Yep, they’re broken. Hard to put any green tint on going 1-5 the past 6 games. We’re collapsing worse than Kirstie Allie’s foot stool.

It’s nice to see someone else in conference pull a Kevin Bacon. Last night the Niners obliterated the Hawks to the tune of 95-58. That’s 37 points, in case you’re an English major. Protip: if Ian Andersen is in [...]]]>

The Hawks put up the white flag with 10 minutes left in the 1st

It’s nice to see someone else in conference pull a Kevin Bacon. Last night the Niners obliterated the Hawks to the tune of 95-58. That’s 37 points, in case you’re an English major. Protip: if Ian Andersen is in the game, it be would be wise to guard him, he’s out there to shoot the ball, that’s it.

Lutz stated in the postgame that the team was starting to get down on itself and wasn’t having any fun, so the assistant coaches put together a highlight reel of the season to get them in a good mood again. Whether or not said video included videos of the best GoldDuster moments, it worked. The team came out tonight and dominated every aspect of the game, including rebounding (43 to 35) and defense (8 steals). Hell, we even dominated in the rare statistic of “white guy makes awkward layup”, a stat we almost always lose. You could see the proverbial weight being lifted off our shoulders when the game got off to a good start, and we never took our foot off the throttle. Saint Joe’s? They stopped fighting with 30 minutes left in the game.

Other than Ian Andersen, the biggest surprise of the night was An’Juan Wilderness. Doing his best Eddie Basden impersonation, Wilderness ended with 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals, including two high flying dunks. It’s nice to see him coming back to form, and if he can continue to hit a jumper once or twice a game and stay healthy, he could be a big key component heading down the stretch.

Of course, we should note the play of DiJuan Harris. He stopped being Mitchell Baldwin and went back to being the warrior we’ve come to respect so much, driving the lane and making plays happen. If anyone can change the face of this team in a hurry, it’s him. We go as DiJuan goes, and hopefully he wants to continue to win.

All in all last night was a fantastic effort all around, time for some short observations. Look for the first ever edition of “Post Game Mine-Side Chats with NLP and J Felt” shortly. We’re still working on a name…

• Chris Braswell seems to have come out of his funk and is playing well, just wait until ALL those layups go in next year
• K.J. Sherrill is going to be awesome for us
• Derrio Green still drew heavy defensive pressure despite only scoring 5 points
• Gokhan Sirin, or “Goky” to some, is really good, every shot looks PERFECT
• Trevin Parks needs more PT opportunities, he reminds me of DiJuan
• Shamari Spears is a work horse, and the team hitting shots made his job 10X easier
• Phil Jones hit his trademark jumper again, defensives are going to have to respect him more
• Dewhurst, SHOOT THE BALL, we know you can

Waking up this morning and reading about last night’s game was like stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork. Why bother? It’s games like last night’s (and ODU, Duke, Tennessee) where one wonders if we’re truly for real. Once things got tough in [...]]]>

The scene with 5 minutes left in the game.

Waking up this morning and reading about last night’s game was like stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork. Why bother? It’s games like last night’s (and ODU, Duke, Tennessee) where one wonders if we’re truly for real. Once things got tough in the second half, we looked like a JV squad out there, eerily reminiscent of our entire game against Duke.

As I sat at a Mexican restaurant last night (Don Juan’s in Kernersville, NC, if you wanted to know), I was on pins and needles waiting for text updates from my loyal friends. At first they were good, Niners were up early and seemed to be playing well. Then Dayton took the lead, and my gut, along with the ridiculous amounts of chips and salsa I consumed, dropped. Something told me, it’s about to get ugly. But as per the course with Niner fandom, there was a glimmer of hope as Gokhan SeerHAN (is Sirin that hard to pronounce? where did the H come from?) drained a three to bring the Niners within a possession at halftime.

I was able to get home just in time to watch Dayton start to kick the living crap out of us. With Phil and Chris on the bench, the Flyers took off and had a field day. We never stood a chance in the second half. We were outscored by 25 points in 20 minutes of basketball. That is ridiculous. When did Dayton get so good? Now they’ve beaten two teams tied for first place by over 20 points. How did the Flyers lose to Saint Joseph’s? And how did our 11-20 team beat this same team one year ago in Halton? Trying to understand Charlotte basketball is like trying to understand women, but worse.

There’s an alarming trend starting to surface, and it’s a scary one indeed. While we may have a tendency to fight with teams and pull out a tough W, it seems that once the margin gets beyond 10-12 points in the second half we give up and just let the game get out of hand. For the six games we’ve lost, the margin has been over 23 points. That is not the sign of a team that fights through anything. If the game isn’t going well on the road (double digit margin) with 15 minutes left, might as well go pour another beer, because it’s going to get so ugly the beer goggles will be necessary to see any positives from the rest of the game. The only loss where we really stood a chance at all was Georgia Tech, and that was at home. If you throw away the Georgia Tech game and look at just road losses, we’re losing by over 26 points. While margin of victory really means nothing in college basketball, the tendency of this team to curl into the fetal position is frightening, to say the least. We’re willing to fight when we think we have a chance, but there’s a point at which the team just says, “Screw this, we’re going to lose anyway, might as well try and break new records!”

I tried to get NLP to exchange emails with me this morning, but he’s still trying to recover from last night, rumor is he

What said flyer may look like.

was last seen around Charlotte posting “Missing: SWAGGER If found, please see Bobby Lutz” flyers on anything and everything. However, he did manage to steal some computer time away from the pervs at the local public library to send this brief, but correct breakdown of the Niners…

It’s pretty simple.  If you play tough man-to-man defense and you’re playing at home you will beat the Niners.  Handily.  If you play zone, or matador defense, you’re just plain stupid.  The scouting report is very much out.

There you go, to beat the Niners, don’t be stupid.

I will say this though, when a team shoots 25% from the floor and 14.3% from 3 on the road, they don’t stand a chance. We got buzzsawed, folks, but it would have been nice if we started throwing 2 X 4s into the blade instead of our arms and limbs.

But since GreenTintedGlasses.net is committed to being outwardly biased, there are two big positives to remember:

1. We’re still tied for first place with Xavier and Richmond
2. We still have chances to lock up an At-Large

We might get a true post game up at some point, once we are done bandaging our wounds. I think NLP broke his internet watching this game.

Some early thoughts:

Derrio Green week in the Atlantic 10 came to a close with a 34 point peformance as the Niners defeated UMass at the Mullins Center 72-58.  The win puts the Niners back in a three way tie (6-1) with [...]]]>

The Niners were all smiles as Derrio Green lit UMass up with 34 points.

Derrio Green week in the Atlantic 10 came to a close with a 34 point peformance as the Niners defeated UMass at the Mullins Center 72-58.  The win puts the Niners back in a three way tie (6-1) with Temple and Xavier atop the league and with a 16-5 record are off to their best start since 2004-2005 when they ran out to a 21-4 record before losing their last four.

Green was at his best, connecting from both inside and out as he topped his outstanding 26 point performance earlier in the week against Temple.  Green connected on 8-16 from 3-point land and 9-19 overall.  Phil Jones was the only other Niner in double digits with 12, 7 of them coming consecutively in a run that took a perilous 3 point lead in the second half and extended it to 10.  The run included a three pointer and another where he seemed to have just one foot on the line.

For UMass, it was another dreadful night shooting the ball.  The Minutemen managed just 4 makes from 28 attempts from beyond the arc.  Ricky Harris was the leading scorer for UMass, scoring 25 on 11-24 shooting including 3-10 from outside.  Anthony Gurley was the only other player for the Minutemen in double figures, scoring 11 on 4-11 shooting and missing on all five of his attempts from deep.  Former Niner recruit Sean Carter had a solid game on the defensive end, grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking 4 shots.

Both teams opened the game trading buckets early on with Gurley hitting a basket to give UMass an early 9-6 lead.  A Shamari Spears put back and a Derrio Green three pointer gave the Niners their first lead, one they would not relinquish.  It was this first half where Green did most of his damage, scoring 21 points, including 5 three-pointers and a dazzling drive and finish near the rim on a difficult scoop-shot layup.  The outburst gave the Niners an 8 point lead at the half, 34-26.

The second half opened up with a sustained run by UMass that cut the Niner lead to just one at 37-36 on a Ricky Harris layup.  The narrow lead persisted over the next two minutes as the teams exchanged misses, turnovers, and fouls until An’Juan Wilderness broke a 4 minute scoring drought with a tough layup.  That’s when Jones took over, scoring the next 7 points including a 3-pointer about 4 feet behind the arc as the Niners re-built the lead back into double digits.  A parade of free throws by Charlotte extended the lead to 17 with 6 minutes to go.  However, the Niners appeared to lose focus a bit in the closing stretch of the game, allowing UMass to shrink the lead to 10 with about a minute to go with miscues by Charles Dewhurst and a pair of surprising turnovers by DiJuan Harris.

Overall it was a solid win for the Niners as they showed the team can win the trap games on the road, something Derrio Green acknowledged in his post-game comments.  For fans, it’s comforting to see his development, as it shows teams will have to choose their poison against the Niners:  try to shut down the Niner perimeter game?  Shamari Spears and Chris Braswell will hurt you inside.  Focus on limiting the interior game like UMass did tonight (Spears had 4 points on 2-8 shooting, Braswell with 7 on 2-6 shooting) and Derrio will make you pay.

Though the Niners were outrebounded on the night by 5 and UMass managed 12 offensive boards, this should come as little surprise.  As we mentioned in the pregame, the Minutemen are tough rebounders, particularly on the offensive glass.  The Niners managed to secure a victory in my personal favorite stat:  foul shooting.  Charlotte hit 21 of 30 FTAs, the makes being 9 more than UMass even attempted (9-12).  An advantage like that is very difficult to overcome and is a hallmark of tournament caliber teams coached by Bobby Lutz.

Up next for the Niners are the George Washington Colonials on Wednesday in Halton Arena followed by a trip to the Bronx to take on the Fordham Rams next Saturday.  A pair of victories and the Niners could be looking at their first trip into the Top 25 in 5 years.

Well that was pretty much the definition of awesome.  D-Fo had his birthday wish delivered in the form of a game-winning runner delivered by the hands of An’Juan Wilderness as time expired at Tom Gola Arena.  The basket broke a 82-82 tie [...]]]>

Wilderness provided the heroics with the game winner against La Salle.

Well that was pretty much the definition of awesome.  D-Fo had his birthday wish delivered in the form of a game-winning runner delivered by the hands of An’Juan Wilderness as time expired at Tom Gola Arena.  The basket broke a 82-82 tie with the La Salle Explorers and gave the Niners another impressive road victory as they try to keep place with Xavier and Temple at the top of the A10 standings.  The win sets up a battle for first place Wednesday against #16 Temple  in Halton Arena (7PM tip.  If you don’t have tickets yet I’m gonna hunt you down).

Coming out of the opening tip, the Niners pulled out to an early 8 point lead thanks in large part to the hot shooting of Derrio Green.  Green scored 9 straight points for the Niners on three 3-point baskets and layups by Chris Braswell and An’Juan Wilderness put Charlotte ahead 15-7.  La Salle would battle back with impressive shooting for long range of their own thanks to sensational Fr. C Aaric Murray.  Murray, despite the offensive explosion in the first half, would be limited in action for much of the game due to foul problems, which exacerbated an already thin bench for the Explorers thanks to injuries to Ruben Guillandeaux and Kimmani Barrett, the latter finding out he will likely miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his right foot.

The Niners would again build a first half lead, this time going to the inside game.  Shamari Spears, and in particular, Braswell scored often against the big La Salle frontcourt.  Braswell did his damage both on the floor and at the line, finish the game with another double-double (21 points, 13 rebounds and a very impressive 9-9 at the foul line).  The Explorers would again make a run to tighten the game at the half thanks to Yves Mekongo and Jerrell Williams, who found themselves frequently converting at the foul line in the latter minutes of the first half.  When the buzzer sounded to send the game to halftime, the Niners held a small 48-46 advantage.

The second half featured more of the same: the Niners building leads and the Explorers battling back.  The lead grew to as many as 11 points for the Niners, and they maintained a 5 point lead with just 2:03 remaining before the La Salle would make one last run.  A pair of Rodney Green free throws and a Yves Mekongo 3 pointer tied the game at 82 points apiece with just under a minute remaining.  A missed Derrio Green shot left the ball in La Salle’s hands with a chance to win and 25 seconds to work with -basically they could run the clock down and either win it or send it to overtime.

Not so fast.  An’Juan Wilderness played tough defense on Rodney Green on a pick and roll with Aaric Murray, causing Green to opt to pass to Murray who was cutting to the basket with possibly a dunk or layup to win it.  The pass however sailed off Murray’s fingers out-of-bounds giving the Niners one last chance with a little less than 5 seconds remaining.  The 49ers immediately inbounded the ball to An’Juan Wilderness who covered about three-quarters of the court an managed to get off a runner as time expired which found the bottom of the net, giving the Niners the stunning last second victory.  It was the 2nd win in 3 games that game on the last possession for the Niners who suddenly find themselves in the unfamiliar role of road warrior in A10 conference play.

The starters again shined for the Niners as they were responsible for 81 of the 84 points scored.  The lone bench points came from an Ian Andersen first half 3-pointer.  Leading the scoring charge for Charlotte was Shamari “Sherman” Spears who finished with 22 points on 7-12 shooting and 8-11 from the foul line.  Derrio Green was the third Niner to reach 20 points for the game, managing exactly that number on 6-14 shooting.  Derrio had another good game distributing the ball and leading the team with 7 assists on the game to go with just 1 turnover.  The provider of the last-second heroics, An’Juan Wilderness, also had a terrific game with 13 points on 6-7 shooting and adding 4 assists and 3 rebounds.  DiJuan Harris didn’t have his best game, fouling out in 33 minutes of action with 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists to go with 3 turnovers.  Credit Rodney Green for being a difficult matchup all game for Harris.

Despite being outrebounded by La Salle, the margin was not particularly bad.  Finishing just boards behind the Explorers, the Niners managed 11 offensive rebounds including 6 by Braswell.  Impressively, Charlotte handed out 23 assists on 27 made baskets as again the Niners did a fantastic job moving the ball on offense, including in transition.  Who is this team?  What have they done with my Niners of old???  Actually, don’t answer that question.  I just want to enjoy this.

In the end, the difference in the game was foul shooting by the Niners.  Most, if not all previous Niner teams under Lutz would have lost this game, but Charlotte coverted 23 of 28 foul shots, good for an 82.1% mark.  In contrast, La Salle only hit 16 of 23, which was good for 69.6%.

Next up, a first place tumble with the very tough and very well-coached Temple Owls.  Here’s to hoping we fill Halton Arena on Wednesday to give Fran Dunphy a not-so-warm welcome to the QC.  The average sports fan needs to know how good the Niners, Owls, and A10 are so be sure to get the word out!  See you on the 27th.

There was one casualty for the Niners tonight.  Charles Dewhurst went down late in the 2nd half with a leg injury.  No would yet from the team what the extent of it is, but rumors are an ankle injury.  We’ll update you when we get word on the extent of his injury.

What a game.  To beat Richmond in the Robins Center playing their style of basketball was truly a sight to behold for Niner fans.  On a night when Richmond could have set a new mark for home court dominance, the Niners dropped the Spiders 71-59 and [...]]]> Seriously?  We did that?  To Richmond?  Shut up.

What a game.  To beat Richmond in the Robins Center playing their style of basketball was truly a sight to behold for Niner fans.  On a night when Richmond could have set a new mark for home court dominance, the Niners dropped the Spiders 71-59 and re-invigorated talk of an at-large berth.

The game started out like most thought it would -Richmond capitalizing on Charlotte errors and misses to build a 27-20 lead.  From that point the Niners went on a 12-0 run over the final 4:49 to build a 32-27 halftime lead.  Keying the surge was seldom-used Javarris Barnett who snagged 3 rebounds, blocked a shot, and hit a three-pointer to provide a much needed spark off the bench.

In the second half, it was more of the same despite an early run at the outset to put the Niners in a brief deficit.  The most remarkable aspect of the game was the oft-mentioned patience the Niners exhibited in the half court offense, contrasting with Richmond seemingly dead set on shooting 3 pointers.  To the Niners credit, the latter was in good part due to some of the best defense the Niners have played all season.

One major area of concern, ball-handling, turned out to be the bane of the Spiders instead of the Niners as Richmond committed one more turnover and generated three less steals by game’s end.  On the boards, the Niners dominated grabbing 10 more loose balls.

To be honest, I thought I was in the twilight zone watching the game.  Practically every point I mentioned seemed to work as I hoped when writing the pregame.  Derrio did more than bring the ball up -he picked up 5 assists and 0 turnovers.  The bench provided a spark -Sirin hit a 3 and Javarris dropped a double-double!  Even Shamari picked up a pair assists although he still forced it a few times in traffic.  Regardless, Spears played a solid if not spectacular game, scoring 20 points as the Niners remained committed to feeding him in the post. Braswell also did his usual excellent job in the paint rebounding the ball and kept his cool when matched up with an obviously chippy Dan Geriot.

For Richmond it was a very tough loss.  The crowd was absolutely pathetic and UR fans should be ashamed.  The lone bright spot on the evening was the stellar play of Justin Harper who benefited from the attention paid to Kevin Anderson and David Gonzalvez, scoring 24 points on 8-11 shooting.

Going forward the Niners can ill-afford to look ahead to Temple.  La Salle remains a talented team with plenty of size and strong coaching.  As previous seasons can attest, winning on the road is very difficult.  Two straight on the road would be a feat for this team and a sign the team is coming together in the heart of the season.

Anybody remember the last time Saint Louis and Charlotte went down to the wire in Halton Arena? Saint Louis hit a game-winning alley-oop with only a few tics left on the clock to send the Niners home demoralized and ashamed.

But tonight, the tables [...]]]>

DiJuan celebrates after making the game winner. courtesy HP

Anybody remember the last time Saint Louis and Charlotte went down to the wire in Halton Arena? Saint Louis hit a game-winning alley-oop with only a few tics left on the clock to send the Niners home demoralized and ashamed.

But tonight, the tables were turned by Niner warrior DiJuan Harris and his game winner with 3 seconds left in overtime. Forget the missed free throws and the inability to keep a lead, that shot made the entire night worth it. Usually on the losing end of game winners, it was a breath of fresh air to see that ball hit the net and go through. Everyone in Halton Arena (all 35 of us, it seemed) erupted and celebrated going 2-1 in conference play. Here’s the crazy part. DiJuan Harris only made 2 FGs tonight, and they were both buzzer beaters, one at the end of the first half to take a 1-pt lead, and the other to win the game.

That said, I really hate Saint Louis. Not because of any conference affiliation or rivalry reasons, I just hate games we play against them. The ground-it-out and slow basketball is extremely tiring to watch and it is easy to find yourself bored. That’s probably part of the game plan, when you think about it. Bore the other team to lose. Make them not care anymore.

We got off to such a great start, mostly thanks to the great play of Derrio Green, but quickly found a way to squander the lead and make it a game. Got to give people their money’s worth, right? How Saint Louis, with their painfully slow offense, managed to erase a ten point margin in a few minutes is beyond this author. We have got to step on our opponents’ proverbial throats and never let up.

But who are we kidding, we know why the offense sputtered to a stall and Saint Louis came back so quickly. As much as we hate to call him out, Ian Andersen is killing our flow on offense AND defense. Got to love his heart and hustle, but the 5 minutes he was in the game in the first half felt like 50. Those minutes need to go to developing Sirin and Barnett at this point. Ian just doesn’t mesh with this group of guys. It’s time to move Ian to “spark off the bench when down or up by 15″. NLP said it best when he sent this text: When Bobby said Ian calms the team I think he actually meant sedates. Ian “Tranquilizer” Andersen, everybody.

Braswell and Spears impressed once again. Spears had eight turnovers, but his presence on the court demands respect and opens everything up for the rest of the squad. It was nice to see him grab rebounds tonight and get a double double (16 pts, 13 rbds). Braswell played like a seasoned member of the squad tonight, playing with 4 fouls through overtime but still playing aggressively and taking it to the Australian Cody Ellis. He’s already very good, and he’s going to be extremely good in the next few years.

Time for bullets, because the game is being rebroadcast and I want to pay attention.

The Good

• Derrio Green is awesome, going to be fun watching him through the next few seasons
• An’Juan Wilderness is becoming part of offense now and has started to assert himself
• We missed all seven of our threes, and still won
• K.J. Sherrill got 9 minutes and is developing nicely
• The Green, Black, and Gold Man suits in the student section

Put on your Green Tinted Glasses

• Ian Andersen is killing the flow of our offense
• Shamari needs to work on passing out of those double teams and not forcing it
• Phil Jones has seemingly regressed, but still has moments
• We let Saint Louis dictate the tempo after the first five minutes
• We didn’t make a three for the first time since 1989, wow!
• Gave away too many dunks