What is a Ute?

[NJwave]

Defense is playing very well but we just have almost no front court. Days is on an island down low. Takes as a good a charge as you will ever see. That’s one more charge than we took last year.

[gerryb323]

Zhang has terrible post defense.
It's nice the refs are at least calling the flops both ways.

[OGSB]

[NJwave]

Zhang is just not playing well. He is kind of a guy without a position. Too weak to be a power player and too slow to play guard.

Hightower leads the country in made free throws according to announcers.

[OGSB]

32-31 Tulane, halftime

[PeteRasche]

Zhang and Ona Embo learned defense from the esteemed teacher, Mike Dunleavy.

[Baywave1]

I guess we should get used to this in HunterWorld. Tulane shoots meh while opponent shoots 50%, gets outrebounded but because it forces Utah into 12 turnovers and has a 5 turnover edge, it has a 1 point edge at half.

Regardless of result of this game, I can see Tulane having a winning record this season because of Hunter. FWIW, previous admin was telling us to wait until next year.

[NJwave]

Is Thomas hurt again? Didn’t play Friday and hasn’t today. He is too good a shooter not to be in the lineup if he is healthy.

[angrywavedad]

Utah’s point guard looks like Eddie Munster.

[NJwave]

We are not playing well offensively at all. Lots of forced shots.

[Johnny Mac]

last 4 minutes have been a dumpster fire at both ends

[PeteRasche]

We also stink defensively. A great combination.

Too-early hot take: If we are hot on offense and get some turnovers from aggressiveness and the opponent is a little cold, we can beat a lot of teams. But Utah is making it tremendously clear that a good passing team who patiently makes the extra pass and hits wide open shots will destroy us routinely.

[NJwave]

We also stink defensively. A great combination.

Too-early hot take: If we are hot on offense and get some turnovers from aggressiveness and the opponent is a little cold, we can beat a lot of teams. But Utah is making it tremendously clear that a good passing team who patiently makes the extra pass and hits wide open shots will destroy us routinely.

Lawson plays smaller than he is as well. We have one legit big man in Days and he is a freshman. Teams can score at will inside against us and we can’t rebound.

Tough to stick with a zone when the point guard can’t miss from 3.

[Johnny Mac]

I think the Zhang and Koka experiments are going to be canceled, soon. Hopefully Ali can get healthy and we can see what he offers for rim protection.

[angrywavedad]

I think the Zhang and Koka experiments are going to be canceled, soon. Hopefully Ali can get healthy and we can see what he offers for rim protection.

This is it. Zhang is a wing and Koka can’t play.

[NJwave]

Gritty effort. Good to see us not quit.

[Johnny Mac]

great final 3 minutes.. good d and smart shots.. Walker taking over was huge

[NJwave]

Damn. If he can get that rebound.

[NJwave]

They have to give 4 more fouls. Huge.

[NJwave]

Great effort. Lots of flaws but big win.

[Baywave1]

We also stink defensively. A great combination.

Too-early hot take: If we are hot on offense and get some turnovers from aggressiveness and the opponent is a little cold, we can beat a lot of teams. But Utah is making it tremendously clear that a good passing team who patiently makes the extra pass and hits wide open shots will destroy us routinely.

As you note the joy of hot takes.

I would simply note you don't force 20 turnovers in a game and stink defensively. At end, this turned into standard Hunter style win. Shoot decently (Tulane shot 50%+ in second half AND generate a significant edge in turnovers, here 8, and you can beat the other team.

As happened regularly to Hunter teams at GSU, Tulane will lose to some bad teams when it does not shoot well. However those will be more than offset by performances like today. Yes, Utah is not a great PAC 12 team but again these were teams that under the previous admin were beating down not just defeating Tulane.

Meanwhile as always Hunter's post game victory presser was sui generis.

[angrywavedad]

How many times in life do you see something promised being delivered on right in front of your eyes?
The team plays really hard, the aggressive zone disrupts opponents, sometimes they give up easy buckets and rebounds, the offense is hit or miss, the experienced players know how to finish games and the coach is a riot.
Isn’t that what we all more or less hoped for and expected?

[Baywave1]

AWD,

Well said. How often has Tulane Athletics specifically walked the talk?

Now let the tsunami begin.....

[PeteRasche]

As you note the joy of hot takes.

I would simply note you don't force 20 turnovers in a game and stink defensively. At end, this turned into standard Hunter style win. Shoot decently (Tulane shot 50%+ in second half AND generate a significant edge in turnovers, here 8, and you can beat the other team.

As happened regularly to Hunter teams at GSU, Tulane will lose to some bad teams when it does not shoot well. However those will be more than offset by performances like today. Yes, Utah is not a great PAC 12 team but again these were teams that under the previous admin were beating down not just defeating Tulane.

I typically don't like continuing attom threads after the game ends, but I was interrupted from watching the game at my son's wrestling meet when he came up to wrestle, and then he got hurt and we left (he's okay now).... when I posted that, I knew things could still turn around, which is why I purposely called it a "hot take" (I loathe that phrase for how often it's purely emotional and completely wrong). But at the time we were getting just shredded defensively and Utah was pulling away. Utah was making "the extra pass" and for about 4 straight possessions, they had wide-open shots with no defender even remotely close (some threes, some layups). Meanwhile, we were missing everything and not making any passes at all, and it really appeared the game was getting away from us. I don't know whether we changed something (personnel?), whether Utah went cold, or Utah just got tired and stopped making that extra pass, but I was happy (and surprised) to see the final score on my phone about 15-20 minutes later.

I would amend my post to say we're not good defensively in the half court - or maybe, we're very inconsistent in half-court defense. We obviously are still learning a defensive scheme that is brand-new to our players and they don't have it down yet, so it's understandable. The steals are often in transition or because the opponent isn't disciplined enough to just pass us into submission, and some are just because we have athletic, smart, and experienced veteran players. If you could rewind our current roster, let them play this defense together a couple of years, and have them end their careers (the transfers) this year with that experience, I think we'd be REALLY good. I am anxious to see how Hunter can recruit once he has some tangible improvement to sell.

[Baywave1]

Pete, Just having fun because we won. I find interesting that I can't really fault any individual assessment you have about Hunter ball today other than in toto, it works.

Utah had an eight point lead with about six minutes left and then shortly thereafter it didn't. Tulane made six shots in a row and perhaps 8 in 10 or the like. Meanwhile they just kept playing pressure defense. What I like most about HunterBall is that it does allow you to turn around a game very quickly.

Negative of HunterBall is that Tulane will lose some headscratchingly ugly games to bad teams. It's inevitable with this system but it beats by far what we've had since Perry left.

Finally I do think Tulane will have a winning record this year but I can't guess the level of success beyond that once we start playing teams that look like MSU weekly.