Long Beach Game Observations

[Growler1]

I Tivo-ed the game, and watched it this morning. Here are my observations:

1) Will Cherry should not have played in this game. His mobility was terrible, and he could not keep his man from beating him and driving the lane. This totally broke-down the Griz team defense.
2) The Griz were much too tentative in shooting the BB. Many times, a Griz player would have an open look briefly after receiving a pass, but would not shoot the ball with confidence. Selvig passed up quite a few open 3-point looks, only to dribble the ball into traffic.
3) The Griz were terrible at boxing-out on rebounds, especially in the first half. In one 4-minute run, LB got 5 offensive rebounds which led to easy buckets.
4) As I have said before, Tinkle needs to get some new out-of-bounds plays when the ball is thrown-in under the Griz basket. These should be scoring plays. Instead, it is an effort for the Griz to even get the ball into play within 5 seconds, let alone get an good shot off the in-bounds play.
5) Long Beach was hot on threes in the second half, making the final score worse than the game really was. The Griz can play with this team, with a healthy Cherry, and more confidence in shooting open looks.

 

[BelierPeaux]

I Tivo-ed the game, and watched it this morning. Here are my observations:
5) Long Beach was hot on threes in the second half, making the final score worse than the game really was. The Griz can play with this team, with a healthy Cherry, and more confidence in shooting open looks.

I agree with that. I think this was a good for the Griz to go through, it gave them a taste of what to expect in the tournament should they be fortunate enough to make it. They know exactly what needs to be worked on right now and hopefully they will buckle down and do so.

 

[fanofzoo]

We don't have any shooters. That is something you can't correct now at this point.

 

[AZGrizFan]

We don't have any shooters. That is something you can't correct now at this point.

This. Not a single legitimate outside threat besides Selvig, and he was afraid to shoot. LOTS of airballs from 18-20 feet. :shock: :shock:

 

['68griz]

We don't have any shooters. That is something you can't correct now at this point.

Sad, but very true.

 

[Maynardsgametrail]

We don't have any shooters. That is something you can't correct now at this point.

Sad, but very true.

Agreed, its starting to become pretty obvious. I cant remember the last time an opponent didnt have a game plan to double team Qvale because of the teams inconsistent outside shooting. Lately, at times, I have been wondering if red-shirting Vaughn Autry and using Weisner would have been more beneficial to the team. We could have used Weisner's 3-ball accuracy. Just a thought.

I am a big fan of VA, but he could have used a RS this season. He just needs to fine tune....well...everything.

Selvig is our boy......he has to step it up. He cannot have another game like he did against LBSU. I have a feeling he is going to have 2 great games in the next couple of days.

 

[Proud Griz Man]

We don't have any shooters. That is something you can't correct now at this point.

This. Not a single legitimate outside threat besides Selvig, and he was afraid to shoot. LOTS of airballs from 18-20 feet. :shock: :shock:

Except for Qvale, Steward and two shots by Adams, the Grizzlies struggled to shoot field goals. Cherry-Stockton-Autry-Wood-Jamar all missed badly on outside shots. Selvig did not look to shoot, his three misses looked like half-hearted attempts.

MONTANA (19-8) – Steward 5-7 1-1 13, Selvig 0-3 0-0 0, Qvale 7-11 3-7 17, Cherry 2-9 2-3 6, Stockton 0-5 0-0 0, Autry 0-4 0-0 0, Wood 0-1 0-0 0, Adams 2-2 0-0 6, Jamar 3-6 1-2 7, Ward 2-5 3-4 7, Hutchison 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 10-17 56.

Long Beach State's Casper Ware goes to the basket in front of Montana players during the first half of their NCAA basketball game, Saturday, Feb 19, 2011 in Long Beach

49ers finally outrun Grizzlies in 2nd half
LBSU puts on quite a performance in its national-television tilt. By Frank Burlison Staff Writer

... State, just one win away from clinching a Big West Conference regular-season title, stepped out of conference Saturday night and turned in an impressive 74-56 victory over Big Sky Conference-leading Montana in a BracketBusters contest played in front of a thoroughly delighted in-the-building audience of 3,368. Coach Dan Monson's junior class had a collective solid effort in helping the 49ers (17-10) extending their winning streak to six, as Eugene Phelps (with a game-high 19 points, 12 of those in the second half) led classmates Larry Anderson (17), Casper Ware (12) and T.J. Robinson (10) in double-figure scoring.

... Grizzlies (19-8) came into the building with a big and skilled pair of post players in 6-foot-11 senior Brian Qvale and 7-foot junior Derek Selvig, as well as a victory over UCLA in Pauley Pavilion. But the 49ers wasted little time in demonstrating the advantages they had over the Grizzlies on the perimeter and with their much smaller but much quicker post players. Qvale got open along the baseline and took a nifty pass from Selvig to score the night's first points just 24 seconds after tipoff. But the 49ers then zipped off 12 consecutive points - getting jump shots from Robinson and Phelps, a 3-pointer from Ware, a layup and free throw by Anderson and then another jumper from Phelps - over the next two-plus minutes. And the Grizzlies, who returned four starters from a team that lost a tight NCAA Tournament first-round game with New Mexico last March, were not able to get to any closer than seven points, early in the second half.

"We're in a good place now, we're playing well," Monson said. "... excited about was how we sustained the effort tonight, other than the first five minutes of the second half (when the visitors pared a 12-point halftime deficit to seven). "For what we were trying to do, and how we were trying to play, it was the closest thing we've had to a (sustained) 40-minute effort since the Santa Barbara game (in a conference opener the 49ers won by 16 points on Dec. 28)." For the most part, the Grizzlies had no answer defensively for the quickness and penetration abilities of Ware and Anderson on the perimeter.