1. This team in the past 5 weeks from a team that played competitively with a few minutes of brain dead basketball per half to a team that plays brain dead basketball with a few minutes of competitiveness per half.

2. It’s one thing if you go through some offensive droughts and have some defensive limitations, you can stay in the game if you just do the little things until the shooting comes around. Like not treat the ball like a hand grenade. There are different variations of turnovers. The amount of completly unforced and unnecessary ones that BC commits is just staggering. Dribbling off your foot at half court uncontested, whipping passes across the lane to a double covered teammate who by the way, because he is double covered, isn’t even looking at the ball, long passes that end up in the third row. Cut the crap with the turnovers and stop losing shooters REPEATEDLY on the defensive end and you can weather the storm.

3. Post has checked out

4. Earl complementing his players for playing hard in the second half in a double digit loss. This really pissed me off. A lot.

5. The thought of Harris being the guy we are counting on for 20ppg next year. Getting a strong whiff of Eli Carter here. I am all for letting guys shoot their way out of a slump, but maybe when you aren’t actually a good shooter there should be some discretion here.

6. But the problem is who else?

7. Just nothing ever easy on the offensive end. No easy buckets. When they do get an odd man rush, Barnum &Bailey come to town. Put a tent over that whole circus. It’s disgusting no mas.

8. What does Molinari do.., this teams defensive attention span is offensive.

9. Chas..

What do you guys think of having separate threads for the series? Like or, prefer to keep in the original Birdball 2024 thread?

Anyways, The Birds head to Arlington for a 3 game weekend series to take on the Mavericks. I'm sure there is an old Waylon Jennings song of a similar title, but the action kicks off tomorrow night a 7pm ET, games will be on ESPN+.

The Mavs, coached by long time Rice and Oklahoma asst Clay Van Hook, are 2-3 , starting with an impressive road series split vs a strong AAC team in UT San Antonio, and then a midweek one-sided loss to a ranked Texas Tech.

A 29-29 team a year ago, as part of the Sun Belt, they move to the baseball burgeoning WAC, where they are projected to finish in the top 3rd of the league. They are known as strong offensive team overall and will pose a challenge to some of the younger Bird pitchers.

The offense is lead by So 2B Tyler Black, a lefty swinger who's already listed among BA's top 100 prospects for the 2025 draft (this includes HS and college players), and TCU Xfer CF Garrison Berkley- a RH doubles machine, with speed. RF Tyson Pointer is coming off a really strong year where he had 26 xbhs, and Juco C Parker Airhart is off to a fast start w 3 XBHs. Saint Mary's xfer Ryan Ellis is the only other lefty I see, so I think the pitching matchup is favorable from that standpoint, esp West and Farinelli.

While known as an offensive club (some of this is the matchups vs a strong UTSA staff and Texas Tech), but only 10 BBs in 4 games vs 38Ks, only 2 steals and 0 sac bunts. So I don't know if they are a grinding type O like we saw from Cal for example, or an overly aggressive one like we see from some of the ACC teams. They've made 4 errors, and seem to be a typically strong defensive "Texas" style team.

On the mound, what they lack in experience, may be made up for some of the quality they can throw. Their staff is full of xfers, many of which are from P5 schools. Jr Lefty Caden Noah got their Friday start, a former Texas P struck out 7 in 5+ innings vs only 1 BB. He's a bit undersized, but he's your typical pitch ability lefty- not too dissimilar to what we saw from Colarusso vs K State.

Fr Caylon Dygert came in as one of the top Fr in the WAC and didn't disappoint in his debut Sat, although with one of the oddest stat lines. He threw 8 innings, walked 1 batter, and gave up 8 hits, but 0 ERs (1unearned) and ZERO strikeouts to go along with that, for a game UTSA ultimately won on a walk off single 2-1. Oklahoma RHP xfer Aaron Calhoun prob has the best "stuff" on the team, but has never thrown consistent enough strikes, he got their Sunday start- with mixed results in a 7-2 loss. He can bump to 95ish with a good change, so if he's in a groove, he'll pose a challenge.

Sr RHP Zach Norris had a nice line in the 2nd game of a Sunday DH to salvage the spilt for the Mavs. He'll pound the zone w a low 90s sinker to set up his slider, not too dissimilar to what we saw from K State SP Ty Ruhl last Sat. In the pen, they have a strong closer candidate in lefty Jacob Hasty, an xfer from Missouri with some power stuff. Fr RHP Nick Robb and a lefty triumvirate of Cade McClade, Harrison Hammond, and Sam Collins will be used in key matchups. This is where some of the Birds depth can come into play and using a Roche, Collins, Deshazo, Mercado, and Caraher off the bench can counter that.

I expect the same SP rotation West Fri, AJ Sat, and Farinelli Sunday. Mudd will be used as the rover, maybe if they don't use him Friday, he gets the start Sat, but would have to think they like what he gives out of the pen.

No word yet on Ryan or Nunan's availability. Def a winnable series, not a lock to sweep, so I won't be bummed if they don't, but I do expect a series win.

UPDATE: I think Nunan is fine, based soley on him throwing on the team's Instagram post yesterday.

Told spring ball officially kicks off 3/11

His pressers after losses are starting to look and sound like Hafley's...

Has anyone seen the complete list? Is BOB done? Did he keep Duggan or anyone else on Defense?

Nm

as OC ... if this was noted in another thread, apologies

This is my 1st time covering a major hire for BC and HOLY CRAP I don't know how you all put up with this process...

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TV: ACCN 2pm
Line: BC +6.5
Kenpom: NCSU 77-73
Do we need this win to make the NCAA: No
Will bshay21 bet this?: Yes.
Bshay21's bet: Straight moneyline, homie. BC +210.

Say it isn’t so. Only 3 possible more loses. Oops, end of season and hopefully the end of the coach and staff. AD, grow a pair and do what needs to be done. And shut up ABLE

Can either Grant or McNamee for the love of God please call a timeout to adjust or reboot the d/o on the court and stop the other team on a run.? It is making me crazy!

Mercy Rule invoked halfway through the first quarter. BC plays Pitt on Sat at 1. ESPN+

I like Earl Grant. He seems passionate about basketball and helping the players on his team. I think his focus on a process and continual development is good. He seems a systems guy. He wants to put in a system of playing and a certain culture. He has been able to recruit better players than the previous two coaches. I think the team has improved. Earl's teams have won more ACC games than recent BC teams.

All that said, i think Earl has his limits. I see the team has not developed a rigorous defensive system. In the game against FSU, the amount of lay-ups - mostly uncontested - was nauseating. No help on defense, confusion on who was covering who in crucial possessions. Despite some great development in Post and Glock, his recruits - JZ, Hand, Kelly- do not seem to develop into better players. On Offensive, again in crucial possessions, the players seem lost and the best talent is not leveraged. His rotations are puzzling at best. It is only 3 years but some of Earl's short coming are emerging.

Time has come to replace Earl before the talent in recruiting goes down. a hire with the reputation of an O'Brien would be the best thing this program can do.... We can wait 3 or 4 more years and the team will slowly sink to the bottom of the ACC. Hire now while the team is close to winning 50% of its conference games and communicate that BC wants a winner. Earl has done a pretty good job. He has helped improve the team but he is not the coach to take BC basketball to the next level....

When TJ Powers signed up with Duke, I was wondering with Duke's back court of all-americans, it could be a risk he sees significant playing time or will it turn into a Alex Murphy episode. It turned out TJ hardly getting any minutes unless it's clearing bench time. Obviously, the kid has been reading too much about himself on media clippings. With the lack of backcourt depth and skill players, he could have earned serious minutes with BC. Like A. Murphy, he set the bar too high!