YSU wins @ Loyola

motowntitan · January 05, 2013, 06:01:39 PM

No one is running away with the Horizon League this year:

http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=330052350

wh · January 05, 2013, 07:04:00 PM

YSU came back from 14 down midway in the 2nd half to get the win. Averkamp short-armed the front half of a 1 and 1 with 1.5 seconds left and Loyola down by 2.

bbtds · January 05, 2013, 07:08:57 PM

Especially interesting was that the ref called a foul on Eargle with 1.5 seconds left to put Averkamp on the FT line.

And then Ben tanked the first FT. He tipped his own miss but it clanked off the back rim for the Penguin win

valpotx · January 07, 2013, 02:01:16 AM

Loyola did not look good against us, we beat ourselves with really poor open shot misses. I didn't think I would ever agree with Waters from CSU, but he hit the nail on the head that Loyola didn't do anything special against us, we just had a really bad shooting night

StlVUFan · January 07, 2013, 08:16:01 AM

Quote from: valpotx on January 07, 2013, 02:01:16 AM
Loyola did not look good against us, we beat ourselves with really poor open shot misses. I didn't think I would ever agree with Waters from CSU, but he hit the nail on the head that Loyola didn't do anything special against us, we just had a really bad shooting night

I'd be curious to know your definition of "good". "Special" is a different word in my dictionary.

Loyola looked good to me. We also beat ourselves, and should have won the game, but it's not like Loyola looked average. They hit their shots, and my impression is they made less mistakes than we did. Their offense certainly looked better than ours.

If all you mean is that Loyola looked beatable, then I don't have a problem with that. But what I saw fit my definition of "good". I'm sure our "good" should have been better, but Loyola looked "good" to me.

valporun · January 07, 2013, 10:52:26 AM

Stl, I don't think Loyola did anything "special" against us, besides look more like a basketball team capable of beating a defending regular season conference champ that had a chip on their shoulder. We played like we could do no wrong, yet all the wrong was happening. We missed shots, committed stupid fouls, threw the ball away, and just did all the stupid things that a team still looking for that spark does. Against Loyola, all of our "working parts" seemed to need a bit of tweaking before it made sense. Those "tweaks" didn't really appear against an injury-plagued CSU team on Friday night either. I hope over these days before the UIC game, the "shooters" have been working to regain some confidence, and the new pieces to the puzzle are watching tape to find out what their role should have been in these first two conference games. Hopefully guys like Dority, Kenney, and Bogan get a lot more shooting confidence than they've had recently. We need some kind of major spark that the defensive double team on Ryan and Kevin can get going to get those two open again.

valpotx · January 07, 2013, 01:23:06 PM

By good, I mean that I really don't see them as anything more than a mid-pack team this year. I just couldn't see them as a top 3 team coming into the year, and my opinion has not changed after seeing them against a really poor effort by VU. We can't say that Loyola's defense caused the low shooting percentage by us, as we missed quite a few wide open 3's and lay-ups...

vuweathernerd · January 07, 2013, 02:56:29 PM

Quote from: valpotx on January 07, 2013, 01:23:06 PM
By good, I mean that I really don't see them as anything more than a mid-pack team this year. I just couldn't see them as a top 3 team coming into the year, and my opinion has not changed after seeing them against a really poor effort by VU. We can't say that Loyola's defense caused the low shooting percentage by us, as we missed quite a few wide open 3's and lay-ups...

while that last bit is true, they also made a number of shots substantially more difficult with the defense that they played. their offense is the big question, imo. their defense will hold its own, but if their offense doesn't pick up, they may not be able to put up enough points to carry themselves to victory.

StlVUFan · January 07, 2013, 04:00:34 PM

Quote from: valporun on January 07, 2013, 10:52:26 AM
Stl, I don't think Loyola did anything "special" against us

I don't think they did either.

StlVUFan · January 07, 2013, 04:07:04 PM

Quote from: vuweathernerd on January 07, 2013, 02:56:29 PM
Quote from: valpotx on January 07, 2013, 01:23:06 PM
By good, I mean that I really don't see them as anything more than a mid-pack team this year. I just couldn't see them as a top 3 team coming into the year, and my opinion has not changed after seeing them against a really poor effort by VU. We can't say that Loyola's defense caused the low shooting percentage by us, as we missed quite a few wide open 3's and lay-ups...

while that last bit is true, they also made a number of shots substantially more difficult with the defense that they played. their offense is the big question, imo. their defense will hold its own, but if their offense doesn't pick up, they may not be able to put up enough points to carry themselves to victory.

My jury is out on that one, tx. I've yet to witness them stumble (doesn't mean they haven't).

And I thought there offense was pretty sound last Wednesday. They knew exactly how to beat us. When we sagged on the driving point guard, he was always ready to pass out to the perimeter. When we switched to zone, they killed us with back-door cuts (which seemingly shouldn't be possible against a zone, I'll admit).

Again, I didn't say they were special (I agree with Waters on that). But I think they looked good against us. Add to this that they looked good against Michigan State (I watched that game), and beat two power conference teams on the road somehow, and I'm very comfortable with that assessment.

Losing to YSU? Haven't watched that one yet. I'm interested to, and might revise my assessment afterwards. Obviously they lost a huge lead down the stretch, sort of like Butler did a few years ago against the Penguins.

But I'm not ready to say where they'll end up come March, as per my usual mantra.