Really an inexcusable loss. The amount of second (and third and fourth) opportunities we gave up is astounding. You'd think we were playing a team of Dennis Rodmans out there.

Combined with lazy defensive lapses. Some poor TOs. Missed FTs. Absolutely collapsed the last few minutes.

We've been blown out a fair share of times this year , but this one feels worse. Given the opponent, the fact we were at home and playing better and just the manner in which we handed it away. Hate the way this St. Joe's team plays. No reason we should be swept by them.

Refs were awful, which didn't help.

Really pissed off.

Im not going to pretend I'm a Basketball guru but question for the group:

Was Ejike really playing a clean defensive game? Seems he was tying up blocking our big men in a questionable manner and committing moving screens left and right but was not called for it. Welch had one iffy defensive move and they blow the whistle immediately. Maybe I'm wrong.

Same. They got 18 offensive rebounds and shot just over 40% on threes. Repeatedly, the one red jersey in the middle of three or four white jerseys ended up with the ball. As a result, St. Joe's had 16 more field goal attempts than us. Of course, the lax officiating had something to do with the aggressiveness St. Joe's was able to get away with. There were tons of moving screens that weren't called, enabling them to get many protected threes. And we're back to double digit turnovers again, I guess....

Apparently, we don't even have a backup plan for getting killed on rebounding, like playing two bigs at once (Hutson/Golden at center, Welch as pf, with Alston playing small forward) even temporarily-- especially where opponents have two guys at 6'8" or better, and a 6'5" or 6'6" guard/forward. We never follow any of our shot misses, even when we can see it's not gonna go or there's a high bounce.

And the gap between the rosters in quickness, height and length was obvious. The physical matchups benefitted the other guys, bounces went their way mostly, the officiating went their way, and the game plan didn't adapt.

Congrats to Braden Norris on a new career high (his previous high was 23). But not that much to be happy about otherwise.

This was a terrible, frustrating loss. The three key stats that says it all are as follows:

Shot Difference: SJU got 16 more shots up than we did. How did they get so many more shots? The next two stats tell the story:

1) SJU Offensive Rebounds: 18.
2) Turnovers: 15.

You would think after playing a couple of good games where we minimized the TO’s and did some good things that as a group they were starting to figure it out. Instead a major regression tonight by the group. This should have been a win.

One last thing…just what the hell are we doing on the high ball screens? Our bigs were no where to be seen and SJU guards were dancing behind the illegal moving and not called screens all game. The big HAS to show and prevent this. We made no adjustment all game.

I know this is a wasted year, but you want to see progress and that the people here are getting and understanding the system.

Couple of Final Thoughts:

1) Ben continues to get better and is showing a good overall game. He had 13 tonight on 5-6 shooting, 3-4 FT, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. At times tonight he did not defer and made plays scoring. He has far and away been the biggest surprise and bright spot. I know Alston is having a good a year, but he had more experience and you figured he would be a good a player.

2) Jaylen has been getting minutes but he seems to be more worried about not TO the ball and last couple couple of games he has been very passive on offense. Tonight he played 16 minutes and only took one shot, a 3 which he made. Jaylen and Ben do defer quite a bit to the older players and I would like to see both of them continue to grow and take more offensive responsibility. Heading into next year, they need to step up and be cornerstone pieces.

They reminded me of Bradley.

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Drew said it looked like Joe's wanted it more, and it's hard to disagree.

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Agree that officiating was horrible. I am thinking that officials simply are not going to allow a young upstart coach to show them up...and when Drew stomps his feet or does something that is interpreted by the ref as being shown up....Katy bar the door...They are going to show Drew who is the boss...Not that he is incorrect and needs to protect his team but may be a situation where he will catch more bees with honey . This is truly a situation where Coach being young is hurting him and us.
I thought as JCT said that St.Joes was a better squad than us...they had length and Height advantages and I thought their guards were super quick and could shoot off the dribble. 3 of those 4 guards are underclassman. It was amazing how they did not call the moving screens and the guard followed the center like a ball carrier behind an offensive lineman.
I was okay with our guys, I thought they played hard and had to work so much harder than St. Joes to score and yet they we were with two minutes to go...tied at 71.....then they hit two , we miss two and Norris inexplicably misses two free throws and it was over..Other than Norris we were 2/14 from 3.
Phillip Alston despite some jaw dropping plays was last in +- at -15.
And you give a team 16 more shots , tough to win.

Joe's is up 20 on GW at halftime.

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Rough rough rough game for marquise. In the last 5 or 6 minutes he was at 0 for 3 from the floor (none were very close) , had 3 turnovers, and was blown past on defense at least 4 times. They went right after and right around him. There is no doubt his knees are a serious problem- he is just no where near as quick as he was his first 2 seasons. He entered the court today with a very sophisticated ice wrap on both of his knees. Big factor in our continuing season of discontent.