Up Next: Evansville

[UNI Ka-Bullseye]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

Is it reasonable to call McDonnell with his current build a beast on the boards? Just always in the right place at the right time. This does not appear to be a coincidence. He has shown this on both sides of the ball, with and without the ball, consistently over the past couple weeks.

[unipanther2154]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

Is it reasonable to call McDonnell with his current build a beast on the boards? Just always in the right place at the right time. This does not appear to be a coincidence. He has shown this on both sides of the ball, with and without the ball, consistently over the past couple weeks.

Sly fox. He just knows how to get position on the boards and finds a way to slip through the D for quick buckets.

[ClivePanther]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

Agreed. Bennett's 2nd foul that sat him down for the rest of the half was bogus. (HUGE lift from McDonnell so I guess it worked out OK). His 3rd foul early in the 2nd half was phantom. One particular possession he was getting pinballed around underneath by 3 guys and got nothing. He's got to lead the MVC in getting hit in the face. It's nice when he gets some calls because he's been shooting FT so well lately.

The pinballing appears to have more contact than it seems because he puts his head down and goes into panic mode. Opponents have been collapsing on him without worry of the kickout 3 - because he doesn't see the floor. He was credited with "only" 3 turnovers tonight but missing layups feel like turnovers. It's only going to get worse as opponents game plan for his shortcomings.

[UNIGrainer]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

I know this is factual, but it feels like I'm in bizarro world reading it.

They lost to Jackson State and were tied with Simpson with 3 minutes left. They were 350 of 351 in the RPI entering league play.

Couldn't agree more. The new coach opened up the offense and it seems to be working. We'll see if they can keep it up in the second half.

[EVSPanther]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

The pinballing appears to have more contact than it seems because he puts his head down and goes into panic mode. Opponents have been collapsing on him without worry of the kickout 3 - because he doesn't see the floor. He was credited with "only" 3 turnovers tonight but missing layups feel like turnovers. It's only going to get worse as opponents game plan for his shortcomings.

I'll probably get beat up for this, but I actually thought Bennett did a much better job tonight on the kick outs. I know Carlson, Morgan and Ashton all missed wide open kick outs from Bennet when he was getting doubled. I thought he was looking for it better tonight. Not perfect, but better! I'll take it.

[ClivePanther]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

Reminds me of a certain ninja tuttle dude. Anyone else see it?

What a nice surprise he's been after not being in the rotation the first part of the season. We'll see how he comes along. Seems to be more of a natural shooter than Tut and he's shown some sneaky savvy around the bucket too for a skinny kid ... not a dominant defender in the post (yet) but he holds his own better than I expected. I wonder what Jake saw in practice that either 1) didn't think he could play early and/or 2) thought he should give him some minutes 13ish games into the season?

Btw- interesting Roades has been completely MIA. Especially with McCloud's minutes dwindling. I thought he played ok. Is he injured?

[ClivePanther]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

I'll probably get beat up for this, but I actually thought Bennett did a much better job tonight on the kick outs. I know Carlson, Morgan and Ashton all missed wide open kick outs from Bennet when he was getting doubled. I thought he was looking for it better tonight. Not perfect, but better! I'll take it.

I watched the game but apparently missed all of the kick outs your note. I must be covering my eyes when the ball goes in!

[UNI Ka-Bullseye]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

Couldn't agree more. The new coach opened up the offense and it seems to be working. We'll see if they can keep it up in the second half.

Drake has scored 85+ in all four of their conference home games, all wins. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out when we bring our rediscovered D to town. MVC leading scorer Brown was 3-12 tonight, including 1-10 on 2-point shots (in part because of less room to shoot off the curl than he is accustomed to), had a meaningless 3 at the end. Also had 5 TO.

[sevelev711]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

I'll probably get beat up for this, but I actually thought Bennett did a much better job tonight on the kick outs. I know Carlson, Morgan and Ashton all missed wide open kick outs from Bennet when he was getting doubled. I thought he was looking for it better tonight. Not perfect, but better! I'll take it.

Agreed, Bennett actually looked pretty good on the kickouts, they just weren't hitting the wide open shots. The offense worked as intended (get it inside, if it's 1-on-1, Bennett can take it, if double teamed, kick it out) but the shots weren't falling. And that's okay, so long as the defense stays at the level that it is, then the offense is just fine where it's at. Also part of the reason why I prefer McCloud to Haldeman right now. We don't need more shooters, we've got two/three shooters on the floor without Haldeman on the floor, but we need all the defense we can get.

[domedays]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

A big question for me is, will we have Jeremy for the whole year? On one of his falls to the floor there didn't seem to be any contact, it looked like his ankle just gave way. Then he limped down the court. I think he needs rest to heal that ankle but it is Senior year and no time in the schedule to rest.
His shooting could suffer if he is unable to practice between games.

[Khan4Cats]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

What a nice surprise he's been after not being in the rotation the first part of the season. We'll see how he comes along. Seems to be more of a natural shooter than Tut and he's shown some sneaky savvy around the bucket too for a skinny kid ... not a dominant defender in the post (yet) but he holds his own better than I expected. I wonder what Jake saw in practice that either 1) didn't think he could play early and/or 2) thought he should give him some minutes 13ish games into the season?

Btw- interesting Roades has been completely MIA. Especially with McCloud's minutes dwindling. I thought he played ok. Is he injured?

McDonnell had knee surgery at the end of last season. He was still working back to full activity at the start of the season, you could see that he wasn't moving as fluidly.

Rhodes is the 3rd pg right now. Ashton and Morgan are playing great at the 2 and 3 with Brown giving them a breather. Just no room in the rotation right now.

[hoopfan]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

I'll probably get beat up for this, but I actually thought Bennett did a much better job tonight on the kick outs. I know Carlson, Morgan and Ashton all missed wide open kick outs from Bennet when he was getting doubled. I thought he was looking for it better tonight. Not perfect, but better! I'll take it.

He was improved last night as he actually kicked it out 3 or 4 times, but I think they were all before the double team got there. I still don't recall him kicking it out when the double arrives. A previous poster was correct when they said he just puts his head down and can't see anything.

Considering the offense didn't make a field goal for the last 7 minutes of the game, it would have been nice to see McCloud go back in the game as he was doing a nice job of getting into the lane and finding guys. Early in the 2nd half he drove and kicked it out to Jeremy in the corner for a wide open 3. For some reason Jeremy didn't shoot and then ended up traveling when he tried to take his guy off the dribble. You could see the frustration on McCloud's face when Jeremy didn't shoot and the travel was called. This happens several times every game where he will get someone an open look and they pass it up. It has to be frustrating for him to drive and create and not see anything come out of it and then have his minutes reduced on top of it.

[Panther'73]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

A big question for me is, will we have Jeremy for the whole year? On one of his falls to the floor there didn't seem to be any contact, it looked like his ankle just gave way. Then he limped down the court. I think he needs rest to heal that ankle but it is Senior year and no time in the schedule to rest.
His shooting could suffer if he is unable to practice between games.

That particular fall happened right in front of us. There was definitely body contact (hips) from opponent that threw JM off balance...

[PVG Panther Fan]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

On a side note... It took me 37 mins to get out of the west dome parking lot last night. Why we didn't have police directing traffic at Hudson Rd just north of the WRC I don't know. But Rimas the post game show was over and the bus with EU players was gone by the time I made it to Hudson Rd. Luckily I was in a great mood after a W when we shot 20% from 3.
Huge game by Bennett and LukeMcD. Excellent D won us the game, and we out rebounded them! Time to shoot lights out Sat and hand Drake a home loss to keep this streak alive!

[PantherObserver]

Re: Up Next: Evansville

On a side note... It took me 37 mins to get out of the west dome parking lot last night. Why we didn't have police directing traffic at Hudson Rd just north of the WRC I don't know. But Rimas the post game show was over and the bus with EU players was gone by the time I made it to Hudson Rd. Luckily I was in a great mood after a W when we shot 20% from 3.
Huge game by Bennett and LukeMcD. Excellent D won us the game, and we out rebounded them! Time to shoot lights out Sat and hand Drake a home loss to keep this streak alive!

I'd like to know why they have now blocked off Campus St, forcing the traffic that parks by the art and music building on to Hudson now rather than being able to exit toward Gallagher. It's only made the the problem worse and is mind boggling in how little sense it makes.