After 80 Minutes

[SaintMisbehavin]

After 80 minutes of basketball this weekend, Siena was outscored by a total of 1 point against its two opponents.

Last year at this time (February 16th 2013), Siena just lost its 5th consecutive game to Loyola, 80-57 at HOME. The other four losses were by 22, 10, 12, and 10. The only discussion on this board was who Siena's next coach should be, and whether or not Mitch should keep his Mark Thomas suits & ties.

I wouldn't ever try to spin this weekend's losses into a good thing. It was a heart-breaking way to lose Friday (on Valentine's Day, no less). Still, it's encouraging to see this team be competitive in close games, and to see that there are pieces being put in place to restore a winning tradition.

[CellarRat]

Exactly.

[MTS]

No question the program is going in the right direction. We just have to find a way for these games to get into the win column. The team just doesn't know how to close games out not uncommon at all for a team with youth and inexperience. Nobody on the team has played on a winning team in college. But I do believe they are starting to realize what it takes. Unfortunately I don't think we're going to reap the benefits until next season. There is no doubt in my mind we are going to win these games next year. None at all.

[SaintMisbehavin]

Feb 17, 2014 9:48:08 GMT -5 MTS said:

The team just doesn't know how to close games out not uncommon at all for a team with youth and inexperience.

I'm assuming when you say "close out games", you mean preserve a lead? I don't disagree with you if that's what you mean, but its a disservice to the team if the statement is they can't win a close one, because they've done that plenty this year (Cornell, St. Bonaventure, Fairfield). With that said, it's clear that they've been in positions to win late in games, but weren't able to salt it away. That is, again as you said, a common issue for a young team.

[SIENA1971]

After losing against Marist Friday the coaches deserve credit for getting the team motivated and prepared for Sunday ... Still think the team has performed better than most of us were thinking in October.

[sienasaint3]

I dont think its guranteed that the team will turn it around and be in a spot that they are the top program in the league as many people here think. But, there is a lot to like.

Playing so many players more minutes than they did last year and a bunch of freshman for a ton of minutes they have played pretty well, seeing as they have really only been blown out once (at Canisius).

Honestly, for the arguments that people have about Silas, Hymes and Oliver, and arguably Bisping chances are if Jimmy were coaching here the past 4 years they would not have been recruited to the team. The only player that seems like he is a good talent for the league who was on the team before this season is Poole and he should not be a leading scorer, as he is more of a shooter who can slash than a slasher who can also shoot.

But, bottom line Cole, Paige, and whoever else they get next year should add to a core of Long, Wright, White, Wolfe, Ogunyemi etc.

[MTS]

Feb 17, 2014 10:05:39 GMT -5 SaintMisbehavin said:

Feb 17, 2014 9:48:08 GMT -5 MTS said:

The team just doesn't know how to close games out not uncommon at all for a team with youth and inexperience.

I'm assuming when you say "close out games", you mean preserve a lead? I don't disagree with you if that's what you mean, but its a disservice to the team if the statement is they can't win a close one, because they've done that plenty this year (Cornell, St. Bonaventure, Fairfield). With that said, it's clear that they've been in positions to win late in games, but weren't able to salt it away. That is, again as you said, a common issue for a young team.

I mean on a more consistent basis against good teams. St. Bonaventure is a decent team. Cornell (though on the road), Niagara and Fairfield are teams struggling but still was important to see us pull those games out late. Like I said we aren't awful in close games - 6-7 in games decided by 8 points or less. But now we are in crutch time in the season and team's are bringing their games to another level. We've just had a string of close losses.

We are 3 points (1 more point more than Quinny and Canisius at the end of regulation and at Marist) from being 10-6 in the MAAC. The different between being 6-10 or 7-9 and 10-6 is pretty slim. The veteran teams don't win all the close ones either but with more talent/experience etc some of these games will be put away before they can be close enough to be lost late.

[boogie]

Feb 17, 2014 11:06:35 GMT -5 SIENA1971 said:

After losing against Marist Friday the coaches deserve credit for getting the team motivated and prepared for Sunday ... Still think the team has performed better than most of us were thinking in October.

Agree 100%. That are teams that take one on the chin like we did on Friday, with a game 2 days later and completely mail it in. I liked our energy from start to finish. Tough playing against that zone late, but that's a good team our guys went toe to toe with.

[glen]

Can someone explain the flex offense to me? It seems we pretty decent offense all game until the final few minutes. I Jimmy intentionally holding the ball in those last plays? If so, why? I've never been a fan of running clock 99% of the time. This season Siena is particularly bad at it.

[SaintsFan]

Feb 17, 2014 14:21:38 GMT -5 glen said:

Can someone explain the flex offense to me? It seems we pretty decent offense all game until the final few minutes. I Jimmy intentionally holding the ball in those last plays? If so, why? I've never been a fan of running clock 99% of the time. This season Siena is particularly bad at it.

A lot of it it's depth issues coupled with foul problems. Long has been in foul trouble or fouled out down the stretch and Wright has been in foul trouble. Two of sienas most important offensive players out or severely limited due to foul trouble places a whole lot off pressure on Poole to create for himself and that simply isn't his game. Hymes isn't helping much as he's averaging 4.6 ppg in his last 5 games while shooting .219 from the field .231 from 3.

[MikeC]

Feb 17, 2014 9:31:09 GMT -5 SaintMisbehavin said:

After 80 minutes of basketball this weekend, Siena was outscored by a total of 1 point against its two opponents.

Last year at this time (February 16th 2013), Siena just lost its 5th consecutive game to Loyola, 80-57 at HOME. The other four losses were by 22, 10, 12, and 10. The only discussion on this board was who Siena's next coach should be, and whether or not Mitch should keep his Mark Thomas suits & ties.

I wouldn't ever try to spin this weekend's losses into a good thing. It was a heart-breaking way to lose Friday (on Valentine's Day, no less). Still, it's encouraging to see this team be competitive in close games, and to see that there are pieces being put in place to restore a winning tradition.

Great post, thank you for placing the proper perspective on the program!

[Quackman]

from coaches playbook website:

The Flex offense has been around since the 1970's and is a patterned offense featuring passing, screening, ball-reversal, options and counters. This offense is most effective against man-to-man defenses. Most scoring opportunities come off the "flex cut" inside, or a jump-shot from the elbows. Still you can run various options, counters, post plays, etc. Size mis-matches often occur due to the screening and defensive switching. This article describes the basic flex motion and a few options.

Advantages of running the Flex offense are that it is a "continuity" or patterned offense, it is somewhat flexible, and it is relatively easy to teach. Disadvantages are it's predictability, and that it can be defended by switching the screens. To effectively run the Flex offense, most coaches will use a few counter plays, which then discount the predictability factor. And if the defense switches screens, you can actually exploit this and take advantage of big-little defensive mis-matches.

---

Cansisius went to a 3-2 zone to try and contain Poole and keep Wright out of the lane. Siena really missed Long because he is good at getting to the middle of the zone and, also, pretty good a passing the ball in to the post players. If you noticed, every time Bisping got the ball at the foul line, good things happened. Without Long, the defense could concentrate on defending Bisping as he cut to the foul line and keeping the ball out of Poole's hands. (JO and Silas just are not viable options at the high post) With Long in the game, it would have been Bisping and Lavon making that cut, which would have made the defense move around more. That is why Hymes went in for JO on offense, moving Poole to the 4.

I though Oliver got tentative late. He had a couple of open looks he didn't take which led to contested looks later in the shot clock. I'm pretty sure that is why Jimmy was giving him an earful late in the game.

I do not believe the idea was to hold the ball, I believe the offense was not working the way they wanted it to. Credit Canisius.

[Deleted]

Since I am not pretending to know the x's and o's like a coach let me ask this. Since the website says the flex offense is most effective against man to man defenses does that further validate the urgency to recruit legit 3 point shooters to pull teams out of the zone into man defense which the flex works best against? sounds as of now teams can just switch to Zone defenses at the end of games and really slow down the Saints on the offensive end.

[vi52]

YES!!! Lavon is really important to our team. Not having him at the end really hurts. He's really good at half court traps, rebounding and 15 ft jumpers not to mention foul shooting.

[Quackman]

Feb 17, 2014 15:02:51 GMT -5 @sharkey said:

Since I am not pretending to know the x's and o's like a coach let me ask this. Since the website says the flex offense is most effective against man to man defenses does that further validate the urgency to recruit legit 3 point shooters to pull teams out of the zone into man defense which the flex works best against? sounds as of now teams can just switch to Zone defenses at the end of games and really slow down the Saints on the offensive end.

There were a lot of issues at the end of the game. By putting Canisius at the line so much, Siena could not get out in transition. JO and Silas are not great offense players at this point, so the 3-2 zone was perfect in that it kept Wright in front of them and allowed the defenders to identify and mark shooters.

Another shoooter wouldn't have made a difference.