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xlgman · Senior Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 1291

Pete - its a little early in the day to be liquored up don't ya think? 7-4 is completely unrealistic.

I think we could win as many as 6 IF we start to shoot lights out as a team. I mean like over 40% from 3 and much better from 2 and FT. It probably isn't going to happen.

Much more likely is we win 2 more games.

Personally I think reality is somewhere inbetween. I can't believe we could really be this bad at PTFBITB and we'll pull out of the shooting slump. That alone could get us to 3 or 4 more wins.

It's not gonna be a good season but they can finish with a kick and that would make me happier than I am now.

km109 · Senior Joined: 02 Apr 2003 Posts: 843 Location: ME

When I looked at the league stats, I have to admit my optimism took a hit. We rank 13th in FG% and 12th in FG% defense, 12th in 3pt % and dead last defending 3's, and 10th in FT% (the one area I expected the number to be worse). Throw in 12th in Assists, 12th in TO margin and 11th in Assist/Turnover ratio and the picture is pretty grim. The only bright spot is rebounding where we are #1 in Offensive Rebounds, 6th in Defensive Rebounds and in the top third in rebound margin.

It seems to me the team lacks all around ball players. Gibbs and Correia have very good Assist/Turnover ratios (better than 2.6 to 1) but can't score, their shooting percentage in all three areas is terrible. We know Harris can score, but he's currently got a .8 to one A/T ratio. The guys in the front court seem to handle the boards well, but other than Vinson no one scores.

To me the positive is that I do think that the players have skills, they just seem to not complement each other very well. For lack of a better term, they're mismatched. I do think there's hope. From what I've seen Vinson and Riley have the potential to be very good A-10 players. Round out the games of those two a bit and I think other players have potential to be good complementary players (Farrell, the Carters). The two things that are obviously missing are PG that can run the offense and a scorer down low.

Plano Minuteman · Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:18 pm Post subject:

Just getting to AC (getting into the tourney, and then upsetting a team on the road in the tourney) would be awesome right now.

Signing a PG who's ready to go next October; getting everyone healthy; showing improvement, individually and as a team; staying positive even when a lot of winnable games become Ls is huge.

I was hoping we'd be a much better team in conference play than we've shown thus far. We're a few plays away from being 3-2 in conference, just gotta keep plugging away and staying positive that some of these games will break our way, starting tonight.

BTHoops · Junior Joined: 10 Jan 2004 Posts: 348

http://community.foxsports.com/goodmanonfox/blog/2010/02/04/umass_still_recovering_from_fords_recruiting_class_disaster_

It is nice to see that I am not the only one looking forward to Kellogg's future here.

LS71 · Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:18 pm Post subject:

^ I assure you...many of us are right there with you! Cool

Thanks for posting that!
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uz2b-len · Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:04 pm Post subject:

Time to fire Roy Williams. UNC is 2-6 in the conference.
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78 · Hall of Fame Joined: 02 Apr 2003 Posts: 2358

kd68 · Sophomore Joined: 21 Nov 2003 Posts: 120

How did they do last year?

Roadtrip · Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 8:36 am Post subject:

Ahhhh, fire him anyway, and change his name to Ray.

UMass1991 · Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:26 am Post subject:

uz2b-len · Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:01 pm Post subject:

Ya think?
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uz2b-len · Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:50 am Post subject:

George Washington has lots of freshmen and look how well they're doing! Oh, wait, they're tied with us for 12th. With their veteran coach. Hmmm....Maybe Vance Walberg's been secretly visiting their practices.
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kdogg8173 · Senior Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 1354

...and St. Louis is having a pretty solid year.

Len, I don't get why you keep pulling out comparisons to other schools. Every situation is different and for every one that backs up your argument, there is another team that doesn't

uz2b-len · Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:02 pm Post subject:

GW, in particular, because a few people on this board ripped Kellogg for not doing as well as Hobbs with his freshmen (earlier in the year).
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xlgman · Senior Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 1291

I'm beginning to realize now how many weaknesses we have. I am generally a glass is half full guy so I usually look at the things we didn't do well in a particular game and think that it wouldn't take THAT much to improve in those areas and finally "put together a full 40 minutes".

But the reality is that we have many weaknesses and different opponents bring certain weaknesses into the spotlight. St Louis highlighted our lack of discipline, poor shot selection, and inexperienced coach, among others. URI highlighted our propensity for turnovers, poor ball handling, and lack of a pure PG. LaSalle, Charlotte, Baylor and others highlighted our lack of inside post play and propensity to get our shots blocked. Other teams have exposed our lack of offensive punch against a zone and poor 3PT shooting %. Not to mention our poor perimeter D, which is exposed nearly every game. It goes on and on.

In games where we put up a good fight, it is usually in large part because of our effort and rebounding (two consistent strengths). But it is also largely due to the opponent's failure to take advantage of our weaknesses.

I've said before that I am up and down with this team - sometimes optimistic and sometimes pessimistic. At the moment, I'm feeling as bummed as at any point since DK took over. We've got a lot of problems with no easy fixes in sight. Seeing a younger St. Louis team school us at both ends of the floor on our home court really drove that home for me.

DK needs to make some pretty big strides with this club next year or my patience will wear very thin. As much as improving on W/L, he needs to start eliminating some of our weaknesses so that teams cannot just pick and choose which weakness to exploit on any given night.