Opening night: Colorado State

[Old Titan]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Cornelius said:

It's only one game and Colorado St. is very good team.

Have to find a way to stay competitive when outside shots aren't falling or this is going to be a LONG season.

I was more than a little disappointed that everyone got so trigger-happy from three early in the second half as the game started to slip away.  

Hitting every three you put up is one way to come back from a deficit, for sure.

But playing defense and getting to the free throw line by running some sets inside the arc is another...

[Eaglefan 21]

After our sweet 16 run, this one certainly brought me back down to earth. I'm not sure having KO would have changed the outcome but he would have given us a different option when Max is off. Couple of thoughts below.

- I think Mcbride is going to fit in just fine. Threw the ball away a couple times but he can really shoot it.

- It felt like we had way more then 5 turnovers.

- Colorado State might be a top three team talent-wise that we play all year.

-Not a lot of beef when Lacis and Weaver are playing the 4 and 5. Thompson worked hard on the glass with 8 total.

-I realize it was garbage time but Herron looks like a great option at the 5. He didn't record a block but he altered several shots, grabbed a few boards and scored 5 points in less then 3 minutes. He looks like a big 12 athlete.

I'll be interested to hear from those who were at the game.

[Dr. Cornelius]

One thing's for sure... I'm glad I won't be running at the next practice . Might be a Miracle/Herb Brooks situation.

The coaches will figure it out. The ultimate goal is to be improved by conference season and the tournament.

[Keenan Henderson]

Could not log into the account until just now.  Guess the phone was acting up at the game.  Anyway, had perfect seats and got to sit next to Max's dad and President Wilson.  President Wilson is a big time fan and he was cheering very loudly for ORU.  Max's dad is very friendly and talkative.  Even gave me a handshake and side hug.  

As far as the game goes, the first half felt like an NCAA tournament game.  Second half ORU looked shell shocked from the beginning.  It seemed like every shot CSU threw up, went in.  Max's Dad and I were just shaking our heads.  He said it is just CSU's night.  We talked about it all off season: could ORU handle the opponent throwing their best shot at them every night?  So tonight the answer was defintely no.

ORU had a lot of good looks from three, especially in the first half but they just would not fall.  Carlos was playing some solid defense but the other guards will have to improve.  President Wilson said, they are just not getting enough pressure on the ball.  He was right.  

[theeagleman5]

Ouch....109?...not pretty....

[EagleManiac]

That was tough to watch. I made the mistake of going to the Mabee Center to watch the game so I missed the first half and don't have many observations to share other than a general depression. I guess our meteoric rise to blue-chip basketball program may be slower than I fantasized about all summer. 

Mabee Center looks incredible! Seats are comfy and wide. Very happy with  the way it turned out.

[Keenan Henderson]

What was strange was that for the most part ORU slowed CSU's star players: Stevens (13) and Roddy (7) points but the rest of their team was on fire.  When that happens you just say too good.  If a team can beat you by 29 without their star players having big nights then that is very impressive.  

Colorado State's crowd was on fire and they must have had 7,000 at the game. It was a very tough road environment to play in.  If the Rams continue to play like they did tonight then very few teams will beat them this year.

Here are some thoughts on the guys:

Max was 1-9 from three and his dad mentioned that the extra muscle may be affecting his shot.  Max looks stronger and made some nice drives to the basket but often times CSU had 6'9 guys ready to block his shot near the rim. 

Carlos had solid defense in the first half but seemed a step slow in the second half.  President Wilson wondered if the altitude might get to the guys as the game moved on.  That may be why they looked shell shocked in the second half.

DJ picked up two early fouls and I think three by half time, so that threw his game off.  He can shoot as we all know but the defense is going to be tough on him if Coach continues to ask him to play the 5.

Kareem missed some open shots and just could not get his offense going.  He had an off night but did rebound the ball well.

The new guys: McBride and Phipps can shoot the ball but they both really struggled on defense.  Just seemed outmatched by CSU's guards.

 

[Swoll Cracker]

36 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said:

What was strange was that for the most part ORU slowed CSU's star players: Stevens (13) and Roddy (7) points but the rest of their team was on fire.  When that happens you just say too good.  If a team can beat you by 29 without their star players having big nights then that is very impressive.  

Colorado State's crowd was on fire and they must have had 7,000 at the game. It was a very tough road environment to play in.  If the Rams continue to play like they did tonight then very few teams will beat them this year.

Here are some thoughts on the guys:

Max was 1-9 from three and his dad mentioned that the extra muscle may be affecting his shot.  Max looks stronger and made some nice drives to the basket but often times CSU had 6'9 guys ready to block his shot near the rim. 

Carlos had solid defense in the first half but seemed a step slow in the second half.  President Wilson wondered if the altitude might get to the guys as the game moved on.  That may be why they looked shell shocked in the second half.

DJ picked up two early fouls and I think three by half time, so that threw his game off.  He can shoot as we all know but the defense is going to be tough on him if Coach continues to ask him to play the 5.

Kareem missed some open shots and just could not get his offense going.  He had an off night but did rebound the ball well.

The new guys: McBride and Phipps can shoot the ball but they both really struggled on defense.  Just seemed outmatched by CSU's guards.

 

Sorry I couldn’t stop by Keenan and say hello. Even though the game didnt go your team’s way, I hope you at least enjoyed the experience in Fort Collins.

I attended CSU’s practice on Friday and watched them work for a very long time on how they were going to defend Abmas. They got strategic help from Arkansas coach Eric Musselman, who used to coach in the MWC. They basically threw the kitchen sink at him with some pretty intricate stuff that included double teams and switches that were dependent on who was setting the screen and where. Abmas is a heck of a player but I think he got worn down by having so many fresh defenders thrown at him. Strategy was to make him shoot contested three’s and keep him off the free throw line and I think they really executed well

I also had a feeling they would start their small lineup because they were so concerned about defending Oral Roberts strong perimeter game with their more traditional lineup. 

It was an unusual game for CSU in that their experienced core of Stevens, Roddy, Moore, and Thistlewood were really shut down. Normally good for 50 points, Oral Roberts did a nice job holding them to only 25. Obviously John Tonje stepped up with a career high 31 but the other key was the guys off the bench that basically defended well and were making everything on the offensive end. 

We’re hoping to have a great season and would sure love to emulate Oral Roberts’ visit to the Sweet Sixteen this season. Tonight was a great start for the Rams.  Good luck to your team the rest of the season. I think they’ll be just fine. Plenty of weapons, plenty of upside.

[ORU40]

Our team has a lot of work to do, road games are always tough but that effort was disappointing. I was surprised we didn't adjust when the 3's weren't dropping, we simply kept shooting them. We cant just have everyone firing up 3's, what is a good shot for Max may not be for Kareem or Lacis or some of the other guys. We took 40 3's(made 12) while CSU took 24(made 11) and there was some very poor shot selection in there. We need to get more offense going to the basket when we're not shooting well from the outside, we also need some sort of an inside game just to keep defenses honest!

The most concerning areas were the basics, defense and rebounding! Our defense was non- existent. We gave up 109 points, our guards defense was horrible and our "bigs" weren't any better and our rebounding was not good at all. There's a very old truth in basketball, you can win a game when you're not shooting well if you play good D and rebound, but you'll usually lose even if you shoot well but don't play D and rebound!! 

It looked like we have a lot of guys that think they can get more minutes by hitting 3's instead of doing the hard work of playing good D, helping on the glass (which when your a small team, you need all 5 guys on the court in there looking to rebound)and doing the little things that make good teams.  The shoots will be there, Max is going to be doubled and switched on all year.

It seemed to me everyone was trying to fill that scoring void of KO, but we need guys that will fill the other areas that he did so well like rebounding, he set great screens (not just up top for Max, but also down low to block off the help side defender from getting over to our guys driving to the hoop), he was a very good passer, and could guard a physical big. 

We need to get back to the basics and build a complete team playing a more complete game, doing the little things that win games, not just a bunch of guys firing up 3's. 

Go Eagles!!

P.S. regarding the posts about running at the next practice... back in the day if you played that poorly (particularly on D and got beat that bad on the boards) you got on the bus went to the airport, got back on the bus when you landed and went straight to Mabee Center, put on your practice uni's left your luggage at your locker and ran sprints and lots of them! and most likely got invited back at 6am to enjoy that experience again!  The good old days!!!      

[eagle88]

The message board is quiet today. I feel the pain of all of my fellow ORU fans. If it is any encouragement it is not how you start it's how you finish. So many teams start hot and end cold. Like last year i expect a steady improvement throughout the season. I can remember last year coming home from games agonizing that we weren't playing defense. I am confident in our coaching staff that they will make the necessary adjustments.

[EagleManiac]

I've changed my mind. I have a couple of thoughts. I only saw the second half so excuse me if I missed something. 

- That loss hurt, but I'm reminding myself that game 1 means very little in the grand scheme of things. CSU looked very good, too.

- I'm not concerned about our offense at all or the number of threes we took. It'll shake out. 

- Obviously our defense was atrocious. 109 points in 40 minutes is about as bad as it gets. I'm trying to pinpoint what exactly the issue is and I think it mostly just comes down to lack of size. For the most part, our smaller guards are keeping their man in front, but he still is able to bully his way into the paint. Ideally, you'd have a big body there to meet him and shut that down. We don't have a big body there. Got to have big guards if we're going to try to go with small bigs. 

- DJ is not going to work as the 5 for anything more than 1-2 minute spurts. Have to pick Lufile, Clover, or Sir Isaac to be getting 25+ minutes whether they're capable of that or not. 

- Mcbride was a big disappointment for me. Didn't see anything that impressed me. 

- Max is still Max. He missed a lot of shots, but he just looks better than everyone else. 

[Keenan Henderson]

The first half felt pretty even and it seemed that ORU could win the game in the second half but President Wilson, Max's Dad, and myself were stunned by the second half performance.  There was no spark, energy, etc.  CSU came out roaring and ORU just gave in.  Still at a loss for words about that second half.

At times ORU went to a three -guard lineup of Max, McBride, and Phipps but were completely overmatched. CSU blocked their shots and then drove on the smaller guards.  

Good to see Lufile play a few minutes.  President Wilson said he is healthy but just needs to get into shape.  He thought Lufile will eventually really help ORU this season.  Watching Sir Isaac warm up was interesting.  He was shooting a lot of threes and making a good percentage of them.  He is talented and should help out more as the season goes on.  Coach Mills may not have wanted to throw him into such a tough atmosphmere (the place was a zoo) right away.  In the first half, Clover was solid.  He played some defense and rebounded, after DJ got into foul trouble.

 

[Dr. Cornelius]

3 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said:

At times ORU went to a three -guard lineup of Max, McBride, and Phipps but were completely overmatched. CSU blocked their shots and then drove on the smaller guards.  

This was the main problem. The best that lineup can do is hope to trade buckets.

[Old Titan]

here’s what I saw:

• Max’s shot has changed. I actually noticed in the early season practices. He’s firing more quickly and it’s a flatter trajectory. No doubt some “expert” at one of these pre-NBA facilities has convinced him he needed to be stronger and develop a quicker release for the next level. It does not look good.  Here’s hoping he gets it fixed quick; we don’t want Rory McIlroy 2.0 on our hands. 
   
• Shooting too quickly on offense is affecting the defense. To use a football analogy, the quick-strike/miss offense puts the ball back into the hands of the opposition so quickly, it’s like a turnover. Need a little ground-control offense at times so they’re not so exhausted by defending so many possessions. Drive and get to the free throw line!
   
• Simply can’t play Abmas, McBride and Phipps at the same time and expect to be able to defend the perimeter shooting, or the drives from there with no true rim protector. 
   
• Lacis I’m sure is shooting threes to keep the defense honest, but until he can make more than 25% of them, it’s a win for the opposing defense. 
   
• I was actually impressed with the active hands in the passing lanes defending the post. But the way their bigs got all the way to the rim when they got the ball on the block was downright scary. Need somebody with some girth down there to stand their ground. 

[ORU40]

27 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

Shooting too quickly on offense is affecting the defense. To use a football analogy, the quick-strike/miss offense puts the ball back into the hands of the opposition so quickly, it’s like a turnover. Need a little ground-control offense at times so they’re not so exhausted by defending so many possessions. Drive and get to the free throw line!

I agree we are shooting too quickly, but we are not taking good shoots.

Our second leading scorer last night was Carlos, he was 6-9 from the field scored 15 points and did not shoot a 3!!! He got points off his defense, he went to the basket(was 3-3 from the line because he was getting fouled going to the basket) and he didn't force shots.

Not picking on these guys because they played hard, but Kareem and Lacis scored 7 points total on 3-14 shooting and went 1-9 from the 3 point line combined. They are both trying to be something they are not, they aren't great 3 point shooters!!  They could both be effective doing what they do best, attack the basket off the dribble, get some points off tough D, cuts to the basket when Max is being doubled. Just from an offensive efficiency standpoint; they are 2 of our starting 5, they don't need to score 20, but they need to make you pay when they get the opportunity and not play into the defenses hands by settling for the 3.

It's still very early in the season, but we need to develop our roles. Carlos looks like he knows what he does well and that's what he's doing. Lacis and Kareem and others, need to stop forcing things and trying to do things they don't do well  and focus on what they do well!! 

[Old Titan]

11 minutes ago, ORU40 said:

I agree we are shooting too quickly, but we are not taking good shoots.

Our second leading scorer last night was Carlos, he was 6-9 from the field scored 15 points and did not shoot a 3!!! He got points off his defense, he went to the basket(was 3-3 from the line because he was getting fouled going to the basket) and he didn't force shots.

Not picking on these guys because they played hard, but Kareem and Lacis scored 7 points total on 3-14 shooting and went 1-9 from the 3 point line combined. They are both trying to be something they are not, they aren't great 3 point shooters!!  They could both be effective doing what they do best, attack the basket off the dribble, get some points off tough D, cuts to the basket when Max is being doubled. Just from an offensive efficiency standpoint; they are 2 of our starting 5, they don't need to score 20, but they need to make you pay when they get the opportunity and not play into the defenses hands by settling for the 3.

It's still very early in the season, but we need to develop our roles. Carlos looks like he knows what he does well and that's what he's doing. Lacis and Kareem and others, need to stop forcing things and trying to do things they don't do well  and focus on what they do well!! 

I get the distinct impression everyone may be simply doing what they've been told to do:  "Take every open three."

If that's the case, I just wish they would add the following caveat:  "...unless it's in the first few seconds/passes of the possession".

[theeagleman5]

A very disappointing loss for sure but that's a tough place to play and it's just one game....let's see how we adjust over the next six weeks....Coach Mills isn't stupid....things will change....and opponents won't be as challenging except for OSU, TU and TCU.....glad to hear the President Wilson was at the game....that impresses TheEagleman who has never been a big fan of his but i may have to re-evaluate....40 three point shots....12 made....not gonna cut it....109 points allow is just unconscionable....gotta tighten it up or it's going to be a tough season...In Mills We Trust!  

[titansforever]

Maybe it was good to get a wakeup call right here at the beginning of the season. Yes, we did something special last spring. But we have to forget that, like Coach said, and work hard to improve. There is always room for improvement. It also takes time for team chemistry to build. We basically have 2 teams now: the team that went to the Sweet 16 and the team that didn't. Those 2 groups of players have to become one.