Le Moyne Dolphins Post Game Thread

[superjohn]

I’m trying my best to be patient on Mahainey and I trust this coaching staff. So far? Yikes. I am not even sure what his strength(s) are supposed to be.

Shot creation, scoring, and he's clutch.

 

[Palatine]

“Clearly the law of averages was at play in the second half.”
There is no such law. A bad first half of shooting does not predict a good second half.

There is no law of averages per se but there is regression toward the mean. So extremely poor shooting in the first half should improve in the second half. Of course, there are many more factors in play which could erase the effect of regression toward the mean.

 

[Deepster]

Shot creation, scoring, and he's clutch.

I’m pulling for him. And like I said. I trust the coaches. He’s playing over some super talented guys so they see it in him.

 

[RedStickHusky]

His issue is hes not athletic enough to just go out there beat his man and do his thing. He needs to play in system to flourish. Until he gets there hes going to look mid. As he gets comfortable and understands Hurleys system he will no longer be thinking and just reacting and then we will see him start to take off.

So... 20 minutes?

 

[JustbrewitMan]

This was Mahaney's best showing. Created good looks for himself but just had the rim-outs. Still have plenty of faith in this St. Mary's kid. It isn't Hurley's superstition starting him, it's his practice play.

I honestly don't know what to think. Mahaney is going up against high level D1 talent in practice. If what you're saying is true, one would deduce his defense looks good in practice,..so why is he performing so badly against lower/mid D1 talent?

This is now a 4-game sample and his defense has looked uniformly bad in all 4 games.

Joey California was a major defensive liability in his first couple games but then went on to show steady improvement throughout the season to become an adequate defender while he was on the court. For what we brought Mahaney in to be, he just has to start showing improvements and do it soon or else Hurley will have to relegate him to reduced minutes off the bench. Tough teams loom on the horizon.

 

[superjohn]

I’m pulling for him. And like I said. I trust the coaches. He’s playing over some super talented guys so they see it in him.

From Hurley's comments in the presser I get the feeling he wants Mahaney starting but if he doesn't pick it up I think he will start Ross or Stewart. He talked about how much he loves Hass coming in off the bench with how he changes games and Hass is fully on board with it. He said Jaylin's minutes will be bumped up from the 20 minutes he played last night and Jayden's minutes will be bumped up from the 19 minutes he played last night. He said he thinks he knows how they have to play this going forward and they need to find a way to improve the slow starts and then talked more about how good he feels with the centers and the wings.

 

[J187Money]

Three games of 90 plus, even against this level of competition, is pretty impressive this early in the year.

Especially with the very slow starts.

 

[Palatine]

Interesting that Hurley said the second unit was better that finding Reed than the first unit was at finding Samson. If you look at one of our first offensive plays, Samson is wide open rolling to the basket for a lob and Mahaney takes a tough shot (misses) instead of lobbing. The chemistry is not there yet. Hurley said part of it is our guards are not as big this year.

It's looks like this is taking time for the guards to figure out. They are getting into the lane and turning the ball over when they should have three options, shoot, lob or kick out.

 

[freescooter]

Very disappointing. Failed to continue the string of scoring 92. I was hoping we scored exactly 92 points every game this season.

That is how meaningful games against this level of competition are.

 

[The Yakk]

Thread on Syracusefan 2 pages and growing about how we are 20X better than Cuse because we beat Le Moyne by 40 and they won by 2. They are a sad, sad, bunch.

"If we played them tomorrow we could lose by 40 too."

"We softened’em up for UConn." LOL

Also, one genius who demonstrates the value of a $70,000/year Syracuse education by referring to Kevin Ollie as an "alumni", not an "alumnus". Twice.

Sorry for still having Syracuse on my mind, but their fans asked for it. Now they got it.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Interesting that Hurley said the second unit was better that finding Reed than the first unit was at finding Samson. If you look at one of our first offensive plays, Samson is wide open rolling to the basket for a lob and Mahaney takes a tough shot (misses) instead of lobbing. The chemistry is not there yet. Hurley said part of it is our guards are not as big this year.

It's looks like this is taking time for the guards to figure out. They are getting into the lane and turning the ball over when they should have three options, shoot, lob or kick out.

Noticed that as well. I counted a minimum of 3 Samson lob-dunks that could have happened last night if we had last year's squad. Newton/Cam/Diarra would have delivered it to him. I think once it was McNeeley and twice it was Mahaney.

We're just gonna have to be patient but I think it will all start clicking better as we approach BE play.

 

[Storrs South]

Mahaney is going to be really good, it's just going to take some time.

It's frustrating since, like Tarris, he has to unlearn some bad habits from his previous stop. He did miss Samson 3x on what should have been lob dunks and all three times he opted for a more difficult shot and missed all 3x.

That's OK though he will get it. Just needs to continue to understand where to shot and when to pass. Once it clicks, he is going to be a real weapon on offense and it's a given he is in lab being coached up on defense. Remember Cam was a turnstile the first two months he was here. It doesn't happen overnight.

 

[Fatroony5]

Mahaney is going to be really good, it's just going to take some time.

It's frustrating since, like Tarris, he has to unlearn some bad habits from his previous stop. He did miss Samson 3x on what should have been lob dunks and all three times he opted for a more difficult shot and missed all 3x.

That's OK though he will get it. Just needs to continue to understand where to shot and when to pass. Once it clicks, he is going to be a real weapon on offense and it's a given he is in lab being coached up on defense. Remember Cam was a turnstile the first two months he was here. It doesn't happen overnight.

Not concerned yet, Mahaneys adjustment to the roster is by far the biggest on the team. Remember, it wasn’t perfect when RJ & Newton took the lead guard role in the beginning of the season. Similar thoughts thrown out there in terms of their ability within the offense too. He’ll find his footing, just trying to figure out where he fits in & when to be aggressive. They’ll look to get him a little more off ball at times too & give him chances to get downhill. For those worrying about him being a bust, just remember who Hurley has brought in as a transfer outside of year 1:

RJ Cole
Tyrese Martin
Tristen Newton
Nahiem Alleyne
Joey Calceterra
Hassan Diarra
Cam Spencer
Aidan*
Tarris*

Nahiem probably struggled the most and even he came on later in the year. All of them make an impact on the roster, expect Aidan to get better…

 

[TheShot1990]

The missed threes in the first half were all good shots that went half way down.
Balls off hand flush was exceptional, then he goes in on the left and misses, slipped?
Very deep team with no drop off, always be fresh at the end of games.
Abraham and Noel continue to impress.

Who's this kid Noel? Edit before the spelling police see this.

 

[bendm]

interesting comments regarding in comming class.

this was the postgame presser and he was discussing next year's class? can someone summarize?

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Would also like to see Diarra and Reed in the starting lineup before Maui. They’ve outplayed Mahaney and Samson every game. Hopefully Mahaney can just focus on being a scoring spark when he gets in rather than trying to do too much. Love the 10 combined rebs and 9 assists from Ross and Stew.

Your point about Diarra is accurate. He has outplayed Aidan. But his handle has been very, very lose. You gotta start him, but I would give Nowell more minutes. The kid is the natural PG for this offense, because he does what Diarra does, but shoots better.

 

[navery12]

this was the postgame presser and he was discussing next year's class? can someone summarize?

Nothing particularly noteworthy or that we haven't heard before. Just talked about the 3 guards all being the type of combo guards he loves to have. Reibe is already super advanced offensively and they'll keep working on his rim protection. Expects all these guys to be early entry NBA guys ala Hawkins, Clingan, Castle, Karaban

 

[DogMania]

I’m never going to get my respect on this board lol

Show us the evidence of such preseason prediction and you'll be rewarded with an atta-boy.

 

[Stinger92860]

The offense may be too complex for Aidan right now with the ball in his hands. I think he might be better served playing off the ball. Hass can create his own shots on the drive, I think Aidan needs space and time. Only 3 games in, lot’s of season left. We need 2 point guards, and this may open up a slot for Nowell if Aidan is not the guy. Not a lot of minutes for Aidan off the ball though.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Show us the evidence of such preseason prediction and you'll be rewarded with an atta-boy.

I couldn’t be as loud as I wanted to because people would’ve laughed and got upset with the post. But I’ve been hinting at it all offseason.

But I was told that summer workouts didn’t mean much and Springs also won these awards

Post in thread 'Team Summer Activity'
Team Summer Activity

Here’s a couple of posts where I say he’s a for sure 1st rounder before he even suited up to play a game and put him in the Bouknight/Hawkins tier (not there yet but it’s early). Bring that love here baby!

Post in thread '“…but Duke doesn’t have the most NBA talent in the country.UConn does.”'
“…but Duke doesn’t have the most NBA talent in the country.UConn does.”

Post in thread 'Transfer Portal April 2023'
Transfer Portal April 2023

 

[DogMania]

The offense may be too complex for Aidan right now with the ball in his hands. I think he might be better served playing off the ball. Hass can create his own shots on the drive, I think Aidan needs space and time. Only 3 games in, lot’s of season left. We need 2 point guards, and this may open up a slot for Nowell if Aidan is not the guy. Not a lot of minutes for Aidan off the ball though.

When they start running the motion offense there is no point guard. It's pretty much 3 to 4 perimeter type players along with one big who cycle through a bunch of different actions where any one of them could be executing the same exact thing. If he's not running to the right spot quickly enough or making the right decision when the balls gets back into his hands, the actions are not effective.

The quicker they run them and the better decisions that are made, result in good scoring opportunities. It just seems that they're bogged down more often when he's on the floor compared to other combination of players. I'd have to look more closely, but maybe he functions better when teams deploy zone against us. He's new to the system so hopefully he'll get better as time goes on.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Mahaney is going to be really good, it's just going to take some time.

It's frustrating since, like Tarris, he has to unlearn some bad habits from his previous stop. He did miss Samson 3x on what should have been lob dunks and all three times he opted for a more difficult shot and missed all 3x.

That's OK though he will get it. Just needs to continue to understand where to shot and when to pass. Once it clicks, he is going to be a real weapon on offense and it's a given he is in lab being coached up on defense. Remember Cam was a turnstile the first two months he was here. It doesn't happen overnight.

Tarris definitely had to unlearn some bad habits, i’m not sure Aidan did. Randy Bennett is a great coach and St. Mary’s is a well piled team. I think Aidan is just gonna have a steeper learning curve playing the speed we want to play.

Cam is an apt comparison but he was a lot stronger, craftier and more intense. Aidan is quicker, but doesn’t have the versatility Cam had. He is really slight, but he is going to be put into great positions with our offense to improve. I’m certainly more worried about him defensively than offensively.

 

[navery12]

Tarris definitely had to unlearn some bad habits, i’m not sure Aidan did. Randy Bennett is a great coach and St. Mary’s is a well piled team. I think Aidan is just gonna have a steeper learning curve playing the speed we want to play.

Cam is an apt comparison but he was a lot stronger, craftier and more intense. Aidan is quicker, but doesn’t have the versatility Cam had. He is really slight, but he is going to be put into great positions with our offense to improve. I’m certainly more worried about him defensively than offensively.

Not so much bad habits as much as different expectations in the offense. Leaving aside needing to learn all the intricacies of running the PG spot in UConn's offense which is hard enough, which is hard enough, he had a lot more free reign in St Mary's offense.

He's not taking bad shots so far, he's had a lot of good looks that aren't falling. But he's taking a lot of average to good shots in an offense that hunts great shots. He's been very good at finding the open man and limiting turnovers, the next step is finding the right time to take his shots in the flow of the offense

 

[my2cents]

Who's this kid Noel? Edit before the spelling police see this.

First year player, 3 games in....c;mon give me a break. Haven't changed my opinion on NOWELL though, he's a keeper.

 

[DogMania]

I think Aidan looks slow. Whenever he is on the floor, it seems the offense stagnates. There is a visible change of speed in our sets whenever HD is on the floor. I would love to see more of Nowell. Abraham looks more dangerous than Stewart. Come March, the first person backing up Alex will be Abraham. What you do you all take from Dan's reaction to Samson's second foul? Something or nothing? That may not bode well for Samson. Dan cannot trust him if he cannot stay out of foul trouble. Lastly, I cannot wait to see Reid, Jr. play against other big dudes. If he can hang, we are good at center.

Patience is needed when it comes to coaches developing the players and rotations that they believe gives them the best chance of winning. That's what Hurley is doing.

I agree about the offense boging down when Aidan is in there. I hope he learns it soon and begins making quicker and correct decisions.

As for Nowell and Abraham supplanting Aiden and Stewart respectively, they will have to prove to Hurley they can defend and execute against better competition. As talented they are, I'm not sure that is going to happen anytime soon.

I like what I've seen in both, but for now, Hurley is likely going to stick with giving the current rotation players opportunities to develop.

As for Stewart, he just had his best game of the season. I'd like to see him attack the basket more and hope his outside shot comes around like it did last season. He's probably feeling a lot of pressure competing with McNeeley and Ross for playing time. He'll be fine.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Not so much bad habits as much as different expectations in the offense. Leaving aside needing to learn all the intricacies of running the PG spot in UConn's offense which is hard enough, which is hard enough, he had a lot more free reign in St Mary's offense.

He's not taking bad shots so far, he's had a lot of good looks that aren't falling. But he's taking a lot of average to good shots in an offense that hunts great shots. He's been very good at finding the open man and limiting turnovers, the next step is finding the right time to take his shots in the flow of the offense

Agreed, just adjusting to a different type of role with more demanding and intricate requirements. Hurley mentioned first unit guys need to find Samson better and I’ve noticed that too. We may have been (definitely were) spoiled with 3 great passers last year. Solo and Aidan aren’t necessarily pass first guys really, but they will get it ironed out, I am sure.

 

[EricSD]

Great comments and analysis by many on here. Not much to add so i'll just say...

IIRC the announcers said this is Lemoyne's 2nd year in Division 1? Good for them. I thought they played hard and have some talented offensive pieces. I'd like to say "they kept it close in the first half by playing hard", but the reality is - going 0-9 from 3 with wide open looks will keep a score closer than it should be. hit 3 or 4 of them and it's a blowout pretty early on.

Didn't see this mentioned but why didn't Hurley call a timeout to get Singare in at the end? He went to the scorer's table with 3'ish minutes left. It's not like we needed to save a TO. I saw 2 Lemoyne players at the scorer's table as well - was Hurley just being stubborn expecting Lemoyne to call the TO? Either way I was disappointed. In a blowout like that, there is really no excuse not to get Singare into the game.

Regarding Johnson and Mahaney starting - I get that Hurley may be superstitious, but for the most part Reed and Diarra have consistently looked better than the 2 starters. Not blaming the slow starts on them, but a slow start against a really good team could mean being down 10 early on. Obviously missing open 3's isn't the fault of Mahaney or Johnson, but it would be interesting to see things switched up.

Having said that, Dan Hurley is a brilliant coach, and whatever reasons he has for what he does I'm all in for. Not like he needs any approval, but this is a fan opinion board...

 

[DogMania]

I couldn’t be as loud as I wanted to because people would’ve laughed and got upset with the post. But I’ve been hinting at it all offseason.

But I was told that summer workouts didn’t mean much and Springs also won these awards

Post in thread 'Team Summer Activity'
Team Summer Activity

Here’s a couple of posts where I say he’s a for sure 1st rounder before he even suited up to play a game and put him in the Bouknight/Hawkins tier (not there yet but it’s early). Bring that love here baby!

Post in thread '“…but Duke doesn’t have the most NBA talent in the country.UConn does.”'
“…but Duke doesn’t have the most NBA talent in the country.UConn does.”

Post in thread 'Transfer Portal April 2023'
Transfer Portal April 2023

I was being sufficious, but props to you for seeing his potential early.

It can be very rough around here when you share your opinion that others don't agree with. Many don't know how to be civil about it, and rarely are willing to admit they're wrong. Keep on sharing your observations. It's okay when people don't agree, but they should do it without being dicks about it.

It's too bad that happens, I've heard of many lurkers who just won't post because they don't want to get put down. Let's all try to play nice in the Husky sandbox. All opinions are welcome even stupid ones. Yeah, sometimes there are some ridiculous perspectives but I guess it's pretty relative as to what one thinks is flat out wrong or misguided.

I'm one who agrees that Ross looks like a late bloomer who has a high ceiling and is going to be an important contributor to this year's team and an outstanding player at the next level. Time will tell. I think what he's doing now, he'll be able to do against better competition based on the eye test. I'm excited to see him grow as the season goes on.

 

[dennismenace]

From Hurley's comments in the presser I get the feeling he wants Mahaney starting but if he doesn't pick it up I think he will start Ross or Stewart. He talked about how much he loves Hass coming in off the bench with how he changes games and Hass is fully on board with it. He said Jaylin's minutes will be bumped up from the 20 minutes he played last night and Jayden's minutes will be bumped up from the 19 minutes he played last night. He said he thinks he knows how they have to play this going forward and they need to find a way to improve the slow starts and then talked more about how good he feels with the centers and the wings.

Following this line of reasoning (which I agree with) he more likely will come in like Joey C. for instant offense later in the game when the other team is sucking wind. We haven't even started the Big East schedule which will be faster and much more physical. He might be a lot more difficult to defend under those circumstances. He'll have plenty of chances to prove himself. I'm sure Dan Hurley will not give up on him but sometimes circumstances happen. BTW, Danny also mentioned that next years class is going to be a MONSTER class. That also will affect everything.

He will have more chances in the pre- league season.

 

[husky429]

Not so much bad habits as much as different expectations in the offense. Leaving aside needing to learn all the intricacies of running the PG spot in UConn's offense which is hard enough, which is hard enough, he had a lot more free reign in St Mary's offense.

He's not taking bad shots so far, he's had a lot of good looks that aren't falling. But he's taking a lot of average to good shots in an offense that hunts great shots. He's been very good at finding the open man and limiting turnovers, the next step is finding the right time to take his shots in the flow of the offense

I think you've got this right. When you're a fairly unathletic and below average sized (but highly skilled) guard like Aidan, decision-making needs to be elite to be effective. Tristen had much better size and still needed time that first year. Aidan still has time.