List of concerns

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Agree Joeys defense is really quite terrible.  With that said i expect it to improve, sam was a poor defender, as are a majority of Freshmen.

Agreed. There's no reason to think he won't improve on that end with time.

[brewcity77]

1) Providence

If we beat Providence, we lock up no worse than the 2-seed in the Big East Tournament.

[🏀]

1) Providence

God I hate you, but damn I respect your consistency.

[willie warrior]

FIFY

Joey's defense has been dreadful all season. His offense was great and is now not so great. Though last night I thought he was fine, had some very nice assists and a few good post moves. Needs to find his shooting touch again.

Agreed. His defense has been well below average this year. he has many areas that need improvement. Cain should be getting at least 10 of his minutes each game. Bailey cant shoot so he should not be getting those minutes.

[wadesworld]

If we beat Providence, we lock up no worse than the 2-seed in the Big East Tournament.

Biggest game of the season.  A win at Providence also makes Nova basically a gravy game.  Lose it and you still control your own destiny for at least a share of the BE title.  Win it and you basically wrap up the BE title.

[Bad_Reporter]

6. Sacar's free throw shooting

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Agreed. His defense has been well below average this year. he has many areas that need improvement. Cain should be getting at least 10 of his minutes each game. Bailey cant shoot so he should not be getting those minutes.

I mean until recently Cain couldn't shoot either and wasn't playing much better defense than Joey. I'm loving the last two games of Cain but I'm not ready to crown him over Joey or Bailey.

[MULaw14]

Maybe a bit general, but being strong with the ball and dribble penetration would be tops for me. When we play the athletic physical teams like SJ, it's pretty evident that only Markus and Sacar can get in the paint on their own off the dribble when the team isn't hitting from outside. Joey (and Sam to a much smaller degree) have some room to improve in this aspect and help carry the load in these types of games...seeing Jamal bounce around these last 2 games could go a loooong way come March if he keeps this little streak of looking to attack consistently.

Hard to complain about much, but it's refreshing to only nitpick...even more refreshing is that our overall defensive competency is nowhere to be found on this kind of thread as opposed to years past. Keep it going boys!

[Silkk the Shaka]

This thread is built on negativity

This has to be a top 5 scoop meltdown. Congrats!

[pbiflyer]

This thread is built on negativity

Let's face it. Absolutely everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room.

Biggest concern? The incredibly slow naming of the SOTG. I mean, will players even play hard anymore if they know that their spotlight may only be for a day or two? No SOTG yet for the Butler game. And this isn't the first time, even in obvious choices, the decision takes forever. If we don't win a national championship, it can all be blamed on that!

[🏀]

Let's face it. Absolutely everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room.

Biggest concern? The incredibly slow naming of the SOTG. I mean, will players even play hard anymore if they know that their spotlight may only be for a day or two? No SOTG yet for the Butler game. And this isn't the first time, even in obvious choices, the decision takes forever. If we don't win a national championship, it can all be blamed on that!

topper is picking up extra shifts at Arby's, lay off man.

[wadesworld]

This has to be a top 5 scoop meltdown. Congrats!

Top 5? Generous.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

This has to be a top 5 scoop meltdown. Congrats!

I turn off scoop for 5 seconds and I apparently miss some juicy drama

[MU82]

This has to be a top 5 scoop meltdown. Congrats!

Teal?

[mu_hilltopper]

Yeah .. see, um .. I'm a slacker on the SOTG thing, and the banner.  I do it maybe 5% of the time, rocky and Spiral (?) do it the other 95%.  It's an HTML pain in the butt to edit.

Mostly, I'm too busy reading and posting in the NM thread.

[wadesworld]

Yeah .. see, um .. I'm a slacker on the SOTG thing, and the banner.  I do it maybe 5% of the time, rocky and Spiral (?) do it the other 95%.  It's an HTML pain in the butt to edit.

Mostly, I'm too busy reading and posting in the NM thread.

Way to throw your teammates under the bus.

[mu_hilltopper]

Way to throw your teammates under the bus.

I KNOW!  That's why I'm eating this beef n cheddar right now.

[MU82]

I KNOW!  That's why I'm eating this beef n cheddar right now.

Wait ... beef AND cheddar on the same sammich?

Whoa ... gotta get to this place you talk about so often.

Arby's is it?

[MUDPT]

Seeing the hard hedge last night, makes me worry for some defensive strategy against Markus that they aren't prepared for.

The transition defense is also lacking at times.

[WarriorFan]

List of things that offset the concerns:
1.  Markus in cheat mode
2.  Solid Sam
3.  Finding different ways to win every game
4.  Depth in the frontcourt
5.  An 8th man as good as Cain??????
6.  Team unity

[MU82]

List of things that offset the concerns:
1.  Markus in cheat mode
2.  Solid Sam
3.  Finding different ways to win every game
4.  Depth in the frontcourt
5.  An 8th man as good as Cain??????
6.  Team unity

I like it, WF! Plenty of others, too, including an outstanding coach, only a matter of time before Joey comes back around, a doggone good D anchored by a shotblocker, experience at every position and on the bench, etc etc, etc.

[Slim]

7. Will there ever be a game in which Sam has a dunk AND Joey has a block again?

[g0lden3agle]

Biggest game of the season.  A win at Providence also makes Nova basically a gravy game.  Lose it and you still control your own destiny for at least a share of the BE title.  Win it and you basically wrap up the BE title.

How dare you talk about Nova and controlling our own destiny! We're about to start the 27th one game season of the year and the only thing that matters is Providence

[wadesworld]

How dare you talk about Nova and controlling our own destiny! We're about to start the 27th one game season of the year and the only thing that matters is Providence

Right. Read the post. Providence game is the biggest game of the season.

[g0lden3agle]

Right. Read the post. Providence game is the biggest game of the season.

Should have just stopped there. No point in wasting any energy typing anything other than that the next game is the most important. Nothing else matters!!!