Flying Dutchmen Fans

JT is top-5 in both rebounds and blocks. Buie leads the CAA in steals by almost an entire steal per game.

Outside of Cacok, who is their competition this season? I'd lean toward Buie for the honors, who I think is underrated in the league in this respect.

Both should be first team all defense. Neither of them have gotten into foul trouble all year. Buie should win DPOY by a landslide, but I'm not a voter.

May sound crazy but Taylor reminds me of a poor man's Bill Russell - same height, weight, left handed, runs floor, blocks shots and rebounds. Remember I said "Poor Man's" - actually have a few guys who agree with me. He's doing incredible job considering he's doing it with little help in our 4 guard offense.

I like what Taylor has added to this team and he seems to get better every game. Buie has less competition now that Occeus has been hurt and missed a lot of playing time for NE. He won it last year.

HU87 wrote: JT is top-5 in both rebounds and blocks. Buie leads the CAA in steals by almost an entire steal per game.

Outside of Cacok, who is their competition this season? I'd lean toward Buie for the honors, who I think is underrated in the league in this respect.

Knight is ahead of Taylor in rebounds and blocks, although Taylor has more defensive rebounds. Taylor is the only player in the top five in defensive rebounds and blocks.

ZMAN3 wrote:May sound crazy but Taylor reminds me of a poor man's Bill Russell - same height, weight, left handed, runs floor, blocks shots and rebounds. Remember I said "Poor Man's" - actually have a few guys who agree with me. He's doing incredible job considering he's doing it with little help in our 4 guard offense.

That's okay - even a poor man's version of an all-time great big man is huge in a league like the CAA. But agree, he could be even more effective if he were in a lineup where he had more help up front. But can't change that now. HU is built the way it is this year. Looking forward to when he gets some big PnR dunks or huge offensive rebounds in some key spots during at least one CAA tourney game.

At the rate we're giving up points I don't know if any of our players will get defensive honors unless we win the League with some shutdown defense which is highly unlikely.

Amen to that 50 second half points allowed in the last 5 games. It's the old D is optional scenario. What has happened to this team as far as defense is concerned. The word must have gotten out where to attack us(everywhere) apparently.

triplec2195 wrote:Amen to that 50 second half points allowed in the last 5 games. It's the old D is optional scenario. What has happened to this team as far as defense is concerned. The word must have gotten out where to attack us(everywhere) apparently.

Point's well taken, but only in 2 of the last 5 (can call it 3 of 5 since JMU's second-half was 49 pts), but W&M scored 43 in the 2nd half at The Mack and Towson scored 35 in the 2nd half of the 2OT win.

Not so sure that opponents are attacking differently. They knew before, just as they known more recently, if they had big men in the middle of HU's zone to operate in the middle of the zone or to kick out to open shooters when the zone collapsed on those bigs, they could exploit HU's zone. But unlike before, the zone is lately not moving and working together as one unit, not communicating effectively, nor being played with the same intensity or pride with wanting to stop opponents anymore. They're also sometimes being outworked for balls they can get. Defense isn't over until you secure possession, and they whereas they were getting defensive boards and 50/50 balls before, they're allowing opposing teams to outwork them for some of those over the past few games.

HUSID74 wrote:At the rate we're giving up points I don't know if any of our players will get defensive honors unless we win the League with some shutdown defense which is highly unlikely.

Agreed that the recent play will prevent Taylor from making the first team.

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Wags wrote:

triplec2195 wrote:Amen to that 50 second half points allowed in the last 5 games. It's the old D is optional scenario. What has happened to this team as far as defense is concerned. The word must have gotten out where to attack us(everywhere) apparently.

Point's well taken, but only in 2 of the last 5 (can call it 3 of 5 since JMU's second-half was 49 pts), but W&M scored 43 in the 2nd half at The Mack and Towson scored 35 in the 2nd half of the 2OT win.

Not so sure that opponents are attacking differently. They knew before, just as they known more recently, if they had big men in the middle of HU's zone to operate in the middle of the zone or to kick out to open shooters when the zone collapsed on those bigs, they could exploit HU's zone. But unlike before, the zone is lately not moving and working together as one unit, not communicating effectively, nor being played with the same intensity or pride with wanting to stop opponents anymore. They're also sometimes being outworked for balls they can get. Defense isn't over until you secure possession, and they whereas they were getting defensive boards and 50/50 balls before, they're allowing opposing teams to outwork them for some of those over the past few games.

More often then not YES it is the middle of our zone that is soft and killing us. We need someone like Trueheart patrolling in there to get a hand in someones face so they're not getting good looks at the basket and like u said when we do get stops we don't get control of the ball and give up numerous offensive rebounds. Almost half of JMU's rebounds were offensive. A lot of second chances definitely the kiss of death. If its not a score after the offensive rebound then we give up fouls.

Trueheart thinks he’s a guard. All he wants to do is shoot threes. You want size, try playing Taylor and Dwyer together for a few minutes. There’s a new wrinkle for you. Dwyer is very experienced and won’t make mistakes. He moves well for a big and there are plenty of other scorers on the floor. I’m talking about a few minutes to change things up and fill up the middle of the zone.

HU76 wrote:Trueheart thinks he’s a guard. All he wants to do is shoot threes. You want size, try playing Taylor and Dwyer together for a few minutes. There’s a new wrinkle for you. Dwyer is very experienced and won’t make mistakes. He moves well for a big and there are plenty of other scorers on the floor. I’m talking about a few minutes to change things up and fill up the middle of the zone.

Agree with all of this. Trueheart does seem like he basically wants to shoot 3s. And yes, for stretches just to try it with Dwyer and Taylor. But mainly, they need Coburn to get back to what he was doing on a consistent basis at each end, especially defensively, and on the glass.