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That's more like it !

KnightNight

Commandant
Gold Member
Feb 24, 2008
1,141
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North Carolina
Well,
A little improved shooting from the field and foul line have paid some dividends over the past week as the Black Knight 5 pulled off their 3rd consecutive win in the last seven days, almost matching the 4 "W's" earned up to that Point. Today's win over Bucknell had its moments but a late surge in the closing minutes of the first half that delivered an 8 point halftime lead stood a late second half surge by the Bison. Effective free throw shooting by Army kept Bucknell at bay. This team might now be over the hump and are gaining some much needed confidence. Army is now in the middle of the pack, tied with Navy ( going into this evening's action) at 3-3 in Patriot League play. The measuring stick of where we stand will come on Wednesday night in the nation's capital as we meet defending league champion American Univ. on their home floor. On Wednesday, Navy was edged by one point , at home, by American , who carry a 5-1 record in leagued play at this time. The challenges do not end there as Army plays 6 of their next 8 games on the road where they have earned just 2 wins year to date.
 
I went to the game against AU. The kids played hard. There was a halfway decent Army crowd for a Wednesday night. It was my 7 year old son's first college basketball game, so we had a nice time.

A few observations:
- Once AU started drilling outside shots consistently (a few of their guys can really shoot), I didn't see us make much of an effort to challenge outside shots.

- We were down between 10-20 points for most of the game. We never pressed at all (aside from one guy challenging the in-bounds pass a few times), no half-court press, 3/4 court press or full. I'm not sure I understand the coach's reasoning for this. Is AU a great run and gun team? And even if they are, are we playing the game to win or are we playing the game not to lose by too many points?

- I was NOT inmpressed with AU students booing. How do you boo Army in a time of war? (or "struggle" as our new administration calls it)

- The Army fans were all extremely classy..as expected.

I think we have much much more potential than what we showed against AU.
 
Love the insights BK98 - Again, inability to score te all hurt us again last night. The most telling stat however was the equal inability to rebound the ball. I think Coach Crews plays a little differently against AU than other team. We ten to run even longer offensive sets to keep tempo down. THey also play above average defense. We do not match up well with them if we start running a bit. The crowd last night is pretty normal for AU -
 
Thanks for the update and will try to get over this board more often.

Who are our top players this season?
 
Rifleman - before addressing your question, today's tilt in Hamilton, NY was a good news, bad news sitiuation - Bad news - again scored only 17 points in the first half on DISMAL SHOOTING and fell to 3-5 in league play - Colgate beat us to open the season, in what was, IMO, our worst performance of the year, The good news was the Army team made a furious comback in the second half and had the last possession with a chance to tie or win. Did not quite get it over the line. Though Colgate is not scaring too many teams around the country a comback ending in a 2 point loss on the road is much better than a 22 point home loss.

This year's team is for lack of a better word, interersting. As the season as progressed Cleveland Richmond has emerged as the go to scorer on the team. He has played consistent steady ball . esp. since the start of league play. THe primary guard tamdem of Marcus Nelson and Josh Miller are also key links in the program, Last year, Richmond was clearly behind them in rotation minutes but with his emergence as a scorer, he seems to get the most minutes this season. Another player to keep your eyes on is USMAPS raised plebe Julian Simmons. He is a pure scorer and has shone brightly in several games this year. Still prone, IMO to forcing a few shots, he has equally had some plebe moments during the year.

The good news about the team is tht a VERY High % of minutes go to underclassmen. All the guards named above are Cows. THe only firstie who is a every game contributor in minutes and on the boards is Doug Williams.

I am confident that those inside the Army BB program are a bit disappointed with results YTD. Today's near loss does not help and we face a road matchup against league leader Holy Cross on Wednesday.
 
BGG,
Was hoping somebody else would take the bait on this question but looks like the B-Ball poster will ante up first ( and maybe last). This could have been a thread by itself and maybe should have been.

To answer you question directly - YES - Coach will survive. The "Whys" and "Why Nots" are:

Why Jim Crews survives:

1) As hard as it may be to believe, the program is in the best shape it has been for 30 years. The recruiting process is working - the pipeline seems to be running quite efficiently from USMAPS to USMA and the last 2 years have delivered trips to the simi-final round of the Patriot League Championship. Last year's .500 season was significant and rewarding on multiple levels

2) They have shown the ability to better Navy annually in the Crews era. That ALWAYS matters for obviously reasons.

3) Army is a place where most pundits will quickly point out that it's IMPOSSIBLE TO WIN. Whether true or false , that's the national perception. It all starts with the believe you cannot recruit. Given the reputation, expectations remain low - that lends to an additonal level of protection for Coach Crews.

4) How does a new staff come in and improve the situation. Our track record of coaching hires and fires have automatically led to a 5 year rebuild from sccratch which has been a diaster for the program. Recruiting the right type of kid has been problem one. We are getting to a point where that is not the single biggest issue. Coach Crews has been around the block and shown loyalty to USMA. Bring a a young coach and guaranteed one good year would lead to a move away from USMA.

Reasons why Jim Crews may not survive another year:

1) Basketball is still irrelevent at USMA - no progress in developing a fanbase and not enough wins yet to jump start it. To be honest, even during the Bobby Knight and Coach K days when some pretty good team ran the floor, basketball has never been a hot ticket. We are ultimately a football and lacrosse school with hockey next in line. Baseball should receive more merits and have made nice gains this decade however. B-Ball still lags.

2) Basketball is probably the #1 revenue drain in the sports program 200-400 fans in attendance for home weeknight games is the absolute norm and expectation. Coach Crews , given his years of experience, is certainly earning a solid salary that could be cut in half should $$ become a bigger priority to the athletic department.

3) Should we lose out for the remainder of the Patriot League season, nothing good would come out of that and may force a review of the situation.

From where I stand, the team is playing better and should remain competitive in every remaining game.
 
Crews has no clue! It's easy to see how he was run off at Evansville. One day a guy plays a lot and contributes, the next game he is barely seen. He plays close to 13-14 guys per game, 5 or 6 of whom are not ready for prime time. Half the guys appear to have no role. He refuses to play a Williams, Walker, and/or Brewer together and consequently we are out rebounded game to game. Watch the ladies play, 8 or 9 players max, except in routs, all of whom know why they're out there.
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I'd absolutely agree that the mix and match has no rhyme or reason. Can the team be that completely balanced in talent - even if that was true, confidence - an undeniable component for success in the college game where talent is present in all players has to be challenged with the rotations in play. I do get the sense that the players know if their number is going to be called a bit more from game to game but ultimately chemistry is imporssible to establish. Again, As I have commented on, the Patriot League is down big time this year. We should beat everyone in this league less American this year. Was disappointed , but not surprised we loss another star game to Navy.
 
I watched the game against Navy and I must admit this is he first game I saw all year and I was disappointed. The turnovers and then the lapse in any offense was simply disappointing.
 
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