The reset button may not work. We couldn't score, rebound or play defense tonight. I can't think of anything we did well. I doubt Georgetown has a big as good as Mustafa. Not many teams do. He might be the best we will see this season. That's interesting. He could play for any team in the SEC and be a star.
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*** USC MBB (5-1) @ Coastal Carolina (2-2) Game Thread ***
- Thread starter kingofnerf
- Start date
Was just getting ready to post the same. Maybe we were a little overconfident and complacent given our recent success.
Who knows? Georgetown will make us pay for that on Sunday if we are still in that mode the rest of the week.
True. Complacency has been the Achilles heel of Frank's teams. That is more troubling to me than an upset by a good team with a player like Mustafa.
The 6-8 game losing skid happens and we're throwing up a prayer to make the NCAAT. Hopefully it was just the effects of the flu bug and that's it. Frank sounded pretty bad in the radio interview.
Hopefully we bounce back against Georgetown.
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We won't beat anyone playing like we did today. I expect Couisnard to be back in the lineup on Sunday. But that doesn't help our problem with our bigs. They still can't score. None of them have any offensive skill. I hoped Wilson would provide some scoring skill, but he shot the ball very poorly tonight. Missed every FT line FG attempt he had. He was 1-10 according to the box score. Unless Frank can find a way to get us some scoring from a big or two, its going to be tough.
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I notice that Frank's teams have a few games each year that they just don't seem to care if they win or not. I don't know if other teams have that happen, but it seems like every season USC has some games like that. If this team has a 6-8 game losing streak at any time this season they will NOT make the NCAAT. And, Frank will likely be fired. I always tend to be an optimist when it comes to USC basketball, but games like tonight tend to make me look at things with more honesty. I didn't like what I saw out there tonight.
I was looking at Coastal's roster. They have several seniors and several players who have transferred in from bigger programs. And, they have good size. Ellis and his staff did an excellent job of identifying talented players in the portal and getting them to come to Coastal. Don't be surprised if this team has a very good year and contends for the Sun Belt title. By the way, for those who didn't know, how many stars a player has in high school does not mean much.
We were 7/30 on the perimeter while CCU was 5/18. That's always a sign to me the Gs weren't doing there job. I didn't watch the game itself; only listened on the radio and watched the live stats link. Sadly, the numbers are very easy to decipher the past several years.
Probably better with Cousinard, though, who is a veteran in Frank's system and knows what he expects. Important in both the shoot-around and the game.
As good a coach as Ellis has been and is, Georgia State was the regular season and tournament champion for the 2018-19 season when we last played and beat CCU.
Arkansas-Little Rock (UALR) was the Sun Belt regular season champion in 2019-20 and of course the conference tournament was canceled then.
So, CCU has been good but not enough to go the NCAAT in recent years. PC and Wofford in the SOCON have been the only other SC teams besides us and Clemson to make the NCAAT in recent years.
UALR has been the dominant team in the Sun Belt conference in recent years. I remember this because they kept popping up when I was checking the RPIs of our OOC opponents the past several years.
CCU really has to be the regular season or tournament champion to make the big dance and they haven't really done that in recent years. In that respect, Frank and Cliff are very similar at this point in time, but Ellis has a better overall record than Frank.
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No way to sugar coat that turd we put up tonight. This is exactly the kind of loss that makes me pessimistic about our team. Maybe we can right the ship this weekend, but tonight leaves me with little hope of beating Georgetown.
nerf...Winthrop has been to a couple of NCAA tournaments the last few years. Last year they gave Villanova all they could handle before running out of steam late in that game. College of Charleston also made the 2018 tournament. PC has never been to the tournament.
nerf...Winthrop has been to a couple of NCAA tournaments the last few years. Last year they gave Villanova all they could handle before running out of steam late in that game. College of Charleston also made the 2018 tournament. PC has never been to the tournament.
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I wonder if our players thought they could play poorly and still beat Coastal? If they did, they need to grow up quickly. Nobody on the USC schedule is going to lay down and let USC walk over them. Every team we play is going to play as well and as hard as they can. Even the freshmen should have learned that in the first six games. This game tonight is a mystery to me. James Reese is usually a good defender. But not tonight. His man just kept driving by him. And Reese didn't score much either. Wilson shoots 1 for 10 from inside 15 feet? Really? And those guys are seniors! I don't understand how we could play so poorly. We started both halves very poorly. That has to stop. We can't wait until we're down by 12 to start playing. If the starters can't git er done, put in someone else quickly. We can't afford slow starts.
Unfortunately or fortunately, I missed the game tonight. Awful loss....very humiliating. I hope he can get this team straightened out and have a successful season. He badly needs postseason this year. My concern is that if we force him out, we will never hire anyone else of his national stature and reputation.
I don't worry at all about whether a coach has "national stature and reputation". We've had several coaches who have had that and none of them could consistently win at USC. If Frank is fired after the season, it wouldn't bother me at all to hire someone like Brian Steele. Brian is young, and energetic, and smart. He might be a fine head coach. Of course I wouldn't pay him 3 million to start with. Or give him a big buyout. But I'd be very happy to have Steele as the head basketball coach. i think he'd do well. But, I'm hoping we go on to have a good season and Brian can be Frank's assistant a while longer.
doublea1971
GCF Top Poster
As you may have noted in my post earlier in this thread... I saw this one coming. Coastal has a very experienced squad, they've got a GREAT PG in Williams, who did everything (and then some) that he's already done this season - shooting 50% or better from the field and behind the arc. He was 6-8 from the field, 1-1 behind the arc, and 6-8 at the FT line. Mostafa, as predicted, was tough around the basket. 13 rebounds, with 5 of those being offensive boards. He was 6-13 from the field, 11-16 from the FT line. There are others on the roster at Coastal who had WAAAY above average days as well.
What this all leads me back to is what I've said a few different times in this forum... our bigs are NOT playing well. Neither offensively nor defensively. Leveque has been the lone bright spot, and I use "bright" with looseness of term.
What our problem boils down to, in my mind, with the bigs is COACHING. I'm not certain who we have working with those guys right now, but it's time for a major change there. The laziness around the basket, the inability to draw contact, the boxing out and sealing... ALL of those things can be "coached up". When you have 5+ guys who ALL have the same tendencies, and who came from other programs where their numbers were better than what we're currently seeing, that to me speaks volumes. It's time for a change at the assistant level (and this was true beginning two years ago). Bring in someone competent at developing the bigs. Bring in a guy who is recognizable and who is over 6'8" tall himself. A person who the kids respect and look to as someone who can actually teach them something. Right now, it's laziness and that is because they're not being challenged the right way.
Frank Martin's system still works well. It's the lack of concentration on the details in the low post that's absolutely killing us. And that has to stop IMMEDIATELY. I'm calling for at least one head to roll right now at the assistant coach level. Something has to change. And that change needs to happen right now, before we get into conference play. Give the guys a chance to adjust to the new coach, and give the guys a chance to play the way they are capable of playing. Josh Gray is not as bad as he has played, and he's 7'0" and 260ish (that is not exactly skinny). Minotte has tools which he showcased last year, but have completely disappeared. Ta'Quan Woodley is a BEAST. If they're being taught in a way that makes them shy away from contact, then let's get someone who shows them the right way, and do so in a way that sticks.
I had a coach one time that said "practice does NOT make perfect... PERFECT practice makes perfect." So let's get the practices to the perfect level and lead those practices with someone who is a big man expert.
Frank needs to do that NOW.
What this all leads me back to is what I've said a few different times in this forum... our bigs are NOT playing well. Neither offensively nor defensively. Leveque has been the lone bright spot, and I use "bright" with looseness of term.
What our problem boils down to, in my mind, with the bigs is COACHING. I'm not certain who we have working with those guys right now, but it's time for a major change there. The laziness around the basket, the inability to draw contact, the boxing out and sealing... ALL of those things can be "coached up". When you have 5+ guys who ALL have the same tendencies, and who came from other programs where their numbers were better than what we're currently seeing, that to me speaks volumes. It's time for a change at the assistant level (and this was true beginning two years ago). Bring in someone competent at developing the bigs. Bring in a guy who is recognizable and who is over 6'8" tall himself. A person who the kids respect and look to as someone who can actually teach them something. Right now, it's laziness and that is because they're not being challenged the right way.
Frank Martin's system still works well. It's the lack of concentration on the details in the low post that's absolutely killing us. And that has to stop IMMEDIATELY. I'm calling for at least one head to roll right now at the assistant coach level. Something has to change. And that change needs to happen right now, before we get into conference play. Give the guys a chance to adjust to the new coach, and give the guys a chance to play the way they are capable of playing. Josh Gray is not as bad as he has played, and he's 7'0" and 260ish (that is not exactly skinny). Minotte has tools which he showcased last year, but have completely disappeared. Ta'Quan Woodley is a BEAST. If they're being taught in a way that makes them shy away from contact, then let's get someone who shows them the right way, and do so in a way that sticks.
I had a coach one time that said "practice does NOT make perfect... PERFECT practice makes perfect." So let's get the practices to the perfect level and lead those practices with someone who is a big man expert.
Frank needs to do that NOW.
Frank runs an aggressive, high-energy defense that forces teams to play fast against us. Ellis knows how to prepare his team for something like that.
If most of the team's energy was off due to the flu, you could see how an opposing team would take us to school.
This has looked like a really good team in the previous games. Frank mentioned the bad shoot-around after the game, but he didn't seemed too concerned about it because he knows the team is good and will learn from its mistakes.
I am fighting "bad Gamecock sports fatigue" like most everyone else is right now, but we need to let December play out.
If most of the team's energy was off due to the flu, you could see how an opposing team would take us to school.
This has looked like a really good team in the previous games. Frank mentioned the bad shoot-around after the game, but he didn't seemed too concerned about it because he knows the team is good and will learn from its mistakes.
I am fighting "bad Gamecock sports fatigue" like most everyone else is right now, but we need to let December play out.
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If the team had colds or flu, that will take your energy. I hope that was the reason for last night. If it was, then I feel better about things. I can't understand that performance without them being sick.
Gray played hardly any at LSU last season. Minott and Benson didn't play much last season. Woodley was in high school last year. I have to cut the young guys some slack this early in the season. However, Leveque, Wilson and Martin are experienced players. Offensively, Wilson was awful last night. Leveque wasn't very productive. And Martin is out sized in the post. I think we need to get the ball to our bigs more than we do. Yes, they might not score, but they also might draw fouls if they try to score, which would help us. Frank is frustrated by the lack of production from the bigs. I think he will try to do something to change it.
I think it was a perfect storm of known issues with the bigs plus missing a veteran PG in Couisnard who might have stabilized things and added that third player scoring in double figures to put us over the top.
CCU and UAB are very similar in that they have very successful former D1/P5 coaches running their programs now. The risk of upset is always there for any P5 coach that puts them on his schedule. UAB could have beat us this badly were it not for Stevenson's excellent shooting in that game. The backcourt was working together in synch and with a rhythm in the UAB game, but that was missing last night because Couisnard was out.
I was demoralized last night, but I think we bounce back against Georgetown if Couisnard can play a fair amount of minutes. Those groin injuries are tough, man. Carrera had that toward the end of the 2015-16 season and Frank kept him out of our last SECT game, which we lost, rather than risk further injury and pain. We could have used one or two more wins in the SECT to go to the NCAAT, but Frank wasn't going to tear Carrera up to do it and I didn't have a problem with it at the time.
CCU was a tough loss, but I think we get the bounce-back win against Georgetown and keep moving forward.
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