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BASKETBALL Oliver’s USM review

Well said.

I actually watched these games. Any hope or patience I had at the beginning of the season with the new roster full of young talent is now gone. In my opinion, the woes of the basketball team for the last 2+ years belongs firmly at the feet of CNM. Well, M&M of course share in the blame for wrecking MT athletics.

The 1st game vs Southern Miss was nigh unwatchable. It's not that the players lack some modicum of effort, it's that as a team as a whole they look lost. The 2nd game was probably even more frustrating to me even though the team played a closer game. It's as if the team didn't have the fundamentals to seize the victory even though they were were reasonably close with Southern Miss practically begging MT to win.

I have no idea what kind of offense CNM is trying to run unless first guy with an open 3 launches counts as an offense. Those results are about as expected. Occasionally, the offense is to feed the ball to Dishman in the post which still is producing inconsistent results.

Dishman looks to be a quality player, but he is not showing signs of being the #1 player or threat on the team. Frankly, he still looks out of shape. He lacks bounciness due to a little too much weight.

That brings me to another key observation, most of the team do not appear to be developing their bodies for top flight D1 competition. Under sized or under weight players do not show signs of bulking up and getting stronger. Larger guys are not cutting a few pounds, matter of fact they appear to be putting more weight on. The players that arrived in good shape simply appear to be maintaining what they arrived with. Where is the discipline in this program? Where is the player development?

CNM finally has size and he now refuses to play them. No one seems capable of finishing at the basket offensively. Defensively, there appears to be no one guarding the front of the rim. When Southern Miss wanted to score around the basket, they could and did.

Tyson Jackson got a baptism of fire last year with a freshman conference team nod to show for it. Now, he hardly sees any minutes. He should be on his way to at least an all conference honorable mention if not even 2nd team. Currently, he is regressing. Where is the individual player development and improvement?

Before the defender excuses the poor performances as too many new young players lacking practice due to covid, remember Southern Miss is in the same boat with a roster full of new young players with a schedule thrown off by covid. Southern Miss was simply the better team, better prepared, better coached.
 
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WKU just took two in a row from Marshall at home and away.

They will come in next weekend and blow the glass out of Murphy Center. I hope some of the BOT members will be sitting courtside and have to watch both games.
 
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