BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee (4-11, 0-2) vs Marshall (7-8,1-1), 6:30PM, Thursday, January 9, 2019

[SpaceRaider]

Marshall University
Location: Huntington, WV
Enrollment: 13,631
Arena: Cam Henderson Center (9,043)
Website: herdzone.com
Colors: Kelly Green & White Nickname: Thundering Herd
Head Coach: Dan D’Antoni Record at School: 96-76 (5 Seasons) Career Record: 96-76 (5 Seasons)
2018-19 Record: 23-14, 11-7 2018-19 Finish: 6th C-USA 2018-19 Postseason: CIT Champions
Starters R/L: 3/2 Letterwinners R/L: 8/5
Twitter: @HerdMBB

Series: MT leads 11-6

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Game Notes



Date: Thursday, Jan. 9, 6:30 p.m. CT
Site: Murfreesboro, Tenn./Murphy Center
TV: ESPN+ Talent: Jake Rose (PxP), Madison Blevins (Analyst)
Radio: Blue Raider Network (Game2/WGNS/TuneIn)
Talent: Chip Walters (PxP), Kyle Turnham (Analyst)
Twitter: @MT_MBB, #BlueRaiders

 

[SpaceRaider]

espn matchup predictor has MT's chances at 35.2%
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game?gameId=401175918

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[sWiley]

Don't ask me why, but have a good feeling about tonight. We are due for some shots to fall.

If we can stay out of foul trouble, this is a very winnable game.

 

[crposton]

Biggest thing I noticed this game is Marshall made us pay when we left them open for 3 and we did not make them pay for leaving us open. Also we cannot defend the lob.

 

[MTOleBlue]

It’s a good thing CUSA teams aren’t power conference level quality, otherwise we would be losing by 50-60 a night

 

[crposton]

Another thing I have noticed us the lack of comments when we don't get blown out.

 

[dukewayne]

What is there to say?

It is pretty sad that us fans have gotten to the point of drawing distinctions between just losing and getting blown out.

 

[Raiderclyde]

Another thing I have noticed us the lack of comments when we don't get blown out.

It’s simple explanation: MT lost 75-79 tonight to a 7-8 Marshall team that’s really pedestrian at best and not a top tier contender this year. C-USA is competitive, but clearly a one bid league and we are playing just to make in the C-USA Tournament. If MT continue to progress and string together a handful of wins into “bonus play” by mid February, we could make it as an #11 or #12 seed and that would be counted as modest success for this year.

 

[dukewayne]

Folks, other than after the Murray St sleep walking game, I've been bullish on CNM. I have to admit though, it's getting increasingly difficult for me to be confident and hopeful about the teams prospects for the rest of the season and next.

CNM seems like one of the good guys that players like. It would be great for him to succeed at MT. Right now I'm just not seeing a team identity emerge. Individual players have good moments in games, but I'm not sure it has much to do with a team concept.

It's obvious that some question if the players CNM have brought in are capable and skilled enough to compete for championships. Myself, I think he is doing a pretty decent job of bringing in quality players. Tonight vs Marshall really exposed CNM's lack of bringing in size for the frontcourt. That is something most of us have been harping about that he needed to address for C-USA. Not every team has great size in conference, but enough do that your team better have some bigs to compete over the conference slate.

The last game or two, it seems the team had a few minutes here and there of some decent play. My question, is anyone seeing any promising trends or improvements with the team right now? Sure, Sims has been playing well. Is that his individual effort or a manifestation of team concepts instituted by CNM?

Instead of feeding my currently growing pessimism with complaints and negative criticism, this seemed like an opportunity to hear some discussion on others' observations and outlooks. I'm sort of hoping that others are seeing something along the lines of improvement that I may just be overlooking.

 

[dukewayne]

It’s simple explanation: MT lost 75-79 tonight to a 7-8 Marshall team that’s really pedestrian at best and not a top tier contender this year. C-USA is competitive, but clearly a one bid league and we are playing just to make in the C-USA Tournament. If MT continue to progress and string together a handful of wins into “bonus play” by mid February, we could make it as an #11 or #12 seed and that would be counted as modest success for this year.

Doggone Clyde, that does not much sound like modest success that you just described. That sounds like regression. Last season, MT was the top team of the bottom rung teams for bonus play. If I recall correctly, MT entered the conf tourney in pretty much the same position.

This season, it looks like the question will be if MT even makes the conf tourney. I have to say that would be getting worse than last year. That would not be a good sign for the program or CNM's future outlook with MT at the end of his 2nd season heading into his 3rd.

There are still a few games for the team to demonstrate some improvements and get a few wins. So I don't want to go there just yet. It's enough to know though that if MT were struggling just to get into the conf tourney, the immediate future outlook for MT bball would be pretty ugly. Let's hope it doesn't get to that.

 

[sWiley]

Another mediocre shooting night leads to a predictable loss. I really thought we were due for a good night shooting but I'm starting to believe it's not meant to be with this team. Simply put, this group of players is offensively challenged. We might get 1 or 2 players that have good nights, but then everyone else stinks it up. There's no consistency in our offensive output. It is way too schizophrenic and unpredictable, even for a CBB basketball.

I just don't think we have the horses at this point. We've got some good players in CJ Jones, D Sims, and Scurry is coming around. We've got some young promising players like Tyson Jackson and maybe Eli Lawrence but they're not giving us anything consistent at this point. The rest are just bums in my eyes. Sorry but I've never been sold on Jayce Johnson as starter material. There's a reason he was going to play football and was very lightly recruited coming out of high school. Crump is a complete and total bust and needs to transfer so we can fill his spot with somebody that can actually play. Antonio Green is just such a let down at this point and clearly regressed since being on campus here. No idea what the hell happened to him. The rest are role players at best, or at least that's what they've shown so far.

That's not good enough. Not even close to being good enough to get it done in this league.

We need talent on this roster. We need consistency. We need a bench. We need a team identity and team concepts to build around. We need to be able to play superb defense and rebound like it's nobodies business when the shots are not falling. I don't wanna hear excuses that our defense is going to suck because we can't hit any shots. That's BS. Hustle back on D and get the damn job done. How many CUSA championship games did this team have to grind out against teams like ODU because the shots were not falling?? In the 15ish years Kermit was here I never heard him once utter anything about missed shots being a reason for bad defense. Even when his teams were mediocre they played with great effort on D.

Very disturbing what's going on here thus far. We will have more talent on the roster next year but it's going to be a completely new group and with different dynamics next year. In a team and chemistry sense we will once again be "young" in Year 3.......

I don't see a foundation being laid. I don't see a team identity being built. We just seem to go out there every night and go with the flow. Every game takes on its own identity and there always seem to be some clear flaw that keeps us from winning. We don't go out there and force a style of play...we exert no will....we don't control anything. Players just along for the merry ride.

I don't see really anything redeeming at this point and I'm trying to find things to be positive about. I'm honestly just hopeful that Jordan Davis and Jalen Jordan are stars for us next year because I just don't see it with this group of players. We need help and we need it bad in the form of talented players that can contribute ASAP next year. I've already mentally checked out from this year because this team clearly isn't winning any championships or doing anything meaningful in post season play and that's all I care about.

We've gone from being a serious post-season factor to a basement dwelling bottom feeding D1 program in the blink of an eye

 

[dukewayne]

Well darn, I do appreciate your effort to find some positives, but that wasn't helping my pessimistic outlook tonight.

1-12 is the record that really matters. That is 1 D1 win. Let's face it, sitting at 1-12 is not something that emboldens optimism.

I understand that just because Kermit succeeded at MT with certain concepts and approaches does not mean that there is only Kermit's way to win and succeed here. Admittedly, I prefer the toughness and defense, but that is just me personally.

Wiley, it seems you are hoping that an infusion of better talent next season combined with the currently improving younger players might help make the team better overall. It's a logical approach. Obviously, you want the best players possible. I do hope some better players help make the difference.

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about MT basketball, but I have to be honest about it. Right now, it bothers me about the direction of this team. If the team doesn't start turning things around pretty soon, I'm afraid they might end up missing the conf tourney. I'm not suggesting that the coaches should panic, but a real sense of urgency would be called for at this point. Losing like this at MT is not acceptable. Sadly, I'm even more troubled at the prospect that Beavis & Butt-Head has brought MT down to the point that losing and empty seats is acceptable.

 

[MT01]

Another thing I have noticed us the lack of comments when we don't get blown out.

Oh my gosh. You can’t be serious.

We have now lost how many straight games? I have freaking lost count. We spent most of this entire game down by double digits because once again we didn’t play defense in the first half, jacked up a bunch of absurd shots in the first half that resulted in a 12% shooting pct on more than a dozen three point shots, and you want to chastise the rest of the fan base because we got a moral victory and didn’t get blown out by a team ranked over 200 in the RPI? Wow. Just wow.

I mean really you can’t be serious with this nonsense. I’m sure a number of folks like myself have simply stopped commenting at all during the games. Every game is a carbon copy of the game before it. None of the problems that have been plaguing this team have been corrected by the coaching staff. So, there’s really no point saying the same thing over and over again. But I hope you slept well with your moral victory as this program slips further into a pile of dung.

 

[MTTim]

We need someone who can put the ball in the basket consistently. We don't have shooters or anyone who can create offense.
Too many stupid mistakes.
Just a bad team.

 

[crposton]

Oh my gosh. You can’t be serious.

We have now lost how many straight games? I have freaking lost count. We spent most of this entire game down by double digits because once again we didn’t play defense in the first half, jacked up a bunch of absurd shots in the first half that resulted in a 12% shooting pct on more than a dozen three point shots, and you want to chastise the rest of the fan base because we got a moral victory and didn’t get blown out by a team ranked over 200 in the RPI? Wow. Just wow.

I mean really you can’t be serious with this nonsense. I’m sure a number of folks like myself have simply stopped commenting at all during the games. Every game is a carbon copy of the game before it. None of the problems that have been plaguing this team have been corrected by the coaching staff. So, there’s really no point saying the same thing over and over again. But I hope you slept well with your moral victory as this program slips further into a pile of dung.

I never mentioned a moral victory. Moral victories do not exist. You literally just put words in my mouth and then criticized me for it. Just pointing out the lack of commenting when we played a fairly close game. If we would have lost by 20-30 there would have been a lot more comments about how garbage this team is. Want proof just look at previous games.

 

[kingaling42]

I'd venture to guess that the shooting % for the bad shots from the perimeter was better than the % for open shots last night.. this team is actually getting good looks off of various action but the shooting woes are unexplainable.. the lack of helpside D on backside lobs and man recognition in transition was particularly bad last night.. the final play Scurry tried to foul but it wasn't simply wasn't called...

 

[crposton]

I'd venture to guess that the shooting % for the bad shots from the perimeter was better than the % for open shots last night.. this team is actually getting good looks off of various action but the shooting woes are unexplainable.. the lack of helpside D on backside lobs and man recognition in transition was particularly bad last night.. the final play Scurry tried to foul but it wasn't simply wasn't called...

Yea if you actually look at the game i stead of just criticize you will see we got some a lot of open shots we simply did not knock down and Marshall did. 4-5 backside lobs did not help either. Reminded me of the movie Semi Pro when the Flint Tropics invented the alley oop and the other team could not defend it. I thought last night was an improvement, but don’t want to get too positive. You can get criticized on here for saying anything positive about MT athletics.

 

[dukewayne]

Doggone everyone is just brimming with confidence and optimism.

Remove all sharp objects....

 

[MTFNBY5]

We are making progress. I would point to the numerous turnovers late in the game created by the press, when we didn't give up a dunk on the backside. Hopefully than will be cleaned up next time we're in that situation.

This morning I watched the end of the game to try to understand the offensive letdown with about a minute and a half to go. We were down 6 at the time yet the offense was stagnant; McDevitt called a timeout with 8 seconds on the shot clock as Sims was hitting an off balance 3. Can't fault McDevitt for calling the timeout (and that's not the first time a coach has called a timeout as his team hits a shot) but who do we blame for the inability to run offense at such a crucial time. Had we scored either a two or three and not given up a 3 (making the deficit 9) on the other end we would have had a much better chance at a W.
As I said after an earlier game when Green went to the backcourt corner on an inbound pass when the other team was pressing late, players have to know what to do in given situations. We were down late, time was crucial, and the team has to know to score early in the clock to have a better chance. Just as a FB team would be criticized for not having a 2 minute offense we should have known what to do. Either the team has players who are two dumb to remember situational strategy, they haven't been drilled enough on what to do, or (and let's hope this is the reason) they just freeze up in stressful situations and will get better with experience. But let's not forget, IIRC three starters from last year were on the floor at the time - shouldn't they have known what to do?

 

[SpaceRaider]

wgns

PODCAST: MT MBB vs Marshall 01.09.20

 

[Blue_H]

I have less desire to attend a MTSU MBB game than a MTSU FB game at this point. Like MT01 said, every game is a carbon copy of the last. We get blown out early, then a too little too late rally in the 2nd half. No thanks. They could give the "Defend The Glass House" package to me for free, but I'd rather do something else. We all know wkcc is going to shatter the glass house with the said carbon copy scenario like most everybody else has.

 

[BlueIsTheNewOrange]

We are making progress? Um....wow...okay?

 

[blueraiderJT]

I'm just waiting til this guys gets fired in 10 years and Massaro can hire another mediocre coach from the Carolinas.