missed having another good ball handling guard out there.

On the plus side, I feel like this team can still win the Sun Belt tournament :p I'll just probably be watching from home

[sixtoes9134]

I'm getting tired of watching the same story play out game, after game.

[app97]

Gotta get better on defense...and Kelvin Robinson does make a sizable difference in both ends of the court. He's probably the best perimeter defender on the team and was leading the team in assists.

[Apppstate]

1-8 in the last 9. lets hear the excuses for Fox again, and hear everyone blame Capel for this team and their performance.
I hated Capel, but the saddest thing is that Capel had a much better record than Fox.
He didnt have the charisma, but charisma doesnt win games. The proof of that is in the past 2.5 years.
We suck and have had no progression in his time here, im sure the excuses will pour in for this guy, but he has brought in a lot of recruits over the past two years and they arent progressing either. Same mistakes game in, game out.
This program has been an embarrassment for the past 5 years and there is no improvement in the future with these guys leading us.

[AppDawg]

1-8 in the last 9. lets hear the excuses for Fox again, and hear everyone blame Capel for this team and their performance.
I hated Capel, but the saddest thing is that Capel had a much better record than Fox.
He didnt have the charisma, but charisma doesnt win games. The proof of that is in the past 2.5 years.
We suck and have had no progression in his time here, im sure the excuses will pour in for this guy, but he has brought in a lot of recruits over the past two years and they arent progressing either. Same mistakes game in, game out.
This program has been an embarrassment for the past 5 years and there is no improvement in the future with these guys leading us.

I'll bite. My only response here, Capel won those games with Houston and, if there were any, Buzz recruits.

Once Capel's guys came on... the wins were non-existent. This is where Fox started. Actually, lower than Capel recruits because of APR issues and less than optimal time time for him to bring on his own recruits.

The wins may not be piling up this season, but I have to think the future is bright considering Freshman and Sophomore's lead nearly every statistical category.

The foundation is being set. Once these guys learn "how" to close out a game and win... watch out.

Patience.

[Apppstate]

Wrong. A losing program fosters losing mentality.
There have been plenty of times this year that this team could have closed out games and won. The cant do it because they aren't talented enough and they consistently make the same mistakes over and over again.
We are most likely looking at a season with single digit wins, so I find it comical that you are telling people to watch out for them.
Yep, everyone in the conference needs to watch out for a team that has an 8-20 conference record the past 2 years.
Everyone watch out, we might pull into the 10th spot in the conference.

[AppDawg]

Wrong. A losing program fosters losing mentality.
There have been plenty of times this year that this team could have closed out games and won. The cant do it because they aren't talented enough and they consistently make the same mistakes over and over again.
We are most likely looking at a season with single digit wins, so I find it comical that you are telling people to watch out for them.
Yep, everyone in the conference needs to watch out for a team that has an 8-20 conference record the past 2 years.
Everyone watch out, we might pull into the 10th spot in the conference.

Nowhwere did I say watchout this year. This season is merely a foundation season.

Regarding talent, we are very young. I think we have raw talent (see prior comment most statistical leaders are Freshman and Sophs). They need to season and learn the college game. It is refreshing to see Shabazz beginning to show signs of consistent play. More importantly, the young guys need to put it all together and learn how to win.

I am still reserving judgement until the contributors this season are Juniors and Seniors.

The issue at hand is we live in a social media/instant gratification world... the harsh reality is, real life (in this instance rebuilding a program) doesn't conform to that mindset. Hence my caution in the previous post for patience.

[Apppstate]

Sorry man. In any other sport i would agree. But not in MBB. This might be the only sport that can be changed within 1-2 years. The young players in this sport turn programs around quickly and are the difference makers in MBB programs.
The harsh reality is we are making too many mistakes consistently and not learning from them. And for the record i don't know if a better coach would be interested in this program, in fact i seriously doubt it.
I just know that Fox is not the coach many in here preach him to be. If he was, then we wouldn't be this f-ing bad this year and we would see some type of life in this program. There isn't any, that is my frustration and it should be everyone else's on this board too.
Do you not think Shabazz is going to look to go to a program that will give him more exposure next year than a bottom dweller in the Sunbelt that draws 500 fans per home game? Why would a decent player have any interest in staying here. Things are not getting better

[AppDawg]

Sorry man. In any other sport i would agree. But not in MBB. This might be the only sport that can be changed within 1-2 years. The young players in this sport turn programs around quickly and are the difference makers in MBB programs.
The harsh reality is we are making too many mistakes consistently and not learning from them. And for the record i don't know if a better coach would be interested in this program, in fact i seriously doubt it.
I just know that Fox is not the coach many in here preach him to be. If he was, then we wouldn't be this f-ing bad this year and we would see some type of life in this program. There isn't any, that is my frustration and it should be everyone else's on this board too.
Do you not think Shabazz is going to look to go to a program that will give him more exposure next year than a bottom dweller in the Sunbelt that draws 500 fans per home game? Why would a decent player have any interest in staying here. Things are not getting better

You can take your ACC and/or Kentucky shades off. We are nowhere near a one and done school. A true mid-major and in our case a historical bottom half mid-major, the titanic doesn't turn as quickly.

For App to be successful in Basketball we need to follow the Davidson and College of Charleston blueprints... build a solid foundation then reload. Before we can run, we gotta learn to walk. Right now we are learning to walk.

And no. I don't think Shabazz is going to look elsewhere. He isn't going to give up a year of eligibility. Further, I think this team has bought into Fox and they see where he is trying to lead them.

[app97]

The crowd was listed at 2639 today. Not bad for us considering our recent results.

[TheMackAttack]

Sorry man. In any other sport i would agree. But not in MBB. This might be the only sport that can be changed within 1-2 years. The young players in this sport turn programs around quickly and are the difference makers in MBB programs.
The harsh reality is we are making too many mistakes consistently and not learning from them. And for the record i don't know if a better coach would be interested in this program, in fact i seriously doubt it.
I just know that Fox is not the coach many in here preach him to be. If he was, then we wouldn't be this f-ing bad this year and we would see some type of life in this program. There isn't any, that is my frustration and it should be everyone else's on this board too.
Do you not think Shabazz is going to look to go to a program that will give him more exposure next year than a bottom dweller in the Sunbelt that draws 500 fans per home game? Why would a decent player have any interest in staying here. Things are not getting better

Oh please, that first line of thinking is obviously a lie. Every post you have made on this board that isn't attacking Jim Fox is attacking Jason O'Keefe, another coach who inherited a mess of a program, but is respected by his peers and is a good bet to turn that program around. This goes to show that you will criticize first year coaches in sports other than basketball.

Players leaving after this season account for less than 5% of the minutes played this year. Our program is in far better shape than it was when Fox took over. The level of talent on the court has increased, the issues off the court have decreased. Maybe we aren't improving as much as you'd like, but we are definitely improving. The four straight losses is disheartening, but they were also to the #1, #3, and #4 ranked teams in the Sun Belt and a hot Coastal team that was riding a three game winning streak themselves. Western is the only really bad loss we have this year.

[Goapps15]

I'm more concerned that we continue to miss free throws and not play any defense. His players are young but the things that are coach able we continue to do poorly. I see above that they have to learn how to win. That is fair but I'm worried as much as they've lost, that it is in their heads. The here we go again syndrome.

I also get he inherited a mess, but in year 3 almost anywhere else you wouldn't get this type of leash.

[diehardapp18]

Program is just embarrassing. We have one of our best players ever but are just wasting him. Aside of Ronshad I don't know if any of these guys are good enough to play D1. I mean look at our recruits on a yearly basis, besides Ronshad none of them were sought after. Fox must be lost on the recruiting trails. How does UNC Asheville out recruit us?

[Stonewall]

In the forty years I've been involved ,championships , and I mean NCAA bids, have been rare,two .Outside of Bobby and Buzz zilch. Theories abound as to why but who really knows ....and yes not hiring Matt Mc Mahon was a yuge mistake. Anyway, Jim has two years to produce a winner. If he fails , we start over. Again.

[NewApp]

In the forty years I've been involved ,championships , and I mean NCAA bids, have been rare,two .Outside of Bobby and Buzz zilch. Theories abound as to why but who really knows ....and yes not hiring Matt Mc Mahon was a yuge mistake. Anyway, Jim has two years to produce a winner. If he fails , we start over. Again.

Do we know for sure that Matt McMahon applied for the job and if we had the funds to pay his desired salary?

[app97]

Program is just embarrassing. We have one of our best players ever but are just wasting him. Aside of Ronshad I don't know if any of these guys are good enough to play D1. I mean look at our recruits on a yearly basis, besides Ronshad none of them were sought after. Fox must be lost on the recruiting trails. How does UNC Asheville out recruit us?

Logan had offers from Ga Southern, Wofford, Winthrop, Charleston Southern, and Presbyterian. Tyrell Johnson had an offer from Richmond and a few lesser programs, Ike Johnson had offers from several mid-majors, Cottrell had offers from Charlotte, WCU, Mercer, and Lehigh. Others had mid-major offers as well. Basically, we were probably lucky to get Ronshad...he's a higher level recruit than we've might have normally landed, but the others aren't any lesser sought after, other than the few that still remain from Fox's first class that he had to scramble to fill. UNCA pretty much lands mid-major recruits, similar to what we're getting. The only school in the Sun Belt that I can see getting higher level recruits is Ga State. There coach has lots of connections with all of the high school in Ga and grabs all the ATL area transfers from bigger high-major programs to come back to Atlanta. Despite this, his teams normally don't finish in the top 3 in the conference. I still believe in Fox, although Robinson going down hurts. If you pay attention, many of the successful mid-majors just have good coaching. Davidson has landed a few prized recruits over the years, but their system and coaching/discipline has been what's given them most of their success.