Trojans lose to Saint Louis, fall to 0-3 for the season

[formerlytsufan]

The Trojans have the distinction of being the worst team in the Paradise Jam for 2004. What kinf of year will this be? :shock:

[troydad]

Troy will only go as far as our point guards will take us. It's unfair, but accurate, to put so much pressure on one position. It's just the way it is.

If Bobby Dixon and the other point guards run Don Maestri's offense the way it's designed we should have another excellent season even though we don't have a dominant inside presence. It's just that simple.

So don't panic. We have alot of talent on this team, and they're guided by outstanding coaches who won't give up on these young men either.

[troymarkus]

But at some point, we need some confidence!!! Maybe that comes Saturday at home!

[BMarkey]

I am not fantastically knowledgeable about basketball, but I still wonder why were are always smallish and relying on so many threes (even more now, from what I read).

Can we not recruit big inside guys?

I have really enjoyed hoops for the last few years (making it to all the Florida games). It was more than just a period of time to kill until football season.

I hope there will be at least some bright spots on this year's schedule.

[formerlytsufan]

I am not fantastically knowledgeable about basketball, but I still wonder why were are always smallish and relying on so many threes (even more now, from what I read).

Can we not recruit big inside guys?

I have really enjoyed hoops for the last few years (making it to all the Florida games). It was more than just a period of time to kill until football season.

I hope there will be at least some bright spots on this year's schedule.

Maestri's recruiting has always stumped me. I can't figure why we only sign JUCOs (with the exception of a few players). It takes a season to learn the system, and by then the players are seniors. It really kills your depth. I also think Maestri likes the recruit the shorter guys who can run.

[TrojanFan2]

I don't think we'll do well in the Sunbelt without some big guys and we need to start playing defense. We only play a zone defense and I don't think that will work in the Belt.

[troydad]

It's the law of supply and demand. There aren't as many "bigs" available to recruit as there are 6-1 guards, who are a dime a dozen.

And, unfortunately, the rare big kid who actually has some talent these days is told he should go straight to the heavyweight division, errr NBA, out of high school. Ultimately, this reduces the talent pool even further.

Don Maestri and David Felix do an incredible recruiting job with the hand they've been dealt. They attract great perimeter players because they let them have fun and shoot like crazy. But if you're 6-9 or taller and have your choice of schools drooling over you you're not likely to want to play at Troy's tiny old gym, which is not as nice as many high school arenas these kids play at today.

For crying out loud, we can't even attract any Division 1 schools to play at our place outside of conference teams. This makes Troy very unfavorable in the eyes of recruits, especially big men. Eventually, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: the bigs who might be interested see that we shoot 3's like crazy and rarely get the ball inside. So why would they want to come to trey-land?

Bottom line: Troy NEEDS a new basketball arena that is on par with our gorgeous football and baseball facilities if we want to recruit great big men. If you don't believe me, go visit Western Kentucky's ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS Diddle Arena, where they just spent $35 million on renovations. Once we have a top notch new arena we can attract home and away games against attractive non-conference Division 1 (not D3)teams. One Maestri Center is open, we can sign honest-to-goodness real interior players, and we can get invited to much better leagues than the Sun Belt.

[troymarkus]

Troydad is right on. It's amazing what we've done the last few years. However, we are really going to have to step it up next year when the competition gets a little tougher.

With our D, we will always play zone--every minute of every game of every year. I've been around Troy and Maestri long enough to realize that! But whoever saw us play defesne last year and says we have no defense is crazy!! Our defense was smothering last season. I imagine, once these guys get the hang of the press, our d will be just as strong--but without the inside presence of Lewin. I remember early last year, it took the new guys a while to figure out exactly how we play defense.

[troydad]

Jarvis Acker isn't available right now, but he will be once the second semester begins. He will be a welcome re-addition (is that a word?) to our inside firepower.

I can't help but think that if we'd had Eddie Baker's presence on last year's team, we would have had a very nice run into the NCAA tournament! We were one big guy away from being a super great team last year! Rob Lewin alone couldn't compete with the three 6-10 kids from UCF, although he put up a valiant effort! UCF and Dexter Lyons ended up giving mighty Pitt everything they wanted right down to the wire in the first round of last year's NCAA tourney--and Pitt was loaded with talented big men, too.

In case you hadn't noticed, we did sign another big juco kid from California a couple of weeks ago. So more help is on the way! And it's my understanding that we're looking to sign more interior players for the Sun Belt battles to come.

We also had signed a 6-9 kids last spring for this season who ultimately couldn't get his grades up enought to get in to Troy... so coach Maestri is doing a phenomenal job in my humble opinion!

[Hector]

Don't forget, Maestri did successfully recruit a terrific rebounder in Patrick Culver. Unfortunately, he did not qualify academically. We seriously lack rebounding muscle on this team. Those who say we need a new arena are absolutely correct. That will help recruiting tremendously. Fortunately, we do have other good players.

[TrojanFan2]

I certainly don't remember much defense. We were mainly run and gun. On the games we won we got the opponent to try to keep up with us and they couldn't. I couldn't find last years scores but I remember them being very high for both teams. Whenever we got into a slow defensive game we usually lost. Our defense certainly didn't smother anyone.

[TSUWhiner]

Yeah I noticed that our team is in a slump. Has to happen some year huh? We have been awesome since I started school there in 2000! We have to build this team up for conference play...and believe me..in basketball our conference is tough as nails. I kinda like Willy Barns Buffet Arena :) hahaha

[st932253]

Sorry to see you off to a slow start. You have quality athletes and coaching...you turned an early season diaster against an NAIA school last season into one of your best seasons ever.

Jucos are hard, UCF has relied on them for many a year. Last year, 2 of those 6'10 guys were JuCo transfers - Dexter Lyons and Roberto Morentin. Now, some of our leadership (Gary Johnson, Kingsley Edwards) are JuCo seniors.

What kind of contract does Maestri have? Kirk's been in the hotseat for a while and before his 5 year deal, was pretty much going year by year. This caused him to rely on JuCos because he literally couldn't afford a rebuilding year! Hopefully you are giving your coaches enough security that they can take a year or two for the longevity of your program.

[troymarkus]

Did you go to any games last year???? Over half our games were won not by our run and gun style, but by our pressing defense causing turnovers! Do you remember the greatest basketball comeback in Trojan history during the tourney against GA State???? It was ALL defense!

I'm not talking about a slow offensive game with defense. We played smothering full-court press defense all last season along with our run and gun. How could you forget that??? It was awesome!

[troymarkus]

The back up the defense argument....

1) We held opponents to 72.7 points/game...not the best, but certainly not the worst...pretty good considering our run and gun style

2) We had 354 steals last year...that's 11 per game! Good for 4th in the nation last year!!!

3) In total, we forced 18 turnovers a game...that is almost completely due to our full court press

4) We averaged almost 4 blocks/game

Yes, we had a great defense last year. It wasn't like the early 90's when we never played D. Those days are long gone.

[littlebittyschool]

Jucos are hard, UCF has relied on them for many a year. Last year, 2 of those 6'10 guys were JuCo transfers - Dexter Lyons and Roberto Morentin. Now, some of our leadership (Gary Johnson, Kingsley Edwards) are JuCo seniors.


And here come the UCF fans. Welcome to the board. Congrats on winning the "Top of the World" tourney. I must say that was impressive. Sorry about the horrible football season you guys are having. I'm sure basketball and baseball couldn't come soon enough. I think everyone expected much more from UCF's football team.

See you on the hardwood in a month or so. Hope to see you on the football field one day soon too.

[st932253]

Yep, here I come :)

And it's not just because of the way both our seasons started, I enjoy the A-Sun drama, although I'm as happy as you are that we are both outta there. I've been chatting on the A-Sun board on ucf rivals site (steve a.) but came over here since none of you are on there.

Football - yep. Nuff said. I hope we play again also. Used to be a great rivalry. We had scheduled 2 games (05 and 06?) but then the conference switchups delayed or cancelled those. Congratulations though on an awesome season. I needed a team to pull for this year in addition to UCF and Troy is always a pleasure to watch. We would have won 2-3 games if our staff was half as gutsy as yours is.

[BMarkey]

I love the UCF-Troy games. I am in Orlando every year (as well as Deland and Boca).

I really miss that football rivalry. It would have become our main rivalry with a little time. Remember almost 40,000 people in the Tangerine Bowl?

I thought Troy and UCF were supposed to play in '03 and '04 or '04 and '05; then UCF backed out to play Penn State or some such team.

I say, get it back on the schedule for '05 and '06.

[TropolitanSportsEditor]

I just read all of the talk about the baseketball team on the first two pages of this topic.

Maybe, I can shed some light on why they are'nt playing really well.

Remember, that Maestri and staff decided to change their style of play, after watching the olympic debacle with our NBA representatives. They decided to model more like the Italians than any other.

Italy wasn't built for dumping the ball in to the big guy and let him do his thing, they were built around shooters that could move down the court fast and pull up and a drain a three. If that didn't work then they would make a series of quick passes to stay ahead of the defense shifts.

Looking at the press releases and reading his comments after the Virgin Islans Paradise Jam (0-3), I noticed that it is possible that this new style just hasn't been nailed down by our guys yet. Remember, most of them have never played European style before. It's like learning to drive in america, when you go to europe your on the wrong side of the street.

Maestri also said at a press-conference (that I was at) that they were going to shoot more three's than they have ever shot in the history of our program. Which is exactly what changing to the Italian style would do, force the open three's more often.

Just an observation.

[troymarkus]

It's the same style of play we have used the last few years, but with some slight modifications due to the fact we have NO man. The major shift is going from shooting tons of 3s a game to shooting tons and tons and tons of 3s a game!!! We will still continue to play our smothering style of press defense. And now, Woodstock, who is the master of taking charges is racking them up each game!
The problem is lack of chemistry. It will take a while for all these new folks to learn the system...it always does!

[TropolitanSportsEditor]

Your right for the most part. But, Maestri is calling a NEW style and ITALY is the country its from, according to him. The defense didn't change, but the offense did. At least according to Maestri, the offense all new.

Anyway, that's what he said at the press conference, i have the transcripts somewhere in this abstract box of an office.

I think your right on though about the chemistry, makes sense. Doesn't matter how good you are in practice, if you got no chemistry, you can't win on the hardwood. If you do, it's because everyone on the other team should have stayed in highschool. j/k

[troymarkus]

I listened to the press conference, so I know exactly what you're talking about. However, I think you have to take what Coach Maestri said a little tongue and cheek!! He and Felix did learn a lot from watching Italy play in the games, but I've been a Trojan basketball fan a long time and I promise, the offense isn't all new. We've had to change some thing simply because we don't have a big man. What Maestri took from the Italy team was how they played on the perimeter with no big man on the inside against the American team with huge big men.

So, yes, there are changes, but mostly it's the same offense with more 3s!! Coach Maestri also said in that press conference that we would set a new record for 3s attempted this year!!! The true Run N Gun!!!

Thanks for posting Trop...I look forward to your insight this year!

[TrojanHoarse]

Remembering the days when Maestri's team were breaking all-time scoring records (268 was it?), I have a hard time believing a TROY team will be able to shoot more 3's than those guys did.

[troydad]

It's alot of fun watching a team run and gun so long as the guns are hot. However, when they're off target it looks like bad basketball to me.

Case in point: Indiana looked simply awful against North Carolina last night while taking some truly horrific 3-point shots. Bracy Wright may be a talented played but not even the esteemed Michael Jordan could hit turn-around 25-footers with a man on him.

In my humble opinion, a forced or ill-advised 3-pointer is no fun to watch. I hope that's not our problem. We'll find out a little more tonight against Belmont, which also knows a thing or two about great offense!

[TropolitanSportsEditor]

I just hope that we can get back on schedule tonight against Mercer. This is going to be the first chance of the season to see our guys in action. I'll definitely watch the offense. I feel as though, through your confidence, that you are right in the offensive changes. I will watch. Anything I should look for on defense?

[TrojanFan2]

Mercer --- did they change teams? My ticket says Belmont tonight

[TROYgirl128]

The women are playing Mercer at 5:15. The men are playing Belmont at 7:30.