Analysis of Rutgers Game and Early Preview of Next Year

The game against Rutgers was a fitting end to the 2010-2011 season as it was filled with all of the problems that have plagued the Pirates all year.  From not being able to maintain momentum to not making good shot selections to not getting any calls go our way, this game had it all.  The first half was an interesting one, with the Pirates coming out flat and allowing Rutgers to get 9 points before the Hall scored their first point.  Once they found their stroke and started to play smarter offensively they went on a roll, going on a 10-1 run.  At the half it was looking good for the Pirates, with the Hall being up 32-26 and having most of the momentum.  In the second half the Pirates came out flat once again and allowed Rutgers to come back and take a lead.  During the second half, all of the calls were going against the Pirates, with the Knights being in the double bonus by the 8 minute mark with the Pirates only having 5 fouls in their favor.  The one thing that saved the Pirates from a quicker demise was the horrendous shooting from the line by the Knights, shooting only 64.3% for the second half and 64.9% for the game.  As the half was winding down, it was looking bleak for the Pirates, as Rutgers took the lead, then Jordan Theodore lost the ball, forcing the Pirates to foul.  They fouled Mike Coburn, who connected on both free throws to push the Rutgers lead to three.  This set up the heroic three from Jeremy Hazell to send the game to overtime.  Once again in overtime the Pirates came out sloppy and off target, which allowed Rutgers to take the lead and finish off the Pirates.

Which leads me into my other topic of discussion, next year.  We do not know the exact schedule as of yet but we do know some teams that we will face.  

@ Dayton: This year we began a home and home with Dayton so next year we will play at Dayton. This game will be a very big game for the Hall, as Dayton seems to be at least fairly good every year.  If we can manage to beat them it would be a big resume booster, but considering what happened against them this year I do not believe that we can beat them at their place next year.

vs. Wake Forest: This game was recently announced. I believe it is the beginning of a home and home with WF. Wake was terrible this year but they are still a big name school.  They also have three fairly good freshmen coming in next year so this will be an interesting game for us.  At this point I believe it is a winnable game, if Wake stays the way they were this year.

3. @ St. Peters: We seem to rotate every year with St. Peters. This year we were home so next year it will be a road game.  This is an easy win.

The Charelston Classic

This is a 3 day, 8 team event, that will consist of 3 games per team. The teams we could play in this are:

1. Baylor

2. Tulsa

3. St. Joseph's

4. LSU

5. Georgia Tech

6. VCU

7. Western Kentucky

Easiest teams to play would be St Joes, VCU and Western Kentucky.  Depending on who we play could make our record in this vary greatly.

As for an overall picture of the season, I do not see much coming out of next year.  Our record and playoff situation will probably be the same as it was this year.  In order to improve, this team has to work on getting easy baskets and not getting complacent, finding a way to compensate for the loss of Hazell's scoring, and not falling apart in the second half.  The key players for next year are Herb Pope, Fuquan Edwin and Aaron Geramipoor.  I believe that Fuquan needs to become a more prolific scorer and replace Hazell as the go to guy.  For both Edwin and Geramipoor they cannot hit the sophomore slump if this team has any chance of doing anything.  A big unknown that is hard to determine at this point is the effect the freshmen coming in will have on the team.  All in all I feel next season will be very similar to this year, with the team showing signs of brilliance at times and having times that leave you scratching your head dumbfounded at the stupidity.