The team I saw on the floor last night

was done. Stick a fork in 'em. Season over.



The senior "leaders" were anything but that. It was disheartening as a fan to see Jimmer sitting crying at the end of the bench, and Jackson kicked back like he's at a family BBQ in the last 4 or 5 minutes of the game. You guys are supposed to be the senior leaders on the team. So get off of your asses and LEAD! Cheer on your teammates who are still out there fighting! Show the rest of the team (and the fans) that you DO care, that you're NOT going to give up, that the season is NOT over!



That's what we needed to see last night, win or lose, and that's NOT what we saw. What we saw was a team that was shellshocked, and showed nothing to suggest that it's going to be able to overcome this.



Physically, the team could overcome the loss of Davies. Mentally and emotionally, I'm not so sure.

I think that's what we saw, as you said....a team that could not mentally and emotionally overcome the loss of Davies. To those who say we would have lost even with Davies, I say baloney. Yeah, we shot horribly, but that's because the team was horribly upset over what has happened.

Agreed. This was a well-oiled 5-cylinder machine, humming along like the precision piece of machinery that it was. All of a sudden you hear a pop and it's hissing and moaning and limping along on 4 cylinders, threatening to give out at any moment ... and only yards short of the finish line. This isn't NASCAR, but it's just like running the whole race, working your way up into the leaders, and then blowing your engine with a half lap to go. No time for a pit stop. You have to keep going on what you have left.



What has disappeared, at least last night, is their confidence. They seemed like they had written the game off before it even started.

I would like to think any human would find playing yesterday and being up for the game difficult. I can only imagine that this team is very close with what they have accomplished this year, and most of them playing together last year too. I am sure they are emotional wondering how Brandon is doing and his well being, and how they can deal with the adjustments going forward. I thought Charles said it best in one article when someone must of asked him if they resented Brandon, he said something like why would we? We love him, people make mistakes.

Y 4 Ever wrote:
was done. Stick a fork in 'em. Season over.



The senior "leaders" were anything but that. It was disheartening as a fan to see Jimmer sitting crying at the end of the bench, and Jackson kicked back like he's at a family BBQ in the last 4 or 5 minutes of the game. You guys are supposed to be the senior leaders on the team. So get off of your asses and LEAD! Cheer on your teammates who are still out there fighting! Show the rest of the team (and the fans) that you DO care, that you're NOT going to give up, that the season is NOT over!



That's what we needed to see last night, win or lose, and that's NOT what we saw. What we saw was a team that was shellshocked, and showed nothing to suggest that it's going to be able to overcome this.



Physically, the team could overcome the loss of Davies. Mentally and emotionally, I'm not so sure.

I could not disagree more with your post. This is the first time in a long time I have seen a Cougar team that was acutally pissed that they lost.Jackson kicking the chair and Jimmer emtional. Think about the hours in the gym Jimmer and Jax have spent in preperation for the streak run and it didn't turn out the way they wanted it to. My beef is with Rose he has sat back and watched his team get banged around all season. Sometimes you have to get a tech to tell the refs to call the game fair. It is all good we will turn it around I still think we are a sweet 16 team.

Think about the emotional rollercoaster these guys have been on. Saturday, you beat #4 SDSU on national television, Monday, you get ranked #3 and all of the discussion across the country is on you getting a #1 seed, Tuesday night you find out that Davies is done, and then Wednesday you have to go out and play against New Mexico and figure out how to do it without your low post option. I was sick to my stomache and wasn't sure I wanted to go play basketball in my ward game last night, and I am just a fan. I can't imagine what the emotion for the player's has been.



Can they get through this? Can they get it together and overcome the emotion and be the team that we believe they can be? The next week and a half will tell us, but I for one am not ready to give up on this team just after the game last night and the week that these guys have had.

Y 4 Ever wrote:
was done. Stick a fork in 'em. Season over.



The senior "leaders" were anything but that. It was disheartening as a fan to see Jimmer sitting crying at the end of the bench, and Jackson kicked back like he's at a family BBQ in the last 4 or 5 minutes of the game. You guys are supposed to be the senior leaders on the team. So get off of your asses and LEAD! Cheer on your teammates who are still out there fighting! Show the rest of the team (and the fans) that you DO care, that you're NOT going to give up, that the season is NOT over!



That's what we needed to see last night, win or lose, and that's NOT what we saw. What we saw was a team that was shellshocked, and showed nothing to suggest that it's going to be able to overcome this.



Physically, the team could overcome the loss of Davies. Mentally and emotionally, I'm not so sure.

I couldn't disagree with this more. Jack getting T'd, kicking chairs, Jimmer was on fire for the game (running around etc)



I would like to think how you think that PHYSICALLY we could have beat a UNM team that had it's way with us in the post, to the tune of Gordon's 16 rebounds, with 3 on the offensive glass.



Anderson is not a D-1 player. Period. He is clueless on defense, and has no offensive game whatsoever. He is too slow and goofy for man defense, and has no clue of the rotation in a zone.



Hartsock is no Davies. We have no inside post presence. Hartsock shoots from the hip - literally - and would get blocked in the low post by somebody 6'3".



UNM had an inside outside game working. And they hit shots with it. Anytime someone got the ball inside, we had 3 guys swarming to him. It was an easy thing to dump it back outside for a 3.



So how PHYSICALLY can we beat a team like New Mexico with the foul-prone Lurch being our only guy over 6'8? UNM beat us down low WITH Davies last game... we had no chance with him out.



UNM is a foreshadowing of things to come. We will probably get beat by CSU the next time we play them, too. If they do things the same way.



Davies was the one player that we couldn't afford to lose after CC went down. We'd still win UNM, WYO, and the MWC conference tourney with even Jimmer out. Now, I'm not so sure we will win the tourney.



I'm gonna punch Davies in the nuts when I see him.

I just don't get how we could have played so bad last night when in the past, with Davies in foul trouble, we had done fine. I mean I understand an emotional let down but losing by 20 at home, come on!!! The defense was terrible last night. Nobody knew their role it seemed. Magnusson couldn't get a rebound to save his life and he was playing the 5 for us at times. Due to the rebounding disparity we could have used Rogers on the floor more that's for sure. Also, the lack of any interior game hurt us bad. Noah wasn't used at all in the post, well maybe twice, and it REALLY hurt our team. I don't know who to blame that on either?? I think that everybody just tried to JACK threes all night like they did against SDSU and it bit them in the ASS!!!! Without SOME kind of low post scoring threat we are screwed. The ONLY 2 guys that can provide that are Noah and yes Anderson. Anderson had a couple touches last night at the end of the game that he didn't totally screw up. Rose needs to work on Noah and Anderson as much as possible and hope for the best. We need a 5 we can run our offense through and that's not Magnusson.

Anderson's touches at the end of the game were against 6'6 bench guys. I would hope that he could score against bench guys from UNM 4-6 inches smaller than him.



Anderson is not a low post option. Offensively, or defensively.



Noah needs to play the 5, Abouo the four, on the OFFENSIVE SIDE as well as the defensive.



UNM had so many defensive choices against us last night, because we weren't running a post man. The diamond and play Jimmer man, a 4-1, a 3-2. Just so many options when we aren't trying to post. And with Abuou shooting like he was using his offhand from outside, we need him in there banging - whether or not we are going to use it.

I disagree with what you saw from Jimmer and Jax last night. First off you have to put this game into context. These players found out only one day before that their teammate was lost for the season, not lost to injury but to a poor personal decision. If I was on this team I would feel hurt and betrayed by Davies but I'd also feel remorse for him. There were a lot of emotions going through the team last night.



From Jimmer I saw a guy who gave his all on the floor. Even though his shot wasn't falling he was still hustling and driving to the basket. In that 2nd half there were times where it seemed like Jimmer was the only player who hadn't given up. A true leader never gives up even if his teammates have. When he was finally pulled at the end of the game I saw a guy who was drained physically and emotionally. He sat on the end of the bench staring down at his feet. Just emotionally drained.



From Jax I saw more emotion in him than in any other game I've seen. He was extremely frustrated with the officiating and rightfully so, those officials sucked. Probably the worst all year long and that took it's toll on Jax. The terrible officiating placed in the context of the emotional state of the team was too much for Jax to handle. And while he DID NOT receive a tech, like Blueisbetter stated, he did kick a chair on the bench when he was pulled. Saying that Jax just sat there like he was at a picnic is absolutely ridiculous. I was there and Jax was far from that.



So go ahead and criticize Jimmer and Jax for not being good leaders if you want but if I were you I would cut them some slack. These guys are not robots, they have emotions just like the rest of us. In fact they are more emotionally involved in this team and it's success than anybody on this board. The true test of their leadership capabilities will be from here on out, after the shock has worn off. But until then, lay off.

BlueIsBetter wrote:
Anderson's touches at the end of the game were against 6'6 bench guys. I would hope that he could score against bench guys from UNM 4-6 inches smaller than him.



Anderson is not a low post option. Offensively, or defensively.



Noah needs to play the 5, Abouo the four, on the OFFENSIVE SIDE as well as the defensive.



UNM had so many defensive choices against us last night, because we weren't running a post man. The diamond and play Jimmer man, a 4-1, a 3-2. Just so many options when we aren't trying to post. And with Abuou shooting like he was using his offhand from outside, we need him in there banging - whether or not we are going to use it.

Unfortunately, Noah's low post moves on the offensive side of things are non-existent. Defensively, he's okay at the 5, thought he's a much better help on D down low than he is as the primary defender.

Gunk wrote:

Anderson's touches at the end of the game were against 6'6 bench guys. I would hope that he could score against bench guys from UNM 4-6 inches smaller than him.



Anderson is not a low post option. Offensively, or defensively.



Noah needs to play the 5, Abouo the four, on the OFFENSIVE SIDE as well as the defensive.



UNM had so many defensive choices against us last night, because we weren't running a post man. The diamond and play Jimmer man, a 4-1, a 3-2. Just so many options when we aren't trying to post. And with Abuou shooting like he was using his offhand from outside, we need him in there banging - whether or not we are going to use it.

Unfortunately, Noah's low post moves on the offensive side of things are non-existent. Defensively, he's okay at the 5, thought he's a much better help on D down low than he is as the primary defender.

I agree. Noah is not a low post option. Neither is Charles. Neither is Anderson.



Someone has get off the 3 point line and draw a defender inside.