Robert Morris played a basketball game tonight and, well, it
didn’t go so great. RMU once again helped dig their proverbial 14 foot
grave with awful, awful turnovers and just the worst transition defense anyone
has ever seen.
Contrarily, they were able to go on mini-spurts of runs by
just not being so dumb. It’s amazing the good that comes when guys remember how
to play normal basketball. Little things, like not dribbling into three
defenders, plays a large role into that. Communication on defense was also a
huge problem.
RMU was able to cut the lead to three with under two minutes
left. Hell, with :45 seconds left Kavon Stewart was flying to the basket with a chance to cut it to one. Alas, it did not go and things were not meant to be. It's hard to win basketball games when you don't play a full of 40.
RMU is 0-3 for the first time since 2010 after Wednesday’s 81-76 loss.
Some additional thoughts:
-Kavon Stewart was pretty good tonight. Yinz know #3 is my
guy right? I never panicked after two bad games to start the year. Nope. No
panic. No second thoughts.
He had 14 points on 4-9 shooting (6-9 from the free throw
line!), six assists, three rebounds, two steals and two turnovers. An all around
really good game for the junior, especially in the early going. He was always
there to steady the ship when things were getting wobbly.
Stewart's free throw rate is starting to become a thing I think sticks. He still has no right hand around the rim, but when he does go right he's able to contort his body into a pretzel, still finish with the left, and draw a foul because of the misconfiguration.
Do I wish he wouldn’t have tried to draw so much contact
with :45 seconds in the game? Yes, but there’s much, much more that led to this
loss. Such as…
-Transition defense! I’m not sure if guys are out of shape
or don’t give a single shit about running back on defense, but I hope that all
changes really, really soon. It’s embarrassing to watch. Inexperience is not an
excuse for simply running back on defense. Make a basket? Get back on defense.
Miss a basket? Get back on defense. Turn the ball over? Guess what… get back on
defense.
-There was also a tonnnnn of sloppy nonsense on the
defensive end. Giving up free points is bad, but this is bad in its own way. A
few times in the second half, RMU left one of the best three point shooting
teams in the country WIDE open for looks. Bucknell had a bald guy banging three's everywhere. I thought I was watching a YMCA game.
I think a lot of this will be solved with more
communication, which will come with more court time. I’d have to watch the film
for more specifics, but I can think of several examples where RMU deployed
random double teams on ball handlers and low post entries, which led to some
killer baskets. I have faith that gets figured out.
-One thing I’m losing faith in: Andre Frederick. I hate to
harp on one guy, but he is having an undesirable start to the season. When he’s
in iso situations, offensively and defensively, bad things are happening. A
revolving door could turn the corner on him in the low post right now.
You would think that with someone that big, he could block a
shot by accident, but that hasn’t been the case. Even his one shining moment, a
wide open YAM off a beautiful feed from Rodney Pryor, was disappointing after
he got T’d up for hanging on the rim.
I’ll give Dre some credit: he battled through an awful
start to make some big plays. He finished with 10 points on 5-7 shooting, but
still has to make an impact on the boards and defensively. Tonight was a baby
step in the right direction, but in the right direction indeed.
-Some weird Lester-Whitley-Still-Giles lineups out there.
Kinda funny to see a whole crop of new players out there looking like chickens
with their heads caught off. Actually, that’s probably a bad analogy because
that would require running. RMU doesn’t run much.
-Aaron Tate appeared to reaggravate his left leg injury. He
didn’t play in the second half. Obviously, Tate opposed to Giles (who I
actually like) or Frederick
is a huge difference. He’s never out of position. Those other guys always are.
-This is what life without Marcquise Reed and Lucky Jones is
like when Rodney Pryor has an off night. He had a corner three go off the side
of the backboard. There were times where RMU couldn’t buy a bucket, and a large part of that was because Pryor was off and no one had a damn
clue what to do. A lot of his teammates have never played with him during an
off night.
RMU really settled down when they killed Bucknell with
Stewart-Minnie pick and pop. That helped lead to some penetration and
impressive ball movement. Isaiah Still (13 points, 4-8 shooting, 3-6 from
three) was the main beneficiary of that. In a way, Pryor was too. Guys playing
competent around him took the pressure off.
-Elijah Minnie: still really good. Isn’t it funny that the
top of the scouting report isn’t “DON’T LEAVE ALONE AT THE THREE POINT LINE IN
PICK AND ROLL!!!!”? He did a good job of dominating the glass, hitting from
three and getting his teammates involved. He still does like three stupid
things a game but god damn I am excited for Elijah Minnie.
RMU is off again until Sunday. They’ll play a good Air Force
team. Lots to work on.
--Chris Cappella
--@C_Cappella
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