BC vs UMass Gameday Thread

[eepstein0]

We're really bad.

Agreed. It's a little depressing. I'm not going to go all eepstein on this thread, but there aren't many encouraging signs out there tonight.

I disagree. We look better tonight and at least there are signs of life.

With that said BC may beat Bryant, but there's no way this team wins more than 10 games. They are also not winning an ACC game,

Oh and Heckmann just hurt his ankle again.

[eepstein0]

I actually like a lot of what I see. Too many guys play for a team that doesn't run, but the shooting will come and that will hide many of the flaws in the team. The starters need to play more and for longer stretches, or else the Don needs to let the kids run more and stop trying to manage the score.

This game was better. The D and rebound are still awful though

[DuchesneEast]

Wow, just turned on ESPN 3, didnt expect this. I actually thought wew ould be competitve until ACC season.

I WISH REGGIE JACKSON STAYED. I bet he wishes he did too. He could have at least enjoyed a year of school.

[eepstein0]

Wow, just turned on ESPN 3, didnt expect this. I actually thought wew ould be competitve until ACC season.

I WISH REGGIE JACKSON STAYED. I bet he wishes he did too. He could have at least enjoyed a year of school.

I'll change my tune in that if Jackson stayed, the D and Rebounding would still suck. Those are the problems.

[eepstein0]

A 36 point home loss to UMass.

[BCEagles25]

If this team can learn how to pass, we may not lose every game by 30. Nobody can pass, and nobody can catch. Heckmann's bounce passes scare his teammates, and the big guys have hands of stone. The guards lose their dribbles more often than not. The amount of turnovers tonight was scary, but not surprising... 9 freshman, and 2 sophomores who are not ACC-level players. We'll get better.

Clifford: Offensively, very aggressive. The moves he tried were very encouraging, and would make Josh Southern say "OH DAMN." However, he shys away from rebounds; sometimes he doesn't even look for them. Also, cannot handle passes.

Heckmann: Not a good passer. His game is ACC-level however.

Odio: Liked what I saw. He's got ups for sure.

Moton: Still cannot dribble.

Jackson: Looks quite lost. Nobody looked for him on the perimeter, and he was open a few times too.

Anderson: Still looks lie the best all-around player. Still needs work.

Overall, the passing that is essential to the Don's system is not there at all; last year it was great. Last year was also loaded with seniors though. The defense is also atrocious.

As pessimistic as I sound, I know this will all improve, and I love this team. Can't wait to see them grow, and I can't wait until Hanlan arrives on campus.

[MattTheEagle]

UMass actually impressed me. I see them as a tourney team.

This game is was another one of our growing pains. We will have a lot more of these. Heckmann, Clifford, and Anderson are stars in the making, but I was very unimpressed with the rest of the freshman class. I think we will be very strong in a couple of years, but I still hope Donahue realizes that he will not be able to compete in the ACC with less than ACC talent. I am very happy we have Hanlan coming in as we are in desperate need of a PG and I am not jumping on the JD train like everyone else. Still, we are definitely going to need a couple more bigs like Anderson.

[claver2010]

This might sound retarded (as in no shit) but this team misses a Reggie Jackson -not him particularly but someone with his skill set.

A player that can take Heckman more off the ball and can penetrate open shots for others. As of right now, Daniels while talented isn't much of a scoring threat. Lucky I wasn't able to watch last Friday cause this team really struggles if Heckman isn't on.

Humphrey showed me more tonight than UNH
Anderson tends to disappear at times, he floated around the perimeter for most of the game


But on the whole, right now there aren't a ton of offensive threats.

[GlorytoBC]

If this team can learn how to pass, we may not lose every game by 30. Nobody can pass, and nobody can catch. Heckmann's bounce passes scare his teammates, and the big guys have hands of stone. The guards lose their dribbles more often than not. The amount of turnovers tonight was scary, but not surprising... 9 freshman, and 2 sophomores who are not ACC-level players. We'll get better.

Clifford: Offensively, very aggressive. The moves he tried were very encouraging, and would make Josh Southern say "OH DAMN." However, he shys away from rebounds; sometimes he doesn't even look for them. Also, cannot handle passes.


.

So Clifford lacks hands, y'know, one of the most IMPORTANT things for a big man to have, because you can teach a big man post moves, but you can't teach him to have hands. You either have it or you don't. (Cue for some retarded hands (and out of date) joke by TRE or angrychicken)

[GodofBeasts94]

If this team can learn how to pass, we may not lose every game by 30. Nobody can pass, and nobody can catch. Heckmann's bounce passes scare his teammates, and the big guys have hands of stone. The guards lose their dribbles more often than not. The amount of turnovers tonight was scary, but not surprising... 9 freshman, and 2 sophomores who are not ACC-level players. We'll get better.

Clifford: Offensively, very aggressive. The moves he tried were very encouraging, and would make Josh Southern say "OH DAMN." However, he shys away from rebounds; sometimes he doesn't even look for them. Also, cannot handle passes.


.

So Clifford lacks hands, y'know, one of the most IMPORTANT things for a big man to have, because you can teach a big man post moves, but you can't teach him to have hands. You either have it or you don't. (Cue for some retarded hands (and out of date) joke by TRE or angrychicken)

I disagree with the "big guys got no hands criticism." Some of the passes tonight were brutally bad. I think both Dennis and KC are receiving the ball well when it is delivered the way it should be. Bounce or throw passes into the knees of 7 footers and you can't realistically expect them to control every pass.

[cvilleagle]

[EagleDave]

Clifford's biggest problem is that he can barely bench press the basketball. He gets pushed around way too easily in the air and on rebounds. There's almost no reason that a legitimate 7 footer should get his dunks blocked, and it's happened twice now in the first three games against less than stellar athletes. He'll be fine once he's got a year in the gym...

I set the over/under for blocks by Jon Henson at 4.5 when they play UNC.

[eepstein0]

Clifford's biggest problem is that he can barely bench press the basketball. He gets pushed around way too easily in the air and on rebounds. There's almost no reason that a legitimate 7 footer should get his dunks blocked, and it's happened twice now in the first three games against less than stellar athletes. He'll be fine once he's got a year in the gym...

I set the over/under for blocks by Jon Henson at 4.5 when they play UNC.

Since our PG is 5'5", I'll be taking the over

[angrychicken]

If this team can learn how to pass, we may not lose every game by 30. Nobody can pass, and nobody can catch. Heckmann's bounce passes scare his teammates, and the big guys have hands of stone. The guards lose their dribbles more often than not. The amount of turnovers tonight was scary, but not surprising... 9 freshman, and 2 sophomores who are not ACC-level players. We'll get better.

Clifford: Offensively, very aggressive. The moves he tried were very encouraging, and would make Josh Southern say "OH DAMN." However, he shys away from rebounds; sometimes he doesn't even look for them. Also, cannot handle passes.


.

So Clifford lacks hands, y'know, one of the most IMPORTANT things for a big man to have, because you can teach a big man post moves, but you can't teach him to have hands. You either have it or you don't. (Cue for some retarded hands (and out of date) joke by TRE or angrychicken)

For the hoops weirdos:

GlorytoBC and Kato go up to the mountains for a romantic winter vacation. When they get there, Glory goes out to chop some wood.
When he gets back, he says, "Kato, my hands are freezing!"

Kato says, "Well, put them here between my thighs and that will warm them up."

After lunch Glory goes back out to chop some more wood and comes back and says again, "Man! My hands are really freezing!"

Kato says again, "Well, put them here between my thighs and warm them up."

He does, and again that warms him up.

After dinner, Glory goes out one more time to chop some wood to get them through the night. When he returns, he says again, "Kato, my hands are really, really freezing!"

Kato looks at Glory and says, "For crying out loud, don't your ears ever get cold?"

[fs33]

We are bad. Like bad bad. We got run out of the gym tonight. The bigs were physically overmatched. Heckman was frustrated and out of control the whole game. Two of the more alarming moments for me was watching Heckman force a runner that got blocked at the end of the first half when Anderson was wide open. Afterwards Anderson looked pissed and walked right by him without saying anything. Secondly the UMass pg took it the length of the court after a made basket without anyone stopping him early in the second half. It was like the parting of the seas - no one stepped up.

Odio and Caudill are complete nonfactors offensively. Atleast Odio brings an energy spark. Caudill could've really used a RS year. Heckman, Humphrey, Anderson and Clifford shouldn't leave the court. We are sorely in need of a ball handler and a go to scorer. It is going to be a very long season.

[fs33]

The crowd wasnt much better than the team either. 2,500 maybe? The 20 or so UMass students were much louder than the BC students. My friend took this pic during the first half.

[Ahzeem]

If this team can learn how to pass, we may not lose every game by 30. Nobody can pass, and nobody can catch. Heckmann's bounce passes scare his teammates, and the big guys have hands of stone. The guards lose their dribbles more often than not. The amount of turnovers tonight was scary, but not surprising... 9 freshman, and 2 sophomores who are not ACC-level players. We'll get better.

Clifford: Offensively, very aggressive. The moves he tried were very encouraging, and would make Josh Southern say "OH DAMN." However, he shys away from rebounds; sometimes he doesn't even look for them. Also, cannot handle passes.

Heckmann: Not a good passer. His game is ACC-level however.

Odio: Liked what I saw. He's got ups for sure.

Moton: Still cannot dribble.
Guards can't win the game on their own they have to get their big men involved... 5 more touches for Anderson and Clifford and you have the 20 we lost by. They will work it out...

Jackson: Looks quite lost. Nobody looked for him on the perimeter, and he was open a few times too.

Anderson: Still looks lie the best all-around player. Still needs work.

Overall, the passing that is essential to the Don's system is not there at all; last year it was great. Last year was also loaded with seniors though. The defense is also atrocious.

As pessimistic as I sound, I know this will all improve, and I love this team. Can't wait to see them grow, and I can't wait until Hanlan arrives on campus.

[eepstein0]

Going forward:

(1) I don't want to see Rubin, Moton or Cahill play more than 5-7 minutes a game. If we're going to be bad, we need to play the freshman 30 minutes a night. Lonnie Jackson needs to play more. He proved to me last night that he can dribble which means he needs to play over the first three. Odio needs to play major minutes also, he clearly is athletic, has a good looking jump shot, a smart player and has a high basketball IQ. We're not going to win more games with the three older kids in there, so let's play the freshman major minutes. Give Lonnie Jackson some minutes, confidence and he starts making jump shots, a lot of them.

(2) Fix the rebounding and defense. I have no magic formula here, but these are the reasons we're getting killed.

(3) Just let the team run. I understand you don't want 9 freshman playing out of control, but I'm inclined to think we may do better by unleashing Daniels and letting him run with Heckmann and Humphrey. Sometimes Donahue needs to slow them down, but there were clearly some chances to run last night that we turned down.

We played pretty damn well for the first 10 minutes last night. The defense was so much better and the offense moved the ball and got open shots. The problem is when you're playing so many young players, when the wheels fall off, the wheels really fall off. It'd be nice if Matt Humphrey's would be a leader out there but he seems more emotionally out of control than the rest of the crew when things start going bad. If this team can figure out how to put a complete game together this year, they may take a decent team by surprise and run them out of the gym.

[pick6pedro]

I caught most of the game. There was a lot of bad. A TON. But this is to be expected. Just keeping looking for upward trajectory.

Don't want to overlap with comments already made, but my observations:

Heckmann clearly has what it takes. He looked good early, but then starting forcing a lot. Couldn't tell if it was out of frustration or what.

Everyone: stop picking up your dribble. Often it's being compounded by no one getting open or coming to the ball.

Cahill still needs to play. After a UMass foul in the first half, he called the players on the court together. They definitely would not have done that if he hadn't been out there. Those things need to happen and until other guys show they will do that, he needs to be in there as an on-court teacher. He doesn't need 30 minutes, but those 10-15 minutes are good ones and not really taking too much away from anyone else.

The rebounding I think will come once the tempo slows down and the instincts kick in. The defense really concerns me. The rotation is extremely slow, much as it was last year. I want to give the Don the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not sure this is high on his list of priorities. The communication on switches/matchups and help is almost non-existent. Obviously that can easily change.

Despite the poor second half, I still saw hustling and learning. But wow, air balls, not squaring to the bucket, and bailout passes galore.

I liked the way Anderson plays and his aggression, but he doesn't appear 6'8'' to me. Maybe it's just cuz he needs to bulk up (they all do).

Clifford and Caudill both look fairly passive and need to just make decisions (not hasty, but make the decision none the less) and commit to it.

And yes, Humphry was on the team last year...he needs to show some leadership with these 18 year olds.


Again, I could care less about wins. What I care about it chemistry, learning, a never give up attitude/hustle, and an upward trajectory in most noticeable aspects.

[angrychicken]

I caught most of the game. There was a lot of bad. A TON. But this is to be expected. Just keeping looking for upward trajectory.

Don't want to overlap with comments already made, but my observations:

Heckmann clearly has what it takes. He looked good early, but then starting forcing a lot. Couldn't tell if it was out of frustration or what.

Everyone: stop picking up your dribble. Often it's being compounded by no one getting open or coming to the ball.

Cahill still needs to play. After a UMass foul in the first half, he called the players on the court together. They definitely would not have done that if he hadn't been out there. Those things need to happen and until other guys show they will do that, he needs to be in there as an on-court teacher. He doesn't need 30 minutes, but those 10-15 minutes are good ones and not really taking too much away from anyone else.

The rebounding I think will come once the tempo slows down and the instincts kick in. The defense really concerns me. The rotation is extremely slow, much as it was last year. I want to give the Don the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not sure this is high on his list of priorities. The communication on switches/matchups and help is almost non-existent. Obviously that can easily change.

Despite the poor second half, I still saw hustling and learning. But wow, air balls, not squaring to the bucket, and bailout passes galore.

I liked the way Anderson plays and his aggression, but he doesn't appear 6'8'' to me. Maybe it's just cuz he needs to bulk up (they all do).

Clifford and Caudill both look fairly passive and need to just make decisions (not hasty, but make the decision none the less) and commit to it.

And yes, Humphry was on the team last year...he needs to show some leadership with these 18 year olds.


Again, I could care less about wins. What I care about it chemistry, learning, a never give up attitude/hustle, and an upward trajectory in most noticeable aspects.

Sure, this stuff is good if you like analysis of hoops, but do you have any good jokes about hands?

[pick6pedro]

I caught most of the game. There was a lot of bad. A TON. But this is to be expected. Just keeping looking for upward trajectory.

Don't want to overlap with comments already made, but my observations:

Heckmann clearly has what it takes. He looked good early, but then starting forcing a lot. Couldn't tell if it was out of frustration or what.

Everyone: stop picking up your dribble. Often it's being compounded by no one getting open or coming to the ball.

Cahill still needs to play. After a UMass foul in the first half, he called the players on the court together. They definitely would not have done that if he hadn't been out there. Those things need to happen and until other guys show they will do that, he needs to be in there as an on-court teacher. He doesn't need 30 minutes, but those 10-15 minutes are good ones and not really taking too much away from anyone else.

The rebounding I think will come once the tempo slows down and the instincts kick in. The defense really concerns me. The rotation is extremely slow, much as it was last year. I want to give the Don the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not sure this is high on his list of priorities. The communication on switches/matchups and help is almost non-existent. Obviously that can easily change.

Despite the poor second half, I still saw hustling and learning. But wow, air balls, not squaring to the bucket, and bailout passes galore.

I liked the way Anderson plays and his aggression, but he doesn't appear 6'8'' to me. Maybe it's just cuz he needs to bulk up (they all do).

Clifford and Caudill both look fairly passive and need to just make decisions (not hasty, but make the decision none the less) and commit to it.

And yes, Humphry was on the team last year...he needs to show some leadership with these 18 year olds.


Again, I could care less about wins. What I care about it chemistry, learning, a never give up attitude/hustle, and an upward trajectory in most noticeable aspects.

Sure, this stuff is good if you like analysis of hoops, but do you have any good jokes about hands?

I do, but I don't want them to end up across the river on EI.

[pick6pedro]

Oh and a ton of stupid fouls. That doesn't concern me too much in the long run.

[eepstein0]

It'd be very helpful if Humphrey would step up and lead this team on the court. I think it'd go a long way.

[angrychicken]

It'd be very helpful if Humphrey would step up and lead this team on the court. I think it'd go a long way.

Maybe Clifford could give him a hand.

[eepstein0]

It'd be very helpful if Humphrey would step up and lead this team on the court. I think it'd go a long way.

Maybe Clifford could give him a hand.

Huh?

[eagle9903]

It'd be very helpful if Humphrey would step up and lead this team on the court. I think it'd go a long way.

Maybe Clifford could give him a hand.

Huh?

glorytobc called down the snark thunder, just roll with it.

[angrychicken]

It'd be very helpful if Humphrey would step up and lead this team on the court. I think it'd go a long way.

Maybe Clifford could give him a hand.

Huh?

glorytobc called down the snark thunder, just roll with it.