Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

[6-4-3 Jackrabbit]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

At this point of the season:
SDSU -3 in the first half (607-604).
SDSU -62 in the second & OT (756-694).

.500 in conference play this season will be a win.

Go Rabbits!

[jacksstudent]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

At this point of the season:
SDSU -3 in the first half (607-604).
SDSU -62 in the second & OT (756-694).

.500 in conference play this season will be a win.

Go Rabbits!

Just looking at math that must include non-division 1 opponents.

[da_coach]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

Disappointing to be certain.

The great hope must be that the team learns from these early losses and grows and improves.

Still seems like they are trying to figure out rotations, with Howell getting playing time last night.

Defense definitely needs to improve. You can play zone effectively. Jim Boeheim is probably the best example, but Pitino at Louisville has become an almost entirely zone coach...where he was more of a man to man guy before.
It's not the fact that they are playing zone. It's that they are doing it poorly.

Hopefully they can figure it out, sooner rather than later.

[OldHare]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

Disappointing to be certain.

The great hope must be that the team learns from these early losses and grows and improves.

Still seems like they are trying to figure out rotations, with Howell getting playing time last night.

Defense definitely needs to improve. You can play zone effectively. Jim Boeheim is probably the best example, but Pitino at Louisville has become an almost entirely zone coach...where he was more of a man to man guy before.
It's not the fact that they are playing zone. It's that they are doing it poorly.

Hopefully they can figure it out, sooner rather than later.

This is making sense. The season is young for conference play. The idea that the zone would protect Daum lost some logic last night. Hopefully the coaches can fill in the blanks soon.

[Jacked_Up]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

Tough loss? Yes. Bad loss? Probably. Dumpster fire? No way. The current situation does not compare to the struggles of the early transition years. The current Jacks have some talent and depth, but they'll obviously have to get better very soon or they'll miss the post-season league tourney.

[SUPERBUNNY]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

No putting lipstick on this pig. A game we should have won but instead another second half flame out. Hard to figure out.

I'm still optimistic though. Can only imagine how frustrated the players and coaches are. All we can do is support them. Everything leads to those four days in March in Sioux Falls. That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

SUPERBUNNY

[bigticket1]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

The zone does help Daum stay out of foul trouble. In the 5 games they played man he fouled out twice and had 4 fouls in another. In the 13 games of zone, he has fouled out once, and had 4 in only one other game. I didn't watch the game last night, but it's hard to imagine fouling out that quickly in a zone, especially when none of them were offensive. Looking at his other numbers, it appears he just had a bad night, which I guess has to be expected once in awhile.

[SUPERBUNNY]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

Tough loss? Yes. Bad loss? Probably. Dumpster fire? No way. The current situation does not compare to the struggles of the early transition years. The current Jacks have some talent and depth, but they'll obviously have to get better very soon or they'll miss the post-season league tourney.

I agree with the first two sentences totally. No way am I worried about not making the Summit League Tourney. Our team has struggled for sure but only one team will miss the tournament. No way it is SDSU. No way! Nope! No chance!

SUPERBUNNY

[jacksstudent]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

The zone does help Daum stay out of foul trouble. In the 5 games they played man he fouled out twice and had 4 fouls in another. In the 13 games of zone, he has fouled out once, and had 4 in only one other game. I didn't watch the game last night, but it's hard to imagine fouling out that quickly in a zone, especially when none of them were offensive. Looking at his other numbers, it appears he just had a bad night, which I guess has to be expected once in awhile.

i agree with that it helps daum stay out of foul trouble but looking at the second half of games it doesn't matter as we've been outscored 14 out of 16 games vs division 1 opponents. I would be shocked if there are any other teams with that much of a discrepancy. I also think we need to compare who we played man against....cal (way more athletic), Irvine (big front court easy to get fouls), Wyoming on the road (historically a tough place to play).

Im not advocating for full man 2 man, I'm advocating for different looks to change the game up so we don't lose every second half.

thereis no way we don't make the summit league tournament. If we didn't with the best player in conference and the best home court advantage in conference then that would be considered a dumpster fire.

[bigticket1]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

Daum played 36 minutes with 3 fouls in the rematch with Irvine when we played zone. And Wichita State and Northern Iowa are pretty athletic teams as well.

[minnesotarabbit]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

Daum played 36 minutes with 3 fouls in the rematch with Irvine when we played zone. And Wichita State and Northern Iowa are pretty athletic teams as well.

True, we did keep daum out of foul trouble in these 3 games. We also got rocked in these games.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

I'll reiterate what da_coach says. It's not necessarily the defense we are using (man vs. zone). It's that we are terrible at it. Until our defense improves we won't win consistently.


TJ talked about the second half struggles last night in the post game. He acknowledged that it was a trend. He and Tyler theorized about the causes. One being that in the first half they are playing defense in front of the coaches and they can help them. Might be some validity to that. But TJ also said the players need to take ownership and just get tougher on the defensive end. I think that's most of the issue. Defense is a lot like rebounding. It's 90% effort. Someone needs to step up and be the leader out there and make the guys accountable.

At one time last night I head TJ yell at Chris Howell that he needs more out of him. They were playing defense at the time.

[OldHare]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

Is it noteworthy that the Leathernecks shot 18 more threes than their average? They also shot their 40% average in doing so.. Would it seem logical that opponents would plan to shoot more long shots in the game plan? What would you do to counter in your game plan? Jackrabbits shot and made 8 more free throws against the Leathernecks. The free throw stat for the Jackrabbits is having less relevance to the outcome of the games. The stats that are negative include offensive rebounds, assists, and turnovers. 72 points indicate that assists may not be critical. 75 points scored against the Jackrabbits might visit points off turnovers or it could be the extra 8.5 shots taken by the opponent due to whatever stat you want to plug in. It seems defense, whatever defense you want to play, could be influencing the outcome of the games. 4.7 of the extra shots could be related to allowing offensive rebounds. The balance of the extra shots are due to the imbalance of turnovers. 3.4 points per game are a result of the imbalance of scoring from the 3 point line which does not seem like much until you add the totals. I would assume that if we break it down to first half and second half that we could see more definition to support earlier assumptions of game adjustments by the opponents.

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Jackrabbits @ Western Illinois

Bottom line: we are not a very good basketball team right now. That is reality.

That can change, but I don't see much reason to expect dramatic improvement.