Observations from a 91-85 loss to Providence

[LeftCoastPirates]

Overall proud of the effort today. Missed opportunity to get a road win and those won’t come easily at all this year. However, as Sha has promised, you will see his team get better as the year progresses. I bet none of us would have predicted that it would have happened with essentially zero production from Dual, Harmon, and Toumi.

Blue Tinted Glasses

• Isaiah Coleman with 26 points in only 24 minutes of play. Very efficient shooting (10/19 fgs) The kid is really coming into his own. He just needs to realize how important his offense is for this team and avoid the foul trouble.
• Prince Aligbe has now put together back to back solid performances. 19 points 7 rebounds and for the most part played within himself offensively.
• Sha is trying to get the entire rotation involved, but once again in the second half he really had a 7 man rotation and was able to turn momentum with their full court press.
• It was refreshing to see this team be able to put some points on the board. Two games in a row breaking the 80 mark. Meanwhile plenty of teams across the country today were held below 50. So it’s not just us sometimes.
• Was nice to see Jenkins find some success again. But once again foul trouble derailed a great start. 17 first half points and zero in the second. Need to find a way to keep him engaged when he is having a solid performance.

Sour Grapes and Gripes

• Our best lineup has been to go small with Aligbe at 6’7” trying to hold down the middle. It has some fall out. When you press aggressively you really need a rim protector as your last line of defense. That doesn’t exist on this team. It also puts you at a major disadvantage if the other team can exploit their big guy. Today a very marginal player, Oswin Erhunmwunse, imposed his will on the game in the second half finishing with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Hitting a home run with Bediako last year hid this fatal flaw. The combination of Okorofor, Godswill, and Yalden are unfortunately not ready for extended BE minutes.
• Of course a player averaging 11 ppg, comes off the bench goes off for 28 while shooting an unconscious 8/10 from 3. SMH.
• I hate it. But it’s another aspect of today’s basketball. The team that gets hot from three tends to win. Providence shoots 33% from three for the season. Today, jacks up 25 attempts and knocks down 12. This was the difference in the game IMO.
• As great as he was last game, you got the other side of the spectrum today when you play DAW 38 minutes. 3-15 fgs and 3 turnovers. On a day where almost everyone found the bottom of the bucket for both teams, Dylan couldn’t buy a bucket. This team really wouldn’t be that bad if they actually had a PG.

 

[Piratz]

Good effort, they fought hard. It’s simply a weak roster with too many issues. We play without a PG. Our scrappiness keeps us in games and the emergence of a go-to player who is carrying that load in Coleman has improved things.

Giving a player like DAW this usage level is never going to work and we’re not good enough in other areas to mitigate it. It’s not going to change as we have no other options. But maybe Aligbe maintains this he could be an option with Middleton and Coleman and the young centers to come back.

In addition to Joseph going 7/9 from 3, the Friars had that big go 2/2… he had hit 1 in his career prior. 🤣. Such is life.

 

[Hall84]

Hated Toumi starting the 2nd half and he had a rough few minutes before Sha got him out

 

[Piratz]

I also would’ve gotten one of Coleman or Jenkins back in earlier when you could see those backups were getting smoked. But ultimately gotta tip your hat. That guy on PC was hitting step back deep threes with regularity. Sick.

 

[mga pirate]

Coleman earning $$$$ a one way ticket out of here.

 

[Fishjam]

I also would’ve gotten one of Coleman or Jenkins back in earlier when you could see those backups were getting smoked. But ultimately gotta tip your hat. That guy on PC was hitting step back deep threes with regularity. Sick.

Bensley was on fire hitting high difficulty step backs for sure. But as usual we gave up far too many easy, open looks to him and others to start the game. Once the easy ones start dropping it raises confidence to take shots like that more often.

Our 3 point defense continues to be amongst the worst in the country.

 

[Gohall129]

There were stretches where we were visibly starting to tilt and PC went on mini runs- specific to the 13:40-13:00 time frame in the second half. Consecutive missed shots and bad offensive sets with Providence taking a tied game to an 8 point lead before Sha took a time out. Sha was heavily involved in the emotions of the game and these small missed opportunities are what maybe separates a win from a loss. Sha coached a great game, but there are consistently these missed opportunities where a stronger staff could make a huge impact. Take a timeout earlier in this sequence and we’re not trying to dig out of a hole. After that timeout we started the press and looked great. What if we started creating those turnovers down 4 instead of 8

 

[dehere23]

91 freaking points to Providence. 91. It starts and ends there.

I know Sha is a defense first coach, but I don't know when he became Tony Bennett in some folks minds.

 

[jack 1970]

Our lack of a productive center killed us.The kid from Louisville should resign his scholarship.

We lost any chance of winning when Coleman and Jenkins got in foul trouble,

Yes,we don't have have a point guard but let's not pile on DAW for being forced to play that position.That's on Sha for striking out on Harmon and Dual.Two other scholarships we should get back.

 

[LeftCoastPirates]

91 freaking points to Providence. 91. It starts and ends there.

I know Sha is a defense first coach, but I don't know when he became Tony Bennett in some folks minds.

I believe we just hope he can model his system to be like Tony Bennett because we aren’t recruiting the offensive talent to win 91-85 games on a nightly basis.

 

[dehere23]

I believe we just hope he can model his system to be like Tony Bennett because we aren’t recruiting the offensive talent to win 91-85 games on a nightly basis.

I hear you. I'm at wits end if the idea for the remainder of this season is to put the best group out there to win a game, as opposed to simply playing the freshman/sophomore more to see what we have for the future. The latter would have made more sense 5-7 years ago, but now I'd argue that playing those kids more potentially puts them more at risk to leave. Who knows.

Maybe it's me, but I interpret many posts as a foregone conclusion that Sha is some defensive mastermind. Again, I get he stresses this first and that you "won't play" if you don't focus on defense, but preseason some of our insiders thought this was the "most athletic Seton Hall team" we've had in some time and that we'd be able to hang our hat on defense. Then I see reality in which the two high majors we played during the OOC torched us defensively and most every Big East opponent has hung 80 on us, with two cracking 90. And that's with an offense that deliberately tries to shorten the games at times and play at a slower pace, which theoretically should bring the opposition's total points way down.

I think most of the good coaches tend to be flexible in their approach to winning, even if they have a system that's part of a core belief in how their team should play. Using Creighton, as an example, we've seen teams where they are flying up and down the court trying to run you out of the building, and other seasons where they seem to playing at a more deliberate pace to reflect their personnel.

Maybe with this group after the last 2 games the answer is to simply play smaller more often, press as much as reasonable/possible, have our guys who can actually make a 3 take a bunch of them, and try to muck up a game some.