Observations from Charlotte's 88-77 loss to Duquesne on Wednesday:
-- Duquesne was a team in trouble. The Dukes had lost three straight and were scoring an average of 57.3 points and shooting 37.8 percent during that stretch.
Hello, 49ers and their welcoming defense.
The Dukes' 88 points were a season-high for a Charlotte opponent, as was their 59.3 percent shooting.
“It was a simple case of lost identity,” said 49ers coach Alan Major. “Our identity is defense. That’s who we are. We didn’t defend to the level we needed to, that we’re capable of playing. There’s really no ‘X and O’ dissertation needed. It was one team being who they were and one not.”
Charlotte tried a 2-3 zone defense, a tactic that has befuddled the Dukes all season. Didn't matter. Duquesne forward B.J. Montiero found openings on the baseline for 21 points -- including nine in a row at one stretch.
The 49ers need to tighten things up for their Saturday game at Xavier, which will be honoring seniors like Tu Holloway and Kenny Frease. After that will be a first-round Atlantic 10 tournament game Tuesday on the road -- likely against a team like Massachusetts, Dayton or La Salle.
-- Charlotte's Chris Braswell finished the game with 17 points and 11 rebounds. He had 11 points and nine boards at halftime. It wasn't until the 8:35 mark of the second half that he scored again. Duquesne coach Ron Everhart said the Dukes were willing to give up perimeter shots to focus defensively on Braswell (Charlotte was 11 of 25 from 3-point range).
-- Derrio Green, who hasn't had much playing time recently, played 17 minutes. First thing he did upon entering the game was hoist a 3-pointer, which swished.
-- Braswell was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000th career point (last week against George Washington).
-- The 49ers were victimized by Atlantic 10 steals leader T.J. McConnell, who had five. Charlotte had 20 turnovers for the game. Charlotte's Pierria Henry, who is second in the league behind McConnell, had just one steal and that got that by corralling a lazy pass in the backcourt.
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23 comments:
What an awful game to watch as a Niner fan. We let them score any time and any way they wanted to.
NOW EVERYONE HERE THIS!
MKNiner and his other #Bus1 cronies on NNN will be the ones to decide where, when, and to whom criticism for this season is placed! Any other trolls who call themselves 'fans' who try and blame Judy or Majors or the Observer will be mocked, harassed, and kicked off the interwebs!
We must continue to support this program! We are what everyone expected this season (.500). We have won more games than last year - so that's obvious improvement. Give Majors time to learn (another 4 years) before we jump to conclusions.
GO NINERS!!!!
Sorry, but notwithstanding the dismal performance of last nite, there has to be some serious soul-searching at this point about the POTENTIAL of Majors as coach......he was outrageously outcoached....
I hope you're joking about giving Majors another four years. It's painful to see the current state of 49er basketball even from out here in Texas...I can only imagine how it feels for those of you who are much closer.
anon 7:47
Tell me about it.
I'd love to start up a website on Niner baseball/football but I also don't want it to be shut down because of a million Rick Roll videos put up by the diehard 'bad fans' who hate our fan base.
The mocking, harassment, and banning has gotten completely out of control. There's no such thing as having a lighthearted discussion any more. It's all about watching MK and friends discredit and drive off 'trolls' since that's way more "hilarious".
I'd say more but it's not worth my time. The hell with it.
We ain't 500
We are close to .500 and made the A10 tournament. We can hang a banner for that!
Lutz had a 5 year contract so he has 2 buy out years remaining.
Majors got the same contract. We cant afford 2 buyouts and he cant recruit if we dont extend his contract! He will do much better once he drops Lutzs dead weight. Dont assume hes not a good coach just because he hasnt learned how to coach!
We will be +500 when the season is over!
ATLANTIC CITY HERE WE COME!
GO NINERS!!
Losing seasons in Charlotte history:
Major: 2 (2 seasons)
Lutz: 3 (12 seasons)
Watkins: 0 (2 seasons)
Mullins: 1 (11 seasons)
Wissel: 3 (3 seasons)
Pratt: 1 (4 seasons)
Rose: 0 (3 seasons)
Foster: 0 (4 seasons)
Major has already surpassed the 3 year win total that got Wissel fired.
Major will need to win 33 of his next 50 games (0.667) to match the 4 year win total that got Pratt fired.
Major will need to win 60 of his next 100 games (0.600) to match the 5 year win total that got Lutz fired.
Major doens't have 2 losing seasons yet. He could still avoid it by winning the A10 Tournament.
We only have 9 losing records in our history right now.
Majors has HUGE potential as a coach! He has the spirit, personality, and TV ready looks that fuel excitement on the court and into living rooms of recruits, parents, and alumni!
Anyone that knows Villa 7 can see that!
All those of you that wish to criticize the Charlotte men's hoops coach loose all credibility by adding an "S" to the end of his name, when he does not have one. If' you're going to rip him, at least have the decency to spell his name correctly.
While I maintain that he should be given 4 years to build his own program (I never said 4 more years, you knuckleheads!), I am disturbed at the developing trend. We lost all our games the second half of last year because the half-team we were fielding got worn out. We have a full team this year, and yet we have experienced another swoon, although we have won a couple games in the second half.
I was hoping for a winning record and NIT birth, but it looks like we will finish 13-17, 12th place in the A-10 (does anyone really think we can beat Xavier and UMass/Dayton/La Salle on the road? Me either). That's better than 10-20 and 14th place, but not the pace of improvement we need. Major and next year's freshman class will be under a lot of pressure to get us at least to the NIT.
On the bright side, only 548 days to the first football game!
All we can ask for is to see flashes of a coming ncaa team and Major has delivered that. We're turning the corner and anyone who can't see a massive improvement from 5 years ago is blind. This is a fun team to watch!
13-15, 5-10
;-)
It has been almost 30 years since the Niners have had 2 consecutive losing seasons.
Do you think all these losing seasons will give Major an advantage in possibly getting a Naismith Trophy? I mean, he could win over 25 games nxt season and be a huge college basketball story!
He can't coach, he can't recruit, he can't win. It's HER fault. Case closed!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We're at least renewing Judy's contract right?
If Major want to win the next few games he should take a lesson from Duquesne's coach. You can win with smaller guards, you just have to know how to use them. 10-20 last year and only 13-15 so far this year. Coach needs to take responsibility for this team's losing season. Even though we have three more wins than last season, when watching this team we look like a team who took a step backwards.
What scares me is I think we have a lot of talent on this team, but a coach who doesn't know how to coach them. I hope next years freshman come in pay dividends for the team, I really do. Majors game time coaching is questionable. Some of his calls I just don't understand. We were 10-20 last year and probably 13-17 this year. We should be better than that. There aren't any great wins this year...(eg Tenn and GT) The fact that last years team was more fun to watch than this years makes me think we are taking a step backwards.
The blame is on Lutz and Lutz alone. For EVERYTHING.
Major's cliches all the time are enough to make me put a 45 to my temple. "We lost our idnetity"....yeah
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