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Post by Bornthrilla on Dec 9, 2009 9:42:09 GMT -5
After watching them play Minnesota last night, I think we can beat them if we have the same performance we had against MTSU.
They just looked very average at every position.
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Aggie E
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Post by Aggie E on Dec 9, 2009 10:01:29 GMT -5
After watching them play Minnesota last night, I think we can beat them if we have the same performance we had against MTSU.
They just looked very average at every position. I agree Thrilla. I watched some of the first half of that game. Their point guard play is probably less than average. I can see us turning them over a lot when we play them.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Dec 9, 2009 10:17:06 GMT -5
i've got to honest with you guys. in my opinion, the reason morgan looked very average is because minnesota brought their "a" game against morgan last night. normally, major d1's don't bring their "a" game against hbcu's because history shows that they usually don't need to. but tubby smith ain't no fool. he warned his team that morgan literally went toe to toe with #22 ranked louisville, beat arkansas, and last year beat maryland and depaul. that was more than enough to get minnesota's attention.
so i actually thought it showed a significant measure of respect for morgan last night that minnesota truly exerted themselves as if morgan was a real threat to beat them. i could tell that minnesota wasn't taking morgan lightly at all and played against them as aggressively as they would against any other major d1 team.
when they had morgan down 18 to 2 (or something like that), morgan didn't make any shots because of the defensive pressure that minnesota applied to them. when you think about it, morgan didn't get "any" clean looks at the basket during that stretch, not even from 3 point land. that, to me, shows how much minnesota respected morgan's players.
i think you will see that morgan is a lot better than they looked last night. i just think minnesota played against them with the right attitude. when morgan played louisville, louisville's body language told me that they didn't believe morgan had any chance of beating them until late in the 2nd half when morgan was still within 5 points of the lead. then louisville started playing hard when they saw an upset was in the making. minnesota didn't do that. minnesota jumped on morgan from the get go! and didn't let up until the game was over...
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Post by aahhbigboy on Dec 9, 2009 11:30:28 GMT -5
Here's a super rare moment. I agree with everything in oldeschool's post.
Tubby aint stupid. All he had to do was post Morgan's accomplishments over the last 2 years on the chalkboard to get everybody's attention. Plus, I'm sure Tubby knows Bozeman personally and knows he's the real deal. I take nothing away from that game other than knowing that Bozeman has been and still will be whippin @ss over the next 2 months up and down the eastern seaboard.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Dec 9, 2009 12:32:28 GMT -5
Signs of the apocalypse ...
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Post by pj on Dec 9, 2009 12:53:32 GMT -5
I'm split on this. Morgan does look beatable to me. And Minn. did play hard.
But > We will also know to bring our A game against them.
I'm concerned with that big man that they have, & I think that we will match up against him, if Porter keeps improving. Another thing about them, they did get the ball up-court very fast. I cant wait to see this game.
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aggie62
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Post by aggie62 on Dec 9, 2009 12:58:07 GMT -5
i only saw the last 7 minutes of the game and there seemed to be a lot of fouls called. Even the announcer commented on the number of fouls called. Did the game become ugly early or were the ref's trying to prevent a repeat of what a Morgan St player did to Blake Griffin in last year's playoffs?
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Post by Aggie One on Dec 9, 2009 13:00:07 GMT -5
This conference is wide open. No one is a lock but four teams stick out to me. Morgan, A&T, Norfolk, and Coppin. Pick any one of them on a given night.
Like I said before it's a long long way until March.
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Post by pj on Dec 9, 2009 13:04:29 GMT -5
I think that they will have match up problems with us. I really need to see them again, but it seems that Holmes & the Big guy Thompson is all that they have. Maybe Minn. made it seem that way.
When I think of Rob, Tav, Nic, Duane on the outside & one of the bigs inside, we are tough on a 'given' night...an 'on' night.
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Post by aahhbigboy on Dec 9, 2009 14:49:21 GMT -5
Until I see something different and everyone comes up here and tells me what an idiot I am, lol,
I'm not trying to hear anything.
Look at the standings the last 2 years and then look at they way they started this year. It's Morgan and then everybody else. This is Eaves' and company's chance to make noise and I honestly think they might. They could finish as high as 2nd and as low as 5th. They just can't depend on an undefeated February to do it.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Dec 9, 2009 15:00:06 GMT -5
I don't know if Morgan's early start may have been a little misleading.
They beat Arkansas ... but Arkansas also lost to App State in overtime, East Tennessee State and South Alabama.
They played Louisville tough, but Louisville just got beat at home by UNC-Charlotte by about 25.
More surprisingly, Morgan has lost games to App State and Loyola.
They are still the defending conference champs but I don't think they are world-beaters.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Dec 10, 2009 11:35:17 GMT -5
I don't know if Morgan's early start may have been a little misleading. They beat Arkansas ... but Arkansas also lost to App State in overtime, East Tennessee State and South Alabama. They played Louisville tough, but Louisville just got beat at home by UNC-Charlotte by about 25. More surprisingly, Morgan has lost games to App State and Loyola. They are still the defending conference champs but I don't think they are world-beaters. you make very valid points, thrilla. and i can't disagree. but given the same circumstances, how many other meac teams would've beaten arkansas or loss to louisville by only 8 points? i mean, we loss to teams that are arguably a lot less talented than arkansas like lamar and ohio university. and no one else in the meac has defeated "any" major d1's within the last 2 years except morgan. i think morgan's only weakness is at the point guard position. but without question, they have the best meac inside threat (thompson) and the best meac outside threat (holmes). they have more size than anyone else in the meac. i don't see them running the tables in the meac but i don't think they'll lose more than 1 or 2 games. i really think its hard to gauge how good an hbcu is based on how they play against a major d1. i've seen morgan play louisville and minnesota and i've got the morgan vs. loyola game stored on my tivo, but i haven't watched it yet. i suspect without looking that morgan played down against loyola but i'll find out for sure when i watch it. but they looked extremely good against louisville, and not just thompson and holmes. as i've stated before in the past, sometimes it can be detrimental for an hbcu to beat a major d1 early in the season because it gives your players a "false" sense of how good they are and it puts a bull's eye on your back when playing lower tier/meac teams. beating a major d1 can cause your players to forget that they had to play their absolute best to beat that major d1 and begin to think they're as good as the major d1's they beat. and to make matters worse, the lower tier teams like loyola (or any other meac team) raise their game against teams like morgan who beat a major d1. so you have a morgan team who thinks they're as good as arkansas or louisville (but they're not) playing down against a team like loyola who raises their game because of morgan's recent history of beating major d1 teams. a lot of folks don't realize it, but "psychology" plays a major, major, role in the performance level of athletes. a good coach recognizes that and won't allow his/her team to fall prey to it. tubby smith did just that when minnesota played morgan. had he not prepared his team psychologically for morgan, they could have been subject to another morgan upset...
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Post by numberonebrave on Dec 10, 2009 13:22:58 GMT -5
[very average is because minnesota brought their "a" game against morgan last night. normally, major d1's don't bring their "a" game against hbcu's because history shows that they usually don't need to. but tubby smith ain't].....so whenever a Major D-1 GETS BEAT BY A BK school , they did not bring their A game...if they win they did play their A game? Against Morgan , Louisville shot 33-41 fts in their win over E.TN they shot 15-22, against Charlotte they shot 12-17 and in the win over App St they shot 11-17 Technical fouls: APPALACHIAN ST.-None. LOUISVILLE-None. Attendance: 19027 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total APPALACHIAN ST................ 30 23 - 53 LOUISVILLE.................... 39 41 - 80 WHERE DID THAT OT COME FROM?
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Post by Bornthrilla on Dec 10, 2009 13:53:52 GMT -5
I said Arkansas lost to App State, not Louisville lost to App State.
You're trying too hard.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Dec 14, 2009 12:01:10 GMT -5
I don't know if Morgan's early start may have been a little misleading. They beat Arkansas ... but Arkansas also lost to App State in overtime, East Tennessee State and South Alabama. They played Louisville tough, but Louisville just got beat at home by UNC-Charlotte by about 25. More surprisingly, Morgan has lost games to App State and Loyola. They are still the defending conference champs but I don't think they are world-beaters. you make very valid points, thrilla. and i can't disagree. but given the same circumstances, how many other meac teams would've beaten arkansas or loss to louisville by only 8 points? i mean, we loss to teams that are arguably a lot less talented than arkansas like lamar and ohio university. and no one else in the meac has defeated "any" major d1's within the last 2 years except morgan. i think morgan's only weakness is at the point guard position. but without question, they have the best meac inside threat (thompson) and the best meac outside threat (holmes). they have more size than anyone else in the meac. i don't see them running the tables in the meac but i don't think they'll lose more than 1 or 2 games. i really think its hard to gauge how good an hbcu is based on how they play against a major d1. i've seen morgan play louisville and minnesota and i've got the morgan vs. loyola game stored on my tivo, but i haven't watched it yet. i suspect without looking that morgan played down against loyola but i'll find out for sure when i watch it. but they looked extremely good against louisville, and not just thompson and holmes. as i've stated before in the past, sometimes it can be detrimental for an hbcu to beat a major d1 early in the season because it gives your players a "false" sense of how good they are and it puts a bull's eye on your back when playing lower tier/meac teams. beating a major d1 can cause your players to forget that they had to play their absolute best to beat that major d1 and begin to think they're as good as the major d1's they beat. and to make matters worse, the lower tier teams like loyola (or any other meac team) raise their game against teams like morgan who beat a major d1. so you have a morgan team who thinks they're as good as arkansas or louisville (but they're not) playing down against a team like loyola who raises their game because of morgan's recent history of beating major d1 teams. a lot of folks don't realize it, but "psychology" plays a major, major, role in the performance level of athletes. a good coach recognizes that and won't allow his/her team to fall prey to it. tubby smith did just that when minnesota played morgan. had he not prepared his team psychologically for morgan, they could have been subject to another morgan upset... got a chance to watch the morgan vs. loyola game this weekend and just as i suspected, morgan played down. loyola was way more energetic than morgan. and i've got to blame bozeman for that because his body language was very "lax" and the team usually feeds off of the coach. he sat in his seat in a relaxed position for 3 quarters of the game showing zero emotions. meanwhile, his counterpart (loyola's coach) was on his feet coaching "the entire game" showing a lot of intensity and gettin' his players fired up! at halftime on the way to the locker room when they interviewed loyola's coach, dude was dripping sweat because he was so active on the sideline. i don't think bozeman got out of his seat one single time until very late in the game when he realized his team was on the verge of losing the game. by that time, loyola had all the momentum and there was nothing morgan could do about it. and not only did bozeman's "laxness" rub off on his players, it also rubbed off on morgan's fans! the game was played at loyola but since loyola is located in baltimore, morgan had a good number of fans there sitting behind the team's bench. but they sat on their hands almost the entire game! nothing like what the aggie faithful did at the nsu game! i knew before i even looked at the game that morgan probably played down. and something else i noticed, morgan had an awful lot of trouble with loyola's full court press. it looked to me that morgan had enough ball handlers to break the press, but because they were so laxed, they threw a bunch of lazy passes and loyola picked them off left and right! again, loyola was intense, morgan was flat. morgan looked like they weren't interested in playing that game! that's all on bozeman's shoulders! its his job to ensure that his team doesn't fall prey to a trap game, but that's exactly what happened. now, i'm not shocked that morgan's players were flat for that game because like i've said previously, when an hbcu beats a major d1 and plays #22 louisville close, they tend to think they're better than they actually are. so morgan's players probably thought they could beat loyola without playing hard. but i am shocked that bozeman did a poor job of preparing his team "psychologically" to play. meanwhile, loyola's players' mindset was the exact opposite of morgan's. they figured they'd have to play their best to beat morgan because morgan beat a major d1 and played #22 louisville close. on a side note, it appears that morgan has 3 primary scorers. of course holmes and thompson are the leaders, but i think their #3 scorer is the freshman, dwayne jackson. dude is 6'8" playing the wing and can nail 3's like crazy. thompson has the post moves that i wish coleman had. he actually reminds me of coleman because they both have the same demeanor. i don't think thompson blocks as many shots as coleman, but overall he's more productive. if we're gonna beat morgan at corbett this season, we must contain those 3 players...
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