Western Carolina game

[app97]

I attended the game. We lost for the second straight year to a very bad WCU. We were clearly not well conditioned in the second half. Standing stationary. Western was in better shape. Officiating was bad both ways. No advantage to the home team. Kinney was out of control. We had a clear path for running down the clock after regaining the lead, which we should give credit to the team for doing, but then threw up a brick from 30! Very disappointed.

Western’s strategy was to slow the game WAY down because they knew they couldn’t run with us, just like last year. It worked once again...that and the fact that we couldn’t get a hand in the face if those two long range shooters.

[app97]

It doesn't take a rebuild to teach and play hard, scrappy defense. Doesn't really take spectacular talent... It takes spectacular effort. I am disappointed that Fox hasn't brought a Mikillop/Davidson mentality to our team since he's been here... I'm not a "boo-bird" either, this is reality.

That mentality you’re referring to worked out a lot better for us than Davidson when McKillop brought his team up the mountain. In fact, Davidson looked like the sluggish team to me. I was at the game last night, and our players did play hard. That’s a staple of Fox’s teams. We played some really good defense as well, but 2 WCU players were unconscious from deep. They just ran #2 off of screens all night and it worked, that and slowing the tempo way down into a half court game. We had more blocks than I’ve seen in a long time, and quite a few hustle plays, put backs, tip ins, and offensive rebounds. Cantwell was right beside me and I heard him commenting on how good Kinney’s footwork is. Also, Ike Johnson is a beast on the glass. We’ve outrebounded pretty much everybody this year. All that being said, last night really did sting. I felt bad for our players. I still can’t believe we lost that game.

[Sultan of Swing]

My son and I were among the 15 or so App State supporters at the game last night. Very disappointing to say the least. WCU is not a bad team by any means. Their student section was loud and active. Great atmosphere. Free Throw shooting was abysmal. No way should the "big man" be allowed to handle the ball as much as he does. The results there were predictable. I'm very hopeful for this team but would very much like to see us play "in control" more often. Forrest and Shabazz are talented offensive players and Johnson has a ton of potential.

[bigCasu]

I attended the game. We lost for the second straight year to a very bad WCU. We were clearly not well conditioned in the second half. Standing stationary. Western was in better shape. Officiating was bad both ways. No advantage to the home team. Kinney was out of control. We had a clear path for running down the clock after regaining the lead, which we should give credit to the team for doing, but then threw up a brick from 30! Very disappointed.

This game had some veteran officials on the floor. Very disappointing to say the least from that perspective. Gary Maxwell and John & Brent Hampton. Surprised by many calls, especially the last one. Seems Western was underneath us all game long. A lot of turnovers, but, worse was that 11 of the 16 were steals by Western. We are better than that.

[Stonewall]

Count me as tired of excuses for losing yet another winnable game. On the brightside, we don't play UNCA....

[AppStateNews]

I don't get two things from this game..

1) they had us singled up in the post with a foul to give -- why did we not foul?
2) once they did score, why not call the timeout to set up a play? Had plenty of time to get to half court, call time out, and run a play. I know some coaches philosophies are different on this and can accept that as the reason. But we should have at the very least fouled the guy in the post with a foul to give.

[wncapp78]

“Western is not terrible”.....
Western IS a terrible team. They are a bottom 40 team out of 315 D1 basketball schools. And we’ve shown no indication we’re improving against them.

[asu66]

“Western is not terrible”.....
Western IS a terrible team. They are a bottom 40 team out of 315 D1 basketball schools. And we’ve shown no indication we’re improving against them.

Not exactly! 351 D-I teams. Western is in the bottom 76.

https://kenpom.com

These ratings mean absolutely zero until mid-January or so. This also applies to all of those two-dozen "RPI" sites on the 'net. The current algorithms are simply worthless. Not enough current data to "measure or rank" anything.

[Stonewall]

I only have so many "next years" left .

[agentpaul001]

This was disappointing, but we are absolutely a better team then last year.

It's not as though the Sun Belt is a strong basketball conference. My hope is we can stay over .500 in league play, get a first round Bye in Sunbelt tournament (if this year's structure hasn't changed), and have some fun in the Sun Belt Tournament. Troy went last season off the strong play of Varnado in the SB tournament. Not inconceivable that Shabazz and the team could go off for a few games.

[Appstate88]

I can only hope losing the game will change the basketball team just as losing to Liberty did for our football team back in 2014.

If we truly have all the pieces to be a good team.....it’s time to flip the switch...tired of losing the games we should win.

[WataugaMan]

I can only hope losing the game will change the basketball team just as losing to Liberty did for our football team back in 2014.

Many thought the same thing after the JMU loss a couple weeks back, however...............

[wncapp78]

Or the home loss to WCU last year.

[Appftw]

Did anyone else notice that Western had their entire band (500 strong) in attendance? That’s hilarious to me. We’d go deaf if we put the whole BOD in Holmes lol. Their desperation may have worked tho, because we were a little off, but hey it happens. I think we’ll be fine. App basketball is fun to watch again. Yay!

[wncapp78]

They also had thousands of students, something our students have not done to support our team.

[Appftw]

They also had thousands of students, something our students have not done to support our team.

3300 for this game according to ESPN, but their first home game this season had a whopping 980 people. If we start winning more consistently I think students will take notice.

[wncapp78]

We all hope we start winning more consistently. But we’re not. Therein lies the problem.

[app97]

They also had thousands of students, something our students have not done to support our team.

They always come out in droves when App is in town. It’s their super bowl. They care about beating us more than anything in the world. They had a pretty enthusiastic 3800 in that gym when we played there a few years ago. Last nights crowd was not quite as into it. I’m sure the free pizza,etc helped a ton. Our athletic dept could learn something from how WCU they promoted that game. We, however hardly ever play an in state rival that anyone cares about.

[app97]

Did anyone else notice that Western had their entire band (500 strong) in attendance? That’s hilarious to me. We’d go deaf if we put the whole BOD in Holmes lol. Their desperation may have worked tho, because we were a little off, but hey it happens. I think we’ll be fine. App basketball is fun to watch again. Yay!

They’ve done that with the band a few times before, I think when they’ve been on tv. They did it last night because of how much they think of us as a rival. It was their biggest, most important game in along time in that gym....probably since last time we were there. I will say that their marching band program is a big recruiting mechanism for the school. Some kids go to WCU just for the band. I’ve taught several kids that could have gone to other universities that chose WCU for the band program...also despite the smaller university size, they have more kids in their band. They are good, but it was sort of overkill in a b-ball arena. I had a headache when I left there last night due to the sound and the frustration of seeing us give up another close game.

[Stonewall]

Still stewing as I have heard from a few WCU alums over the past couple of days.Seems to validate about everything stated on here. One post note:our strategy of giving one particular player the ball in clutch situations has not worked. He's a tremendous athlete and a good player but he isn't a " clutch" player.We need a " go to guy" and he's proven that his decision making , and free throw shooting ,can't be counted on.It cost us at JMU and now WCU .Perhaps Forrest can step up into that roll.