Game 16: 2022-23 La Salle (1/11)

[Jeff90]

Gapara’s dad sent out a tweet basically questioning why his son does play more. This scares me.

[thecaptain]

we suck.

[69MG]

I'm not even going to read this thread as I'm sure everything that needs to be said has ben said. I'll keep it real short:
We gave this game away. End of story.

[BostonBert]

Good thread, kids.

This was the first game of the FM era that really pissed me off because it came down to coaching. That was maddening. The talent is there to be much better than whatever that was tonight.

[Not Trigger]

Definition of a loser's fanbase: collective wetting of pants when a player's parent tweets something mean to the coach.

[bunkerhill87]

Said this the past several years. This program is a dumpster fire. Noah is an incredible player but the end got sideways quickly. Brutal to watch it finish out that way. It's all about coaching and in game adjustments. Saw none. Gaspare dad complaining about time? Is this high school. He may be talented but he is wildly raw. I thought dd was out of control on several occasions. They missed so many close in shots. Again this has been said for years. We are the bottom of the a10. A marginal league this year with maybe one team going. Huge reset needed again. Broken record.

[Floyd]

Agree that final possession was brutal. In that TO it should have been made clear that there was another TO available to use if things broke down.
Let this one slip away

These guys are playing hard, but it's a little concerning to me that they seem emotionless playing, like it's not fun. They need to enjoy playing to be their best. Aside from DD, rarely do you seem to see any joy. They've looked a little beat down

[Juice Stand]

^The one guy playing with big emotion, contagious joy, is Dyondre, and he got benched for basically the entire 2nd half because Frank didn't like a display emotion from him. I found that massively hypocritical from the coach and was a factor in us losing the game. DD was red hot yesterday. He didn't deserve that.

[Juice Stand]

Really no need to comment on that game, but I need to vent so I'm going to try to keep things as brief as possible.

Once again, #1 played more minutes than Dyondre and Tafara. If his defense and rebounding are so important to this team that he's playing more minutes than those guys, then why wasn't he in for the final 5 or 6 minutes when we clamped down on D and came back with a chance to win on the final possession? I'll tell you why: Because it's not. He actually had a decent offensive night (3-5, 6 points), but only grabbed 3 rebounds and was absolutely terrible to start the 2nd half, yet he was given 17 minutes. This isn't a rant about Brandon Martin, it's a rant about the decision makers that put him in, and I know I'm a broken record that's beating a dead horse, but FFS ... PLAY YOUR BEST PLAYERS.

[R&G]

I’m concerned that this team looked really good (and was fun to watch) before they supposedly knew how to play in Frank’s system. The more they’ve “learned”, the worse they look and it’s clear that they are not enjoying it. This team looks bad on both offense and defense and are losing to teams that aren’t very good.

[eldonabe]

Agree that final possession was brutal. In that TO it should have been made clear that there was another TO available to use if things broke down.
Let this one slip away

These guys are playing hard, but it's a little concerning to me that they seem emotionless playing, like it's not fun. They need to enjoy playing to be their best. Aside from DD, rarely do you seem to see any joy. They've looked a little beat down

I said the same thing about the last play before the half at GW. Looked like FM was drawing up a play of some kind and all NF did was dribble around for a minute only to force up a shot that go blocked.

SET A FUCKING SCREEN or something at the very least.

Horrible

[stevemaz]

I noticed DD grabbing his chest area several times during 2nd half warmups so maybe he had an issue he was dealing with and that is why he stayed on the bench.

We definitely have an issue on defense when the other team has two quick guards so Im thinking when we play this type of team we need to see a lot of Fernandes and Diggins. I always thought of Weeks as more of a wing player and not as a guard. I became overly optimistic in November when it looked like we were going to be a good defensive team, but now we look lost and are often the slower team on the court. In games vs teams with two quick guards I would start Diggins.

The other big issue we have is a shocking lack of ability to finish around the hoop.

No matter who Frank starts I think we need to see more of Gapare, Dominquez, and Luis. If they all stay, I think in two years the three of them and who ever is the starting pt guard will be our nucleus. For this season I thought we had a chance to win 20+games and maybe be a bubble team/NIT bid team, but now Id say just compete, build confidence of the young guys and make a run in the A10 tournament, which will be wide open.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Hopefully some home cooking will help here. They haven't played back-to-back home games since Albany/Lowell... could really use some confidence building here with these two.

Nevermind. Ugh, what a disaster that 2nd half was.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

I noticed DD grabbing his chest area several times during 2nd half warmups so maybe he had an issue he was dealing with and that is why he stayed on the bench.

I think he got benched. If I remember the sequence correctly, he came down the court and got fouled (looked obviously to be), but there was no call. On the next possession, he had a VERY nice post move for a bucket, but after he hit it he turned to the ref on the baseline and said something, all right infront of the UMass bench. As the possession started to move the other way, I saw Frank lose his mind and immediately call for someone to go in. DD came out (to be fair, along with Cross, I believe) and then never saw the court again.

[Battle Ax]

I noticed DD grabbing his chest area several times during 2nd half warmups so maybe he had an issue he was dealing with and that is why he stayed on the bench.

I think he got benched. If I remember the sequence correctly, he came down the court and got fouled (looked obviously to be), but there was no call. On the next possession, he had a VERY nice post move for a bucket, but after he hit it he turned to the ref on the baseline and said something, all right infront of the UMass bench. As the possession started to move the other way, I saw Frank lose his mind and immediately call for someone to go in. DD came out (to be fair, along with Cross, I believe) and then never saw the court again.

I believe it was an injury. During a timeout he was talking to his father pointing to his chest and grimacing. He even left with the trainer for a while