Post by dannynoonan on Feb 10, 2024 18:49:56 GMT -5
Lack of style points aside, I love the fact that we played the weekend without Smith & Goodine yet still took sole possession of 2nd place and picked up a game on Q!
A season that looked like it could be a disaster a few months ago has become a lot of fun!
A bit concerning that Bleechmore still has a slight limp, Seck had tricky spill which took him out, and Yetna not moving easily. Hope everyone can use the extra day off until Friday to recover more.
Coach Casey hit it on the head, everyone is grinding and banged up right now. It could’ve been an ugly loss, but instead it’s an another clutch come from behind gritty road Victory. Iona and Quinnipiac got blown out. I have nothing but praise for the coaches and players. 1-6 to 15-9 is just spectacular. 14 out of our last 17 games have been W’s. Let’s hope our coaches and players get the rest they so richly deserve. Happy Super Bowl to all.
I am out of town this weekend and did not see the game. From the comments and the box score this was not one of the stags better games. However, they ground out the win and that is testimony to the teams guts. Good teams celebrate the close wins and crappy teams make excuses for close losses. This team makes no excuses. Go Stags.
JJJ had time to pass the ball back to leach. He didnt. This cost us clock time. I feel johns wanted to take those 2 foul shots. I credit him for his confidence. But we have to send the 91% guy to the line. JJJ also had a no no yes! moment on that three point basket. And a missed three maybe he would have been better to not take. All that said overall johns had a very good game. He plays better with each game. That late foul on him was a bogus call johns played good D and was clearly hooked by the offensive player. Johns and the team did enough to win.
I also think seck had his best game of the season. His defense was sound. Glad to see him having a good game. Lex isnt ready to show us what he can do. He needs more time before he's 100%
I am out of town this weekend and did not see the game. From the comments and the box score this was not one of the stags better games. However, they ground out the win and that is testimony to the teams guts. Good teams celebrate the close wins and crappy teams make excuses for close losses. This team makes no excuses. Go Stags.
We've had plenty of seasons where the Stags were on the other end of most of these games... just wishing for a couple of more possessions where the ball bounced our way.
W's don't come much uglier than this, but we'll take it. After a very efficient start to the second half and taking a 50-48 lead, Stags lost all offensive flow and never really got it back. Did not take advantage of a 6+ minute SPC drought. I really thought Leach needed far more touches. Defensively, once the intensity picked up, we were terrific from the 5 minute mark in the first half to the finish. Should have won this game handily, as it appeared would happen after going up 9 with just under 4 minutes to play.
Great point about the defensive intensity picking up near the end of the first half. Have to give Casey a lot of props here because basically only two St. Peter's guys, Roy Clarke (who BTW played for our assistant Glenn Braica last season at St. Francis) and Marcus Randolph were killing the Stags by getting open too easily, but about the time you correctly suggest in the contest we started making it a lot harder for those two to get the ball in scoring positions. Part of the deal was that Chris, unlike in the last two games, went into a zone look a couple of times down the floor before the half ended and he continued to mix in a little zone with the man to man in the second stanza. But no matter which defense was employed at any specific time, certainly the Peacocks had trouble in finding their two formerly red-hot players and that was probably the most important thing that turned the game around when SP was up by around 10 points fairly late in the opening half. This now makes three games in a row where Chris has had to make a key adjustment to help pick the team up, and in all three cases the adjustments have worked, so that's to his credit.
Last Edit: Feb 11, 2024 1:28:47 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
I can’t remember a game vs. St. Peter’s in the last 10 years that wasn’t ugly. Ugly wins are better than ugly losses.
Yeah there's no doubt that playing against the Peacocks is like pulling teeth each and every year, and this game was no different. In fact I would label this contest as the most physical one the Stags have been in all year, and certainly the players all have black and blue marks on their bodies to prove it I would imagine. Thank god it appeared that there were no extra injuries in the game, especially since on more than one occasion one of our guys was temporarily down and had to limp to the bench. Considering our injury situation as it currently stands, it got a little scary there for a while. Looking ahead, a match-up against these guys in the MAAC tournament might not be the best thing for the team.
Last Edit: Feb 11, 2024 1:31:19 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
A win is a win! But work on inbounding and stop getting trapped on sidelines. But give St P’s credit for really putting pressure on us.Jasper didn’t play as clean as he has in recent games.
No doubt Jasper, nor the whole team actually, didn't play as clean a game as he and they have in the past. But to be honest, that is indeed to St. Peter's credit as they were all over our guys in pressing situations during most of the contest. Actually maybe a little over the line in some cases (but the refs can't call ALL the fouls). But as Casey said in his remarks, the team was tough and hung on to get a fantastic road win, and for that they should feel very satisfied.
Last Edit: Feb 11, 2024 1:32:45 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
Post by nashvillestag on Feb 11, 2024 1:25:19 GMT -5
One final comment from me concerns the absolute positive effect Casey is having with his players as this season continues to bring mostly wins for the Stags. For some reason Leach got off to a horrendous personal start in the contest, and Chris briefly pulled him out and kind of lit into him a bit to motivate him to get going. And rather than hang his head Jalen got back in there and soon found his normal footing as one of the key guys to make the big plays and points to help the team pull out the victory. No doubt Chris is pushing the right buttons this year as this example shows.
Last Edit: Feb 11, 2024 1:37:42 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
JJJ had time to pass the ball back to leach. He didnt. This cost us clock time. I feel johns wanted to take those 2 foul shots. I credit him for his confidence. But we have to send the 91% guy to the line. JJJ also had a no no yes! moment on that three point basket. And a missed three maybe he would have been better to not take. All that said overall johns had a very good game. He plays better with each game. That late foul on him was a bogus call johns played good D and was clearly hooked by the offensive player. Johns and the team did enough to win.
I also think seck had his best game of the season. His defense was sound. Glad to see him having a good game. Lex isnt ready to show us what he can do. He needs more time before he's 100%
Watching the game on replay last night, agree the foul on Johns, even if he made contact, came after the offensive hook on the drive.
Post by 01041949bob on Feb 11, 2024 9:59:21 GMT -5
This coach is on his game ; we are playing great with some injuries and our guards are second to none . IMO, Problem with Yetna unfortunately, his knee issues won’t allow him to jump very well and bad legs are effecting his shot .. so unless that miraculously changes , I stick with Smith when healthy and Seck who appears to be getting much better as his PT increases . It’s sad to see Yetna a shell of what he was but I’m still pulling for him and his courage is great
This coach is on his game ; we are playing great with some injuries and our guards are second to none . IMO, Problem with Yetna unfortunately, his knee issues won’t allow him to jump very well and bad legs are effecting his shot .. so unless that miraculously changes , I stick with Smith when healthy and Seck who appears to be getting much better as his PT increases . It’s sad to see Yetna a shell of what he was but I’m still pulling for him and his courage is great
Well stated that his courage is great and I'm sure we're all pulling for him. But considering he has basically been out of action for almost TWO years means we shouldn't give up on him after just two games. The rust factor even more so than the physical might be as much to explain his struggles so far. But certainly his past history suggests he will become a much better player as he gets back into the swing of things. Anyway with hopefully Smith back to join with Seck and Yetna, Casey, a coach you correctly label is "on his game," will figure it out regarding his post players. It' certainly nice to have a lot of options and fouls to give without having to worry about being caught short in that area of the floor, that's for sure.
Will be anxiously awaiting the MRI of Goodine's knee this week. Having four healthy talented guards who can all handle the ball and score (none a better outside sniper than Goodine) will be important for this team down the stretch and into the postseason.
