Sunday, November 23, 2014

Postgame Thoughts: UNC Wilmington

This may come off as a knee-jerk reaction but I think we are in for a long struggle this season. Last night's game was one of three realistic chances that VMI had to win a D-1 game and we blew it. It's pretty obvious where we went wrong. When you don't have a real big man you give up 84 points in the paint. When you don't have a real point guard you turn the ball over 23 times.

It would be easy to blame this on Duggar, and to some extent it his fault (not recruiting a big-man in the offseason), but what can he do? His point guard bailed out on him two weeks before the season, along with two other players. Nothing he can do about that. But I can personally testify to the fact that we were outmatched, out-hustled, and out-coached in yesterday's ballgame.

This has to be the first VMI team in quite some time (certainly as long as I've been a fan) that has no dominant player who at any given moment can take over a game. Last year it was Rodney. Year before that it was Stan. Year before that it was any combination of Stan, Keith, or DJ. From what I saw last night QJ is an immature player. He was tapped for a technical foul early in the first (2 pts) and turned the ball over a whopping seven times (8 pts). Not to mention the other 33 points scored by UNCW of our abysmal 23 turnovers, AND the 21 second-chance points. When you give up free shots you lose games, it's fairly simple.

If QJ is not the leader, then who is? Brian Brown is a huge asset defensively but as a scorer is frighteningly inconsistent. Last year he was a role player. So too was Phil Anglade, who, at 6-foot-5, we are now using as a post player. What we have now is a collection of misfit toys who got together and said, "Hey! Let's go play some basketball!" At least that's what it feels like....

Individually, I thought Craig's effort was poor. At a luncheon earlier in the day I heard Coach Baucom say that while Craig's physical health was improving, his mental sharpness is not there. You can see why; he absolutely botched what should've been an easy board and watched the ball roll into the hands of Malik Pugh for an easy two. He finishes with 9 points and three turnovers. Eleby had four turnovers as well, and Iruafemi didn't score in limited action.

If I can grasp at any positives to take away from this game, Tim Marshall played well, scoring 17 points and hitting three treys. On that note, Trey Chapman had 5 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Jarid was 2 of 2 from the floor in the short time that he played, and Phil had six blocks, but only one point.

By the end of Thanksgiving we will be 2-4. We have two SoCon games at Samford and Mercer the following weekend, as well as road games against Navy, Tech, and George Washington. Even an optimist would concede that we are in a deep hole and that this team is in serious need of leadership. I can't guarantee us winning any of these games, and we will be lucky to be 5-8 by New Year's.

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