EAST CAROLINA (9-10, 2-4) at WICHITA STATE (8-10, 0-5) Game Thread

[Stickboy46]

Here is the team coming out of the locker room at halftime. I didn't realize just how bereft of energy they are. Also, not that when Bell was given a ball to begin shooting around, the first thing he did was turn the ball over. At least he's consistent.

Been like this all year. It's like they get high at half

[Atxshoxfan]

The most painful part of all of that .. there is almost zero movement in any of those. One or two of them had someone cutting, but most of them have 4 players not with the ball just standing. If there was movement it was often just players switching positions by jogging to another point on the court

Maybe.......since they can't pass to a stationary target, PM is afraid of having them pass to a moving target.

[ventichai]

Warning, this is graphic...

Holy ****, first time watching this, and I’m screaming at my phone. What in the hell are some of these passes? I can see why Mills has apathy my god where’s the thought process in some of these decisions.

[Shocktoberfest]

Holy ****, first time watching this, and I’m screaming at my phone. What in the hell are some of these passes? I can see why Mills has apathy my god where’s the thought process in some of these decisions.

My section averages about 115 years old. When XB through away the inbound pass there was a collective WTF. Foul mouthed geezers!. JK.

[ShockHat]

Holy ****, first time watching this, and I’m screaming at my phone. What in the hell are some of these passes? I can see why Mills has apathy my god where’s the thought process in some of these decisions.

The awful decision making is so ingrained in these guards, which for mills is an important role. Sometimes you just can’t coach it out. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of mills, but I do think we’re seeing his worst. I’m trying to withhold judgment for another year, but it’s not easy.

[Dan]

The awful decision making is so ingrained in these guards, which for mills is an important role. Sometimes you just can’t coach it out. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of mills, but I do think we’re seeing his worst. I’m trying to withhold judgment for another year, but it’s not easy.

hope is all we have

[asiseeit]

The Summit league may be a better fit for us now

[ShockHat]

The Summit league may be a better fit for us now

nah, we’re fit right exactly where we belong at the moment. Last place.

[IndianaShocker]

Man, with the time you've spent on this board complaining, I would think you would have something more insightful than this. What can a coach change in the middle of the year? You want him to overhaul his offensive system and teach a brand new one? After all this, the best you can come up with is "do something different!"

Yea pretty much. I'm going to give you an example. The town I'm from has less than 6,000 people and our HS is around 350 kids. Public school. Basketball has 4 classes in Indiana, we're a 2A school. Current girls basketball coach took over in 2015 as a first time coach fresh out of college. We were 5-62 in our previous 67 games. 10 seasons later, our girls program is a 2A power. We have the 6th best record in the entire state over the past 7 seasons (143-32) and we won state championships in 2019-20 & 2020-21.

During that time we've had extremely talented & athletic teams & we've had teams with average talent and below average athleticism. We win with defense. And we've done it in about every way possible depending on the talent that particular season. We've had teams that played in your shirt, full court man-man, teams that played a soft 2-3, and basically everything in between.

This season, we're a short (no starter over 5'7), average at best shooting team, and maybe slightly above average athletically. Yet we've beaten the largest school in Indiana 36-34 (Ben Davis, with an enrollment over 4500 kids) and we blew a late lead and ended up losing to the 2nd largest school in Indiana, Warren Central (4000+) 43-50. How has he done this? By adjusting his "system" to his personnel. Not just season to season, but a lot of times game to game.

I don't think it's asking too much for a coach being paid 1M/yr to do the same.

[ShockHat]

Yea pretty much. I'm going to give you an example. The town I'm from has less than 6,000 people and our HS is around 350 kids. Public school. Basketball has 4 classes in Indiana, we're a 2A school. Current girls basketball coach took over in 2015 as a first time coach fresh out of college. We were 5-62 in our previous 67 games. 10 seasons later, our girls program is a 2A power. We have the 6th best record in the entire state over the past 7 seasons (143-32) and we won state championships in 2019-20 & 2020-21.

During that time we've had extremely talented & athletic teams & we've had teams with average talent and below average athleticism. We win with defense. And we've done it in about every way possible depending on the talent that particular season. We've had teams that played in your shirt, full court man-man, teams that played a soft 2-3, and basically everything in between.

This season, we're a short (no starter over 5'7), average at best shooting team, and maybe slightly above average athletically. Yet we've beaten the largest school in Indiana 36-34 (Ben Davis, with an enrollment over 4500 kids) and we blew a late lead and ended up losing to the 2nd largest school in Indiana, Warren Central (4000+) 43-50. How has he done this? By adjusting his "system" to his personnel. Not just season to season, but a lot of times game to game.

I don't think it's asking too much for a coach being paid 1M/yr to do the same.

Not trying to get in the middle here, but think it’s a little more complex. He doesn’t have players who can finish a pass, dribble, or shoot at *all*.

I do agree that if our offense is so awful, he should pivot to force our team to focus on defense (which they’re terrible at individually anyways).

He’s not proving himself worth his $$$ to be sure. But he’s also stuck with a challenge that if I’m honest, I’m not sure what coach can actually solve. This would be a rough year even for Marshall (albeit probably not as bad)

[Stickboy46]

Watching that clip again, there are 2 primary problems. 1. Our players either try to make the tough pass (and fail) or can't make the simple passes and 2. Our offensive scheme is non-existent.

There is little to no motion at all times. Take the first two ones with Cortes. We set a screen and immediately all of ECU's defenders collapse because none of the other players (besdies the screener) are moving at all. They can do this because 1. They know if we happen to kick it out, we are unlikely to make a 3 and 2. They know if they step a way for a second it is very likely the man you are guarding is still just standing in the same spot.

On the second play, Cortes is going one on one and all other 4 players are stationary (Ballard at least trying to get position). So we are relying on someone who has not shown he's capable of breaking down a defender to break down a defender to get an advantage. So Cortes gets enough of a step around the defender to make a pass then chooses the hardest but flashiest one. So that one was a failure of both offensive scheme and player choice.

You can go down the list and see those two same things. Players making dumb plays while trying to operate a non-existent offense. If you want other good team, you see the off-ball players moving, screening, doing anything. We normally have at least 3 if not 4 players just standing stationary and barely moving for the possession. Normally if there is some movement, its a light jog to the other side of the court to get out of the way of the ball handler. You rarely see us cut, or even just fully run on offense. Its just a light jog going through the motions.

[pinstripers]

The Summit league may be a better fit for us now

No football, and if we were to finish at the bottom in basketball several years in a row, the AAC might move us there.

[pinstripers]

Yea pretty much. I'm going to give you an example. The town I'm from has less than 6,000 people and our HS is around 350 kids. Public school. Basketball has 4 classes in Indiana, we're a 2A school. Current girls basketball coach took over in 2015 as a first time coach fresh out of college. We were 5-62 in our previous 67 games. 10 seasons later, our girls program is a 2A power. We have the 6th best record in the entire state over the past 7 seasons (143-32) and we won state championships in 2019-20 & 2020-21.

During that time we've had extremely talented & athletic teams & we've had teams with average talent and below average athleticism. We win with defense. And we've done it in about every way possible depending on the talent that particular season. We've had teams that played in your shirt, full court man-man, teams that played a soft 2-3, and basically everything in between.

This season, we're a short (no starter over 5'7), average at best shooting team, and maybe slightly above average athletically. Yet we've beaten the largest school in Indiana 36-34 (Ben Davis, with an enrollment over 4500 kids) and we blew a late lead and ended up losing to the 2nd largest school in Indiana, Warren Central (4000+) 43-50. How has he done this? By adjusting his "system" to his personnel. Not just season to season, but a lot of times game to game.

I don't think it's asking too much for a coach being paid 1M/yr to do the same.

Seems obvious.

[Veritas]

Here is the team coming out of the locker room at halftime. I didn't realize just how bereft of energy they are. Also, not that when Bell was given a ball to begin shooting around, the first thing he did was turn the ball over. At least he's consistent.

My gosh that is pathetic and embarrassing. That alone should warrant a tongue lashing by the coach. It’s as if they couldn’t care less. Has the coach completely lost this team—- already?

[ventichai]

The awful decision making is so ingrained in these guards, which for mills is an important role. Sometimes you just can’t coach it out. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of mills, but I do think we’re seeing his worst. I’m trying to withhold judgment for another year, but it’s not easy.

Same here. I also understand that basketball is a game of many chances, and that during the course of a night mistakes are bound to come. But this many, in one night, at the level of play this conference sets…yeah maybe the Valley or Summit is a better fit. I really hope this turns around this offseason.