Golden Blame Rollo Award - @ VCU

[rollo]

I have to be honest...I missed most of the game and all of the 2nd half so I have no idea who screwed up, if anyone. Looking at the box score this morning I can't believe we lost. Nobody had a horrible shooting night or 7+ turnovers...so Im including about everyone for today's Award.

So vote...who blew this game...I'm not voting since I didn't see it.

On the bright side, I did meet Pride+ member FairbornFan at the Fairborn game I reffed last night! He's a former official and umpire, just like his King! All hail FairbornFan....a Golden UDPrider (by age, not birthright)!

And, of course, Go Flyers!!

[maddog07]

Crosby, Crosby, Crosby. He took over to protect SS from foul trouble and could barely advance the ball. He completely stalled the offense that was starting to build a real working margin. In just a few minutes of pt he shot us right in the head.

Some of this is on Arch, he put him in despite overwhelming evidence that he's not up to d1 ball, let alone a high stakes game at a critical juncture heading into halftime, against a real team.

Sure we don't have a lot of options but we'd better try something besides the definition of insanity.

[CE80]

Don't blame Crosby. Yes offense stalled but we got killed on the boards. Not beat on the boards - got killed. Especially in the second half. I would expect to get beat on the boards but not killed. Have to quit watching the ball and stick your butt into your man instead. Where is Kurt H when you need him?

[jack72]

We give the positive votes to Mikesell when he surprises us with good game, so he gets my vote. He was eaten alive on the boards, and on defense and gave us nothing on offense.

The blaming of Crosby, and comparing him to maybe the best PG of all time, is getting silly. Some people cannot even get the facts straight. When he came in during the first half the lead was 8, and it went to 2, after Pollard's huge mistake with 2 seconds, and after we gave up three layups. Crosby played 9 minutes with 2 points and one turnover, against a very tough pressure defense. We lost this game on rebounding, and to look elsewhere is just not looking at the obvious.

[rollo]

Originally Posted by jack72 We give the positive votes to Mikesell when he surprises us with good game, so he gets my vote. He was eaten alive on the boards, and on defense and gave us nothing on offense. The blaming of Crosby, and comparing him to maybe the best PG of all time, is getting silly. Some people cannot even get the facts straight. When he came in during the first half the lead was 8, and it went to 2, after Pollard's huge mistake with 2 seconds, and after we gave up three layups. Crosby played 9 minutes with 2 points and one turnover, against a very tough pressure defense. We lost this game on rebounding, and to look elsewhere is just not looking at the obvious.

[VirgM]

Yes rebounding was the key. Put backs were there for vcu all night. I'm very disappointed in Cooke. 1 rebound, 2 TOs and missed foul shots at crunch time. I'd had more Rebs than Cooke. Seems like he's AWOL in the big games. He's talked about as a NBA prospect who can make his own shot. But not last night, except for a couple of times. I keep asking where's Charles?

[T-Bone 84]

Crosby was an easy scapegoat, for reasons mentioned. But Scoochie was the PG when we only had 7 players we could count on, so he should have been able & allowed to play through foul trouble. Rebounding was the real reason for the loss, but since "The Frontcourt" was not an option, I didn't want to single-out any 1 guy (ex. Mikesell). So, I went with Archie, since rebounding can be coached, and it was his decision to not pull the plug on Crosby before 80% of our 10-point lead got frittered-away.
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[Alberto Strasse]

Let's not hang our heads over the VCU loss. They protect their home court and a Flyer win would have been an upset. The guys in Las Vegas had it right at 5 points. Dayton played very well a lot of the time but you cannot have an offensive drought for 10 minutes and expect to win a game against a good team. Credit the VCU "D" and rebounding on their home court. The Flyers remain a good position to hunt an A-10 regular season title. It was a "must win" game
for VCU and for the strength of the A-10 conference. We'll get another chance on March 1st in The Arena!

[m21eagle45]

I picked Archie, for a few reasons. First, I do not think any single player played poor enough or did anything bad enough to be blamed for the loss. This loss was a total team effort. Like others have said, rebounding can be coached, and we did not do enough to adjust to being dominated on the boards. We continued to front the entire game, and when you front, the offensive post player will be in position for the boards on every shot. As far as size goes, we match up with VCU just fine. I did not understand the decision to continue to front the entire game. Moe and Tillman get their points on the boards and put backs, not when their back is to the basket.

Second, This team just plays with a lack of urgency. And at times that is great, a good experienced team doesn't get rattled. But sometimes, this team needs to turn it up a notch, and it doesn't happen. I put this on both Scooch and Archie. Late in games when down by 5 or more (like last night) and Scooch continues to walk the ball down the floor and not try and get as many possessions as possible. When VCU went up, they called off the press that they had run for much of the game. And Scooch never really pushed the tempo. You need to try and push the pace a bit, not force things, but play with more tempo and take the first good shot. We continued to run the offense and go late into the shot clock, which shortened the game.

The same can be said during our 5min plus scoring droughts that we seem to have every game. There is never a sense of urgency. First half Crosby was in and he was overmatched by the press and the defense of VCU. Second half was Scooch. When we go into these scoring droughts, Scoochie really needs to step up and be more assertive.

Finally, and the reason I really blamed Archie for this loss, the lack of adjustments late and then waiting until way too late to foul and try to extend the game. Down 10 with 3 min left and we are still walking the ball down the court, not running any quick hit plays. On defense, we were not pressuring the ball up the court or trapping to speed up the game. He waited until under 2 minutes left to start pressing, and until under a minute left to start fouling. And by then it is way too late to make up 10 points. Had we started a minute or 2 earlier, maybe we have enough time instead of just cutting it to 3 with 10 seconds left.

[CT Flyer]

I'm having trouble voting in this one because I don't see it as a single player cost us the game. It really was a collective effort, including the coach. We still did some very good things last night just not enough to overcome the bad. Hell the guy who was our leading scorer had some of the biggest errors of the game that changed the complexion of it IMHO.

[jumpin' joe]

"You did not select an option to vote for. Please press back to return to the poll and choose an option before voting."

I'm going to abstain this time and just give the VCU Rams the credit for a nice win in a hard fought game.

[BRob2Perryman3]

We were cruising. We should have won by 15. Scooch gets 2 quick fouls Crosby comes in its never the same. Scoochie lost his rhythm and wasn't the same player in the 2nd half.

its a team game, win and lose as a team yada yada yada.

John Crosby's inability to stay under control or get us in a decent offense cost us the game.

Period. I'm not worried about protecting feelings and roses and puppies. This is getting bad with him. I hope he turns it around more then anybody. But right now he is a detriment.

[NovaFlyer]

VCU is to blame, they outplayed us and on that night deserved to win.

[TXFlyerFan]

I can't vote for any one player, this was a team loss. Poor rebounding and poor PG play from Crosby, so I'm not voting for anyone.

[Smitty10]

Tough decision but when having to chose between two players and one is a sophomore who did what we've come to expect out him(Crosby) and the other is a Senior leader (Pollard) I go with the senior every time.

from the last 2 seconds of the 1st half through the first 3 minutes or so of the 2nd half, Pollard created a 10 point swing that favored VCU. Fouling with 2 seconds on the clock, missing a dunk resulting in 2 point transition and missing a bunny that resulted in 2 points the other way turned out to be more than the final deficit.

And kind of coincidental that one of the only games that KP can be considered the one who cost us, his biggest fan, the royal one, didn't see the game so can't vote.

[Beatty Town Coach]

I only saw one player player, the million dollar one, so I voted for him...Ryan "Archie" Miller.

Season is on the brink.