Observations on the Dunkin' Dawgs

[dawg80]

When several of our guards step up and settle into a good rhythm, this team will go very far this year. We have 4 big guys and Brown, to take care of the front court, it's the back court that needs to step up to the plate.

My friend shared his observations during the game and afterwards. I could tell he played and coached college hoops before! Told me that Stanford ran the motion offense when he played, only they called it the "screen-o" meaning "screen offense." He said neither Millsaps or Tech were setting "hard enough" screens, and that the cutters did a poor job of running their man into the screen. I mentioned that the NCAA wants more "away from the ball" fouls called and perhaps that's why the players were shying away from getting too physical, fear of being called for an offensive foul while setting a screen.

Also, we discussed always running the motion and he told me that at Stanford they did about 75% of the time, the other 25% of their offense was executing set plays. Especially when the offense was struggling in the screen-o (motion) offense.

Overall he was very impressed with the Dawgs. He liked Meeking and Powell up front, and thought Woods and Dean looked the best in the back court, but quickly added this game was NOT one to base any real judgement on since Tech clearly played down to the level of the competition.

Told me he expects to watch the Dawgs on TV come the Big Dance in March!

[weunice]

And we have a very favorable schedule to do so, especially RPI wise. We need to beat 1 or 2 of MSU, Arkansas, Texas to help our WAC brethren out ...

With few returns in, the WAC currently leads the land in RPI. That likely won't last long ...

[Dawg04]

I see no reason for us not be beat Miss State and Arkansas... Now Texas is on the same level as Florida and will be tough to beat on the road. T.J. Ford is better than the Florida guards who gave us fits.

[LBP]

I BELIEVE Edwards and Woods [blur:1bed6fdd70][strike:1bed6fdd70]need to [/strike:1bed6fdd70] [/blur:1bed6fdd70]should start in place of Felton and Wilder. Felton [blur:1bed6fdd70][strike:1bed6fdd70]can not handle [/strike:1bed6fdd70] [/blur:1bed6fdd70]appears to have problems handling the ball [blur:1bed6fdd70][strike:1bed6fdd70]and has to turn the ball underhand to dribble down the court.[/strike:1bed6fdd70] [/blur:1bed6fdd70]Wilder is a streaky shooter, [blur:1bed6fdd70][strike:1bed6fdd70]that can not play defense.[/strike:1bed6fdd70] [/blur:1bed6fdd70]I believe that Edwards and Woods are our best 2 guards right now. Woods is looking better than Dean at this point.

LBP - This is THE EXACT kind of message that you should be willing to put your name on. And how many times have I PERSONALLY said NOT to make your point by tearing one player down but by building another player UP?!? If you refuse to do that, at a VERY MINIMUM, give STATISTICS to support your claims. How many carrying calls has Felton had? How many turnovers? What is Wilder's shooting %? How many points did Wilder's man score while in man-to-man D? Next time the post will be DELETED. I've edited the post to reflect what an APPROPRIATE post of this nature would be absent hard facts to support your claim. - TDF

[dawg80]

I CAN say this about Wilder. On Sunday he made NO effort to play defense several times. Millsaps' 5'10" white guard shot over Wilder and he made no effort to even put his hands up to make it harder for the guy. I don't need stats for that, I was there and saw it with my own eyes!

Like I said, that was against Millsaps and maybe Wilder will be more aggressive in our "real" games. But, that doesn't change the fact that he did it this past Sunday.

Yesterday I watched the St. Mary's girls' team smoke Red River 62-31. SM's coach, Johnny Cox got upset with one of his players when she failed to switch in the man-to-man and a RR player went to hoop for a layup. The girl turned away from Coach Cox when he was "instructing" her on the proper way to play defense. He got MORE upset when she looked away. The exchange went something like this: "Oh, you don't want to look at me when I'm talking to you!? Fine! get your butt on the bench, at the end of the bench, I don't want to look at you either!" There that STARTER sat for the rest of the game!

Part of Tech's problem, perhaps, is that our coaches cowtow to the players too much. That's a mistake, but it's their mistake. I prefer to call a spade, a spade.

Coaches make mistakes and players suck at times. That's all part of sports. It's okay, IMO, to point these things out when they occur.

[LouisianaSelect]

Thats pretty funny Dawg80--I have seen Cox in action many time. He is a Coushatta Boy(Red River). He dont mine getting on players and he is very hard on those girls.

Wow, i think someone hate you LBP and look he didnt even sign his name-lol.

[TechDawgFan]

Oops ops: I did forget my name, didn't I!

I don't hate LBP. I actually kind of like him at times. I just feel VERY stongly that if we feel a player change should be made, then we should do it by building the proposed replacement UP rather than tearing the starter down. And it's an issue that's specific to PLAYERS.

This team has A LOT of potential and I also think it is premature to start questioning coaching and lineups. Let them get a few games under their belts and then we will see REAL trends starting form. If we feel the same way then, we can say so here and will have the justification to back it up.

TDF (Chris)

[LBP]

Just what is this board for? I thought it was to discuss Tech sports, that is what I was doing. Saying that someone can not handle the ball is not putting them down, if it is true. Pointing out that someone is a better player than the other is not putting them down. Felton gets the ball stolen alot due to his poor ball handling. Would it be preferred if I said he was a great ball handler, even if it is not true. You wouldn't want me to lie, now would you? Do our coaches do anything to help Felton's poor ball handling skills, I really doubt it.

Wilder is a gunner, most of the time he'll miss 10 shots in a row and sometimes he will hit 5 shots in a row, and he never plays defense. One of his shots hits the other side of the backboard in the Florida game.

I think Edwards is a great ball handler and is the guy that should be our starting PG, he never gets it stolen and he plays great defense too.

[EJ]

I like how Edwards handles himself also. He may have more playing time than Felton by the time conference play rolls around.

But, last year, I though Felton was the better ball-handler. Now that Edwards has some experience, he will push to start.