Well, yesterday afternoon I took in my first Army B'ball game in several years. It was a bad news, good news type story. The simple bad news is that the good guys lost by eleven, 70-59. The good news is that we looked like a competitive basketball team, which is different than what I remember from just about any other time in the past 10-15 years. A few observations:

- Coach Spiker is a very passionate, and fired up coach. He is the anti-RE on the sideline. His team and the refs were well aware of his presence throughout the game.

- I was very surprised at the large number of kids we traveled. We had almost 20 dressed on the bench. I believe 13 total got in the game, and most of those were for a decent number of minutes. He constantly rotated players in and out. I never saw any indication of players being tired.

- We missed too many open shots throughout the game, and we allowed the Bulldogs too many open and/or uncontested shots.

- While it wasn't as bad as the Crews era where we simply conceded rebounds to the other team, yesterday we didn't do a good job on the boards, especially the offensive end.

- The players didn't let a small, but very loud student section rattle them. Some of the taunts got a little personal, but our players never reacted or showed any response at all, which was very good. The gym was small with the bleachers right up on the court. It had somewhat of a high school feeling to it in my mind.

Overall, I can see improvement in this program. I hope to see a viable league record this year as evidence that Coach Spiker has this team moving in the correct direction.

Beat 'em!

Yeah, we always look good in December playing what I call stiff teams. I don't care what Bryant has or doesn't have in talent. We should never lose to a team named Bryant. We shouldn't even schedule teams like that. We do and we always wind up beating teams like that before the first of the year but only half the time.

Come January, we fade like the football team does toward the end of the season when we play our Patriot opponents and in the end it becomes another so and so losing season.
I'll tell you one thing. Knoght and K would have never lose to a team named Bryant.
My comment about this 11 point loss--
"Bryant who?" Geez.

RABBLE wrote: I don't care what Bryant has or doesn't have in talent. We should never lose to a team named Bryant. 

Classic Rabble.

wp1994 wrote: Well, yesterday afternoon I took in my first Army B'ball game in several years. It was a bad news, good news type story. The simple bad news is that the good guys lost by eleven, 70-59. The good news is that we looked like a competitive basketball team, which is different than what I remember from just about any other time in the past 10-15 years. A few observations:

- Coach Spiker is a very passionate, and fired up coach. He is the anti-RE on the sideline. His team and the refs were well aware of his presence throughout the game.

- I was very surprised at the large number of kids we traveled. We had almost 20 dressed on the bench. I believe 13 total got in the game, and most of those were for a decent number of minutes. He constantly rotated players in and out. I never saw any indication of players being tired.

- We missed too many open shots throughout the game, and we allowed the Bulldogs too many open and/or uncontested shots.

- While it wasn't as bad as the Crews era where we simply conceded rebounds to the other team, yesterday we didn't do a good job on the boards, especially the offensive end.

- The players didn't let a small, but very loud student section rattle them. Some of the taunts got a little personal, but our players never reacted or showed any response at all, which was very good. The gym was small with the bleachers right up on the court. It had somewhat of a high school feeling to it in my mind.

Overall, I can see improvement in this program. I hope to see a viable league record this year as evidence that Coach Spiker has this team moving in the correct direction.

Beat 'em!

Nice post WP.  Bryant had a 3-game winning streaking with us coming in, the last win being over Boston College.  So the Bulldogs weren't the cream puffs they've been in the past.

I know Spiker is very high on his crop of plebes, but the 6-26 from the arc is a red flag that this team will live and die by its perimeter shooting, just like his previous editions.  Early indications are though that this is a much better rebounding team.

I had enough of Bryant.
We need to schedule another "name" team. The name Bryant hasn't been so good to us.
How about William and Mary?
Williamette sounds nice too.
We could try Ouachita.
I know we could play Chiquita also. I'm not so sure they play basketball but I know they make a hell of a good banana.

mycentraljersey.com has a blog in hoops heaven about bryant.  Good read.

Agreed on the student section.  One of them blew a horn during several Army free throws attempted by Ellis and all they did was make an announcement not to do that anymore.  Should have been a bench technical.

That section also razzed my 8 year old son when he went on the court to compete in a timeout contest because he was wearing his Army basketball shirt.  However he got a small measure of revenge when he won the contest and fist pumped towards the student section!!

Why should we waste our time playing Bryant?
You win, so what. You lose you get complaints for playing teams like Bryant, Rosemont or Houston Baptist.

Good stuff. I was sitting a few rows up behind you and your son. All of the other contestants in the youth contests were Army fans too!

Agreed also on the missed bench technical. They should have been warned the first time and T'd up the second. It wouldn't have helped our shooting woes, but it was the right call.

For the record, I couldn't care less what Rabble thinks of our slate of opponents. I think we all get it!

Beat 'em!

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--- catchpaddock wrote:

Agreed on the student section.  One of them blew a horn during several Army free throws attempted by Ellis and all they did was make an announcement not to do that anymore.  Should have been a bench technical.

That section also razzed my 8 year old son when he went on the court to compete in a timeout contest because he was wearing his Army basketball shirt.  However he got a small measure of revenge when he won the contest and fist pumped towards the student section!!

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wp1994-
I don't get what you mean when you say, "we all get it".
What do we get? We get opponents you never hear of and we wind up with 26 consecutive losing seasons.
Now that's  "what I get" and what I get 'aint so good with the BB program.
That applies to football too.
You don't have to care what I think. That's OK for me but still that's what I think and the way I see it, that seems obvious to me it is correct thinking.
Think about it. Not one winning season in over a quarter of a century. To me that is just plain mind boggling and awful.
To pad your OOC slate with never-heard-of teams is not the way you go about building a program to show you have improved it at the Patriot League level.

NT

Here is a stat I don't think I have ever heard with regard to Army - we out-rebounded them 51 to 22.  Amazing!

We started 3 Plebes tonight and one of them was not Wilson.

We shot slightly over 50% for the game (including 50% from three point range).

Marist beat Vanderbilt.

Maybe we should consider the SEC.

RABBLE wrote: I had enough of Bryant.
We need to schedule another "name" team. The name Bryant hasn't been so good to us.

How about Stony Point, Rab?

RABBLE wrote: wp1994-

To pad your OOC slate with never-heard-of teams is not the way you go about building a program to show you have improved it at the Patriot League level.

No offense, but just because you haven't heard of teams like Bryant or Houston Baptist doesn't mean that people who follow basketball haven't heard of them.  Prior to their game with Army, Bryant had just beaten Boston College on the road.    Their only two losses this year are to Indiana and Providence - both on the road.

Bison137 wrote:

RABBLE wrote: wp1994-

To pad your OOC slate with never-heard-of teams is not the way you go about building a program to show you have improved it at the Patriot League level.

No offense, but just because you haven't heard of teams like Bryant or Houston Baptist doesn't mean that people who follow basketball haven't heard of them.  Prior to their game with Army, Bryant had just beaten Boston College on the road.    Their only two losses this year are to Indiana and Providence - both on the road.

Rabble logic:

Judge other athletic programs based on name and/or history rather than actual recent performance, unless of course you're talking about ND during down years.

My son told me that the other kid was also an Army fan, I missed that.

Last night was hands down the best game the team has played in quite some time.

As for opponents, Bryant is in the NEC which is certainly comparable to the Patriot League.  I like the one trip each year to another part of the country and feel it's good for the players.  But in non-conference as long as you play other D1 schools you're fine.  I think Rosemont is ridiculous as in that game you can only look bad.  Some area teams we should play more often:

Manhattan
Sienna
Hofstra
Fordham
Fairfield

All of those programs would certainly sharpen the boys up for the PL schedule.

I also would like to add a thank you to WP1994 for their kindness at Saturday's game.  They invited my son and I to a post game reception with the team and it was very tastefully, and deliciously done, very nice people.

Thanks, but that wasn't me. I believe the people you're thinking of we're parents of one of the players on the team. They invited me too, but unfortunately I had to get home.

Reference the Bryant v. Providence game, for any who aren't current on Rhode Island geography, those two schools are about 20 minutes apart. I don't know that I'd call that a real "road game" for Bryant. I can guarantee that PC has a nicer gym though!

Beat 'em!

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--- catchpaddock wrote:


I also would like to add a thank you to WP1994 for their kindness at Saturday's game.  They invited my son and I to a post game reception with the team and it was very tastefully, and deliciously done, very nice people.

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In womens sports not a bad idea but for the men, it would be a total disaster. Football? Basketball? Well.... I don't think so.
Although we sure would draw well at Christl like Tenneesse as opposed to Houston Baptist or the ever improving Rosemont.

RABBLE wrote: Yeah, we always look good in December playing what I call stiff teams. I don't care what Bryant has or doesn't have in talent. We should never lose to a team named Bryant. We shouldn't even schedule teams like that. We do and we always wind up beating teams like that before the first of the year but only half the time.

I'll tell you one thing. Knoght and K would have never lose to a team named Bryant.
My comment about this 11 point loss--
"Bryant who?" Geez.

Updating this topic, Bryant now has a 1.5 game lead in the 11-team NEC with a 6-1 league record.   Overall they are now 13-4 and are ranked well ahead of every PL team except for Bucknell and Lehigh.   They are currently riding an 8 game winning streak, including wins over Lehigh and Robert Morris.   And at least one mid-major ranking has them in the national top 25.


BTW, Coach K scheduled over 30 teams that were weaker than Bryant - and he lost to some of them.

Bryant's last loss was to Navy.