Rust?

[tornado]

An astute comment last night by Dick Versace went something like this....

--that Andrew Warren hadn't played any basketball in 1.5 years....so he is effectively only 11 games into his junior season after an 18 month layoff.

--Will Egolf is just now showing some athleticism and skills that are actually surprising given that he is only 11 games into what amounts to his sophomore season...again after nearly 1.5 years layoff.

--Jake Eastman is playing after a surprise removal of his redshirt status - and is really only 2 games into his college career after a layoff since the end of last spring's high school season.

--Taylor Brown is likewise only a few games into his sophomore season - Eddren likewise

--Sam Maniscalco is having to play extra duty-minutes because of injuries and short bench...thus his produciton may be hamopered by having to play a dual role of PG/SG and extra minutes...

all of our post players combined (SS, WE, AT) combine for fewer total career minutes played than what most Valley teams starting center alone has.


What Versace was suggesting is that as this season wears on our guys will shake off the rust (we saw evidence last night with Andrew) and this will give most of the guys a tremendous potential for improvement...
Our team HAS PLAYED the toughest schedule to this point, and I think it has help us, while the opposite may have hurt WSU, SIU, ISU as they have not played a very tough slate so far.

[shaunguth]

As I stated last week in another thread, only a couple of our players have played more than one year together.....SS/SM and SS/AW.

We are indeed a young team when it comes to game experience together!

[AZ BU Fan]

Let's hope DV, and you, are correct!

Yesterday's BU win over DU, while it didn't 'shock the world', was a good start for them.

Lets hope BU players' take away from last night, and the past week of practice, was they have to give it everything they have at each practice and each game to be successful, no matter who they have beaten, or what their record may be.

[BradleyBrave]

Hmm. Well, Missouri St sure isn't having trouble with so many new players. The mantra starting the season was all the 'experience' we were returning, and how much better of a position we were in because we weren't going to be depending on newcomers and freshmen as much as we had in the past. Now we're 'young' and just starting to learn? I'm not buying that. Sorry.

[Chico]

Hmm. Well, Missouri St sure isn't having trouble with so many new players. The mantra starting the season was all the 'experience' we were returning, and how much better of a position we were in because we weren't going to be depending on newcomers and freshmen as much as we had in the past. Now we're 'young' and just starting to learn? I'm not buying that. Sorry.

IMO,it's always that way, pre-season hype. I know myself that I get wrapped up in it and can't wait for the season to start without putting much thought into what the real facts are. Leave to Coach Versace to remind us. Thanks DV.

[shaunguth]

Hmm. Well, Missouri St sure isn't having trouble with so many new players. The mantra starting the season was all the 'experience' we were returning, and how much better of a position we were in because we weren't going to be depending on newcomers and freshmen as much as we had in the past. Now we're 'young' and just starting to learn? I'm not buying that. Sorry.

I think individually our players have playing experience, but almost all of our players have only played together for one season. Only because SS is still around do we have anyone that's played two full seasons together.

I'm not buying the fact that we have a ton of experience when it comes to playing together in games. I'm not sure who said we do, but facts are facts.

[SFP]

Neither am I. A road win is a road win and I will not belittle it but it was against Drake which I do not see winning too many games at all this year. If it was not for AW we would have been in another barn burner. I did notice a few offensive adjustments but this team still needs a bit more "moxie" when it comes to defending the boards. So I believe what this team is lacking is cohesion i.e. chemistry and a bit of defensive leadership.

BTW...I hope CR rid himself of his worst game as a Brave.

[chitown fanatic]

Hmm. Well, Missouri St sure isn't having trouble with so many new players. The mantra starting the season was all the 'experience' we were returning, and how much better of a position we were in because we weren't going to be depending on newcomers and freshmen as much as we had in the past. Now we're 'young' and just starting to learn? I'm not buying that. Sorry.

agreed. and a more telling comment came from Bussone at halftime when asked about the state of Bradley's team...."this team has a lot of problems" and he followed that up with chemistry issues, injuries,etc. Missouri st is an excellent example. They have no point guard depth to speak of but are now 11-1. No more excuses...just get it done.

[BradleyBrave]

I think individually our players have playing experience, but almost all of our players have only played together for one season. Only because SS is still around do we have anyone that's played two full seasons together.

I'm not buying the fact that we have a ton of experience when it comes to playing together in games. I'm not sure who said we do, but facts are facts.

Is 'not playing together' and 'lack of experience' why we blew double-digit leads at home? Most of the players that finished those games have been in that situation before, and we had certainly played more than good enough to have complete control of both of those games. Also, wasn't the Brazil trip supposed to help us get past this 'not playing together' stuff? How are other teams in our league able to get it done? Sounds like we're trying to build the case why another average season is acceptable. What will it be next year?

Regarding DV - I love the guy, he's my favorite BU coach of all-time. But do you think he'd really say on TV if he thought we were bad? His close friend is the coach.

[BUfan14]

I said this when a lot of people were bashing this season I believe after the Loyola game....3/5 of our starters played little to none last year. It's not an excuse, as we still should have played better, but this team is probably just getting a chance to gell. The difference I saw yesterday was the team played hard te WHOLE game. Everyone also stayed within themselves for the most part and filled their role...a sign of a team gelling.

[BradleyBrave]

I said this when a lot of people were bashing this season I believe after the Loyola game....3/5 of our starters played little to none last year. It's not an excuse, as we still should have played better, but this team is probably just getting a chance to gell. The difference I saw yesterday was the team played hard te WHOLE game. Everyone also stayed within themselves for the most part and filled their role...a sign of a team gelling.

I love how losing to Loyola is all the sudden becoming acceptable with this 'experience' excuse.

[Da Coach]

I love how losing to Loyola is all the sudden becoming acceptable with this 'experience' excuse.

Plus it was a trap game.

[BradleyBrave]

Plus it was a trap game.

Exactly!

[shaunguth]

Is 'not playing together' and 'lack of experience' why we blew double-digit leads at home? Most of the players that finished those games have been in that situation before, and we had certainly played more than good enough to have complete control of both of those games. Also, wasn't the Brazil trip supposed to help us get past this 'not playing together' stuff? How are other teams in our league able to get it done? Sounds like we're trying to build the case why another average season is acceptable. What will it be next year?

I'm just stating the fact that our players have only played together for one season, that's all. I didn't say that's why we blew double-digit leads at home. We also know that AW, WE, MK, and JE did not play in Brazil. Not trying to "build a case" either, just stating facts that this is indeed a "young" team.

Someone please point out how much game experience these players have playing together. Nevermind.....I already did that.

[BradleyBrave]

I'm just stating the fact that our players have only played together for one season, that's all. I didn't say that's why we blew double-digit leads at home. We also know that AW, WE, MK, and JE did not play in Brazil. Not trying to "build a case" either, just stating facts that this is indeed a "young" team.

Someone please point out how much game experience these players have playing together. Nevermind.....I already did that.

First, MK and JE were non-factors in the 2nd halves of both home losses, so they're irrelevant in this discussion. SM, EM, TB, CR, SS, and AT did play in Brazil, and I believe WE played a few minutes in the first game down there.

Second, we aren't a young team. Young teams start all freshmen and sophomores. Sam Maniscalco is a junior who's logged major minutes his whole career. Andrew Warren is a 4th year junior who's logged major minutes his whole career. Chris Roberts is a senior who logged major minutes last year. Eddren McCain is a sophomore who started the whole season last year and played big minutes. Taylor Brown is a sophomore who saw consistent playing time last year. Will Egolf is a 3rd year sophomore. Anthony Thompson is a 3rd year sophomore. Sam Singh is a 6th year senior. I'm sorry, this isn't a group that's just now learning about Division I basketball. Every guy has been in the program for a while now, and whether or not each guy has been on the court with the other guy doesn't hold much water to me. They didn't just all meet each other yesterday.

Lastly, how many games have the guys at Missouri St played at the DI level? How many games have they played together? What about Loyola? What about Wichita St? What about every other team in the league? I would be curious to see those numbers.

Not going after you our your thoughts shaunguth...just trying to make a point.