Some Jumbled Thoughts

[champs99and04]

This seems like one of those years where we take one step forward and two back. Or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, games like this are extremely frustrating, not so much because Tulsa is a bad team, but because we didn't play anywhere near our capabilities on either end of the court. Brief thoughts:

1. This loss starts with the head coach. If Ollie thought this was a game they needed to win, he sure didn't coach it that way. I understand wanting to establish depth for later in the season, but I'm not sure what result he was expecting when he trotted Cassell, Lubin, and Nolan out there all at once.

2. Purvis and Hamilton make plays that give you confidence that they're on a path to stardom, but a lot of the time, they just make you want to commit assault. That three on one in the first half where Purvis barreled over his defender and proceeded to miss both free throws was all of his frustrating tendencies all in one. Hamilton I thought was actually pretty good tonight, but it'll have to sink in at some point that opponents have his one dribble spin move scouted by now. He needs a counter.

3. I thought we should have gone into Brimah more than we did. He has a lot of trouble with length, but against smaller defenders he can do some damage.

4. The coaching staff seems committed to making Omar Calhoun's life hell until he learns to play defense, particularly away from the ball. Omar seems to get lost in a maze of screens that leads directly to a three at least once per game, which is usually followed by a sad walk back to the bench. Ricky Moore, especially, I noticed lecturing him on multiple occasions tonight.

5. This was one of our worst defensive performances in some time, but the game is still winnable if we shoot better than 8 of 18 from the line and don't turn it over 15 times.

6. We're simply going to struggle to win on nights where Boat doesn't have it. He seemed reluctant to shoot from the get go, and just didn't seem all there for most of the game. It could be related to the injury, but I thought he was all the way back on Saturday.

7. Bright spot: Terrence Samuel. His stroke looks much, much better than it did earlier in the year. Onto Stanford.

 

[zls44]

Purvis and Hamilton make plays that give you confidence that they're on a path to stardom, but a lot of the time, they just make you want to commit assault.

Great post...this line killed me.

 

[Matrim55]

Great post. Ollie's worst performance in some time, but I've got a lot of confidence that things will be better on Saturday and henceforth.

 

[Gurleyman]

Honestly, all I've really seen from Purvis is catching fire spotting up or driving in a straight line (his dunk and short floater today were straight line drives). As soon as he has to make a move or make a read, he's in trouble. He's a strong enough defender that he'll continue to command minutes - but he's a third option on offense who really needs to only make the simple plays. There's maybe more of a skillset in there somewhere, but he needs a lot of coaching this offseason.

Hamilton is a lot like Boat early in his career. Boat was always very outward with his emotions whereas Hamilton is more introverted and stone faced, but he has the same issues with letting his emotions get the better of him. Mistakes carry over to the next play and instead of a bad couple minutes, it turns into a bad half or a bad night. The best hoops players, relief pitchers and cornerbacks are the ones with selective amnesia - you make a mental note of what you did wrong, but then just forget it and move on. Hamilton could be so, so good if he just shrugged off his misses and mistakes and went after it with the same mentality every possession. I think he'll get there, but this year we have to hope he stays on a Lambish upswing in March. Love the kid, though - am excited to see him develop. He's already an 11-6-3 guy as a freshman and will only get better. Hope we have him for 3, since he'll be probably be inconsistently dominant as a sophomore and a flat out monster as a junior.