This loss is on boat and bazz.

[ctchamps]

This loss in my opinion is completely on Ollie. Ollie for no reason was sticking with this 4 guard lineup + DD all first half. Spoiler Alert: It wasn't working. Down 15 points 5 minutes into the second half we settle on the lineup of Evans, Napier, Giffey, Omar, Wolf. Within 5 minutes the lead was gone. Literally, 5 minutes. Instead of sticking with the only lineup of the night that was working, Ollie decided to take out Evans (who was giving St Johns fits) and take out a fired up Wolf (even though Obekpa fouled out) and go back to the worthless 4 guard + DD lineup. Spoiler Alert: It didnt work AGAIN.

Ollie should've stuck with the lineup that cut a 15 point deficit to a 2 point lead. Its about matchups and finding the right guys who fit at the right time and Ollie should've been able to see that Evans, Nap, Gif, Omar and Wolf was the only thing working. If he needed more proof, all he had to do was look up at the scoreboard.

My take as well! St. John's scored the basket before he took them out and maybe he thought they figured things out. But it was a premature assumption at best and a miscalculation at worst.

SN was not the problem in this game unless people want to blame him for a very minor breaking of the team rules, whatever the transgression was. SN takes time to get into flow of games and to get players involved. Anyone buying TW projection of SN as not playing forty minutes is caving into one persons evaluation that doesn't take into consideration SN desire to get team mates involved.

RB is definitely injured. He can barely blow by people that five games ago he was making them look as if they were walking backwards. His defense has gone south at about the same time. This is where the thin bench and a freshman OC have hurt this team. Because RB should be sitting out for a couple of weeks at least.

RJ came in and had a great game. And the people who don't like the kid's play will never own up to it because in the end it is more important for the fan to be validated than to validate the players and team.

 

[Gurleyman]

You do tend to reach a point of diminishing returns with bench guys, where the spark wears off and they regress to the mean, so to speak. Evans hasn't played extended minutes consecutively In a long time, so fatigue will catch up with him, and generally when you get to winning time, you need the guys who make plays to be out there (especially when you don't have many of them). When Boat came in, he did hit a long three at a time we needed it and a couple foul shots to give us the lead. For any number of reasons, we didn't hold it - some of which were Boat's fault (I didn't particularly like the fadeaway three from Bazz either - momentum seemed to swing there).

Except in rare cases, coaches are always going to err on the side of trying to win and lose with their best guys on the floor, even on their off nights. Less second guessing that way. There are exceptions, of course. If there's not much of a talent gap between a starter and a back-up, you just play the more effective guy that night, or if someone is playing lockdown defense on the other team's best player, you decide he's too valuable to take off the floor, even if you leave a better scorer on the bench. Ollie could have done that yesterday with RJ, but it is tough to leave the guy averaging 17, and who has made big shots in his career, on the bench in a tight game late.

 

[8893]

The only reason we're in the game is Bazz so I disagree. Boat on the other hand, his defense may have gotten worst and the foul he committed with the clock running down has once again shown an inability to 1....keep himself between his guy and the basket in clutch times and 2....stupidity!! I will be honest, there's a piece of him right now that is swinging away from the "team" and moving towards selfishness from what I've seen. And the constant attempt to flip the ball from hi guy frm behind because he accepts getting beat is becoming a bit out of hand on that end.

Good points. Boat's body language and demeanor are starting to bother me. Seems like if things aren't going well for him personally, he let's it effect every aspect of his game. The attempted steals from behind really piss me off. That's not good D. Stay in front of your man to keep him from getting by you. He's quick enough that he should be able to accomplish that.

I don't disagree about the Boat observations, but to my eyes he and Bazz both have their fair share of pouting and bad demeanor issues that affect team chemistry and overall play. I continue to be intrigued by the dynamic between the two of them and believe that it is often strained, but each does his best to avoid showing it overtly. Watching them interact with each other is very interesting to me. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on there. Leadership/role issues? I don't know, but it still seems to me that there's something there.