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CURRENT RECORD 9 - 10 (4-2 in the A-10)
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this is ironic.... guarantee you mike Rice wouldn’t get outplayed and lose a boxing match to RMU, they should’ve hired him
@ Jonrothstein: Robert Morris picks off crosstown rival Duquesne by seven. Good win for Andy Toole and the Colonials. Building block in preparation for the NEC.
*** @CoachMikeRice Likes
Last edited by HerbertHoover (11/19/2017 11:55 pm)
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Couple of thoughts from yesterdays game. Maybe it shouldn't bother me but every time they showed the players huddled around the coach the transfers were standing off to the side talking and laughing and not paying any attention to their teammates or coach. Maybe if they listened in they could benefit from what the coach was saying. The other thing was Jarrett telling Ray that we don't have a point guard. Jarrett not holding back.
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I hope that its because it was RMU that seems to have bothered most of you, but we need to expect these type of games all year long. Lack of rebounding, poor shooting, getting tired. He might as well get the walk-ons some minutes, because its obvious the 6, 7, 8 guys that do play now, wont make it to January, let alone March.
It sucks, but you got to remember its a process. There will be 10, TEN! new bodies next year to go along with a couple solid freshman now and Mike Lewis. Rebounding, depth and getting tired wont be excuses.
We've waiting for 35-40 years for a winner, whats one more year.
Keep the faith!!!
Last edited by townsonkid (11/20/2017 7:45 am)
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WashPaRick wrote:
Couple of thoughts from yesterdays game. Maybe it shouldn't bother me but every time they showed the players huddled around the coach the transfers were standing off to the side talking and laughing and not paying any attention to their teammates or coach. Maybe if they listened in they could benefit from what the coach was saying. The other thing was Jarrett telling Ray that we don't have a point guard. Jarrett not holding back.
They started more serious particularly Randall who joined the starters for a quick pregame huddle for the tip. Then they got frustrated by perceived lack of hustle / lack of execution. They rode the current players pretty hard. Then they lost interest when it didn't work. Agree I'd like to see a little more focus, but it was at least there for some of the game.
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last night was my first live look at the new dukes. tough loss. team looked gassed going into locker room at halftime. I think this is how season will play out. bad losses sprinkled with some unexpected wins. i noticed a big difference between this year and the past couple of years. more fundamentals. more defense. bad rebounding, turnovers, front rimming shots are usually a sign of fatigue.
trust the process.
(bobby mo has some very talented players, and a great coach)
I noticed Dylan Swingle was in attendance. Stood beside him. Thought I was next to a pro wrestler. He is a very big "man."
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Dambrot post game interview:
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Not a time to panic because adjustments will be made, hopefully the ball hogging and endless dribbling by Rene, whom I like, will lessen. Lewis II will be back into the flow instead of standing on the far left side of the court waiting to an open three and Smith will drive and dish rather than getting too far under the boards and miss.
Prepare hard for Cornell, and get back on the winning path.
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I think we all understood this was a transition year, and what was important was focusing on how the players grow, and develop and how Dambrot can instills his will, philosophy and teaching on this team. So far this has been a mixed bag to me. It is very early, but individually we can see that certain returning players are showing improvement especially defensively, but on the other side of the ball are reverting to old selfish habits and ball hogging tendencies, poor decision making, and unforced turnovers. I really do not see much structure to this offense. Part of this I am sure is hidden by poor execution and ball hogging tendencies, as well as lack of confidence. Case in point, not to pick on him, but I thought Smith really hurt us last night with his determination to drive the ball into a crowd before looking for a passing option or pulling up to take the jumper or taking the open three point shot leading to 5 turnovers. Good coaches like Toole notice that and will give up the three all night long. Perhaps the biggest disappointment to me is the lack of team toughness in rebounding and ability to get back on defense. There are bright spots in Verhoeven and Williams but RMU is not a big team and yet they out scrapped, the Dukes all night. I know much of this is due fatigue, but we were down in the rebounding margin by 12 going into halftime.
I am sure that coach Dambrot will use this game as a teaching experience. I am hoping that we will see some of these issues improving as we get our injured players back, and Coach imposes his will on this team. This is going to be a challenging year, but the future looks extremely bright.
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WashPaRick wrote:
Couple of thoughts from yesterdays game. Maybe it shouldn't bother me but every time they showed the players huddled around the coach the transfers were standing off to the side talking and laughing and not paying any attention to their teammates or coach. Maybe if they listened in they could benefit from what the coach was saying. The other thing was Jarrett telling Ray that we don't have a point guard. Jarrett not holding back.
I caught that too, the lack of a true point guard is going to hurt this year.
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Someone who understands the finer points about basketball should correct me, but what I see with Robinson is that he gets the ball too far away from the basket and at an angle where he struggles to do anything. He gets double teamed as soon as he touches the ball, and instead of looking to pass he's trying to put the ball on the floor. And as strong as he is, he's not looking to explode over slighter opponents and dunk. His layups are kind of soft.
Again, I'm not an expert. That's just what it looks like to me.
Tydus has a nice touch around the rim. He's more agile, seems to handle the ball better, and he'll look to pass if he gets in trouble. His seven blocks were all (if I remember right) on layup attempts. Imagine the final score if he doesn't stop those shots, and commits a few more fouls. Yikes.
Mike Lewis II looks a little lost in the 3-guard offense. Wish I could explain what I mean. He goes off to the left corner, usually with someone covering him, and becomes uninvolved in the offense. Clearly something's off because he's not even hitting FTs right now.
With the injury to James (not knowing how long he'll be out) and Brown and Krivavevic still "on IR," we're going to have our struggles.
What I think may evolve once everyone is healthy is more of a tall frontcourt to start (Brown, Verhoeven and Williams) and natural backcourt (Castro-Canedy and Smith rotating with Lewis, James spelling Lewis), With Robinson, Krivacevic and Kratholm getting spot/situational minutes.
Would love to hear from you guys who are at the games.
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HerbertHoover wrote:
this is ironic.... guarantee you mike Rice wouldn’t get outplayed and lose a boxing match to RMU, they should’ve hired him
@ Jonrothstein: Robert Morris picks off crosstown rival Duquesne by seven. Good win for Andy Toole and the Colonials. Building block in preparation for the NEC.
*** @CoachMikeRice Likes
Would Mike Rice have kept Eric James from getting injured, Jordan Robinson from fouling out, and Mike Lewis II from shooting like he was handling a watermelon?
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Planned to be at the game but the plans changed due to family matters. Nothing serious thankfully. Had my phone on and checked the score all throughout the game. I can add nothing to what has been said here except that I always see the glass half full as opposed to the other way. To see that Tydus had the game that he had as well as 18 pts. and 8 rebounds from Eric Williams is most encouraging to me. With Lewis only a soph. we have 3 outstanding players to build around moving forward. With the transfers and freshman next year, I see only green lights ahead for the program! Don't mean to say that the year is lost. Not at all. We will have Chase Brown and Marko back along with Kellon. We will have our up moments. The loss was not totally unexpected but certainly disappointing. . RMU is a much better team than the first 2 cupcakes. Will certainly challenge for the NEC championship. Even at that, we were in the game until the very end. I hope to be at most of the remainder of the home games rooting like crazy for our Dukes.
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Boy, a loss really brought out the malcontents. I had missed some of the page 2 posts!
I'm guessing it was undefeated national championship or bust for some folks. Sorry to see your season end so soon.
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ElDuque wrote:
Someone who understands the finer points about basketball should correct me, but what I see with Robinson is that he gets the ball too far away from the basket and at an angle where he struggles to do anything. He gets double teamed as soon as he touches the ball, and instead of looking to pass he's trying to put the ball on the floor. And as strong as he is, he's not looking to explode over slighter opponents and dunk. His layups are kind of soft.
Tydus has a nice touch around the rim. He's more agile, seems to handle the ball better, and he'll look to pass if he gets in trouble. His seven blocks were all (if I remember right) on layup attempts. Imagine the final score if he doesn't stop those shots, and commits a few more fouls. Yikes.
Mike Lewis II looks a little lost in the 3-guard offense. Wish I could explain what I mean. He goes off to the left corner, usually with someone covering him, and becomes uninvolved in the offense. Clearly something's off because he's not even hitting FTs right now.
With the injury to James (not knowing how long he'll be out) and Brown and Krivavevic still "on IR," we're going to have our struggles.
What I think may evolve once everyone is healthy is more of a tall frontcourt to start (Brown, Verhoeven and Williams) and natural backcourt (Castro-Canedy and Smith rotating with Lewis, James spelling Lewis), With Robinson, Krivacevic and Kratholm getting spot/situational minutes.
I don't think that's what Robinson is trying to do but rather what the defense is doing to him. He seems a little indecisive at times with the ball, which gives the help time to rotate. He could make his move quicker or elect to pass or take the baseline mid-range jumper he is often given and he is capable of hitting, imho.
Tydus has an unlimited defensive ceiling.
Hadn't thought about Lewis in that sense. Really, he's playing more of the three than the two in this offense meaning he's learning to play a new position to start the year again!
As for the healthy lineup, I also think we'll see two bigs, but I think the three guard set goes away with Williams moving to a more natural 3.
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ED couldn’t agree more on getting the ball to Robinson or for that matter to Tydus. Because our guards can’t make a entry pass into the post JRob and Tydus were getting it further from the hoop as the game went on. Also how much pressure are you putting on a defense when you begin at near half court. Calling on our bigs to run out and set picks with no real opportunity for a roll or a successful shot gives the defense no real challenge. Dambrot’s hands are tied I’m sure if he could bench all three guards he would. BTW I’m sure it isn’t in Dambrot’s DNA but some zone intermixed yesterday may have paid some dividends.
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ElDuque wrote:
Boy, a loss really brought out the malcontents. I had missed some of the page 2 posts!
I'm guessing it was undefeated national championship or bust for some folks. Sorry to see your season end so soon.
I really don't understand some of the comments. When coach D decided to sign 5 transfers, it should have been obvious that we were going to have some rough stretches this year. We started with only 7 scholarship players last night (Harper said kratholm is not on athletic scholarship), and eventually were down to 6 when James got hurt. Despite the lack of depth and rebounding issues, had Mike Lewis been his normal self we would have won that game.
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To Keith Dambrot's credit, he's neither making excuses nor is he not playing to win. Sorry for the double negative there.
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2012 totally agree. What I find distressing is I actually thought our guards could play better. I’m not sure they can. Mike Lewis has shown me NOTHING this year and that concerns me. Could it be that finally playing defense is having an effect on the offensive end?
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We do have a point guard: Mike Lewis. That was his role on a great H.S. team, and last year if I'm not mistaken. Instead, he runs the baseline off picks as if he were a small forward. Let him bring it up and get things going; let him have the whole court to work with instead of half. We all agree this will be a tough year. Anyway, to the good - Tydus! Have you noticed how long his arms are? They hang almost to his knees, making him a much bigger player than 6'8". Bill Russel had long arms at 6'9" and was the greatest shot blocker of all time. Tydus has the knack. Wait till he's a junior with twenty pounds of muscle and experience.
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Dome, there is an adjustment for sure. I am not worried about Lewis, however, as he is a tough hard working kid. I believe he will shake this off, regain his confidence by working hard in the gym, and bounce back. Coach just needs to make sure the ball gets in his hands more. I agree with the post above would like to see him running the point more.
Last edited by CLK (11/20/2017 2:44 pm)
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One loss does not worry me at all. While I would love to win them all, I have set my expectations much lower this season. I refuse to do what Pitt is doing by not giving the process time. We have a lot of talented transfers and high-schoolers waiting in the wings. Next year should be fun, and the year after that should be really awesome. This year is more of a "get pumped up" season for me honestly.
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Please watch the post game video if you haven't. I agree with El Duque and others. I actually thought it was refreshing to hear the coach and players say no excuses and it was refreshing to not hear our coach make excuses!! The team did so many things lackluster in so many areas that this game film may be an opportunity for the players to see up front what they need to do. I think folks are probably more upset because it is a loss to Robert Morris. Again, an established coach with players he has been recruiting. We will be fine!!
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FAM, you are right, if the loss would have been to anyone other than Bobby Mo I don't think everyone would have been so upset - I know I wouldn't have. Mike Ing makes a good point that MLewis should maybe move to point if that is where he was last year (I honestly don't remember as I did not see that many games) with Castro at the 2 and Smith coming off the bench. I think it makes sense to go bigger when they are healthier and that is what KD wants as well. He even said he doesn't like having to play Williams at the 4. El D, I have been to every game and you are right about JRob. He needs to be lower in the block when receiving the ball instead of trying to dribble his way to his spot and then he gets himself in trouble as he does not pass well out of that situation. He also needs to make more of an assertive, quick move upon receipt of the ball. One dribble to the middle and jump hook for example. Anyway, when healthy, hopefully by Vegas tournament, I see the same line-up and rotation that El D mentions.
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Mike Ignelsi wrote:
We do have a point guard: Mike Lewis. That was his role on a great H.S. team, and last year if I'm not mistaken. Instead, he runs the baseline off picks as if he were a small forward. Let him bring it up and get things going; let him have the whole court to work with instead of half. We all agree this will be a tough year. Anyway, to the good - Tydus! Have you noticed how long his arms are? They hang almost to his knees, making him a much bigger player than 6'8". Bill Russel had long arms at 6'9" and was the greatest shot blocker of all time. Tydus has the knack. Wait till he's a junior with twenty pounds of muscle and experience.
I believe Tydus just turned 19 a couple of days ago.
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Doesn't seem like Dambrot considers Lewis a point guard. Just a week or so a go he made the comment that Castro and Smith are his only true ballhandlers.