lsbal84

Awesome put back!

Patch

Really nice job by Hartford if they shoot anywhere near 50% from three they will give everyone headaches except Gallagher!

lsbal84

Very enjoyable game today. The CROWD was fantastic. I hope they make this a yearly event. I guess Hartford invited about 20 different schools (elementary on up to high school) to take part in a sports education day. They rotated each school and all of them listened to talks throughout the morning from our AD....the baseball coach Justin Blood, The sports trainers, players,etc. The arena was rocking. Prior to the game Walt Lucket who holds most of the high school records for high school basketball in CT, for many years now, talked to the crowd about his program that helps kids and their direction. At halftime two members from the UHA Track and Field team spoke to the crowd about sportsmanship, etc. It was very well done.

In terms of the game. Sikma was .....sick. Played the first couple minutes .....basically looked doubled over on the bench and sat with a towel over his head the rest of the game. Dyson was also sick though he played a few minutes in the first half. I heard Edwards was sick for Maine.

In the first half Hartford had wide open three's and probably shot 50% from that range. Maine came out with a very good game plan for the second half which basically took away the open three's by going away from the zone D. Therefore Hartford had to work to get the ball in to Nwakamma (Hartford's offense has at least 1 touch for Nwakamma on every possesion). Nwakamma had a strong game...stayed away from foul trouble...and passed extremely well out of the post. I really like the defensive wrinkle where he plays the opposing guards out on the top of the key (he does this for about half the game). The advantage is he gets less fouls from that spot....though it limits his rebounding production. Cooper was very effective again today. I do not remember Hartford having a frosh PG who was as poised and made as many good decisions as they do with him. He adds a whole dimension to the Hartford team this year. Moore had a solid game as well. Cole had a great first half but was blanketed in the second so I am not sure he even took a shot in the second half.

If I was Maine I would have just kept pounding the ball down low to Frasier and Allison. With Sikma down and Nwakamma playing out at the key they should have destroyed us down low on every possesion. This did work for many easy buckets but they probably should have taken more advantage of this. I like Frasier a lot. Maine must have had a half dozen dunks today and one really nice one off a miss from Edwards. Pollard struggled today from the field but I really like his size,quickness,ball handling and defensive play. Maine guards seem to tower over UHA's guards.

Even though Hartford was ahead the entire game it always felt like it could change at any minute. We just have to go game to game right now but it looks like this team of frosh and soph are slowly learning how to win. They certainly don't blow anybody out but they are resilient. I was very impressed with the talent on the Maine squad.

Off to play Stonybrook on Saturday....obviously could be a tough one for us.

UVM Hoop Cat

Hartford scares me. They are going to play us a lot like BU did last night.

The last time we lost a game to Hartford was the 2005-06 season. 7 years ago. I don't feel so great about continuing that streak this season.

__________________
"Let's win this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here"
- Hoosiers,
& UVM mens basketball NCAA's 2005

lsbal84

It's way too early for me to get my hopes up. Going game by game right now. That being said I can't remember enjoying watching the "team" more than I have this year. They really play like a "team". No individual stuff....ego's to stroke,etc. Looking forward to playing you guys.....don't know how it will play out but at least we are getting closer to the upper part of this conference.

lsbal84

By the way a crowd of 2811 today. They are doing the same thing with the community for the women's game next week.

Forgot to mention......very impressed with thta kid Meshgna. He was really good.

farfromtheshow

Xavier pollard is very quickly becoming the next chandler rhoads: great energy, hustle and defense, horrific shooting and ball-hogging chucker on offense. Only difference: pollard is hurting his team even more because he's on the floor with several legitimate scorers and whenever he goes 1-on-5 (as he did repeatedly today) he's taking the ball out of the hands of a dominant scorer...

mainejeff

Gallagher now 6-0 vs. the pathetic Woodward.

Blind Zebra

Xavier Pollard should not be allowed to shoot an anything over 15 ft. He is excellent breaking people down off the dribble and is good at posting smaller guards. He has to improve his vision and ability to pass in traffic. He is very much like Junior Bernal and that's not a bad thing. He needs to work on shot selection.

Whoever said Andrew Rogers was "turnover prone" must have slept through his senior year. He led the AE in assist to turnover ratio.

farfromtheshow

Pollard might be good 1 on 1 off the dribble, but he is AWFUL when defenders double and collapse on him on his drives. At least twice in the second half Hartford jumped out on him when he drove, leaving Fraser absolutely wide open 2 feet from the hoop. But Pollard put his head down and instead of dumping to the big man for the easy dunk, tried to bull through 3 people and each time missed really badly...

ccd494

That is a good point, you are right, he did improve markedly. Unfortunately, he was so little that he couldn't do much else out there.

lsbal84

Unfortunately two of my favorite all time guards at Maine transferred out quickly. Gordon ( and going to Deleware was brutal) and Cavalieri.

Nostrajimus

Add Edwards to that list if they go 1 & done again

UVM Hoop Cat

Definitely more fair to say Rogers was a big defensive liability, which he was. If Rogers would get any criticism, it would be that.

__________________
"Let's win this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here"
- Hoosiers,
& UVM mens basketball NCAA's 2005

Nostrajimus

UMO vs Hartford was a preview of the 1st round of AE tourney in Albany, as SBU, UVM, & Albany will seperate themselves as the top 3, and UNH, UMBC, & Bingo will seperate themselves as the bottom 3.

That leaves UMO to face off against a coach who is 6-0 lifetime vs. Mr. March. You do the math.

Another 1 & done (that will make it 8 seasons in a row that UMO will not spend an extra night in the team hotel) for Mr. March. Shocker I know.