New bellarmine thread

[TSU_Mike59]

We missed not having Ben Weyer. He could have helped guard #40 on the inside, also having another good shooter in the first half when nobody could sink a shot. Could have used him on our poor rebounding stats although I agree that a lot of those were long rebounds on missed threes. Other observations:
(1) first half was worst half for BU in years in my opinion. No knock on TSU, they are a very good team.
(2) all in all we did a decent job of defending Thomas - he is a very good player. We need a player like him in the next couple of years if we are to compete at the D1 level.
(3) Home crowd was a little disappointing. This was a very important game and I noticed a few more empty seats that normally would be filled. After observing the lousy home attendance at our GLVC away games I shouldn't be complaining but we BU fans are spoiled since our stands are usually packed.
(4) Agree with the comment that the officiating was strange at times but didn't necessarily favor either team.
(5) Dylan Penn missing the front end of a 1 and 1 twice in the last 4 minutes of the game really hurt.
(6) Defense was good on the last second shot. Agree with the astronomical odds of losing a number of these games on last second shots.l

Truman radio mentioned that several times last night, that, while this was a good win for TSU, it was done w/o arguably the biggest match-up issue for Truman missing on the court for BU. Would love to see these teams tangle again in Edwardsville with both at full strength.

[BGrad1971]

We missed not having Ben Weyer. He could have helped guard #40 on the inside, also having another good shooter in the first half when nobody could sink a shot. Could have used him on our poor rebounding stats although I agree that a lot of those were long rebounds on missed threes. Other observations:
(1) first half was worst half for BU in years in my opinion. No knock on TSU, they are a very good team.
(2) all in all we did a decent job of defending Thomas - he is a very good player. We need a player like him in the next couple of years if we are to compete at the D1 level.
(3) Home crowd was a little disappointing. This was a very important game and I noticed a few more empty seats that normally would be filled. After observing the lousy home attendance at our GLVC away games I shouldn't be complaining but we BU fans are spoiled since our stands are usually packed.
(4) Agree with the comment that the officiating was strange at times but didn't necessarily favor either team.
(5) Dylan Penn missing the front end of a 1 and 1 twice in the last 4 minutes of the game really hurt.
(6) Defense was good on the last second shot. Agree with the astronomical odds of losing a number of these games on last second shots.l

[Knightmoves]

The play by play announcer for Bellarmine needs to watch one of these games on replay. The most one sided play calling I have ever heard. I would rather listen to the student announcers USI has.

Believe it or not, I think he has taken some of our advice (or somebody's advice) and done a better job the last two games of describing the action and less time editorializing. There is no doubt that he is a big homer, however. He would be a decent play by play guy if he was working a game not involving Bellarmine.

[Knightmoves]

The rebounding was the difference, besides the incredible shot. BU has now lost 4 close games on last second or near last second three point shots. All of them were contested shots. Statistically speaking, I don't know the odds of teams making all 4 of those shots, but it has to be astronomical. There is no way that you would expect any of the shooters to have as good a percentage on the shots as their season percentage. Even if they make those shots at their season percentage, your only looking at about 38% for any of the single shots. Of course, Scotty would tell you, and he would be right, that we should have never been in the position to lose the game on those shots to begin with. Still, you have to believe that there is a better chance of going 3-1 in those games than 0-4.

I really think that coaches need to rethink rebounding strategy. It seemed like most of Truman's offensive rebounds came from poor shots that clanked hard off the rim and bounced over BU's players heads or were difficult bounces to handle. In other words, Bellarmine did not get the defensive rebound, despite having superior rebounding postion. The truth is that on those bad bounces, the offensive team has the better position. In a day when there are so many 3's taken, could it be that rebounding positioning needs to be reconsidered? I guess if you were to assign blame, its on the perimeter defenders for not closing out on the bad bounce rebounds.

[crazznewt]

The play by play announcer for Bellarmine needs to watch one of these games on replay. The most one sided play calling I have ever heard. I would rather listen to the student announcers USI has.

[TSU_Mike59]

Saved the best trip to Louisville for the last trip to Louisville. Incredible game from start to finish (well, more incredible at the finish for a Truman fan).

Oddly enough, it's probably a game where both sides could gripe about the officiating at different points. Truman shot 13 more FTs than BU did, but Thomas spent a lot of pine time after two offensive fouls in the second half and McQuinn spent most of the game on the bench as well battling foul trouble. Key to me was rebounding -- +10 for Truman, all on the offensive glass (14 to 4).

In the past two games, Turner Scott has hit a free throw with 0.5 on the clock to beat UMSL and then a 35-footer as time expired to win at BU. All of that while not committing a turnover in 73 minutes. Nice five days for that young man.

[BGrad1971]

It's not clear what happened when Penn attempted to inbound the ball to Bradshaw with 4 seconds left. I couldn't really tell if the pass was so bad that Bradshaw just couldn't get it, or whether Bradshaw was not ready for it.

This one totally confounded me too. It looked to me that Penn threw the ball before Bradshaw was ready ????

[BGrad1971]

I would agree with KnightFans comment about stopping our motion offense. Early in the year against non-conference teams who have had little chance to scout us resulted in bountiful layups off of the offense. Once you get into GLVC play where opposing coaches know us and have had ample time to look at game "film" the easy shots started drying up. Coaches can see how other teams' defenses are successful. I know the BU staff tries to put new wrinkles in the offense to counteract this, but it doesn't seem to have worked this year. You might as well forget about free chicken, the Knights haven't scored 85 points since Dec 15. Another obvious thing affecting all this is that the early season schedule was against much weaker opposition.

[Knightmoves]

Hamill was practicing his shooting because he is a 39% shooter for the year.

Chitty was not even on the floor when Hamill made the winning 3. Claycomb was guarding Hamill and backed way to far off of him. Chitty must have been talking about some other shot that Hamill made.

It's not clear what happened when Penn attempted to inbound the ball to Bradshaw with 4 seconds left. I couldn't really tell if the pass was so bad that Bradshaw just couldn't get it, or whether Bradshaw was not ready for it. I guess its water under the bridge at this point. Truth is that in both the Springfield and Rockhurst game, BU did a nice job getting the lead back with really clutch shots by Fleming and Penn, but they couldn't make the defensive stop when needed.

I wish I was as confident as you about tonight's game. If Hamill can put up 37 against us, Thomas can put up 50.

[#1KnightFan]

BTW...BU is 1-5 in close games. Had the same problem last year.

Both the Springfield and Rockhurst games were won on very late 3 point shots where the defender(the same player, who was inserted for defense)backed off a known 3 point threat. In both cases the opponent was down 1 point, meaning BU still had to prevent the two and could not sell out completely on the 3. At Springfield we made their best player give the ball up, but had sagged off the league's best three point shooter to help prevent penetration. I don't understand sagging off really good three point shooters. BTW everybody does this, not just BU. Your playing man to man but you incorporate zone principles, thereby creating the very weaknesses that a zone has compared to man to man.

Against Rockhurst their unbelievably hot player had the ball out front, no picks were set. The defender backed off when Hamil backed up, which was the fatal mistake. He should have crowded him and tried to make him turn his back to the basket. Instead Hamil took a few unmolested dribbles toward the hoop and stepped back for an open (albeit tough) three pointer.

BTW it looked like BU played some zone against Rockhurst. First zone we've seen from Scotty in a long, long time.

[#1KnightFan]

So is the glass half full or half empty. Easily could have won all 5 losses with a bounce or FT here or there but TO's and poor D opened the door. We gave up 20+ points off TO's in 3 of the losses, tough to win with that stat.
We have not been playing 2 consistent halves of basketball during this streak. Looked at our top 3 subs.......... Chitty, Claycomb and Penny..... getting 10 points from them. Checked in prior years, we were getting 18-20 points off the bench. Probably part of our problems. Parker especially does not look to score when he is in, probably tired of getting yelled at.
Was not able to watch/listen to Rockhurst.... why was Ben out?

Ben damages a ligament in his ankle against Jewell. He is only been able to go at half speed in practices this week. He is day-to-day as to whether he can play Thursday. Alex Cook also rolled his ankle at Rockhurst but has recovered nicely and should be at full strength against Truman.

[#1KnightFan]

How long has it been since Bellarmine was not in the top 25? Has to have been years, right?

2014

[kdubnation]

How long has it been since Bellarmine was not in the top 25? Has to have been years, right?

[Big Smooth]

So is the glass half full or half empty. Easily could have won all 5 losses with a bounce or FT here or there but TO's and poor D opened the door. We gave up 20+ points off TO's in 3 of the losses, tough to win with that stat.
We have not been playing 2 consistent halves of basketball during this streak. Looked at our top 3 subs.......... Chitty, Claycomb and Penny..... getting 10 points from them. Checked in prior years, we were getting 18-20 points off the bench. Probably part of our problems. Parker especially does not look to score when he is in, probably tired of getting yelled at.
Was not able to watch/listen to Rockhurst.... why was Ben out?

[Knightmoves]

BTW...BU is 1-5 in close games. Had the same problem last year.

Both the Springfield and Rockhurst games were won on very late 3 point shots where the defender(the same player, who was inserted for defense)backed off a known 3 point threat. In both cases the opponent was down 1 point, meaning BU still had to prevent the two and could not sell out completely on the 3. At Springfield we made their best player give the ball up, but had sagged off the league's best three point shooter to help prevent penetration. I don't understand sagging off really good three point shooters. BTW everybody does this, not just BU. Your playing man to man but you incorporate zone principles, thereby creating the very weaknesses that a zone has compared to man to man.

Against Rockhurst their unbelievably hot player had the ball out front, no picks were set. The defender backed off when Hamil backed up, which was the fatal mistake. He should have crowded him and tried to make him turn his back to the basket. Instead Hamil took a few unmolested dribbles toward the hoop and stepped back for an open (albeit tough) three pointer.

BTW it looked like BU played some zone against Rockhurst. First zone we've seen from Scotty in a long, long time.