Rainmen blow chance to make playoffs

It is going to be a hard road forward from here. Playing with a starting lineup including Millien, we started slow. The ball movement has been much better of late but it seems like there are some basic things still missing from Rainmen play.
1) Crashing the boards. The team still looks surprised at some of the shot selection and is not crashing bodies in there. Sanders is missed. Also, we seem to lose our fair share of tipped balls on rebounds that the other team wants more than we do. As a fan, that is so frustrating. Guys have already started running up the floor instead of staying to ensure possession. Silverhorn looked extremely guilty of that. Crook and Millien and Bailey worked hard in there, but couldn't turn what they did get into boards.
2) Why do we continue to leave the PG alone to inbounds and it seems a surprise when people have to rush back to get the ball and get it up the floor? That blows my mind. I figure the 1,2,3 are first on the list to bring up the ball.
3) Foulshooting except to millien, everyone missed key shots that should have won the game. Nuff said on this blog about that.
4) Dandridge doesn't even look interested. He gave away two key passes on fast breaks and passed up his usual threes. Do him a favour and cut him now.
5) What has Hammack done? Pasted to the bench, no minutes. I understand we want more time for the other players, but Hammack creates off the dribble and doesn't take bad shots.
6) Players overplaying on defense. Ramey got burned three or four times playing right up on their point guard leading to points inside. Crook does the same thing inside.
7) Jimmy shooting the last three with 3 secs left. We could have gone inside to Millien, Silverhorn on the cut or even bennett in the lane. I was surprised by that.
8) The Voice heaving up some shots.. yikes..

Positives: Workrate is much better with this team, unfortunately we are still making mental mistakes.
FS can only get better.. lol
Millien has looked good.
Ball movement has been better and some good interior passing leading to higher percentage shots. We just need to focus on hitting the layup/ dunk when we are inside.
I like our four big set with ramey on ball, Crook, Millien, Bailey, Strick. We seemed to get some good movement inside and lots of fouls shots obviously. That leads me to think the game planning was very good, but the execution poor.

It's going to be very tough to make playoffs with this little run as we need to win out and have a little help from everyone else to knock Vermont and Wilmington down. We have a couple tough games coming up as well with Kebs.

Notes; CP was on the IR so we tried to carry the heckling load. That was tough
Collier was on fire as was Sanders. He is only like 21 by the way.
My boy, Bryant, missed a massive dunk, but so did we.
Saw the lads at Boston Pizza after the game. vermont guys we decent fellas as we partied with the Super Fans Dick and Linda. Bryant and Sanders had a bad case of flu, they were hurting units so Sanders game was even more impressive.
Good luck on the road Rainmen, it seems like it is coming together but maybe too late.

Rainmen roll...over

This was a devastating loss for the Rainmen. A win would have put them comfortably in the seat for playoff birth as a wildcard. Instead, they laid a dud for coach Berry. The crowd was pumped but the players didn't respond. It was the first game in a while that it seemed like players just quit.

I have spoken before about how hard it is to build a fanbase with a constantly changing squad. It will be tough as I imagine the turnover of players could be large again. To be honest, I would see Bailey, Crook, Jimmy and maybe Ramey, McNeal and Silverhorn coming back for another year. If Millien plays well he could move up and Bennett seems bound for greater things, while Dandridge and Hammack have seen a major reduction in minutes and will go elsewhere for time.

The offense was poor from the beginning with Bennett continuing his terrible 3 point shooting this weekend ending up 3-16 over two game. It is amazing because his points in the paint cause all kinds of problems and allow other players to scratch for boards and points. Lets get the reigns on him and get him in the paint and kicking out. Our 3 pt shooting was horrendous all weekend with Silverhorn, Jimmy and Bennett missing many. Today we shot 20%, brutal. Hammack and Dandridge look like they have lost all confidence from the Lewis era.

That being said, the Kebs hit everything it seemed like. While they were only 46%, a lot of those misses came in the 4th when the game was done. EC again got exposed defensively and we were weak inside defensively. Our inability to get him in the offence showed today. The loss of Rob is showing in the paint. Bailey had a solid game with 12-9 and a couple assists and steals. Zach played some good defense today and Millien showed his 1v1 skills. I was also surprised the jeanty only had 7 points as he added instant impact to the game as did Strick. Strick worked hard but I would rather see him get the points than draw the fouls. That shooting is ugly Striquile!

The running commentary with their bench for the fourth quarter kept us entertained as Sweatpants, Bling and Simplice were hilarious. so it looks ike Hammack, Dandridge and Tyrone are getting mostly frozen out, making us a 9 player squad right now. I don't know if that is enough to carry us to the playoffs, but hopefully. It was hard to find many positives from the games at all as jean Phillippe and Anderson killed us.

Here's to hoping another week of practise gets us right.

Everton resilient in FA Cup

Another huge win at home for the Blues. An early lead through yo0ungster Rodwell , despite a penalty against Hibbert started a huge game for Blues. We had a dominant possession as AV missed Barry a lot. I also felt that when Laursen went down, he was the rock that their counter-attacking style is based on. Cahill and Anichebe dominated vs Knight and Davies and rightly so. Don't have a lot of time to go through this but Mikel had a phenomenal game and I thought our central midfielders really dominated v petrov and sidwell. Anyway, a great result and here are my player stats for the day:
Howard- 9- a huge tip save and many solid punches. Could have stopped the penalty.
Baines-8- not attacking a lot but helped keep the lid on Milner
Lescott-7- did most of what he had to, but looked shaky in parts when AV attacked
Jags- 8- very good
Hibbert-8 -gave away the pen, but a solid game against a great atatcker
Gosling-7- not sold on him yet, nose for goal, but tries the same move a lot, looked only ok defensively
Arteta-9 nuff said
Neville-8- played his role
Rodwell- 9- really stepped up today
Anichebe-9- aggressive running, held the ball up, won the pen, didn't complain or fall over
Cahill-10- goals, ball control, pesky against backline, won headers at both ends and is generally a superstar..

Rainmen roll continues

I will continue on what CP had to say. Gill is a dirty player. He was taking cheapshots at Bennett especially when the play was done and the game was near over. He is obviously a talented player, but his mindset is all wrong. I really felt like Sections 22-24 got in his head and it sounded like there was good help from across the floor. Too many unnecessary threes.

I was happy at halftime when they closed to 8 points down and felt like they were going to win. With a coach like Les Berry, I feel so much more comfortable that adjustments will be made. He got them working around the zone with quick ball movement and more layups and short range Js plus fastbreak than in the first half. I didn't realise til afterwards that most of Bennett's points came in the paint as "The Voice" was 2-10 from 3. Dandridge-esque. Speaking of which, why, why, why? Why does he continue to heave up three balls. If he can work within the offence, I am sure he will get minutes and the points will come. Great game from EC with 19 and 12 and I felt Bailey played ok with some stats that don't show up on the sheet- defending his man and changing shots in the paint. I hope we don't lose too many minutes from him when Millien shows up. Hopefully with him playing the five, he will continue to thrive, but I can see minutes going elsewhere.

A few concerns. After a week of practise, we still don't have the offense as crisp as possible.
Strick, Jeanty and EC got taken to school by their forwards yesterday.
Our best defenders are Bennett, Jimmy, Zach and Bailey.
Lots of missed rebounding opportunities.
Focus dropped off after a great start to the game.
Outrebounded again. Millien/ Bailey can probably take care of this.

Highlights: 1) Zach pass to Hammack for layup
2) Zach/ bennett's D on Gill
3) Highlight plays including the 2 man alley-oop- amazing
4) EC starting to get back to form
5) Great work rate

Lets hope for another big win Sunday!

KFED rocks the party

c'mon.. it had to be didn't it? He played as well as I imagine that K_fed would. Shame on RS for no Brittney moments!

Rainmen's new coach rings the changes

What a game again! The difference between a nice guy and a bball coach is obvious. I am trying to get my fingers going here. Had a couple few and it was a good time. Section 22-24 were representing all night. Les Berry = More wins is a common chant. Les went with the players who we thought would be contributors in his system. Bailey, Jimmy, Bennett, Cordell, Silverhorn, Zach and EC performed at the expected levels. I have some issues with the scoring and not just for the Bailey bias. I know he had a couple blocks during that game and even though they went to other teams, they should be his. I remember at least 2.

We all have a feeling that it will take a couple weeks. I thought that Hammack and EC looked lost but that after a few practises they will be up to speed as the rest of the team will. Overall the defensive intensity was amazing even though we got outrebounded. The ability of all our players to get loose in the paint led to free points for all players. I am sure that EC had more than 2 points as I remember a dunk and a three point play, can't wait to see the boxscore tomorrow.

Big losers in the new system seem to be Dandridge and Strick. I think that both players will get more minutes overall but are being encouraged with defensive intensity and playing smart. I think they have the capability and need to show it. I did miss Ec's crazy dunks, but that will start to come along with the free baskets that this offense will bring.

Great work les and team, we look forward to an even better game next week.

Rainmen finally make the change

A short version today as the papers and Parsons are all over this. The Rainmen fired Lewis and are looking for a new head coach. I loved what Lucas and Parsons wrote today and the positivity in the building could be amazing if Andre pulls the trigger and brings back EC. This could be a huge midseason boost to the squad and hopefully propel them to the playoffs. I know it hurts to fire a coach at any level, but I think everyone knew this needed to be done now rather than at the end of the year. The return of EC should boost attendance. A new coach can bring new dynamics to the team. We now have four weeks left to gel and make playoffs. Lets make it happen.

PS.. Starting lineup, EC , Strick, Sanders, Silverhorn and Jimmy. The subs become easy as you bring Kevin/ Tony for Jimmy, Cordell/ Bailey for Sanders, Dandridge for Brian and Ramey/ Bailey for EC when you want to go smaller.. Come on Rainmen.