my first game at Miami, had to show my respect for charlie.
first half was fun. halftime speech by Mrs coles was tremendous. the 2nd half was almost unbearable.
my impressions: Hurley isn't ready for prime time. he looked completely dejected on more than one occasion after losing possession via held ball or turnover (s). I hope he builds on this and increases his assertiveness and intensity.
Bean is a gunner. too many shots withouthe making a single pass and having no offensive rebounder near the bucket.
Taylor - I thought he played hard. I don't recall him creating a turnover.
Tony - love his game. an off season of hitting the weights hard will take his game up another notch.
Ndour- no idea why he doesn't touch ball, at least, on more possessions. I'm going to miss him. fun to watch.
R Taylor/Laster- too small of a sample size.
Treg- not the best game I've seen him play but I love his energy and enthusiasm. he'd be on my squad 7 days a week.
Miami really frustrated the Bobcats with their press. we seemed overpowered and timid on several occassions, whichave led to turnovers. Bean and Stevie seemed to struggle with press defenders length. passes were crisp. when we did break press we didn't attack rim at all. Miami did, almost at will.
I imagine Coach made an inspired speech at halftime in the Redhawks lockerroom. afterwards their squad was aggressive and changed the game.
I'm still behind Saul 100%. loved him putting in the walk on. he got burned for two threes, but had to come off his man to help prevent a layup both times.
Extremely nice post. Real and true and with insight.
I always those posts on EVERY board where fans are embarrassed and the team quit or had no pride or the most generic and patently wrong, "outcoached".
We all blow off steam but I am not sure this team or any Ohio team could embarrass me. I am a Bobcat fan and truly enjoyed seeing and talking to all the fans today. Seeing Ric and Paul Baron was special. Both shook their heads at the loss and gave an opinion but neither was embarrassed to be a Bobcat. None of us are happy with the team performance or that of individuals and some are angry with how their "investment" is performing. I do not think the staff or the players are very happy with the performance. If they are embarrassed I think they are really the ones have to shoulder that load, not us. Players come and go. Ohio University and the program are bigger than those individuals. Is anyone permenantly scarred by the football teams that underperformed?
I think we saw a bit of how our frosh are not quite ready to play a whole game and how the upper class who would normally mentor is not really providing that. I remember when we played teams that barked at each other and chewed each other out on the floor. We loved to see those teams. Today, we were that team... particularly in the 2nd half.
SO those that want to sit folks do not have a leg to stand on if they admonish Laster, harley or Taylor who are clearly not polished enough to fend off the redchicken pressure... Those that want folks to sit can not yell if Crabtree loses his man. Like giacomo, who may have some insight said above, there are kids out there trying hard. I do not believe any of them are going out there NOT wanting to win or build their skills. I do not believe any of them are going out there to embarrass us intentionally.
We have a team that is an amalgam of 3 coaches. Saul is delicately balancing egos, talent and skill levels, fragile frosh psyches and a number of other things. We all can imagine how hard it is to balance that time out huddle, locker room or practice time with all those different persons and issues flying every which way. None of us envy Saul and many would trade places for the money but we would find ourselves in the same crosshairs dodging the bullets the fans fire at us. Make no mistake...it is times like these that a coach truly earns his money. It is times like these that fans show their bones...it is not by sniping at each other. It is by looking at the program realistically and not rtionalizing but understanding what is going on and supporting our Bobcats while we rebuild and trust a bit in the process.
This is all of course, just one man's humble opinion. Feel free to voice your own.