LA vs WKU

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Originally Posted by DaddyCajun

This team, needs to continue to play hard and work on going to the basket STRONG, so they can either make the lay up and or draw the foul. Free throws the past two games killed us! How is it these 2 teams shoot the free throws so well and we do not?

Who was it that recently was honored by UL at halftime this season who shot free throws and made them, like with his eyes closed and turned backwards with his shooting hand tied.

This cat should be paid big to come hold clinics with these players of ours so we could pick up our free throws to above 80%! Really, whomever is working with them either is inadequate or does not work then enough. Something?

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Free throw shooting seems to be an ongoing joke. My wife is not a big basketball fan, but has come to games with me for the past 3 years and she even makes comments on our lack of conversion. You almost expect our guys to go 1 of 2. When the fans start giving it to the home team when they miss, you know it's bad. I didn't see the second half of today's game and don't know if it played a factor down the stretch, but the freebies are named so for a reason.

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Originally Posted by UL_Cajuns

I just don't see Long or Payton in the NBA at this point as many has said. Maybe I am missing something?

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Been saying this since the talk started.

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Originally Posted by UL_Cajuns

Wow Red. Didn't know or didn't want to know it was that bad of a run by wku.

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It was 31-21 when it started. It ended at 38-54.

As far as effort, this team does try. But talent wise, it's not there. They don't have team height or even a player that would truly fit the expression "long". That falls at the feet of recruitment, not the players.

Sometimes the best thing that happens to a team (EP/Team USA) can be a bad thing. Before the season is over, somebody is going to have EP locked down from the opening tip and by game's end, 30+ loss. Everyone has us figured out now. If the team collectively doesn't step up, it will happen.

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Originally Posted by raginsaints

The people who are laughing at and bad mouthing Payton and Long are complete jackasses. Neither guy is perfect but both guys work their asses off every game. Long works the entire time on the boards and throws himself on the court after balls. Payton struggles at the line but his jumper has actually gotten better - he does need to keep working on it for sure but you cannot doubt how much work he puts in. Y'all are acting like he had a terrible game and he had 16 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. How many guys times does he create wide open shots for other players?

How about we appreciate the great players we have when we have them instead of comparing them to past players?

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Agree.

Criticize the coach all you want, he deserves it. But to criticize our 2 best players who play balls to the wall basically 40 minutes of every game is ridiculous.

This team is clearly going to go as far as our 3 point shooting takes us. Why did Shepherd barely play?

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Originally Posted by raginsaints

The people who are laughing at and bad mouthing Payton and Long are complete jackasses. Neither guy is perfect but both guys work their asses off every game. Long works the entire time on the boards and throws himself on the court after balls. Payton struggles at the line but his jumper has actually gotten better - he does need to keep working on it for sure but you cannot doubt how much work he puts in. Y'all are acting like he had a terrible game and he had 16 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. How many times does he create wide open shots for other players?

How about we appreciate the great players we have when we have them instead of comparing them to past players?

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Agree. There were some preconceived notions about Long as he was coming into this program but the kid has done nothing but play with heart. He has improved drastically since he's gotten here and even got into much better shape in the offseason and looks much better than he did a year ago. It appears that he has a bit of swagger to him and you sometimes need that on a team. To criticize these guys is futile. They are very good players that should both return but the reality is that Payton has been climbing the ranks in the mock draft world and if he's still projected first round at time of the draft, he's gone and I wouldn't blame him one bit.

Where we lack is obvious. We lack in frontcourt depth, especially getting some long, athletic bodies to clean the glass and play interior defense. Having to ask Moore to do this is humorous as he gives it his all but he's drastically undersized. I think one other thing we are truly missing is on court leadership. Neither Payton nor Long truly look like they are the leaders on the court. Payton is very quiet and Long tends to not really be that type of guy. Bottomline is that we are just not that talented. We have shooters. We need some slashing wingmen and some guys who can play down low with some athleticism.

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Originally Posted by RaginScotsman

Free throw shooting seems to be an ongoing joke. My wife is not a big basketball fan, but has come to games with me for the past 3 years and she even makes comments on our lack of conversion. You almost expect our guys to go 1 of 2. When the fans start giving it to the home team when they miss, you know it's bad. I didn't see the second half of today's game and don't know if it played a factor down the stretch, but the freebies are named so for a reason.

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We shot 65% at the line on Thursday which is our average and that of many college teams, including No. 1 Arizona. It is not the average of what we need to be successful with our talent however. We definitely need to be above 70%. Problem Thursday was that Ga. State got to the line many more times than we did. On Saturday, we shot 73% which is above the college average. Our FT shooting did not beat us Saturday. Problem there was that WKU shot nearly 90%. What was surprising there was that there normal average is 65%, just like ours. Give them credit for doing well in that department on Saturday. That is the free throw assessment. Other things factored into the losses. Shooting 3 for 19 on Thursday from three doomed us. What was really frustrating there was that those were all good shots and the guys struggled from there and I think the pressure got to them a little. On Saturday, they shot 5 for 15 which is better but not good enough as again most were on good looks. You need to be close to 40% on threes to be successful. I know 33% on three is = to 50% on twos but that does not account for the long rebounds and subsequent run outs that often occur on missed threes. You also don't get to the line much on threes unless you are Hunter of Ga. State. Finally, no matter how frustrated you get when you believe you are hacked and no calls come, you cannot spend time crying to the ref about it as every second you do that it gives an advantage to the opposition as you may be late getting back on defense.

recruiting, recruiting, recruiting

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Originally Posted by CajunNation

recruiting, recruiting, recruiting

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Completely agree with the above posts but once again the three guys who inked with in the early signing period constitute our highest rated class in many years.

How about size? One for sure could use about twenty pounds to be skinny.

Jay is totally ripping on the officiating of the game.

One point I made during the game was that the Sun Belt was on ESPN and should have sent their best officials. If this was the SBC best officiating team we are in deep ____.