70-59!

Great first half, regrouped in last 7 min of second half, Ovie great game23/13/5, white a pure scorer, DC ? Where are the assists?

Seems to be more students then in previous years and they keep in the game.

OK, we finally played a little defense, we shot FTs, Tra'vaughn White bounced back, and Soko filled the stat sheet again (although I hope he cuts back on his turnovers). Focus on the positive; we won!

G-Duke wrote:

CLK wrote:

A win and I'll take it.  Great defense the first half.  Outscored in the second half.  If this team will ever play solid defense in both halves they would be very dangerous.  Hopefully it will happen against Pitt.  Go Dukes.

PS:  Duquesne student section empty again.  DU students have no school pride, just pathetic to see.  Maybe DU should use some of the $1 Million  to rent some student for the games.

 

Its a win but they played awful defense in the 2nd half.   Albany was driving the lane and scoring in the paint rather easily in the 2nd half.    My guess is you were not at the game, I was and thought the students were great!   they were as loud as i can remember any home game at the Palumbo in a long time.   They were riding the coach, the players and holding signs.    For a home game on a week night against a scrub team i thought they showed up.
 

 
I was not at the game, but I watched it on video.  At the start of the game they showed a close up of the empty student section.  To the right of the band there were by my estimate maybe 50 students, and that might be a generous estimate.  It seriously looked pathetic.  Maybe more students showed up later, I could not tell.  I am glad to hear that those students that were there were into the game.  If DU is ever going to have a real home court advantage it has to start with the students.

CLK wrote:

G-Duke wrote:

CLK wrote:

A win and I'll take it.  Great defense the first half.  Outscored in the second half.  If this team will ever play solid defense in both halves they would be very dangerous.  Hopefully it will happen against Pitt.  Go Dukes.

PS:  Duquesne student section empty again.  DU students have no school pride, just pathetic to see.  Maybe DU should use some of the $1 Million  to rent some student for the games.

 

Its a win but they played awful defense in the 2nd half.   Albany was driving the lane and scoring in the paint rather easily in the 2nd half.    My guess is you were not at the game, I was and thought the students were great!   they were as loud as i can remember any home game at the Palumbo in a long time.   They were riding the coach, the players and holding signs.    For a home game on a week night against a scrub team i thought they showed up.
 

 
I was not at the game, but I watched it on video.  At the start of the game they showed a close up of the empty student section.  To the right of the band there were by my estimate maybe 50 students, and that might be a generous estimate.  It seriously looked pathetic.  Maybe more students showed up later, I could not tell.  I am glad to hear that those students that were there were into the game.  If DU is ever going to have a real home court advantage it has to start with the students.

OK, I hardly post here anymore and have been called a "negative troll" so I pretty much stopped and just became the occasional reader of posts here. Truth be told, I really, don't care much about the team anymore, but I can sympathize with the students here.

Current freshman came here to a team that totally sucked last year.

Sophomores had nothing to cheer about last year.

Juniors watched an underachiveing, but still light years ahead of the current quality, team actually finish above .500 again for the fourth straight season (a total rarity in thirty plus years of frustration), and then watched that team be totally and undeniably destroyed as their star player knifed them in the back, their CYA athletic director fired the only successful coach we've had since the Carter adminstration and the team then lost its two best recruits.

Seniors actually had hopes when they were freshmen, as we actually knocked on the door of the Big Dance and then in one, horrible, horrible loss dropped out of the NIT. They expected quality basketball for their next three seasons and instead were given the 14th rebuilding plan.    If I were a senior I wouldn't be chomping at the bit to walk down the hill to the Palulmbo Center either.

So there.  Why we have 50 students show up in a nutshell.


 

applecorps wrote:

Jerry Jones played 3 minutes. A talented, experienced player who plays good D continues to ride the pine. What's with that?

 
I don't get it either.  I know this is going to get a response, but I still am not impressed with Ferry's game day coaching.

I don't agree that he is a borderline player.  He is senior, our most experienced player, and plays solid defense, and my answer is yes there is enough minutes to share for a guy like that.  Everyone should earn their minutes.

Simms wrote:

I agree CLK.  I don't understand it either.  jones has a very quick release from three, can handle the ball well, and defends.  He must have REALLY REALLY done something wrong to be in the doghouse.  Or, Ferry is holding it against him that RE recruited Jones.  I really hope this isn't the case.  I too have been unimpressed with Ferry's coaching, but it's still really early to evaluate IMO.  

Again, who do you sit? You're not going to be running a 10 man rotation. Jones is not going to play the 1, 4, or 5. This means all of his minutes are going to come at the 2 and 3. White, Indy, Ridenhour, Gill, and Mason all play there. Who goes to the bench? If you can point out who gets their minutes cut, and why, then you have a legit argument. If not, then you guys are just making noise.

Looking at total playing time, the guard positions 1-3 should accout for 480 of the total 600 minutes available to players in the first four games. Combine the total minutes played by Colter, Ridenour, Jones^2, White and Mason and you've got 487 meaning Ferry went 4 guards at times (I think during the UNH game and maybe WVU). To make this easier, I'll assume Ferry will continue to go small from time to time.

Ridenour's averaging 16.5 minutes. If we want him to keep that time and play only at the point, then Colter would have about 4 minutes cut from his playing time to give to Jerry. I wouldn't have a huge problem with this if Colter's defense continues to look more like it did against UNH and WVU than it did for most of the game against Albany.

Jeremiah Jones is only averaging about 25 minutes a game. I don't think I want to give any of those minutes to Jerry.

Gill has played the 4 even if he's lives at the perimeter on offense. He's not currently taking minutes from Jerry.

If you look at the total consumption of minutes at guard, Jerry has recieved 4 minutes per game. Give him 4 from Colter and he's up to 8. If you want to give him any more than that, you would have to take from White or Mason who are already both getting less than 25 minutes a game. Maybe you shave a minute off the two of them, but I can't see Jerry taking anymore.

I like the idea of using Jerry situationally like late in games to preserve leads, when someone is in foul trouble or when Ferry needs someone to eat minutes at the 4 and Gill has been ineffective. However, I see him as the 6th most effective guard overall on the team even if he's not far behind the rest. When I factor in that he isn't a part of the future past March, I have to question the value of giving him more minutes now. At this point, it doesn't make much sense to give him more than 8 minutes a game on average as I don't think he's better than other options.

Last edited by steve19981 (11/22/2013 11:05 am)

I always go back to the words of the old ball coach, Bill Parcells: You play the guys who give you the best chance to win. I don't think this can be done with egg timers or who slots into which positions (since we have no natural 5s to begin with except Lewis, and we're starting 2 3/4s, a 2, a 1/2, and a 1). Jeremiah and Jerry are both OK, but not great players, with no special talents, but Jerry is more suited for the 3 than Jeremiah is, and Jerry I think is a stronger guy who can help out in the frontcourt a little better. He should really be the first guy in when Soko or McKoy sit because he is more of a forward. Of course Ferry likes to have more guards on the floor, which only works as long as the forward pair is productive. If Watkins and Robinson were playing I think they would be taking minutes from Gill, Lewis and Jeremiah to some extent.

I think in a lot of ways Colter has taken a step back this year, at least so far. He got teamed with a 50% 3-point shooter the other night and Mason got, what, 2 shots? Colter had 3 assists on the night. I still don't see him as "the answer" at PG. I think Ridenour should definitely get more minutes if not start.

 

The way Ferry's playing, I don't think there is much difference between 2 and 3 and while I agree that Jerry is more of the forward prototype in terms of size because he's an inch taller and 5 pounds heavier, but I don't think their actual style of play suggests either is a forward. 

If I had to rate the players defensively from best to worst, I would have the Joneses 1a and 1b and I'm not even sure what order I'd put them in. I think Jerry is the better pure shooter and plays better off the ball, but I think Jeremiah is the better ball handler, passer and probably rebounder. Jeremiah can create his own shot consistently. I still haven't seen that from Jerry. I think Jeremiah is the better player all around, not by a huge margin but by enough that I'd prefer he play more minutes on the wing.

I don't think Jeremiah is keeping Jerry on the bench, it's Mason and White. White is considerably better IMO just because of what he brings on offense. Mason is again slightly better, but I think still deserving of more minutes.

Colter has really struggled defensively and has had a bad and mediocre games back to back now. He was probably the best player in the Abilene Christian game and in the first half against UNH.  All around though, I think he's been more efficiant on offense even if he doesn't seem as dynamic. I still like the flow of the offense better when he's in. Small sample size though.

As for earning it, we don't know what Jerry has done in practice, but his effort didn't impress me at the season ticket holder event. If he practices like that everyday, I could understand why he's in the dog house.

Completely agree that a healthy Watkins and an eligible Robinson would eat into Lewis' and Gill's minutes. Lewis would have redshirted for sure and I think Gill could have used one too.

Last edited by steve19981 (11/22/2013 1:20 pm)