Thoughts a day later

I'm still trying to figure out what exactly went down at the Knott Arena last night. Robert Morris won the game 77-70 and the Mount fell to 0-3 in the Northeast Conference that much I know for sure.

Reading some of the comments in the papers this morning it doesn't seem like the team has lost confidence.

I really thought the offense was pretty stale in the middle part of the game. And Cooker's article in the Times this morning had some sort of ugly run spanning the two halves that was like 35-10 or some sort of ugliness. But the total numbers show nearly a point a possession. In fact the offensive numbers by that standard, were the best they have been in any loss this year. They (the numbers) were definitely hindered by that stretch in the middle of the game, and helped by the efficient nature of the game early on and the clock stoppages late.

Ultimately, I think it was Robert Morris' ability to get the ball in the paint to its interior players and rebound their misses that made the difference in the game. Those problems for the Mount allowed the Colonials to pull out the win.

According to Ken Pomeroy's rankings, the Mount is still clearly the best team in the Northeast Conference. So with less than 20% of the conference season complete there is still the opportunity for the Mount to get hot and get on a roll in the conference. It wouldn't be impossible for them to win enough to get at least one home game in the conference tournament, and maybe even more if all goes right. Pomeroy says they'll be favored in all but one of those games, and will finish with six conference losses. We'll see.

So I'm not sure I'm ready for wholesale changes. And I'm not sure where they could come from anyhow. With that said, I have liked the efficiency that Pierre Brown provides. He might not be the best fundamental basketball player of the bunch, but his athleticism allows him to make an impact. He played 15 minutes last night and he deserves those minutes. But they can't come from taking Kelly Beidler off the floor.

So that means that the Mount needs to find a way to get some time with just one of its traditional post players on the floor. Find a way to get four of the five perimiter players on the floor at the same time. Play Beidler at the four, or Will Holland down low a little bit. Maybe Brown can even rotate in a little bit down there.

I'm a little more reserved today. Last night was a difficult night to take. A tough loss to swallow. Things were very good for the first ten minutes of the game, but so bad for that middle section.

Time to put this behind us. The Fairleigh Dickinson Knights are coming town. And the Mount needs a win.