You guys should have found a way to hold on and win, no doubt about it but this Saluki team has made a habit of playing out of their minds in the final 5 minutes to take the game over. We came back from 10 down with 3:07 left in Las Vegas to beat San Diego and from 5 down with just over a minute left to beat San Fransisco the next day. It is very frustrating to see our players look so disinterested at times (such as the first half of this game) and then just seem to turn it on when they want to or need to. That won't always work. Here are some observations from a Saluki Fan.
1.) I scoffed when I read one poster say that Taylor Brown was better than anybody on the court but after that performance I might just agree. Kevin Dillard is the only one that put up an argument against as he has had a remarkable year both scoring and creating and is doing so while not finding his 3 point stroke yet. After hitting 46% from out there last year, I am betting it will come back. Brown is another one of the 6'6" wings that the Salukis cannot guard whatsoever. Justin Carter, Champ, and Theron Wilson exposed this in our defense last year so we brought in John Freeman primarily to match up there defensively. It worked late in the game so I have no idea why Lowery had Fay and Booker there the first half.
2.) You guys need a point guard but you already know that and know why so I will leave it at that.
3.) You have to find some depth. You never seemed to play many guys significant minute before the DSE and Dunson injuries but now it is even worse. You can't play your starters as many minutes as you do night in and night out and expect them to not get beat the last 5 minutes of the game.
4.) SIU has the best backcourt in the Valley, BU has the best wings. Both are just a solid inside game from being world beaters. If you had a couple of good bigs and could play Warren at the 2 and Brown at the 3 you could afford to play McCain up top for defensive purposes.
5.) SIU is a team that is going to score a TON of points this year but unfortunately also give up a ton. It is strange to make a complete 180 like that. I think a large part of last years struggles were due to Lowery fighting the obvious strengths of his personnel in order to retain the principles that built the program.
6.) Last but not least... I think people here are using the "they havn't played together long enough" thing as an excuse. The only times a team can play that card are when a majority of the roster is new faces. Drake is the only Valley team this year that can say that in my opinion and SIU was the only team last year. After the Mullins injury we dressed 8 players for 2 months. 5 of those 8 were first year players while another, Fay, was only a sophomore. Warren knows the system well by now as does Singh, (he probably remembers Molinari's system too) and Maniscalco who are all veterans. While they are still learning alot every day, Taylor Brown, McCain, and Egolf all should know it enough in what is their second year for it not to be an excuse for them either.
Just my 2 cents. Hope I didn't offend anyone somehow.
Is this not 3 in a roll:?: I think they and JL (not the coaching staff, because they are non existed/no factor at this point) need to be told, over and over and over again because nothing is changing but getting worst:!: I will feel sorry for this team when they play a great game, do the right things to win, play to win and lose:!::!: