Synopsis of the Ball State Game
 

I am posting this because the in-game comments might not do justice to everything that went on this evening. Here is my synopsis of the game and players:

1. John Crosby played a very good game - 13 points and a 2:1 turnover ration. Any point guard would like those statistics. Now, John did struggle handling Tayler Persons, number 2 on Ball State. Personnally, I would have had Crutcher guarding him. Persons is not all that quick, but he is just one of those typical Indiana basketball gym rats - tough, smart, and crafty with the ball. He had the lane at his will. One other thing about Persons, he demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship during and after the game. Going back to John, no doubt his best game as a Flyer. Finally, this coaching staff has him playing within himself.

2. Crutcher had a nice game; I only remember one turnover and he had a few nice drives to the bucket. This kid is going to be really good by next year.

3. Kostas had a big 3-point shot that nearly brought the roof down. This kid is raw, but he has a shooting forward's mentality in a 6'11" body with a huge wingspan. Give him time and some confidence and he is going to be a very good player...very good!

4. Darryl Davis may have had his best game as a Flyer. He was taking it into the lane virtually every time he got the ball. He hit a huge three to give the Flyers the lead back; it was reminiscent of his freshman year when he hit a big 3 from the same spot against Oklahoma. Darryl did force some shots, but in general this was by far his best game as a Flyer.

5. X-Man was very good tonight, especially defensively and on the boards. I think he finished with only eight points, but his game was very good tonight. And his in-bounds pass to Cunningham was placed where only Josh had a chance to get the ball.

6. Trey Landers looked good. The only thing that I see with Trey is he really doesn't shoot the 3-ball well enough to present a threat outside. But he finishes very well around the hoop. He had a tremendous crossover dribble and finish in the early stages of the game. Keep in mind, he had very little playing time last year, but has certainly earned a starting role this year.

7. Jordan Davis looked pretty good out on the court. He is a confident kid; handles the ball well; and is certainly not afraid to shoot the ball.

8. Josh Cunningham had an epic game, really. And it all culminated with one of the most memorable endings in recent years. His catch and shot at the end were just done so magnificently. He is just so much more mobile and active this year, not to mention he is putting the ball on the floor, and he is finishing well.

Now for some general comments on the team:

1. The Flyers better learn how to defend dribble penetration, or those quick point guards in the A10 will be feasting on their defense.

2. The Flyers are not creating fast-breaks. There was only one fast-break tonight. They don't have those quick hands from a Kyle Davis. Additionally, they don't seem to be doing any trapping or double-teaming as in the past. Even the passing lanes were not being defended well.

3. There was no help-side after initial penetration is made. We need to have our bigs slide over and defend the penetrating guard. Trey Landers did have one of those tonight - a huge swat that brought the crowd to their feet.

Thanks for these write ups. Awesome.

My additional observations.
The upperclassmen of Cunningham, Williams, Davis and Crosby won the game. DD had a stretch when UD was down in the second half that was awesome. DD finishes so much better this year. Might have been one of Crosby's best games. Almost felt like the shadow of Scoochie is gone for him. Williams hit two 3s in a row, the was quiet. He played a good floor game. I hope his offense kicks in. He can be really good.

Excellent game for Cunningham including the game winner.

Kostas did not match up well and made a couple of mistakes. His minutes were limited. The freshman will be like that all year.

Ball State is good. They are a tough match up. They are not tall and their bigs play away for the basket while shooting the 3. They can really shoot the 3 ball. Brutal matchup for your first game with a lot of young players and new system.

The defense needs to improve. It looked incredible during the 14-0 star then looked awful most of the rest of the game. You can tell the team is learning Grant's philosophies. Switches were really bad. Ball State attacked Crutcher and Crosby on D. Person had zero points at half time and 14 in the second half. He scored at will. He probably thought he had the game winner with 3.9 seconds left. I believe the defense will improve.
Guards, except for DD might be our weak link on D this year.

I wish we rebounded better. We let some get away.

Crutcher was fun to watch on offense. I hope his D improves. Davis has a weird shot. He shoots from the side.

Still not sure what to make of Landers.

The team moved the ball well on offense and attacked the rim. Their 3 point shooting was not good and they did not kick out when they penetrated. I am sure that will improve.

Anthony does not scowl on the sidelines.

The arena was rocking, especially after the game winner. Refs gave us a scare when they reviewed the play. I was baffled at Ball State was out of time outs.

Lots of room for improvement. Dodged a big bullet. Not sure how good this team will be but upperclassmen gave me optimism. Freshmen will develop.

Offensively I see a lot of options and like what I saw.

Defensively we were a train wreck. Grant teaches defending the ball screen much differently than Miller did. Much work to do in this area.

Crutcher - zero turnovers, 2 assists, 5 boards, and 6 points in 26 minutes. That is a pretty good stat line for a frosh point guard in his first game. As a comparison - Scoochie Smith first game (IPFW) - 2 points, 1 board, 1 assist, no turnovers in 6 minutes.

Watch Cunningham's winning shot. Great footwork. Had to turn himself around while the ball was in the air. He just wanted it more than the other 2 BSU guys.

Baby "D" showing a lot of confidence.

Crosby was the inbounder at 2.6 seconds. Grant switched to Williams at 1.9. Good move. Needed X's height to make the pass - a very good pass indeed.

One thing that stood out to me in the stat line is the fact that Crosby took zero shots from behind the line. I think this might be a sign of why he looked so much more polished as a PG. When he got in games as a backup, he forced the issue to try and accomplish something. Now that he owns the position more, it's easier for him to relax and just play the game unselfishly like a PG is supposed to.

Even though my brother and I were watching the game on TV from a different house, we were texting back and forth and we both thought Josh was fouled while making the winning shot...not that it mattered. Ball St. had no answer for him. I think Josh could have had 30+ easily...

From the Ball State Daily...

Last second shot gives Dayton win over Ball State in season opener

Another one from the BSU website:

Dayton Beats Buzzer to Defeat Cardinals in Opener

Not having seen the game, my question is, "how was Grant's coaching debut at UD? I know he had coaching experience elsewhere. Did he move players in and out and find right combinations? How was his floor and in game coaching say when BSU came from 14 and 7 points down?

BSU was a tough first game opponent and glad to see we pulled it out. Should be a good confidence builder for our young Flyers. Practice games are nice but not the same as the pressures of the games that count.

Ball State's hands were nonexistent the first 10 minutes. They fumbled, bumbled and stumbled passes, rebounds and everything around the basket like 3rd grade girls. Once they found their hands, they dominated us. It was both an exciting and - dare I say - unearned win. But I'll take it.

I was expecting a much more in your face defense with the look to break out in transition as much as possible....that wasn’t the case at all. Hoping that will come because I don’t think we’re cut out to operate in the half court all game long. Live ball turnovers will be an important stat for us this year both offensively and defensively in determining the outcome.
Posted via Mobile Device

Lots of youth and a new system. I’m confident the defense will come together. I for one will be ecstatic if this team plays postseason basketball this year but I’m not expecting it. This year is the definition of a rebuild.

On another note I’m a little puzzled by Kostas. I know he is 19 and still very slight for his frame but given his international experience and the fact that he has one of the best five players in the world as a workout partner, I just expected a bit more polish. You can clearly see that the talent is there maybe I’m just a little unrealistic.

Outstanding observation...as I indicated in my synopsis, we only had one fast break bucket. I agree, this team, just like last year, will not be able to win consistently with a half-court offense. I keep going back to Anthony's VCU days when he employed a pressing and trapping defense. Quite frankly, he may feel like he doesn't have enough horses to do that, especially with Matej out for the game with a migraine.

If Kostas has worked as hard in the weight room as I assume has been asked of him, I would hate to see how weak he was when he first arrived on campus.

Anthony Grant has a different style than Archie. Although he may be twisted in knots "on the inside," on the outside he has a much calmer demeanor. He is not quick to yank a player for a bad shot or poor defense. I think he realizes he has a bit of a rebuild this year. And keep in mind, even his starters do not have the kind of experience that we saw last year in the four seniors. I just think that we are going to have to be patient with this team. Next year he will have some senior experience and leadership to carry them further. I think Anthony will take one game at a time and hope to see improvement in all phases of the game as the season progresses.

The high energy defense will come. We need Matej back and the young guys need some experience.

I was impressed with our returning players and their ability to carry the team across the finish line.

I was impressed with the young guys - they and their ups and downs, but the moment didn't seem too big for any of them. That's really all I ask for in the first game.

Last thought - I have a ton of respect for Ball State. I like the way they play. They hung in there after going down 14-0 and really controlled the game from there. I think they are going to have great season and they are my pick to make the tourney out of the MAC.

Svoboda's absence cannot be understated. He's our deep threat. Teams will sacrifice the paint with a big moving out on Matej. I figure he's good for a couple of 3's per game. That doesn't sound like much, but they would have had a huge impact last night. The boys have potential and will have some great nights. It's going to be a fun ride.

We won. Im happy! However few things to note:

Our perimeter defense is terrible. Ball state beating us off the dribble consistently is scary. I could see that happening if it was a super athletic team with really quick guards but that's not Ball state. This is my number one concern right now

Why weren't the fans up in arms over those last free throws by Ball State???? The ref blew the whistle to stop the shooter mid shot. The ball state player kept shooting and made the basket. That basket should not have counted. If he missed that basket they probably would have made him re-shoot because the ref blew the whistle and interrupted his shot.

That Crosby turnover was terrible. If we lose the game I would have pointed to that turnover as the turning point. We were up 7 with the ball and he turns it over for a wide open layup.

A lot of negatives there but I was actually encouraged by what I saw. I like what I saw from Crutcher and the freshman.

These guys will be the proverbial Freshman are now Sophomores up and down the roster when the calendar hits late Feb.-early March. Crosby will only get better and Crutcher is way more then a warm body. Point Guard was my concern. This Ball State ending can do wonders. I think i can say without hesitation that Josh,X,Darrell and Crosby will lead us and i hope the roster behind them can fill the holes. Big confidence booster.

I posted this in another thread too but he had a knee brace on that he wasn't wearing in the exhibition game. I think he may have reaggravated his knee injury. He also went immediately to the trainer as soon as he came out of the game in the 2nd half.

An interesting quote from Coach Whitford..."One of the places Whitford said could be improved was dribble penetration, as Dayton shot 23 free throws compared to Ball State's eight on the night."

My sense is they only shot 8 free throws because their penetrating guards had a free pass to the bucket! There were few contended buckets in the paint, and consequently, few Dayton fouls! You cannot foul if you are not contending!

I don't think you'll ever see that again. AM's teams absolutely depended on breakout transition basketball to score more than the opponent. We lost Kyle Davis, Scoochie, Cooke and Pollard, all that could play suffocating defense and move down the court in hurry. I see a more conventional team in our future and a slower one this year. The 4 replacements for the 4 mentioned, Landers, Crosby, Baby D and Cunningham do not bring the same kind of speed. But they do bring more athleticism on offense. And I believe you'll see a more consistent offense throughout the game. What I mean by that is it seemed like our whole starting 5 the past couple seasons would individually and collectively disappear on the offensive side of the ball. I don't think you'll see that with this group and you'll see better offense from the backups also. I think you'll see a lot less offensive turnovers from this group also(as long as Crosby continues to handle the ball like he did last night).

I don't know if anyone else notice this last night but it seemed to me that when XW passed the ball off at the top of the key and started heading inside on the left, he was wide open for a return pass and driving shot. They never seemed to get him the ball back except maybe once where he missed the shot. I don't think he'll miss many of those if they start exploiting that more.

From my vantage point and amateur medical opinion, it looked more like a cramping issue the trainer was working on. Hoping my hunch is right

All excellent observations. My $0.02 worth, which mostly are excerpts from posts above:
-The upperclassmen carried us last night, as they'll have to do through at least the non-con portion of the schedule, with half the roster being new. And other than Crutcher, the newbies didn't contribute much last night. Svoboda was out sick, Pierce didn't play (bad matchups against mobile bigs), Davis has a good body but needs experience, and Kostas will have flashes of the future interspersed with reminders that he's still a college freshman.
-The D is definitely a work in progress, but given Coach's track record, I believe it'll come. Upperclassmen may have had tired legs at the end of the game, given the number of minutes they all played, and with it being Game 1. Remember, it took Archie's teams 3 years to become good (in his system) defensively. I think we'll see measurable improvement by February.
-Coach has a different presence on the sideline. Calm and controlled, yet still intense and passionate. I like that about him.

Oh, well, on to Charleston!
Posted via Mobile Device

I agree. It always seemed to me that both BG and AM were constantly coaching from the sidelines all game long. I'd want my players to focus on the game and not constantly looking to the sideline for direction. That said, this team may need a bit more in game prompting during the first part of the season.

So you're saying you prefer John Woodens over Bobby Knights?

Someone mentioned it in another thread but its absolutely on point, a win is a win is a win. Thats never been as true as it is this year.

Charleston is winnable. If CAG can keep'em grounded would be a helluva spark

Coach Grant won that game with an awesome coaching move to have Williams throw the ball in, and to call that last play. Also to only have eight guys to work with, and to rotate them to keep them fresh and out of foul trouble was a large kudos.

As for fast breaks, they happen when you have fast players able to release down the court. Our two fast guys are Crosby and Crutcher, who get the outlet pass. Sometimes playing within yourself, and only having 11 team turnovers, increases your chances to win over fast breaks.

"Spot-on" Jack27!!! That move at the end gave the Flyers an opportunity to have two options for the inbound pass - one to Josh and one to Darryl. Obviously, the pass to Josh was higher risk, as it involved making a nearly perfect pass, catch, pivot, and shot. X made the right decision and Coach Grant set it up for success. On the 8-man rotation, that is likely the reason the guys gave up so much dribble penetration. They were gassed at the end. Getting Matej back for Hofstra will enable a 9-man rotation. There were times last night in which they had some odd combinations out there. But Anthony had to do that given his lack of numbers.

Thank you fellow flyer fans ... great night at the Arena to beat a solid team ... the margin of error for a loss was tiny ... we all helped with the 14-0 Ball St start / failure to click into gear ... lets keep the Arena magical for visitors and recruits!

I believe he was off balance and was afraid of walking. I thought that would've been a great time for a TO - we had 3 left with about 3 minutes left in the game. Luckily, he was bailed out with 0.1 seconds left in the game.

Yeah, should've called TO but in all fairness, I thought Cunningham could've done a better job on the receiving end of that play. I don't remember all the circumstances of that play, but didn't another Flyer cause it to be mess in the first place?

Persons for Ball State abused us like a corpse in the last 3-4 minutes. BSU basically said 'we're gonna run the same play every time down the court until you prove you can stop it.'

We couldn't stop it, nor did we attempt to defend it differently. Persons just drove on us for layup after layup -- layups so open it was like Moses parting the sea. He's a good player -- ASun Frosh of Year, MAC 2nd Teamer last year averaging 15ppg 4apg -- but he took advantage of us in a big way and the Flyers didn't make him work nearly hard enough.

Part of the problem is there is no Charles Cooke on the court to throw on a guy like Persons and negate him with bigger size, better athleticism, and more strength. Archie had that luxury of moving Cooke around to cause a mismatch and bottle a hot guy up.

Grant doesnt have that this year. With Crosby, Crutcher, Davis, Davis, etc, they are all a bit undersized against beefy guards. Persons was like a poor man's Jack Gibbs. We will struggle defensively at times just because of a lack of size, experience, strength, and numbers.

Crutcher, Svoboda, Davis, Kostas have never played college ball. Crosby had never started(?) before last night. Half the team is being asked to do something they've never been asked before.

I suspect we will see some ups and downs. Highs and lows. Not a ton of consistency. We are not last year's team. Team and coaching staff needs time. Some nights are gonna be hair-pulling. Self-inflicted damage is gonna pop up more than we've been used to in the last 3-4 seasons. Other nights we might look pretty polished.

For me the bullet points are seeing the young guys getting better and us becoming a better defensive team and learning from our mistakes.

Case in point -- do we learn how to defend dribble penetration better for Charleston? We have 3-4 days to work on it. If we see the exact same mistakes, or the same number, that's not great. If we at least see some positive progress -- win or lose -- probably good news long-term. We know Hofstra and everyone else in Charleston is watching the BSU tape and instructing their guys to dribble-drive us big time. Are we ready for that?

Looking for a stopper on defense, could DD eventually be that guy with his quickness, or could Landers be that guy with his size and strength?

Never thought I would hear someone say we miss Cooke more for his defense than his offense, but it is true, at least in a sample of one.

Zone? Just to make things different for a few possessions at a time.

They tried what appeared to be a 1-3-1 for a few possessions and it was a complete disaster. I like mixing defenses but if you're going to play a zone it's got to be better than a middle school girls team would play.

The synopsis of the Ball St game:

We scored the first 14 points.
A bunch of stuff happened.
With 2s to go X throw an inbounds pass to Josh under the hoop and Josh puts it in.
We win by 1.
Go Flyers.
Posted via Mobile Device

One thing I don't recall if anyone posted was that Jordan Pierce also did not play. No injury, coaches decision. It makes me wonder if UD is considering a red-shirt for him because I would assume at some point, fouls are going to be a problem and a body may be necessary.

Nah... that team was a terrible matchup for the big man. They ran a lot of motion stuff and had their big guys handling the ball outside the 3-pt arc, and had them shooting threes, several from very deep. I don't think Pierce will play a lot this year, but we will play a few teams with legit big men, and he'll help there - Rashaan Holloway from UMass for example. Pierce took his warmup shirt off at some point in the second half, although of course he never made it on the court for any game action.

I'll wager we see him on the court Thursday and/or Friday for our back-to-back games. Since we only go 10 deep when everyone is available, we will surely need the bodies for two games in two days.

The first two teams were bad matchups; he got switched against Ohio Dominican's 5'9" PG for example and that just isn't a good opportunity to show what he can do.

There's just no way we could afford to have him redshirt this year... he's got some potential, but has a long way to go. Could say that about any freshman big man on any team in the country.

Grant Was Grand
 

in his opening game. The Donoher influence was evident at times. His first substitutions came after 5-6 minutes. Also he played offense/defense after Cunningham picked up his second foul in the first half. His final play with X's lob to Cunningham was pure Donoher in terms of working in practice in advance of the game to enhance game time execution. His sideline demeanor was like DD as well. I'm sure he has many Billy Donovan influences as well but I'm not that familiar with Billy D's style.

If this has been posted I missed it, but we shot 78% (18/23) from the free throw line, a huge improvement over the exhibition game (50%). We obviously needed every one of them! Crosby was 5/6, D. Davis 5/6, and Cunningham 6/8. We need that to continue.

That was lost on me, good info. Thats certainly encouraging

Oh, I absolutely expected better FT shooting this season, though I didn't from Crosby. This might actually be where AG's team resembles Donoher's more than any other. I remember DD's teams as being very consistent from the FT line, much more consistent than we've seen since he left.

But Baby D should be much better being out their full time, XW was great last year from FT line, Cunningham was good last season also. I'm going to guess when all is said and done Baby D has 80 percent at least because he's got the softest touch and he will be warmed up and in flow of game more.

Encouraging and needs to continue but some missed front ends of one and ones almost killed us. To me, missing the front end of a one and one is like missing two.

Every year starts with "we need to play better defense". Part is playing against someone other than you own teammates, part (this year) was a short bench with not much experience.

They'll get better.

I think FT% is a generational thing. FT%'s in the 60's, 70's and 80's were higher than today. Kids don't practice that as much as they used to and don't have the same fundamental shooting principles they did back then..

And yet some of the same kids can hit the three all day long, but can't make FT more than 65-70%. Yeah, the three has the wow factor but FTs should be gimme points.

As Priders recall, Archie never seemed upset at sub-par free-throw shooting. I think Anthony will place more emphasis on it. One other thing to remember...our most prolific free-throw shooter was Kendall Pollard, and he obviously struggled at the line. This pulled down the overall average.

NCAA free throw percentage has basically been constant for 50 years ... at 69%

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/sp...freethrow.html

Dayton has been between 64% and 77% for the last 15 years.

2002 68.1%
2003 71.4%
2004 66.5%
2005 72.3%
2006 66.3%
2007 69.5%
2008 64.1% (worst year BG)
2009 64.8%
2010 66.5%
2011 67.7%
2012 77.2% (best year Archie)
2013 71.7%
2014 68.1%
2015 68.6%
2016 66.8%
2017 69.3%
2018* 78.3% *1 game