Let’s talk Herd @ LA Tech.....

[W-S HerdFan]

As HerdinAtl and others make their way to Ruston for the Friday/Saturday slate, how is the team? No covid issues I take it? I agree w/a friend: These consecutive night games favor teams that can go deep into the bench. I believe we are deeper than we’ve been in a long time. We’ve also been getting production from 3-4 guys not starting - a huge +. Outside of WKU, there’s not a team left on our schedule we should be at a disadvantage in terms of talent, system & depth. And - esp on the road, if the visitors can put a whoopin’ on the home team Friday? Good chance they can sweep. Neither team will have much of a chance to make adjustments in 22 hours; we are gonna wear a lot of teams out this season imo.....

 

[RhinoD]

The back-to-backs are going to be interesting to watch... In my opinion the home team has a huge advantage. Traveling, playing, playing again, traveling again, is a quick turnaround for road trips.

Getting splits on the road against good teams will be important for CUSA tournament seeding... Gotta win both against the lesser teams and absolutely have to hold serve at home.

 

[Sean Hammond]

Most of these guys played AAU ball, where you play multiple games in a day, back to back, travel, etc. Conference tournaments are 3-4 days straight, and you only get 1 day of rest for the NCAA tournament. I’m not worried about that.

IMO where it sucks is if you get a guy who gets a minor sprain/illness, where he could recover in our normal travel schedule, we might have to play without them for a game in this format. But everyone is dealing with it, it’s just more important for them to take care of their bodies now.

Also, I’m anxious to see how the coaches play it. The point about the splits is a good one, so how do teams achieve that? Self scouting will be important. Just because you win, doesn’t mean you played it right & just because you lose doesn’t mean you played it wrong. Do you make adjustments from half-to-half or game-to-game? Do coaches maybe play “opossum” in the first game, then throw the kitchen sink at them in the 2nd or vice versa? A lot of options, definitely different. Will be fascinating.

 

[W-S HerdFan]

I don't see not trying to give away your game plan in the 1st game makes any sense? I do think we have a team that is experienced enough to handle adversity in these conference road games, especially with crowds being limited. Most teams on our schedule don't have an answer for Kinsey, and like I said the team keeps seeing non-starters step up. Looking forward to watching these guys moving forward! (espn+) Go Herd!

 

[GreenDuke]

“You can’t win two if you don’t win the first one”. - Joe Nuxhall

 

[Sean Hammond]

Maybe my wording on that was terrible. No, actually, it was. Let me rephrase...

No coach/player is going to intentionally lose or not give effort to win the game. But you can design a game plan to do different things. One game plan might be to get Kinsey 25 shots in a game and see if they can stop it. A simplistic, “our man is better than whoever you have for him” approach. We might be able to hit a team with that on the first night and if he goes off for 40 points, guess what they’re going to try to take away the next night? Maybe then you have a series of decoy plays to get other people easy looks off of Kinsey’s action. You can win both games and maybe the simplistic game plan the first night gives you a win while game you set up isn’t as successful. I just meant that it will be interesting to see the possible different ways we play a team (and they play us) when there’s very little adjustment period.

 

[Chris McLaughlin]

@herdinatl

 

[herdinatl]

@herdinatl

I'm reading. I have no "insider" info to share just yet.

 

[W-S HerdFan]

Maybe my wording on that was terrible. No, actually, it was. Let me rephrase...

No coach/player is going to intentionally lose or not give effort to win the game. But you can design a game plan to do different things. One game plan might be to get Kinsey 25 shots in a game and see if they can stop it. A simplistic, “our man is better than whoever you have for him” approach. We might be able to hit a team with that on the first night and if he goes off for 40 points, guess what they’re going to try to take away the next night? Maybe then you have a series of decoy plays to get other people easy looks off of Kinsey’s action. You can win both games and maybe the simplistic game plan the first night gives you a win while game you set up isn’t as successful. I just meant that it will be interesting to see the possible different ways we play a team (and they play us) when there’s very little adjustment period.

Brother Sean - wit you. Let’s Go Herd!!

 

[Herdmeister]

I'm reading. I have no "insider" info to share just yet.

Nor do I.
They do have a pretty good 360 pound 6-10 freshman in the middle. Pretty active for his size. He played probably his best game vs LSU

 

[muthed]

Nor do I.
They do have a pretty good 360 pound 6-10 freshman in the middle. Pretty active for his size. He played probably his best game vs LSU

Going to be difficult to move him out of the way.

 

[oldeherd]

Going to be difficult to move him out of the way.

Wow! 360#. Was he following Iran's personal training table regimen? Then, again, being way, way down there in Louisiana, maybe its just Popeyes for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Seriously, sounds as if Herd needs to get the Techies into an up and down running game, fast breaks and faster tempo. Don't know what kind of stamina this guy has and how quickly he gets "winded". A tired, winded big man is likely to be foul prone if challenged and we take the game to him, IMO.

 

[cincyherdfan]

Nor do I.
They do have a pretty good 360 pound 6-10 freshman in the middle. Pretty active for his size. He played probably his best game vs LSU

6’7” and 270 is their freshman big guy. Moves well for his size, very good passer and strong with the ball.

 

[herdfan429]

6’7” and 270 is their freshman big guy. Moves well for his size, very good passer and strong with the ball.

We heard the same lines about Bennett and he sucks.

 

[cincyherdfan]

We heard the same lines about Bennett and he sucks.

No argument there

 

[W-S HerdFan]

Agreed on tempo. We are gonna push it, sub in & out and keep it fast. Hard to stop a Trane!!

 

[Herdmeister]

We heard the same lines about Bennett and he sucks.

I've seen 3 games and he's looked pretty good

 

[W-S HerdFan]

Game day! HerdinATL & Meister : what’s the vibe in Ruston?

 

[GreenDuke]

Game day! HerdinATL & Meister : what’s the vibe in Ruston?

I’m happy for them being there.

That said you can’t be serious with that question.

 

[herdfan429]

I've seen 3 games and he's looked pretty good

You have constantly said the same thing about Bennett and he is only good for about 5 games a season health wise. This kid may be good but I’m not going to take your word for it.

 

[herdinatl]

Game day! HerdinATL & Meister : what’s the vibe in Ruston?

Not too much to do in Ruston. Which is probably a good thing. The team had shoot around this morning and Jannson has been chilling in our room watching my team, Georgia, squeak out the win against Cindy and about to watch his mom's team, Alabama, take on ND.

 

[HerdFan73]

Not too much to do in Ruston. Which is probably a good thing. The team had shoot around this morning and Jannson has been chilling in our room watching my team, Georgia, squeak out the win against Cindy and about to watch his mom's team, Alabama, take on ND.

Could this type of travel schedule actually benefit our road performance?
Instead of scrambling around for multiple commercial flights , we make one trip, then get to settle in and play 2 games.

 

[herdinatl]

I personally think the makeup of this years team is perfect for this type of schedule. What I hate though is that the boys flew in on two commercial flights with a long layover in Charlotte. They spent the whole day traveling yesterday. They were wiped. They are chartering a flight straight home Saturday after the game. I understand it may have been a money issue.

 

[W-S HerdFan]

I personally think the makeup of this years team is perfect for this type of schedule. What I hate though is that the boys flew in on two commercial flights with a long layover in Charlotte. They spent the whole day traveling yesterday. They were wiped. They are chartering a flight straight home Saturday after the game. I understand it may have been a money issue.

Let’s hope not! How can purchasing separate tickets on commercial for that many, & yet they are flying charter on the return? Seems like in the pre-COVID era, they had a contract w/ a charter co. .......

 

[W-S HerdFan]

We played really poorly. Lucky to only lose by 7. Now you see where if the home team can win the 1st one, a real challenge to get a split. Two conference games didn’t even tip! Covid. Gotta coach ‘em up! Their frosh big could be really good.

 

[ilmherdfan]

Didn’t look good for sure. Better turn it around.

 

[bigoherd2]

Our interior defense needs work. Big time work...

 

[rammer101]

This is the way Marshall has been playing in football too. World beater one day and elementary school the next. Hard to figure.

 

[W-S HerdFan]

Tech took away our baseline lob game & we didn’t do very many pick & rolls. They figured out a path to the basket and got way too many easy buckets down the stretch. Can’t go 0 for 6 mins and expect to win many games. Also - Kinsey o the floor for 40......

 

[Sean Hammond]

Tech took away our baseline lob game & we didn’t do very many pick & rolls. They figured out a path to the basket and got way too many easy buckets down the stretch. Can’t go 0 for 6 mins and expect to win many games. Also - Kinsey o the floor for 40......

I agree. But our screen game gets very little freed up on the roll/slip. That has to get better. I really like OAK’s potential in that role, but it’s a work in progress. Beyers should be better in that by now, same with Williams, but they both seem to be far too content with being stand still shooters. Which really sucks when you see their 3pt shooting %.

IMO, our best player to roll/slip is Kinsey. I think it would be advantageous for us to go back to giving him some minutes at the 4 and see what he can do. Spot Beyers/Williams/OAK up in the corner and space people out while trying to hit Kinsey on that action.

 

[ilmherdfan]

So far we stink again tonight.

 

[Tim_N_Montana]

I'm not sure which is worse right now, watching our play or listening to these announcers.

 

[ilmherdfan]

I'm not sure which is worse right now, watching our play or listening to these announcers.

They are bad but we are awful. Shooting 21%, no defense, turnovers.

That is the knock on DD, we they play bad it is awful and a blowout generally.

 

[HerdFan2018]

Andy Taylor is a sneaky good rebounder. I remember when he became eligible last year and was excited to see his scoring ability but the more I expected that the more I was disappointed. I’ve come to like Andy more this year because he’s consistent. He hustles, defends, facilitates, and rebounds.

 

[ilmherdfan]

We are embarrassing

 

[DBS429]

Danny is trying hard to reach Doc status...

 

[herdalicious]

Man I heard nobody wins in Ruston.

8000 times over the course of two nights.

 

[Pioneer_PA]

We are embarrassing

This is not a gloat post because there were stretches of frustration especially early this evening, but how do you feel now? I guess we ask, which Herd is the real Herd? The team that went +24 in Ruston after falling behind by 17? Or the team that fell behind by 17 to begin with?

Regardless, it’s a really nice bounce back win, both from last night and from the way this one started.

Hopefully we can mold into a consistent team that was more like the +24 than the -17. I saw stretches of the same old thing and stretches of much grittier, tougher play.

 

[goherd73]

Herd comes back from 17 down to win 80-73.

 

[Chris McLaughlin]

Andy Taylor is a sneaky good rebounder. I remember when he became eligible last year and was excited to see his scoring ability but the more I expected that the more I was disappointed. I’ve come to like Andy more this year because he’s consistent. He hustles, defends, facilitates, and rebounds.

Spot on and I feel (and felt) the exact same way about Taylor.