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Where Do We Go From Here?
Where Do We Go From Here?
Published by Swampy Meadows
11-28-2022
Where Do We Go From Here?

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) – We all know that “It’s a great day to be a Flyer.” Heck that’s even the motto of this very website and Chris has actually trademarked it. Some days, of course, are better than others. My favorite Flyer time is when the team is firing on all cylinders, rising in the polls, the UDPride MB is humming with activity and the national press is all glowingly positive.

Example: Pretty much the entire 2019-2020 season.

To be clear, this ain’t one of those times.

One look at the thread titles on the UDPride MB will tell you that:

Fire AG

AG

Seriously, WTH happened to our shooting?

Offense! Painful to watch

Smith & Elvis Injury Reports?


And the “FTS” personal favorite since I’m an eternal optimist:

Glass half full outlook

You can read as well as I can, so I won’t bother reposting some of the inanity contained in those threads.

Rather, what I will do is provide a current status report and where I think things are headed. It bears repeating that there are still twenty four games remaining in the regular season. It ain’t over by a long shot.

Schedule

I covered this subject in a previous “FTS” here:

http://www.udpride.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36214

The biggest non-con challenges will be on the road at VA Tech on 12/7 and a neutral court affair in Chicago with Wyoming on 12/17. The A-10 will be difficult but not impossible, even with the injury bug.

Coach

AG ain’t going anywhere.

Roster

Guys who have performed to expectations:

DaRon Holmes II
Toumani Camara
Mustapha Amzil
Mike Sharavjamts


Guys who have underperformed:

Kobe Elvis
Zimi Nwokeji
RJ Blakney


Guys who have been hurt:

Malachi Smith
Koby Brea

Guys who have been invisible:

Kaleb Washington (suspended)
Richard Amaefule
Tyrone Baker (redshirt)


Both Mali and Kobe are, according to AG on Monday during WHIO's Flyer Insider "Out for the foreseeable future." Koby Brea hopefully has fully recovered from whatever malady prevented him from making the trip to Atlantis.

So, heading into the two buy games before the VA Tech roadie and with Mali and Kobe both out, here’s what we’ve got:

Deuce, Toumani, Mike, Mus and RJ are the starting five. Mike is gonna log a lot of time at PG, so Brady Uhl will be called upon to provide some backup minutes. It’s critical that Brea step up and into the role of hired gun off the bench. Zimi needs to find his form from two years ago. I would love to see Kaleb garner major minutes but I don’t think that will happen until the semester ends, assuming his suspension is grades-related. Mystery Man Amaefule needs to contribute somehow.

The Flyers have been here before. One only needs to look back to the 2014-2015 season when Archie had to run with Scoochie, Pollard, Sibert, Pierre, Kyle and Darrell Davis and walkon Bobby Wehrli after the knucklehead twins got bounced from the team. They made it to the Big Dance, why can’t this team?

What has to happen

Offensively
In the last two contests in the Bahamas, UD jumped out to sizable leads (super-sizable in the BYU tilt) by repeatedly going to the rack to open the game. Do that again…every game. Don’t stop. So far this has not been a good three point shooting team, mainly because the wrong guys are taking them. Mike and Mustapha should be launching those triples; Mali (when healthy), Toumani, RJ and Deuce need to resist the temptation.

Defensively

Toumani has been a force on the boards and Deuce is among the national leaders in blocks. What killed UD in Atlantis was the ability of the other teams to repeatedly knock down three pointers. That is on the guards. AG has tried a zone but that is not the answer. Camara is our defensive anchor and his fouling out of the BYU tilt sealed the teams’ fate. The guys need to commit to being junkyard dogs on D.

Attitudinally

The three Ls in Atlantis do not compare to the three buy game losses from last year. Wisconsin (#40), NC State (#49) and BYU (#69) are not to be confused with UMass Lowell, Lipscomb and Austin Peay. The team is currently 3-4. Can’t change that, unfortunately. What they can do is laser focus on one game at a time, take no opponent for granted and play within themselves and AG’s system.

Win the next game. Wash, rinse, repeat.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com
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  #1  
By ChampCar on 11-28-2022, 12:38 PM
That 2014-2015 might've been my favorite Flyer team. On defense they played smart and strong - rarely fouling because they knew they couldn't afford to have anyone foul out. But it was their passing game on offense that was a joy to watch. The six guys that played seemed to share one brain.



The challenge for this year's team will be to find some version of that for themselves - but the 14/15 team had Scoochie.
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