11WSChamps wrote: ↑07 Nov 2025 21:19 pm
A win is a win and it being the first week of November its easy to overreact.
Having said that perimeter defense, close outs and free throws, turnovers have been problems under Gates.
I'd like to see a better sense of urgency in trying to clean up these matters.
It feels like we say the same thing every season with Gates and nothing ever changes. I don’t know if he doesn’t recruit guys that can play defense or if he just doesn’t care. After a while with the same issues you have to assume defense doesn’t matter to him.
I could be wrong but if I'm not mistaken those Florida State teams he was mentored at played pretty good defense.
Yes the game has changed into a three point shooting contest most nights but the principles of defending should be the same.
11WSChamps wrote: ↑07 Nov 2025 21:19 pm
A win is a win and it being the first week of November its easy to overreact.
Having said that perimeter defense, close outs and free throws, turnovers have been problems under Gates.
I'd like to see a better sense of urgency in trying to clean up these matters.
Was going to say the same thing. A win is a win BUT our defensive effort has to improve. Our turnovers have to improve. FTs have to improve. Our rebounding effort has to improve. This is a talented offensive group but there is lots of room on the defensive end to get better. SEMOs best effort wasn’t good enough but they aren’t the best team we will play.
Definitely not a tournament team, Ant is the only guy on the team that plays a lick of defense, and our offense depends on a player being able to beat his defender one on one, we only get open shots from transition
abnerdoubled wrote: ↑07 Nov 2025 21:35 pm
Definitely not a tournament team, Ant is the only guy on the team that plays a lick of defense, and our offense depends on a player being able to beat his defender one on one, we only get open shots from transition
Out rebounded and had more TO's, should never happen against SEMO type teams.
11WSChamps wrote: ↑07 Nov 2025 21:19 pm
A win is a win and it being the first week of November its easy to overreact.
Having said that perimeter defense, close outs and free throws, turnovers have been problems under Gates.
I'd like to see a better sense of urgency in trying to clean up these matters.
Was going to say the same thing. A win is a win BUT our defensive effort has to improve. Our turnovers have to improve. FTs have to improve. Our rebounding effort has to improve. This is a talented offensive group but there is lots of room on the defensive end to get better. SEMOs best effort wasn’t good enough but they aren’t the best team we will play.
+1
Pierce and Boateng coming back could help a lot, so let’s hope their ailments aren’t serious.
Whatashame wrote: ↑07 Nov 2025 19:47 pm
After scoring the first 10 we have been outscored 42-27. By SEMO!! Absolutely unacceptable. We are going to give up 50 in the half.
Are we that bad or is the team that lost by 25 to SLU that good?
The officials took SEMO out of the SLU game early. Avila is evidently in a witness protection program. He cannot be called for anything.
dhsux wrote: ↑08 Nov 2025 06:04 am
Forgot it was on last night and reading this thread from start was painful,
So bad I had to go get the score after 2 pages!
We’re going to be fine offensively. We acted like we weren’t interested in being there until the panic set in with 10 minutes to go and then the effort came out. We scored 89 without breaking a sweat. I chalk up a lot of the turnovers to our lackadaisical effort more than anything.
It’s the defense that’s very worrisome. Zero effort from half the team to stop penetration. Gates can do his job now and use this as a motivational tool. If he is good, we’ll see a completely different effort on Sunday.
It could make a big difference when Pierce and Boateng come back. Pierce, when he's playing with confidence, is a good defender, and Boateng is definitely a good defender. The problem right now is that two of their best outside shooters, Crews and Stone, are not good defenders. Porter had the reputation of defending well, but so far seems a bit lost. Mack can't shoot from outside, and appears to be mediocre as a defender. Phillips adds nothing on defense so far.
Turnovers is the other big problem. Rebounding has been better before last night, and I don't think it will be a major problem this year. But turnovers, both the ones they commit and the ones they don't get, are killing them. Part of it is Phillips. His athletic ability around the rim is intriguing, but he is a turnover machine when he tries to dribble, and he doesn't see double teams coming and can't find the open man when the double comes.
Most of this is fixable, but the players have to do the work to fix it.
SE Missouri was on fire shooting unbelievable threes. It was just one of those nights for the Red Hawks.
Most nights. not even most SEC teams can hit threes like the Red Hawks did last night.
It is early and Mizzou was missing Pierce and Boateng.
Most of the weaknesses on defense can be corrected especially when Mizzou is at full strength.
Hats off to the Red Hawks but some of those threes were just lucky shots.
One thing I did notice is Porter is so "timid and lost". With that attitude, Porter will get "eaten" alive in SEC play.
straight out of st louis robert ave wrote: ↑08 Nov 2025 10:15 am
SE Missouri was on fire shooting unbelievable threes. It was just one of those nights for the Red Hawks.
Most nights. not even most SEC teams can hit threes like the Red Hawks did last night.
It is early and Mizzou was missing Pierce and Boateng.
Most of the weaknesses on defense can be corrected especially when Mizzou is at full strength.
Hats off to the Red Hawks but some of those threes were just lucky shots.
One thing I did notice is Porter is so "timid and lost". With that attitude, Porter will get "eaten" alive in SEC play.
Hopefully, Porter will not see the floor when we get into conference play.
The defensive effort In recent years sometimes makes me long for the days of old when if you didn't play defense you didn't play. Although with a lot of the recent teams it would be tough to find enough guys that play defense to field a team. This team definitely has some talent but I fear it's going to be wasted because of a severe lack of fundamentals.
