MBB vs NCU

[HiLineCat]

Up by 7 with 4 to go. Goracki still in a slump.

[catsrback76]

Up by 7 with 4 to go. Goracki still in a slump.

He needs to sit and work out the kinks, then come back in and resume playing his game. Right now…clearly slumping.

[technoCat]

Another collapse...

[Desert_Bobcat]

I know it won’t happen but I’ll 100% go on the record for this. Lecholat needs to start until Brian figures his crap out. He can miss shots from the bench. Sam is more than deserving considering his play the last month

[mslacatfan]

This team is really bad at closing out games….

Hahahaha

How many times have they been up 10 with a couple minutes left and lost? Like 8 times?

[mslacatfan]

I know it won’t happen but I’ll 100% go on the record for this. Lecholat needs to start until Brian figures his crap out. He can miss shots from the bench. Sam is more than deserving considering his play the last month

yes. Goracke needs to be benched at this point.

[John K]

This team is really bad at closing out games….

Hahahaha

How many times have they been up 10 with a couple minutes left and lost? Like 8 times?

It's almost unbelievable how routinely we totally collapse at the end of games. For some reason, we just don't run our offense very well in the final few minutes. The last 3-4 possessions, we didn't get off a single good shot. Even the 3-pointer that banked in was just blind luck. We can't even blame it on Ford having fouled out this time. If games lasted only 36 or 38 minutes, we'd probably be 9-2 in conference instead of 6-5. It's really frustrating to see this happen over and over again.

[MinnesotaBobcat]

This team just doesn’t function very well in the last 3 minutes. It’s almost as if nobody wants to take a shot, so we pass up on a possible open shot or two, then turn it over or force a bad shot at the end of the shot clock. This team could really be a threat if they figure out how how to close out a game. They could realistically be in second place this season.

Goracke looked like he was sick. Any chance he has the flu?? He just didn’t look like he felt well at all.

[catscat]

I think it's the run the clock offense. We hang onto the ball so long trying to take time off of the clock that we end up with poor shots. I think we'd be better off just playing normally and continuing to score with good shots.

[Desert_Bobcat]

I’ve been saying this for a while now. They need to stop running that kill clock offense and just run the offense and what got them the lead.. too much ‘me’ and not enough ‘we’ at the end of games

[Cats92]

I’m glad I can be frustrated at the results of these games. At the end of last year I thought the men’s team was going to be in full rebuild mode and heavy underdogs throughout most of the year. Instead, they’ve been surprisingly competitive while honestly losing more games than they really should.

As far as Gorake goes, at one point in the cat gris game he bounced his head off the floor pretty hard and from then on he hasn’t been the same. I don’t know if it’s coincidence, but it really seems like it.

[John K]

I’ve been saying this for a while now. They need to stop running that kill clock offense and just run the offense and what got them the lead.. too much ‘me’ and not enough ‘we’ at the end of games

I agree completely. I think that's exactly what the problem is. You don't have to fire up a quick shot in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, but you don't necessarily have to run it down to 5 seconds every possession either. Like you said, just effing run the normal offense, and take a good shot if/when you get one. How many times do the coaches need to see the same thing happen over and over again, before they begin to realize that it's just not working? Maybe that strategy works better when you have a more talented team, with a guy like Battle who could find a decent shot almost at will, but with a less talented team, it just doesn't work.

[Catfanatic84]

Tough loss for the guys tonight. It's got to be frustrating to lose after leading late. I have to say, this team is much more competitive than I anticipated and I think they could be a tough out at the tournament. Just need to keep grinding!

[BelgradeBobcat]

So sick of this team choking away leads. They're choking away a chance of a winning record and a first round bye in the tournament. If you're good enough to get a late lead, you should be good enough to hold it-at least most of the time.

[Desert_Bobcat]

I’ve been saying this for a while now. They need to stop running that kill clock offense and just run the offense and what got them the lead.. too much ‘me’ and not enough ‘we’ at the end of games

I agree completely. I think that's exactly what the problem is. You don't have to fire up a quick shot in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, but you don't necessarily have to run it down to 5 seconds every possession either. Like you said, just effing run the normal offense, and take a good shot if/when you get one. How many times do the coaches need to see the same thing happen over and over again, before they begin to realize that it's just not working? Maybe that strategy works better when you have a more talented team, with a guy like Battle who could find a decent shot almost at will, but with a less talented team, it just doesn't work.

Sprinkle had a bad habit of doing that when he was here too and almost crapped away a handful of games because of that. Because the talent was so great, you could counteract that. I think coaches worry about winning “the right way” and not running up the score when they’re up 15 with 3 or 4 minutes left. It could just be me but I’ve on too many teams where coaches step off the gas and things go south, quickly. If I was a coach and the team was up 10 with 4 to go, I’d want it to be 20. Then I’d want it to be 30. I honestly wouldn’t care if I got called out for running the score up. I would want my guys running the system and playing to win rather than playing not to lose. It seems to me like the Cats are playing like the latter and making critical mistakes because of it.

[John K]

I’ve been saying this for a while now. They need to stop running that kill clock offense and just run the offense and what got them the lead.. too much ‘me’ and not enough ‘we’ at the end of games

I agree completely. I think that's exactly what the problem is. You don't have to fire up a quick shot in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, but you don't necessarily have to run it down to 5 seconds every possession either. Like you said, just effing run the normal offense, and take a good shot if/when you get one. How many times do the coaches need to see the same thing happen over and over again, before they begin to realize that it's just not working? Maybe that strategy works better when you have a more talented team, with a guy like Battle who could find a decent shot almost at will, but with a less talented team, it just doesn't work.

Sprinkle had a bad habit of doing that when he was here too and almost crapped away a handful of games because of that. Because the talent was so great, you could counteract that. I think coaches worry about winning “the right way” and not running up the score when they’re up 15 with 3 or 4 minutes left. It could just be me but I’ve on too many teams where coaches step off the gas and things go south, quickly. If I was a coach and the team was up 10 with 4 to go, I’d want it to be 20. Then I’d want it to be 30. I honestly wouldn’t care if I got called out for running the score up. I would want my guys running the system and playing to win rather than playing not to lose. It seems to me like the Cats are playing like the latter and making critical mistakes because of it.

I don't necessarily think it's a case of not wanting to run up the score, because these games haven't really been blowouts. Coaches just see it as the "safe" way to close out games, i.e. milk the shot clock in an effort to limit the number of possessions for the other team in the final few minutes. It's sort of the basketball equivalent of the prevent defense in football, which also doesn't work very well most of the time.

You're right though... Sprinkle did it too sometimes, which would create some tense moments late in games. Although we almost always managed to hang on to the lead and close out the games under Sprinkle.

[aucat]

It's call playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Kinda like the "prevent defense" in football which is good at preventing WINS.

[wapiti]

I hope this is not the start of a February/March swoon like we had under Huse and Fish.

[lv2hoop]

Ifs and buts - but if Brandon Walker doesn't get hurt in that second half, we probably score a few more buckets and get the road win. I hope his injury isn't serious.

[thefrank1]

Same here. I also find myself wondering, what if Patrick hadn't broken his foot. My answer is that we would be battling for a regular season championship. With him, this team would have been formidable.