Yesterday was absolutely brutal. Needed a while before posting my Top 20.


In no particular order



1. Did my eyes deceive me?

Wasn't sure from where I was sitting and I did not watch the replay at home. BUT, I had the CBS news on last night and it showed the final seconds. There is no way that Aligbe even touched the shooter on the 3 point attempt late, The kid just fell down and suckered the ref. Cost SHU the game. Not sure why this hasn't been brought up anywhere.


2. And then....

Seconds to go SHU up 1. What is your best foul shooter (93.2% last year) and best ball handler Harmon doing on the bench? It didn't matter because the Pirates broke the press before Addae-Wusu fumble the ball. But that's not the point.


3. And speaking of Harmon....

Why has he been glued to the bench? The guards have been struggling just getting the ball over half court and you don't give your best ball handler and an excellent defender some PT.


4. Seton Hall's French Connection

For the second game in a row Toumi played an excellent first half and then virtually disappeared in the second stanza.


5. The future

Let's hope the two frosh big men stay in the years to come. Godswill and The Gus Bus are showing a lot of promise. But that said each has a ways to go as expected from players that have only played 2 games to date.


6. They're free guys

The free throw shooting in the first two games has been abysmal. 8-16 and a missed front end of a 1-1 cost the team the game yesterday.

A question. With the five guys on the court on our last offensive play who did you want to get fouled?


7. Situational BB

Seconds to go up 1. Why was Addae-Wusu so anxious to catch the ball and then take it to the basket. The clock is your enemy not Fordham. You dribble out as many seconds as possible and then get fouled in the frontcourt. Instead Dylan tried to score and fumbled the catch.


8. Up 8 and....

The Pirates had the crowd rocking going on a run middle of the second half to take an 8 point lead. I told my seatmate a good team will now extend the lead and the game will be over. A bad team will immediately let Fordham back in the game. The latter happened as Fordham after calling a timeout came back on the court and hit back to back 3s and the lead evaporated in a very short time.


9. Scotty, where are you?

He played so well in the workout I saw but he looks completely lost on the court to date. 0-2 from the field yesterday with 2 costly turnovers in almost 8 minutes of play. That's 1 of 8 (an uncontested layup) in two games. This team needs offense and I was sure it would come from #7. Now I'm not so sure.


10. Wasting time

Throughout the game the backcourt struggled to get the ball over halfcourt. And then often when they did, especially with DAW having the ball he dribbled aimlessly at the top of the court wasting more time on the shot clock. Get into the offense quicker and if we continue to struggle with that aspect of the game give Harmon some run.


11. You practice like you play

Fordham coach Keith Urgo said his team had the two best practices of the year coming into yesterday's game. Conversely Holloway said just the opposite for his team. We saw the result in the game.



12. Right Turn Clyde

Both Clint Eastwood and Shaheen Holloway made the 'right' call. But the Pirates defense allowed Jackie Johnson III to drive left and loft a game winner over IsaIah Coleman despite instructions from the bench to force him right.



13. Where's the individual D?

Dual is struggling on offense but I was sure his D would be outstanding. Not yesterday at Walsh. He was constantly beaten by his defensive assignment with penetration leading to a team worse plus/minus of -7.



14. Only the final score matters

SHU had the lead in the game for 32:38 but Fordham having no more than a 1 point lead in the second half won the game at the buzzer.



15. D vs O

When you hold two teams to 36.5% and 35.7% shooting from the field you should have 2 easy wins. But when your offense only manages to shoot 31.8% and 40.7% of it's own..well 1-1 seems fair.



16. Waste of time

DAW and Aligbe were the players who came into the post game. They were at the podium for about 4 minutes and were so down they were barely audible to the media. If you think the fans were disappointed walking out of Walsh the players were absolutely devastated.



17. Crooked numbers

DAWs had a weird statistical game

3-6 from the field

1-1 from the arc

1-2 from the line

4 rebounds

5 assists

4 turnovers

4 steals

8 points

But the only play he'll remember is the last time he touched the ball.



18. Jenkins

Had a quiet offensive game but made few mistakes and led the team with a +8 in the 1 point loss.



19. The stars are not aligning

Almost half our points came from the bench (25). Much better than last year. But we have no Dawes, no Richmond and no Davis on this team and that is going to lead to a very long year.



20. Hope he's right

This post game with Sha reminded me a lot of last year's one after the Rutgers' game. Sha was emotionally gutted. But he did leave a message for the fanbase when he guaranteed this squad will right the ship and asked for the support of the fanbase. For good or bad he believes in this team. We'll see moving forward.