LIU Wrapup

Well we saw some of Central's flaws shine through tonight. The Devils need a third ballhandler. They need to avoid foul trouble by not letting players get by them and forcing them to make bad fouls on recovery attempts. The pressure defense needs to get back to scoring points.
And they need to penetrate zones, not become limited to shooting over them.
And they need a fourth scorer to develop. Not another 15 point guy mind you, but someone who can take some heat off of Central's trio.
I didn't have a problem with Vince Rosario taking the last shot. Shooters are shooters, and they don't think about the last six shots. My objection came from how quickly they took the shot. 23 seconds left, there's still plenty of time to try and work the ball to Ken Horton or Rob Ptacek.
The kid tried to make a play, so you can't get on him too much. He just didn't make the right play.
Still, Vince Rosario was far from the reason Central lost this one. To figure out why this happened, let's play man-to-man.

De'Angelo Speech: Looks like he can be that emergency ball-handler as he develops. 4 assists. Added 4 boards and a couple steals in 20 minutes. Can't complain there.

Joe Efese: Coach Howie Dickenman has a quick hook with Efese as he continues to try to drill into his head the need for consistency from the sophomore. But I think it's starting to work. He's coming along again.

Devan Bailey: Just couldn't stay out of foul trouble long enough to be effective on either end of the floor. Which is a shame, because he's been really good of late. The last turnover was not a thing of beauty, either.

Robby Ptacek: For a half he looked like he wa on his way to a record-setting day. But he disappeared down the stretch. LIU focused heavily on he and Horton, so it wasn't like they stopped trying. But he was needed late.

Ken Horton: Same thing. On the surface, his game was amazing. 31 points, fantastic shooting percentages. But if you check the play-by-play, you won't find his name connected to too many positive plays in the final nine minutes. Again, it's hard to fault a guy who scored 31 points, but he needs to get the killer instinct back. His last basket came with 9:12 left.

Vince Rosario: Keep shooting Vince. Shooters shoot and Central doesn't have many long-range threats. If I'm a coach I'd rather have a guy try too hard than not hard enough.

Shemik Thompson: His first game without the mask. Eight assists and three turnovers. More importantly, he seemed to raise his game in the final minutes. He and Rosario were the only aggressive Blue Devils late.

Chris Baskerville: I take that back. Baskerville attacked the rim whenever someone got him the ball in the final minutes. He's getting more minutes and starting to make an impact.

Terrell Allen: Needs to be better, not only to earn more time, but to take some heat off of Speech.