I have watched the the replays of the past 6 games several times and truly see the pieces coming together. The Bobcats are in every game and have the talent to run with anyone in the MAC. The view from here is fairly bright if execution errors are clarified and personal attitudes do not come into play as a response to officiating or the ploy of seemingly every MAC coach to send their players to clap in the face of certain players who will respond predictably. This team needs to gel to acheive. Individuals will not be able to carry this one like last year.

A list of things I have on my notepad.

Don't overhelp. Leads to open looks by guys who do not normally have good % looks. Gambling on Defense leads to open kick outs, once they hit one or two shots their confidence gets jacked. Same complaint on the Butler board this year.

2/3 zone on the wing leaves the block open frequently when the player on the low wing starts the defensive possession too far shaded to the wing. Miami game and again last night block was open because of this even though the ref missed the obvious travel in the 2nd half.

The extra pass is still not there. In the games where there is good motion and the passes are moving the defense, we have great looks.

TJ Hall let a ball pass through his hands last night in the corner. I replayed that segment over and over . I am convinced he had his feet set for so long that he fully did not expect the pass to be coming.

There are many more notes but those are just a couple that are a result of the last few hours. WIth nothing to do today but sit around watching basketball or ice freeze I chose hoops. Ytown State game tonite so we will see the current 4th place Horizon L Butler team trying to fix their problems.

I agree fully that the pieces are there. One thing that is a theme here is that either the players do not get the message or the staff is missing the obvious when they are breaking down the results. Forest/trees thing.

I think this team can do the same thing as last years if they start playing as a team and not individuals trying to carry certain segments at a time. Cohesiveness gives confidence, confidence gives trust and the team as a whole reaps the rewards when they play that way.

Just my two cents, it totally gibes with Mr potstirred. Glad you brought this up.

The problem wasn't that we didn't have any other options. The problem was that during our extended offensive slumps it seemed that nobody was willing to take a shot other than DJ.  Pretty much everybody who touches the court regularly can be a good offensive player but that confidence isn't quite there yet. At times it looks like everyone is afraid to make a mistake.

But so much of our offense depends on how our bigs are doing. If they are active and making things happen then Tommy and Nick are going to have big nights.  If they aren't then other teams can pay more attention to the perimeter and our offense stalls. We are also missing that second player who can take their defender off the dribble.  I think Nick, Ricardo and TJ can but they haven't gotten comfortable with the college level yet. TJ and Ricardo need to learn when to pull up because they both seem to get a ton of offensive fouls after beating their man.  I think Nick just needs a little more confidence.   But I think the offensive talent is clearly there to be a very good offensive club.

The passing in the Akron game was phenomenal. I'm not sure if it was extra effort by Ohio that game, or a defensive scheme Akron had that let us, or just that they really suck this year, but if Ohio could duplicate that ball movement every night - they probably wouldn't lose another game until mid/late March. I'm just wondering why/how it comes and goes, and isn't there when needed. I hope they can get it back/going again.

Agree - again rebounding is attitude/determination. If that attitude/determination is there - it is for the whole game.

I've been crticial but these stats may leaven that:  Our freshmen are averaging 55 minutes a game and our sophs are averaging 80 minutes a game.  Between 'em that's about 67% of our minutes.  If we go 9 deep (avg 22 minutes a game, roughly) then six of our nine key guys are fresh and soph.

With help at center, we can be pretty darn good.

Hence my one word, capitalized, seven-letter exhortation:

ttt