Game 3, 2013-14: Youngstown State

[Dickie Dunn]

How does it compare to his dunk against St. Joes in 2011-12? Tough to imagine any dunk topping that one.

hmmm... different dunks, both awesome for different reasons. for sheer athleticism, this one tops it and then some. having said that, the st. joe's dunk sparked one of the more remarkable comebacks i've ever seen, from down 20-3 to up a bunch at halftime to an 18 point win.

Just saw the replay for the first time...wow. I would have to agree with you that today's was better. If you look at where he took off from, it doesnt even seem possible.

Anyone who was there will never forget Camby nearly jumping over David Harbour of Stanford in the second round of the NCAAs in 1995 in Albany.

Pic

Too bad I can't find any video of it.

[NilesGold]

Reasons we should believe the coaching is not dramatically improved:

1) Lousy offense against a zone.
2) Our halfcourt defense is still a sieve. When we play teams that get hot from outside (LSU and YSU missed many open shots) and make us pay, this inadequacy will hurt more.
3) Staying with the press which provided many open looks and driving lanes for Youngstown without forcing turnovers or taking them out of rhythm.
4) Team was allowed to be careless with the ball for far too long in this game.

What evidence do we have about #1? I can barely remember teams playing more than a couple of minutes of zone against us this season.

Almost every half-court defense this season is a sieve, the new rules make it very difficult to defend against penetration. As for UMass, I think the half-court defense has actually been pretty solid thus far.

We're really doing very all in full court press, which I think is the right move. DK is using it more to kill clock and/or control and dictate pace when he wants. This season I haven't seen it give up easy baskets as you describe.

Chaz is simply not going to pulled from the game if he commits turnovers when forcing the action, I think DK is probably ok with Chaz doing that because if he tries to stifle that part of Chaz's game it could do more harm than good. Other players get pulled from the game when they make silly decisions, like when Gordon tried to inbound the ball off of a Youngstown player today.

[xlgman]

I agree with the comments others have made about the team not having a lot of pep in their step early on and making it harder to get the crowd involved when we couldn't seem to put any runs together. There was definitely a feeling like we were likely to win but not necessarily in complete control. But really, the crowd was not primed for the game. I was surprised there wasn't more energy in there.

I was most frustrated by the fact that after Cady had a couple turnovers inside, they stopped going to him completely in the first half. IMO, they passed up numerous entry passes to him, Sampson, and even Put on a couple occasions. I think we need to stick with him throughout the game.

Overall, I thought our perimeter defense was a little suspect at times but YSU was very aggressive with their penetration and getting out on the break so they deserve a lot of the credit for taking it right to us. I thought they were a pretty good team. We just had one or two more weapons than them.

Put's dunk was ridiculous. I think everyone was surprised - even the refs who swallowed their whistles (charge IMO). We could have just run out the clock and Put had two freshmen filling the lane that he could have dished to. But instead, he brought down the hammer. I'd be pissed if I was YSU. There was no need for that. But WOW - that was impressive and I'm glad he did it.

[Chris20]

I think YSU made it tough for us to go to Cady, and frankly we were lazy on many possessions....the wings weren't getting the depth needed for a good angle for the entry, and just swung it back out. YSU also doubled a lot down there.

I only saw it live, but my impression on the dunk was that the defender slid in under Put. Put jumped FOURTEEN feet to the hoop, and I don't think the guy set up shop and was there in time. Unreal.

Cady's defense has been interesting so far. He is showing respect for the new rules and trying to avoid foul trouble, which I like - we need him on the floor to score and rebound and he realizes that. But he has also shown occasional aggression, especially blocking shots. He's doing a great job of putting his hands up and being a presence simply with his size, without bumping guys and picking up cheap body fouls. He's picking spots nicely in my opinion.

Chaz' numbers were great today, but i thought his play was pretty uneven.....his first half, specifically, wasn't too pretty. Easily the most "Bad Chaz" we've seen through the first three games. He brought it later on though.

Low minutes for Maxie....and I don't know why. DG had foul issues (his fault, a couple of real dumb ones in there), and TBERG had a knee issue....but no idea why Maxie didn't get more time. Trey Davis didn't play very well either.

Weird game. Many stats indicate a well played game - FG %, rebounding....... but the turnovers and defense were atrocious.

[CapeCodBruiser]

I was sitting 4 rows behind YSU bench and they went nuts calling for a foul on Putney posterization dunk. There was a guy in front of me rooting for YSU and I thought he was familiar. I think it might have been Larry Johnson aka Grandma-ma of the UNLV National Champions. His kid is on YSU. Not positive.

When I got to the parking lot over near the Cage at about 12:40 and saw lots of empty spots I suspected we were going to be in 5000 range for attendance. But I thought the crowd was good but not overly animated. I know Travis Ford was very vocal about not playing on Thursday night and then again on Saturday night. But if you want to draw big numbers Thursday is the best weeknight and Saturday is the best weekend night.

[Blutrane93]

Reasons we should believe the coaching is not dramatically improved:

1) Lousy offense against a zone.
2) Our halfcourt defense is still a sieve. When we play teams that get hot from outside (LSU and YSU missed many open shots) and make us pay, this inadequacy will hurt more.
3) Staying with the press which provided many open looks and driving lanes for Youngstown without forcing turnovers or taking them out of rhythm.
4) Team was allowed to be careless with the ball for far too long in this game.

What evidence do we have about #1? I can barely remember teams playing more than a couple of minutes of zone against us this season.

Almost every half-court defense this season is a sieve, the new rules make it very difficult to defend against penetration. As for UMass, I think the half-court defense has actually been pretty solid thus far.

We're really doing very all in full court press, which I think is the right move. DK is using it more to kill clock and/or control and dictate pace when he wants. This season I haven't seen it give up easy baskets as you describe.

Chaz is simply not going to pulled from the game if he commits turnovers when forcing the action, I think DK is probably ok with Chaz doing that because if he tries to stifle that part of Chaz's game it could do more harm than good. Other players get pulled from the game when they make silly decisions, like when Gordon tried to inbound the ball off of a Youngstown player today.

This is good news. We have no weaknesses.

[JPBoSox2]

Attendance was a little disappointing, but people will come around. The wins just have to keep coming. The Charleston field is pretty good, 2-1 would be very solid, and winning it would be HUGE especially with UNM likely the semifinal opponent. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Unfortunately on the Thursday night - Saturday night thing, it's true that those are the best nights for games (especially since Friday night basically doesn't have college BB games), but UMass is one of the schools in the unfortunate position of having a division 1 hockey team in the building, and Hockey East (and I'm guessing the other major leagues) play the majority of games as Friday-Saturday back-to-backs. So UMass hockey is at the Bill on a ton of Saturday nights (including next week, and all three Saturdays at the end of the season).

Just keep winning, the fans will come around. This is a fun team to watch (87.7 PPG!).

[NilesGold]

Reasons we should believe the coaching is not dramatically improved:

1) Lousy offense against a zone.
2) Our halfcourt defense is still a sieve. When we play teams that get hot from outside (LSU and YSU missed many open shots) and make us pay, this inadequacy will hurt more.
3) Staying with the press which provided many open looks and driving lanes for Youngstown without forcing turnovers or taking them out of rhythm.
4) Team was allowed to be careless with the ball for far too long in this game.

What evidence do we have about #1? I can barely remember teams playing more than a couple of minutes of zone against us this season.

Almost every half-court defense this season is a sieve, the new rules make it very difficult to defend against penetration. As for UMass, I think the half-court defense has actually been pretty solid thus far.

We're really doing very all in full court press, which I think is the right move. DK is using it more to kill clock and/or control and dictate pace when he wants. This season I haven't seen it give up easy baskets as you describe.

Chaz is simply not going to pulled from the game if he commits turnovers when forcing the action, I think DK is probably ok with Chaz doing that because if he tries to stifle that part of Chaz's game it could do more harm than good. Other players get pulled from the game when they make silly decisions, like when Gordon tried to inbound the ball off of a Youngstown player today.

This is good news. We have no weaknesses.

Since I disagreed with your 4 "Reasons we should believe the coaching is not dramatically improved", then clearly I think UMass has absolutely no weaknesses?

[Blutrane93]

^Well you think we're doing well defensively and our turnovers aren't a big deal, and since we're averaging 88 points per game I would imagine you don't see a lot of weaknesses so far. Unless, you don't like the way the water girls are distributing high quality H20.

[xlgman]

Love the reactions. Trey puts his hands on his head EXACTLY the same way I did. Cady jumps up and down as high as he can. Clyde skips around a little bit.

[JPBoSox2]

watching put's dunk for the umpteenth time now, I noticed chaz stood up from his seat on the bench before put even jumped. he's a full second ahead of everyone else on camera in reacting.

Chaz is clairvoyant and literally sees things 2 seconds before they happen... that would explain everything.

[xlgman]

Anyone notice that the new Athletics stats web page sucks? Look at the season stat page and it doesn't list PPG, Assists, Steals, TO, blocks like every other boxscore in the world. You have to scroll down to find the leaders.

I liked the old athletics site. This new one is blah and cookie cutter.

[JPBoSox2]

Anyone notice that the new Athletics stats web page sucks? Look at the season stat page and it doesn't list PPG, Assists, Steals, TO, blocks like every other boxscore in the world. You have to scroll down to find the leaders.

I liked the old athletics site. This new one is blah and cookie cutter.

But autoplay was soooooo bad. I generally just use the ESPN clubhouse page for stats and info (besides bios and highlights).

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... -minutemen

[xlgman]

I still reflexively giggle and chuckle, "oh my goodness" every time I rewatch that dunk. And I can't seem to stop watching it. I think ktabz and I have probably account for 500 of the 1400+ views so far. It is a serious disservice to that poor guy. Non one deserves that.

I'm guessing that clip is going to pass Matt Glass's screen against URI in popularity around here.

[Ron Burgundy]

Having a bunch of people view that clip is the least of that defenders worries...........getting the stench of Putney's crotch sweat off his face has to be priority #1.