Ha! Nearly...

quality loss

Attendance: 4,398

I wouldn't call this an ugly win. Yes we made plenty of mistakes. But we beat a legit tournament team. A really good shooting tournament team. And we dominated completely defensively.
A hard fought win.
Is there work to do. Absolutely.
Should we be very happy about this win. Hell yeah.

sfa17 said:

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Attendance: 4,398

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Just curious... How accurate are the attendance figures? Any fudging going on by the Athletics folks to make them look better than they really are? Where are you getting your figures?

The figures is what athletics posts in their official write up of the games. So they report the attendance.

I brought this up last year after feeling like the numbers were inflated some. I asked if it was actual attendees or if season tickets were always included.

The answer, and I think it's right after being conscientious of it, is that it's actual attendees. The number for last night was probably a combination of both games attendance, ie all who walked through the door from 4:30-8:30. It felt a little more than half full at some point. I still feel like the numbers aren't perfect, but I don't think there's any real cooking the books going on.

Did you get to talk to Keller last night? Just curious if there was a presser or not.

I hear you. Did you do the game write up for the Sentinel last night?

INiedrauer said:

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I agree and I want to add one other thing:

If there has been any complaint about TJ in the last few years, it's been his overly passive play. This year - the technical in Starkville, the stare down at Longwood, and this play - I absolutely LOVE that version of TJ. THAT'S the version of TJ that can be great. I'll have more on this later, but I would never discourage him from embracing his inner Ty Charles.

I have seen Keller throw players out of practice for laying the ball in instead of dunking. Big emphatic dunks are a big deal to the coaches because they create momentum like nothing else can (especially at home when the crowd gets into it). Obviously the decision was poor from TJ and he'll learn but I'm not upset at all that he tried it.

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TJ for President!

My take on the game:
Let's look at the good
1. Impressive man overplay/help defense. Yes, that type of defense can leave open jumpers if the opponent moves the ball well, but can also create turnovers. Witness last night.
2. A win over a mid major that has a chance to play past the second week of March.
3. The return of Ty Charles, who will round into shape by the time the conference schedule starts.
4. A deep team
5. An offense that created a ton of open looks.

The bad:
1. Cannot shoot well from the perimeter. NDSU defended a more athletic team by taking away their strength, the slashing/interior game. They packed the lane and invited the Jacks to shoot.
2. Foul shooting. Hopefully, this was an aberration.
3. Ball security. This is a big problem. 16 turnovers against a slower, less athletic team is concerning.
4. Lazy fouls. Thank goodness for the fact the team is deep.

Overall, I like the offensive scheme, but unless we can shoot from distance, there will be no lanes to attack the hoop. Better team will eliminate that possibility. Loved the defense, it's a risk/reward defense and teams have to work to get good, open looks. The defense looks a lot like two years ago. On offense, when working through the high post, it's imperative to have the high post man able to drain the elbow jumper or the top of the arc three, since the high post defender sinks into the lane and doesn't honor the shot, cutting off slashers. Against a slower team like NDSU, a spread, two man game would have killed them. They had no one to stop our athletes.
Hopefully, this is a work in progress and I do see upside. It just has to be realized. Thanks for reading my diatribe and GO JACKS!

Good stuff Richie. Keep commenting.

Agree with most of your points. We've got to start breaking that inside the arc defense. We do a decent job with getting transition points, but it just shows that like when Ivan got hot in the FAMU game, it opens up the offensive playbook.

I didn't actually see too many lazy fouls last night. Kept them out of the bonus in the second half. Now the moving screens are ridiculous. But overall much less. 16 TO's while not great is better than 20. Ready to pull it down to 12.

Almost everyone played 20~ minutes. Great depth and use of players. I hope we keep that up. Only our bigs sat. But our team of guards can beat anyone's team.

I thought both teams defense disrupted the other teams offense. The Jacks just gutted it out in crunch time. Both teams were well coached. Good win for the Jacks!

I think the shooting and free throws were an aberration. I know this was a better defense, but we have show the ability to knock down shots this year when forced. Three-point shooting is still spotty, but improving...

It was an ugly win, but a good win, and IF we get into the tournament, all the committee will look at is the fact it was a win. Score will not matter...

Great comments and excellent observations, Richie. Keep on posting. Great to have you on board!

I do not think the offense was good in any form of the imagination. The first possessions of the game were good. Kevon was taking what the defense gave him (3pt, floater, layup). It was primarily just him taking what the defense gave him. Then from the first half until the end of the game was mind-numbingly slow buildup and predictable ball movement. Even in Keller's post-game comments he said, "We took the shots they wanted us too." They packed the paint with bodies and we could not pass or shoot through the zone defense.

Ljacks&Longnecks said:

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I do agree with Isaac that TJ has too often been passive on the court and that being more aggressive will serve him well however he needs to be more game aware in picking his spots. Most of us on here agree, I believe, that the technical at Miss St was actually the point where the game turned against us, his aggression awoke the other side. Last night, a straight forward slam would have provided the same momentum we wanted and iced the game. I like TJ as much as the next guy here I just want to see good fundamental play and follow through especially when the game is still on the line.

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That technical at Mississippi State was BS.

Also, that swat when Comeaux took the charge was freaking awesome.

djsfw57 said:

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I'm pleasantly surprised at Aaron Augustin. He is NOT the same player he was last year. Love seeing the growth. Imagine how good he will be his senior year...

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Since Aaron and John are both sophomores, that tandem as far as tenacious defense is going to be intense if they keep growing. If they add consistent perimeter shooting in to their game like Meech. Lights out.

INiedrauer said:

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Yep, I do some local sports for them here and there.

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Read your pieces in the paper. Good stuff. Glad to see your name everywhere these days.

Far more good than bad last night. Love Comeaux on defense. Bogues may be the best athlete on the team. TJ got early fouls and had an overall meh game. Augustin is much improved, but I would like to see the starting point gaurd with more than zero assists.

The biggest "bad" for me was a lack of rebounding the first 25 minutes of the game. Some was no doubt due to our extended defense but still way too much of a gap. Much different outcome the last fifteen minutes of the game which I think ended up being the difference.

Exactly this. One thing we haven't had since honestly the second Underwood year was a truly solid OOC performance. That's what got us the 12 seed. Had we gone undefeated in conference play with Underwood in the second season we likely would've had a 10 or a 9 seed with our record.
This year, let's just say hypothetically, we beat ULM, Louisiana Tech, Rice, and at the very least one of our two remaining SEC opponents, and then sweep the SLC. That would be easily our most impressive season in school history and we would no doubt have a high seeding come March. Maybe even a ranking.
In fact, that could be a good enough performance to justify an at large bid should we slip up in Katy.
Of course it is a long season and the odds of us doing that are slim to none.
But my word what a difference two weeks makes in a team. We are easily now more impressive looking this early in the season than we've looked in a while.

I like what you're drinking, but I think you're still a little too positive... and I'm the homer that said we would roll Miss St. and then keep on rolling.

By NCAA standards, a 12 seed is the highest seed we can get. Seeds 1-11 are reserved for the power conferences and programs that have shown the ability to take down elite competition. This usually almost always requires a conference where the team faces multiple top 100 teams. Unfortunately, the SLC and its one bid will not see a plus 12 seed until we can knock off several top 50 teams in nonconference play.

When we got the 12 seed, that was the NCAA rewarding us with a "top" seed. A 12 or 13 seed is the easiest path to the Sweet 16 and that is why they are reserved for the best mid-major programs. We were demoted for our bad nonconference play when we got the 14 seed. An 8-11 seed are the worst seeds for major conferences because they have the hardest track forward. If we finish strong this year I believe we can vie for a 12/13 seed, but not beating a SEC team almost assures us of a 14 seed (assuming a 17+ win in SLC play plus the tournament win). No at large bids possible this year besides an undefeated run to the SLC tournament plus getting beat by the second best team in the finals. That would give us like a 10% chance.

Agree here. I think the next step for SFA is 2 fold.

1. Utilize talent to become an NCAA regular in the post Underwood era.

2. Make the Sweet 16.

That'll be when we've arrived as a program. We're an SLC leader, but I want to be a juggernaut. Our recruiting continues to improve and if we keep a lock on the tourney bids, it'll be almost impossible for anyone in the SLC to compete. We're getting very close in terms of talent & development to snowballing into a conference juggernaut, which will give us so many more chances to win in March.

Honestly I'm glad that I'm able to see SFA get to the point in a major point where we don't talk about just winning the SLC. We talk about winning post season games.
When we can reach that level as a mid major where there's no doubt who we are, it'll help the entire university. Getting televised games in Nac. Giving high major opponents a good reason to schedule us.
It'll really continue to get the SFA name out there.

I just saw the Real Clear RPI ratings. We are 139 but we are projected to end up 13-14 and 9-9 in the Southland. Wow!

Say what?!?! That must be a prediction by some guy in a corner office in NYC who couldn't find the entire state of Texas on a map!