Ruff...

[Guest]

This game was on Ruff. Force this, force that. Bad shot here, bad shot there. Get burned, burned, and burned on defense. He needs to get off the ego trip started by many of us and including his coach and just play. Mayo made our guards look like beginners. I think I will go vomit now. By the way, Sam S. was GREAT!

[AE Braves Fan]

his playground garbage shots need to end. but he's done them for 3 years so....

[cpacmel]

Ruffin ended up with 14 points and 14 assists

[georgethedog]

Ruffin ended up with 14 points and 14 assists

How many bad decisions? Garbage shots? Unforced turnovers? How many times did he dribble into multiple defenders with no place to go?

[lefty]

It's hard to get to upset with Ruff....he makes the most difficult shots when clock is winding down but when we are down 6-8 with 3-4 min left he'll take that crazy shot like he's trying to tie the game with one shot. He plays hard all the time, hard to complain about that.

I would like to see him sit at least a couple of min each half just to recharge..mentally.
Maybe later in the year when kids more experience he can do that

[CABUFan]

I don't know that it had anything to do with an ego trip, but I was disappointed in Ruff's game tonight. He made a lot of bad decisions, and he was getting beat on D way more than he ever should.

[AE Braves Fan]

all of our guards are too slow on D. i wonder if conditioning is the problem?

[jasonpeoria911]

I have a feeling that "getting beat on D" won't be happening very often next game. Les said to Buescher that BU was just flat out tentative and not very aggresive. You know he'll get his boys fired up after this lame of a game. Hopefully get them working on there shots also, that was atrocious. Oh, and get a post game going with Collins, a tall center that can shoot the FT's is rather rare nowadays. Let him get the rock and draw some fouls.

Jason

[bu fan 9]

What has happened to Cole-Scott?

[shaunguth]

I have a feeling that "getting beat on D" won't be happening very often next game. Les said to Buescher that BU was just flat out tentative and not very aggresive. You know he'll get his boys fired up after this lame of a game. Hopefully get them working on there shots also, that was atrocious. Oh, and get a post game going with Collins, a tall center that can shoot the FT's is rather rare nowadays. Let him get the rock and draw some fouls.

Jason

That would have been nice! He only played 12 minutes. Hopefully, that will increase closer to 20.

[chitown fanatic]

Coach Les had a bad game too

What is the fascination playing Salley as many minutes as he did? Salley is the same player he was last year, basically a warm body who occasionally produces a good game here and there. Collins barely saw the floor. Why? And why play the freshman Maniscalco as long as he did? He got his doors blown off as much as Ruff tonight. This team needs to get better on D in a hurry...and as far as Ruff goes...not a great start from the MVC Preseason POY....unforced TO's all night long.....another Horizon road nightmare.

[shaunguth]

Yes...it shouldn't be too hard to find eight more minutes for Collins.

[Lakeview Brave]

I hope the Naismth voters were not watching this game because the best player under 6' was not Ruffin. 34 points for Mayo is a joke! Also did anyone else see Ruffin push the ball in Mayo's face after a time out, not what I expect from our senior leader.

A few other thoughts

Why didnt Collins play more in the second half? We went on the big run with him in the game at the end of the first half and he looked really good.

Why is Sam M play ahead of TCS? What am I missing that the coaches are seeing in Sam? He again could not keep up with his man on D and even got beat by their freshman Krepps. His shot looked flat and he didnt create for others. I think the kid will be a good player for us in the future but why is he getting TCS minutes now?

Singh was great, I am so happy for him. He moved well, rebounded well and finished well. If he can give us that all year, he may be the Most improved player in the Valley.

Salley didnt show me anything

JC- played well but was also slow on D. You could tell the were keying on him after he lit them up last year and he still got good shots off.

Wilson had flashes but fouled out fast, he is probably are best defensive player at this point and we need him on the floor.

This is the third game in a row this team has give up over 80 points and we are going to play on Thursday in St. Louis if that trend continues. Maybe we should press more or play more zone. The two times we played zone tonight it worked. Its a long season but this team has a long way to go.

[real fan]

Ruffin had a bad game but I believe he trys to do too much because he wants to win so badly; Salley is the same inconsistent player we saw last season and if we don"t give Collins and Singh more minutes we will have trouble scoring inside as they seem to be our only inside threats; our defense is too busy trying to make steals and not staying with the players they are suppose to be guarding; too many times tonight one of their guards drove by ours and was able to take a short jumper or kick the ball out for an open 3 pointer; also I would sure like to see someone get up above the rim and rip a rebound down like they really want it; size only matters if you get good position and then go up and get the ball.

[thefish7]

I think Realfan sorta pinned down what I saw with Ruffin on defense. I'm not sure he was playing poorly, it might have been when he overplayed for the steal or the passing lane there wasn't any help for him. A big part of our defense last year was that kind of play by the perimeter player and then if it didn't create the turnover someone else rotated or switched in and disrupted the play until the defense could reset. It seemed like any time someone got by the perimeter defender there was not a lot of help going. Hopefully that will start working for us as the players get used to playing together--- or if not we'll have to abandon the aggressive D and play a bit more straight.

Offensively, I thought Ruff was fine. I think the stat sheet would tell you he had a lot of turnovers but at least two were total phantom carry calls that were obvious hesitation in his dribble (not carries). I guess he faked out the ref or something. He had some excellent passes. He was as cold as the rest of the team from 3 and hurried a few of the shots, particularly in the second half. His dribble drive was pretty effective because he created some opportunities for others and drew two or three fouls. Josh Mayo took a lot more ill-advised shots, they just went in for him. If they'd done so for Ruff or if Crouch had hit the open 3s, I think this game would've turned into a 20-point rout.

Re: Salley... I didn't see much from him either, though he really wasn't on the floor much since the refs tickey-tacked him out of the first half after just a couple of minutes, and then kinda did the same thing down the stretch. He didn't do anything offensively really (though that was a sweet pass to Singh on the one play), I do think he played nice on the ball defense some of the time he was in.

Sam Singh and Andrew Warren both had nice games. Collins was the big one for me though, he played quite a few good minutes and had some good plays. Looked awkward sometimes, but seems to be picking it up quick.

I also could not figure out the number of mintues Sam M played, particularly in the final ten or fifteen minutes. He wasn't a disaster or anything, but seemed like a bit more size or some TCS could have been nice in there.

UIC played a good game, but talk about garbage shots and hurried shots. These guys took some of the most ridiculous shots around, and they all fell. On the other hand we worked our offense enough to get open looks at three and missed them. I guess that happens sometimes, and if it was going to happen, the first game of the season on the road may be about the best time to have it happen.

Finally, the refereeing was horrendous... Some of the worst I can remember, and I did think the refs altered the game a bit. Seemed like every time Bradley started to mount an attack we'd get some BS moving screen call or a carry. They were bad, but that's going to happen, and you have to play through it.

EDIT - Did he really log 14 assists? Is that his career record?