Would be a cake walk for the Herd! Hello JMU. DD going to find the conference schedule a little more challenging. JMO
And Everyone Thought Sunbelt Basketball
- Thread starter bbneutralfan
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Who thought it was going to be a cake walk for DD?
I'd not give JMU too much credit for the win today, we beat ourselves. They are probably the best team we've played all year, but they gave us plenty of opportunities to win. We failed miserably at the line, took stupid shot selection from folks who should play inside but apparently can't prevent themselves from jack up threes that they make once out of every 10 shots. And you can't have a 7 ' 1'" middleman who just plain won't shoot a seven footer when wide open.
While it is possible SBC basketball is better than one might have thought, it is clearly because MU, JMU, USM (this year) and ODU (not this year) were added. Remember JMU was in the very competitive Colonial League last year, one could argue much better league than C-USA.
While it is possible SBC basketball is better than one might have thought, it is clearly because MU, JMU, USM (this year) and ODU (not this year) were added. Remember JMU was in the very competitive Colonial League last year, one could argue much better league than C-USA.
Yeah, and they played today without their leading scorer and one other player. Still, they got great bench contributions from their subs, something like 30 plus more points than D'Antoni's bench contributed. Which means he's either got to (1) recruit better or, (2) coach up some of the guys currently on the bench in their 3rd, even 4th, years who contribute little or nothing game after game.
Don't know how many games I would feel confident of MU winning, even in the supposedly "weaker" (than CUSA) SBC, if Kinsey were sitting out an entire game, or games!!
Don’t forget. We still have the same coaches as last year. If you brought in a whole new starting squad from another school, as our our starters, and they listened to and played how our coaches told them… we’d still lose.
Our players are talented, 💯… our players are NOT disciplined. We have the lengthy and athletic ability to full court press anyone team into submission. We have the ability to dunk, we have a few good shooters….
But, our players make waaay too many sloppy passes, they don’t actually know how to defend without fouling, and we don’t have the ability to close a game out when close. We don’t have 3 guys that I feel confident putting on the line and asking them to shoot 80%.
Our players are talented, 💯… our players are NOT disciplined. We have the lengthy and athletic ability to full court press anyone team into submission. We have the ability to dunk, we have a few good shooters….
But, our players make waaay too many sloppy passes, they don’t actually know how to defend without fouling, and we don’t have the ability to close a game out when close. We don’t have 3 guys that I feel confident putting on the line and asking them to shoot 80%.
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We are much better than we were last year. However, when you play a weak as week as a non conference schedule as we did you are going to see games like this. This is the best team we have played so far and we got pushed around for a good part of the game even though they played without their top scorer. We haven’t been challenged much this year and it showed.
Hope we can learn from this and get better.
Hope we can learn from this and get better.
No one thought it "would" be a cake walk. Most observers understand that it SHOULD be a cake walk for the Herd, given the very low level of competition this league provides.
Several posters on here. Go back and look. Most felt Sunbelt basketball was soft.
A lot of people mentioned the cake OOC schedule and also assumed SBC was worse than CUSA.
I really hate to tell people but it honestly doesn’t matter a ton how good or bad SBC vs CUSA is… bc they’re both always going to be one bid leagues. So let’s just enjoy the ride while it’s moving.
Multiple points that are all correct...
Marshall basketball is better than last year.
Marshall basketball played one of the weakest non-conference schedules in America to pad its record.
The Sun Belt is not a good basketball conference (worse than previous CUSA).
JMU is probably the best team in the conference, and will get their best player back from injury eventually.
From the looks of things at the midpoint of the season, the SBC will come down to JMU, Southern Miss, Marshall and Georgia Southern... Injuries, upsets, etc can change things, so just keep competing and beat up on the dregs of the SBC and hope to get hot during the conference tournament.
Marshall basketball is better than last year.
Marshall basketball played one of the weakest non-conference schedules in America to pad its record.
The Sun Belt is not a good basketball conference (worse than previous CUSA).
JMU is probably the best team in the conference, and will get their best player back from injury eventually.
From the looks of things at the midpoint of the season, the SBC will come down to JMU, Southern Miss, Marshall and Georgia Southern... Injuries, upsets, etc can change things, so just keep competing and beat up on the dregs of the SBC and hope to get hot during the conference tournament.
It is soft... the problem is so is our basketball program.
Here are the facts:
The Sun Belt is better than CUSA in football
However, CUSA AND the MAC are better than the Sun Belt in basketball. Its just not a basketball conference. Then again, we are not a basketball school.
The SBC is a perfect fit for the state of our affairs.. IMO
The Sun Belt is better than CUSA in football
However, CUSA AND the MAC are better than the Sun Belt in basketball. Its just not a basketball conference. Then again, we are not a basketball school.
The SBC is a perfect fit for the state of our affairs.. IMO
Well we are still leading the MAC standings by 4 games right now.
DD says the Belt is tough in basketball. Likely is, more then he thought. JMU, USM seem to be the frontrunners. If we stay healthy and play well, we can be in the thick of it.
Ironically I like our chances to go to the NCAA tourney a lot more in the Sun Belt. The downside is being a 15 seed instead of a 13
Agreed... We went from a conference that was traditionally ranked around 12-13 in conference RPI (CUSA) to a league consistently ranked 15-16 in conference RPI (Sun Belt) out of 32 total conferences.
The Sun Belt isn't the Atlantic Sun or the SWAC, but its certainly not good. Just another one bid league with 3-4 decent teams, 3-4 mediocre teams, and the rest awful.
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