After a cool down period, I'm ready to throw in my two cents.
After the the two previous horrendous performances, the first 30 mins of this game were the low spot in CNM's time here, in my opinion. The team finally playing with a little life in the final ten mins at least kept today's performance from being the absolute bottom of the barrel.
I've consistently advocated for patience, time, and optimism for CNM's brief tenure of rebuilding and an incredibly young team. Perhaps it's a matter of him seemingly recruiting some good looking talent that has increased expectations that they would be able to perform better in these early season games. Whatever the case it's not that MT is just losing to some better playing teams, it's the way they look in losing those games. It's hard to say it is just an effort issue as they are active and moving throughout the game generally speaking. It's the overall lack of intensity, the lack of discipline, the lack of a sense of urgency, and the lack of a fighting attitude that troubles me.
After a couple of performances of the players being lost on defense, it was apparent vs Tulane that the coaching staff tried to address the deficiency. MT had been nowhere close to defending opponents shooting wide open threes. Today the players were clearly trying to made improvements as evidenced by the greater effort at closing out on the 3 pt shooters. The problem, they went just a little too far and fouled the 3 pt shooters at least three times. Applaud the effort, but deride the lack of discipline in fouling 3 pt shooters.
What was probably as frustrating as anything is that half the team are playing like wimps. Jayce Johnson again was about the only one to play with toughness and physicality. It's apparent that Jayce Johnson has the heart and attitude to take the fight to the opponent.
No team is going to have success giving up close to 50 points a half. It's getting to be ridiculous.
To borrow a basketball phrase, they are trying to defend with their hands rather than their feet. Hence the excessive fouls.
The team as a whole are settling for 3 pt shots. Poor shot selection 3s without really running any offense.
Reflective of the lack of an aggressive and tough attitude, very few seem willing to drive to the rack off the dribble. Jayce Johnson and Sims are the only exceptions that standout.
I'm not throwing in the towel on CNM and this team. For starters, it's way too early in the season during a rebuild job that is really just getting started. Last season, I like that CNM kept the team together in an almost impossible situation. Plus, they didn't quit. They kept up good effort despite being over-matched in most every game. I like CNM's approach to recruiting, and he seems like one of the good guys. He seems well liked by the players. There is a lot about CNM that keeps me hopeful.
I can take MT losing games as a part of the growing pains. I understand that it takes some time for the young team to learn both the offense and the defense. What I can't take is the team losing without some real fight in them. I can't take seeing losses because MT lacks a tough and fighting attitude. I can't stand to see MT lose because they lack heart. Dang it, it's time to get mad and tough. Instead of letting other teams dominate the Blue Raiders, they need to possess the attitude that they will dominate whoever they face....each time up and down the court.