In Game: vs. Dayton

[i77cat]

72-59, final

[catseye]

Positives:
- we won the second half
- Schulte, Ghedini,and Moss got some quality minutes and acquitted themselves very well
- defense was actually decent and held them to a reasonable 3 pt. percentage

Quick Thoughts:
- Logan needs more minutes
- 3 pt. shooting has to improve
- Bunnies!!!!
- FT rebounding

[MrMac]

Did we 'win' the 2nd half?

[MrMac]

Nevermind. Answered by Cateseye above. Thank you.

[MrMac]

I wonder did Bailey have some weird growth spurt during his prep career, because it seems clear to me he has not been fundamentally coached as a big man, either offensively or defensively.

Still listed as a guard on the roster, so I think probably so. Of course, he also doesn't drive to the basket with guard skills, either, so who knows?

[bostoncat]

Strange line ups tonight.

In the absence of any of the starters stepping up, not much other choice. Solid minutes from a couple guys who don’t normally play much. Part of me encouraged by that, but on the other hand frustrating we couldn’t get more from our core guys. We need a “give me the damn ball and let me cook” guy.

Hunter Adam should be playing a ton more minutes. That kid 100% gets it in terms of knowing his role, being a glue guy, making the right basketball play, shooting the ball and actually showing some freaking emotion out there.

Dayton is really really good. Exploited every weakness.

[quickcat]

I was really excited by this team's intensity and toughness after the 2 Asheville games. They looked like they could give anyone in the A-10 a hard time and win a lot of conference games using that intensity to get rebounds and steals. Unfortunately, I haven't seen that with any real consistency since then. They need those extra possessions. They certainly can't give them to the other team like they did tonight with the careless turnovers and repeated ORs by Dayton on FTs and when they stopped first efforts underneath by Holmes and Jack.

[Corpulent Cat]

From my seat, Dayton had better basketball players, who were better athletes, and just as fundamentally sound as our guys at every position. They are very well coached.
Fortunately not every team in the A10 is as good as Dayton.

[bagelcat]

We have two players that have stood out in almost every game this year-Grant and Skog. Not having one of them is a killer. You can get by v. Ohio U, but not Dayton.

Esp when Logan gets his second foul three and a half minutes into the game. Absent some amazing shooting (which we didn't get) we weren't going to have a chance.

Holmes, Elvis and Brea are really good. Elvis took over the game near the end of the first half with his drives to the basket and a three point make.

Santos also killed us near the end of the first half with a long 3 and a rebound off and basket off a missed FT (poor block out by Hunter). 36-21 at the half and it felt worse.

Brizzi struggled against their small point guard in the first half. I learned that he led the nation in steals last year while at Merrimack. He was reminiscint of Smurf Gilyard of Richmond without being a threat to score.

[MrMac]

The team gets a mini-break now, to practice, reflect and learn. Hope this loss sticks in their collective craws (no offense intended ,TOK). We fans will have to live with the result for a week, also.

[seamac77]

I wonder did Bailey have some weird growth spurt during his prep career, because it seems clear to me he has not been fundamentally coached as a big man, either offensively or defensively.

Still listed as a guard on the roster, so I think probably so. Of course, he also doesn't drive to the basket with guard skills, either, so who knows?

Bailey could use some coaching up for sure ... At his size he only has one blocked shot to show for this season.

[DC69Wildcat]

Where was Brizzi tonight? He certainly wasn't evident on the floor. 11 minutes, 0 points on 0 shots, 1 rebound, 2 assists, and 3 turnovers. He hardly played at all in the 2nd half.

[citycat]

At the Fastbreak Club scouting report, Coach Matheny described Holmes as a future NBA player. Our plan to counter him was to foul him whenever possible and hope he pulled a muscle shooting free throws.

Their small guard Bennett stole the ball 3 times and all ended in dunks by them. Do we have no ability to isolate a bigger guard on a smurf underneath? We've never figured out how to do it versus Richmond.

Why we never reinserted Jarvis into the game after he came out baffled several fans in our section. I haven't seen his +/- stat for tonight, but he wasn't hesitant to shoot when we were way behind.

Stanford beat UCLA in Pauley tonight. I watched the last 6-7 minutes and Michael Jones had a great seat next to the action. Stanford's team looks more like Dayton's than our team.

[i77cat]

Holmes in the NBA is a possibility. This mock draft has him at #80, well outside of the draft. https://nbadraftroom.com/p/2024-2nd-round/

[85Wildcatsky]

As bad as that was, we actually hung pretty close even without Skogman. Skog could have drawn their big men out with his jumper. He also brings energy and aggressiveness to the floor.

At this point in the season.....

Durkin should get the start over Brizzi.
Logan should get the start over Bailey.

Brizzi is in a funk and he might be better coming in off the bench and playing point.

Logan has now blocked 14 shots and now playing more aggressive. Bailey needs a fire lit under him so he plays a lot harder. The big guy shoots too many wimpy shot in close. Logan beat a guy tonight and jammed down the bucket. We need more of that.


There were a lot of loose balls on the floor tonight that no Cat made an effort to get. Did we tie up a single jump ball?


Coach played some weird combos that made it look like the players were more interested in making the next right pass in the offense instead of finding their own good shot or to feed a cutter.

It was my first time to the Arener this year. Wow, 4 dollar ticket, a nice free glass for my bar, and free beer.

I liked the new floor and the look overall. Cats need more people tapping beer. Draft beer could become their biggest fund raiser.

I don't remember seeing a single replay.