Bengals, our Friends Up North

[oldrunner]

The Bengals have been mostly down this year, but have shown signs of life a time or two. They have a relatively strong front court and their back court has been improving as the season has progressed. They are capable of beating anyone in the BSC on a given night. However, they have been inconsistent and their level of play has not met expectations.

On paper, you might think this one would be easy. However, we have also proven to be inconsistent and we don't have any easy games left on our schedule. ISU always gives us their best game and I don't expect that to change. I feel that all of our remaining games can be expected dog fights.

What I would like to see is a concerted effort to get to the glass, both offensively and defensively. I would also like to see us reacquaint ourselves with playing great defense. To some extent, we have walked away from what was making us a good team.

 

[Chex]

The Wildcats look like a completely different team from when they beat the Summit teams…don’t know if there is some infighting going on the team or what. The high energy defense has been missing, Verplanken has struggled shooting and Jones is having to take more shots making them more easy to defend.

Hope they can regain form and get hot at tournament time. Sitting in the bottom tier right now and look nothing like a preseason favorite.

 

[Chex]

Wow this season is last season in reverse. This year great start and getting worse as time goes on. This team is in a total tailspin. They worked hard to get back in the game and then chucked up a bunch of threes after getting the game tied. Looks like there might have been some trash talking in the postgame handshake line. Hoping it will wake them out of their crappy starts.

Honestly, I think they got a little caught up on their own hype…3-5 in conference ought to shake them out of that. All that matters is the tournament, but you can’t expect to flip a switch and play well then. Hope Duft and staff can get this turned around.

 

[CrazyJ]

No way should this much talent be performing like this, instead of a symphony, we get Molly Hatchet.

Really pains to see this disjointed teamwork. It doesn’t seem as if there is a plan on either defense or offense. Just nothing that they can claim as there signature thing.

I remember walking on campus my first time and just across the street flashed a sign congratulating Weber on being in the top 20 in the country. I was new on the football team and it blew me away. I had no idea that Weber was such a basketball powerhouse. I was an out of state recruit.

I was expecting to feel that again, this year. NBA draft choice with a solid supporting crew. I mean, at least win the Big Sky. Make a showing in The Dance.

God damned shame! I ain’t getting any younger.

 

[oldrunner]

It's certainly not over, but it isn't looking good right now.Seems like we would play 20 seconds of good D and then someone would fall asleep and let them score a layup. On O we were passing when we should have been shooting and shooting when we should have been passing. When we weren't doing one of those two things, we were just throwing the ball out of bounds.

Something needs to be changed or some players need to be sitting out a while to think about if they really want to play or not.

I will say this, Vartiainen is going to be really good. Through good and bad, his demeanor doesn't change a bit. I like our guys. I just don't like the enthusiasm, or lack there of, they are playing with right now. They seem to turn it up for short stretches, but that isn't going to win you many games.

 

[wildog]

5 losses in big sky after 8 games is shocking. With 5 starters returning this was going to be the year to win the Big Sky. NOT! Why would we expect anything different. This is the same old Randy Rahe play that Weber has had for the last 8 years. Under performance is the standard for Weber State since the 2017 season. 8 years since we last made it to the NCAA. This is completely unacceptable. But the administration and fans continue to accept it and hope for better things next season. We should demand more. Expect more. I've been attending Weber games since 1965. That's a lot of games. I've seen so much success and winning. I'm hopeful that better days are coming. But at this point it looks like we'll have to wait for next season again.

 

[talhadfoursteals]

Went to the game on Saturday. Won't be back again this season. Actually, I might not come back as long as Duft is the coach. Around 8 years ago, Randy changed his offense. The donut hasn't worked the previous years, why would it suddenly work this year? Weber needs points, what does Duft do? Chuck threes! Get Jones's butt in the low post. He is far more efficient inside the arc than he ever will be outside of it. We have to go back to Larry Farmer's first year to see such a waste of talent on the court. Funny thing, there was a Crompton leading the show then too. Hmmm, some things never change.