2018/19 Portsmouth Trojans

[LucasDavenport]

I know. You speak the truth.

Shot selection can make or break you.

And sometimes you are open for a reason

[Ironman92]

I know. You speak the truth.

Shot selection can make or break you.

And sometimes you are open for a reason

I could ruin this this thread with all my thoughts on that topic...but I won’t.

Good luck to the Trojans the rest of the way.

[CGFAN#1]

The Coal Grove Hornets continued their dominance of Portsmouth with a lopsided 64-33 win. This was the Trojans poorest effort of the season overall, as the offense, other than Matthew Fraulini, was non-existent. The defense in the 2nd half allowed too many open layups by CG. Coal Grove has now won 5 of the last 6 vs. Portsmouth. The Trojans fell to 6-10 on the season and 2-6 in the OVC. Fraulini had 19 of Portsmouth's 33 points. PHS made 26 turnovers vs. Coal Grove, which is the 2nd highest total of the season.

The 31 point margin of loss was one of the largest in Portsmouth's home history. Other large margins of defeat included a 96-61 drubbing by Ironton in 1996, a 55-25 loss to Wheelersburg in the early 90's, a 95-59 loss to Columbus Marion-Franklin in 1993. Portsmouth's record of 6-10 also could be headed for history if things don't turn around. The most losses in PHS history was 18 in 2007, when the Trojans recorded a dubious 4-18 mark. The 1962 Trojans went 1-17 after losing all but one player from their 1961 state championship team. This team has to win at least 1 game to avoid tying the 1961 team. The 2006 team lost 16 games (6-16).

What looms ominous for the rest of this season and the 2019-2020 season is the severe lack of outside shooting that the Trojans possess, and the large amount of turnovers that have plagued Portsmouth virtually every game. If the perimeter shooting woes and ball handling does not improve between now and next season, the Trojans will be staring down another losing season......not much will change, if anything. They will be a team struggling to stay out of last place in the OVC in 2019-2020.

These things have to be said......anybody who grew up in Portsmouth, graduated from Portsmouth HS, and has watched so many great teams through the years, the current basketball that is being played is hard to watch. As I have said before, Coach Collins is in a difficult situation when he has a team that simply can't shoot and can't take care of the basketball. I have been to practice, and the coaches work on these deficiencies but when game time comes, the same problems arise. What is also alarming is that the Trojans have not been competitive for the last month.....they have getting beaten by double digits routinely.

For the first time all year, I saw a good number of Trojan fans leaving after the 3rd quarter......an unthinkable sight, but when you're team is not competitive, that's what happens.

One parent remarked to me after the game "This is unwatchable". That parent was absolutely right. Just maybe the Trojans can be at least a watchable team the rest of the season, regardless of win/loss record. At least be competitive......we have shortcomings, but one of them should not be being competitive. That has to come from the heart. We can be competitive, and we certainly shouldn't get blasted by 31 points on our home court.


Portsmouth has too much of a great basketball tradition to start heading in the other direction.

LOVE MY TROJANS!! GO TROJANS!!

Trojan Dave always good insight about all teams especially Portsmouth. From a basketball fan perspective with no kid playing HS basketball I feel Portsmouth should be much more competitive. Maybe it is heart, maybe lack of community support, maybe it is talent, maybe coaching or all of the above but strictly from my basketball opinion and not coming from a negative place I have seen many teams be very competitive with only one pure shooter. Fraulini arguably is the purest shooter in the OVC but the biggest weekness I see is a lack of offensive scheme and that matches this team. Players are shooting shots they have no reason shooting. No unselfish offense all one on one and defensive intensity is poor. This team should be all movement with back screens and low block picks and Fraulini floating all around the perimeter for inside out dishes. Defensively all press keeping the game up tempo so the athletes can play in space. This team should not be in last place especially with Shipp and Fraulini. I wish Ptown and the rest of the OVC all the best and hopefully they can a have a few good quality wins for momentum going into next year.

[trojandave]

LucasDavenport, Ironman92,and CGFan #1: Thanks for your comments, and for the most part I agree with them. Having watched the Trojans every game, I am in tune with what kind of effort they give on the court. Against Ironton, Gallia Academy, South Webster, and Coal Grove, I felt that the Trojans noticeable lack of jump shooting was very evident, and when the games became double digit deficits, their defense lapsed. I saw too many open layups with no contention by the Trojans (Coal Grove/Ironton in the 2nd half). In the Gallia game, Portsmouth did a very poor job of allowing the Blue Devils way too many 2nd chances, and that led to a lopsided victory. Against South Webster, I thought we did a good job on Shiloh, but once again we gave them too many 2nd chances, and then in the 2nd half we didn't guard Bradon Bockway, who had a big game against us last year.

I'm not much of an X's and O's guy........I tend to look at the game with more of a simple mindset, but as far as running a particular offense or defense, I don't analyze too much in that aspect. I look at ballhandling, boxing out, passing, shooting, and leave the more complex parts of the game to the people who like to do that sort of thing. I know that we are seriously lacking in perimeter shooting with the exception of Fraulini. That fact alone makes it really hard to run an effective offense. I've always maintained that no matter what offense you run, you have to have ball skills to make it work. Setting screens and having effective spacing is minimized when you don't have a team whose primary weakness is shooting and ballhandling. Athletically, Portsmouth can match about anybody, but the effort has to be there, and at times, their athleticism has been negated by their own doing, not hustling when they should, not contesting shots when they can, and not showing the fight necessary when you get down on the scoreboard.

Coach Collins has been at PHS 10 years, and I think I can safely say that he runs the same system today that he ran when he first started. One of the big differences is that this year's team has the least amount of outside shooting threats that I've seen since he took over. You can't win a game with just layups and drawing fouls, and hope that the one legitimate shooter has a hot night. Running the most effective offensive scheme will not win a game if you can't shoot. Jump shots are an essential component of running an offense, and that is a void on the Trojans offensive end of the court. In football and baseball, a team can shut out the other team. Not so in basketball......you have to able to score because you're not going to shut the other team out. That doesn't mean you don't play defense, of course it's important, but defense alone will not win you a basketball game.

All 4 teams that Portsmouth lost to this past week has better skill players than Portsmouth, especially on the offensive end. Every one of those 4 teams had multiple jump shooters, whereas the Trojans clearly did not. Matthew Fraulini is a terrific player, and would be even better if he had more offensive support around him. Last year, he did......this year, he doesn't.

Yes, Portsmouth is playing some young players, and there has to be some slack given to those kids. But for them, this is a developmental year and now is the time to incorporate jump shooting into their offensive game. Ideally, I want every player to be an offensive threat, and personally I don't care if they go 0-7 from the field. They have to make themselves at least a threat to score, and that comes by shooting. Opposing coaches have and will continue to game plan against Portsmouth to minimize Fraulini's impact, and make the other players beat them. So far, that plan has worked well.......and really, what can Coach Collins do about it? You have to be able to put the ball in the basket or the greatest offensive scheme in the world won't work, especially so if kids are reluctant to shoot.

What I expect going forward starting tonight at South Point is great effort on both ends of the court.......I don't expect a win, but instead I want to see the Trojans be competitive, and that's a fair request. Demanding/expecting a win is not fair to the players or coaching staff.......demanding effort is totally fair. Even with our shortcomings, Portsmouth should be more competitive, and certainly shouldn't get outscored by 80 points in 4 games, even with the lack of outside shooting capability.

GO TROJANS!!! Let's at least get back to being competitive!! Guard hard!! Shoot some jump shots and don't worry whether they're going in!!

[trojandave]

VERY PROUD AND PLEASED with the Trojans effort vs. South Point. Even though it was a tough loss, I felt a lot better about the Trojans leaving the gym. They played HARD the whole game, something that was missing the previous week. They also made 6 three pointers, by 3 different players (FR Drew Roe--2, JR Matthew Fraulini--2, SR Danny Lattimore--2). Also good to see several other players shooting jump shots, making themselves threats to score. As a result, there were more scoring opportunities inside, with MyQuel McKinley having a good night along with Miles Shipp. At one point in the game, the Trojans had 2 FR (Roe, Johnson) and 1 SO (Shipp) on the court.

If the Trojans can play competitive basketball like last night, I have no complaints. Of course I would rather win, but I'll take being competitive.I give the Pointers credit for coming back from a 44-36 deficit late in the 3rd quarter. Austin Webb made some key buckets late for SP, and his FT with 6 seconds to play won it for the Pointers. SP and PHS always seem to play close games. This year's 2 games were decided by a total of 3 points, and last year PHS won at SP in OT.

If Portsmouth can play like that in the tournament, there's no question they could upset a higher seed at Waverly. Hopefully they will compete for the rest of the year, regardless of whether they win or not.

GO TROJANS!!

[sportsjunky22]

Took in the Trojans game last night. Shew, Portsmouth seem uninspired the entire night. No energy on defense, tons of turnovers, and to me I only saw 3 kids playing hard, Rowe, Shipp, and Johnson. Very different vibe at Portsmouth last night, but I guess just like every school when you WIN they will come. Portsmouth not having another ball handler hurts them, but that's no excuse for not playing hard.

[trojandave]

Sportsjunky22: You made some very valid points. I don't know the reason why that the Trojans seem to be getting worse as the season progresses......earlier in the year they were playing more competitive basketball. But here in the last month:

January: all these games at Portsmouth: Wheelersburg 70, Portsmouth 57; Gallia Academy 62, Portsmouth 44; Ironton 73, Portsmouth 56; Coal Grove 64, Portsmouth 33; Chesapeake 60, Portsmouth 31.....the Trojans lost those games by an average of 21 points. In virtually every game they start out way behind, and simply don't have the offense to make a rally. Last night vs. Chesapeake, the offense was so pitiful that the Trojans only had 25 points with a minute to go, and made 2 threes by reserves to score 31 points. Portsmouth has averaged a meager 44 PPG in these 5 contests.

Portsmouth lost at Coal Grove 66-54 in December and at Chesapeake 62-52 in early January. Makes one wonder how could those same two teams come to PHS later on and beat the Trojans much worse?

I've said it above, the Trojans lack SHOOTERS. Other than Fraulini, there's just not much scoring on jump shots, mid range and 3 pointers. Portsmouth will not beat teams with just layups and occasional FT's. The Trojans make way too many turnovers......but we could make 0 turnovers, and then I still wouldn't be sure we could put the ball in the basket. A basketball team has to have SHOOTERS.

It's not going to change this year......we are what we are.......but going forward into next season, getting shooting back into the program should be a major priority for the coaching staff. Ballhandling and turnovers are a concern, but if we don't get shooting back for the 2019-2020 season, then we are going to be struggling again to stay out of last place in the OVC, and a very early exit from the tournament is likely.

As I told someone last night, you can run the most efficient X's and O's offense there is, and minimize turnovers, but you still have to put the ball in the basket. 44 PPG in those 5 January games above tells the tale.

GO TROJANS!!!

[PtownClown]

Through the course of a season teams go through highs and lows but when it’s all said and done most teams will end up being the team they are supposed to be. In my opinion, the Trojans were overachieving early on. Then once teams figured out that they only have one legitimate shooter the game plans started to change...take away Fraulini and make everyone else beat ya. Once teams started doing that we began to see who the Trojans really are. A team that hustles and plays hard but doesn’t take care of the ball and only has one legitimate scoring threat. The shooting, ball handling, and decision making have been disappointing but anyone who questions the kids effort or Gene’s coaching ability needs to have their head examined. Remember that this is a team playing 2 freshman, a sophomore, and a senior that never saw much varsity action until this year. Most of the deficiencies we have seen are related to youth and inexperience. With that being said you’d still like to see some improvement and progress over the course of a season. But as a whole I feel like the Trojans are the team I thought they’d be and Gene Collins is the coach I thought he is...a great one!

[wobycat]

Trojans are a year away. Next year they will be hard to handle. Very hard.

[art_vandelay]

Trojans are a year away. Next year they will be hard to handle. Very hard.

I get what you're saying cause Portsmouth returns a lot of their team next year, but if shooting (other than Fraulini) is their major issue, what/who is going to change that next year?*

[wobycat]

Trojans are a year away. Next year they will be hard to handle. Very hard.

I get what you're saying cause Portsmouth returns a lot of their team next year, but if shooting (other than Fraulini) is their major issue, what/who is going to change that next year?*

I think they will just become a better shooting team naturally overall like Burg did this year

[trojandave]

PtownClown: You make some valid points with your post. I have to disagree with some things, though. I have been to every game, and at times the defensive effort hasn't been there, especially the 2nd half of the season. I have seen a number of games where there were too many uncontested layups when the Trojans got down by double digits. The margin of defeat has grown as the season has progressed......Coal Grove and Chesapeake came into our gym and beat us by 31 and 29 points respectively. At their gyms, earlier in the season, the Trojans played much more competitively, losing by 12 and 10 points. The effort the 2nd time around was not there. The margin of defeat almost tripled. Those teams should have never beaten us like that, especially in our gym. Ironton and Gallia Academy also beat the Trojans handily at PHS, and it wasn't just because of a lack of offense. Same scenario, the team got down by double digits, and there were layups that accounted for the final margin.

I agree with you that playing some freshmen and sophomores have figured into the struggle, but I'm glad that Coach Collins is playing those kids. We just can't expect, though, that a year of experience is going to make a major difference in the aspect of shooting the basketball. Going forward into next season, will we have anyone, other than Fraulini that is capable of scoring in double figures on a consistent basis.....and can do so by having a reliable jump shot? Will we be more difficult to defend next season?

The lack of shooting ability has been my main point in my above posts......it's the most serious concern that if not improved between now and next season, how is the season going to be better? Yes, we have a good amount of the roster coming back, but that doesn't automatically guarantee an upgrade in 2019-2020.

GO TROJANS!!

[PtownClown]

I agree totally with the shooting... I have thought about that... how much can someone really improve over a summer? ... there is no doubt you can improve but by how much remains to be seen... I will say this ... I’ve seen Roe and Johnson knock down shots before and I don’t think their form looks too bad so maybe the only thing they are lacking is confidence and still adjusting to the speed of the game...I have confidence that they will get better and there are a couple kids who come off the bench who actually have nice looking strokes... Another thing I have been disappointed in is guys not being able to create space so they can shoot ...it’s been a rough season but I still feel like the future is bright for PHS basketball as long as the kids don’t get discouraged and keep working...I’m not a basketball guru by any means but I feel Fraulini needs to shoot 20 times per game minimum...I’d even consider letting him bring the ball up the court ...screen the ball and give him some options off the dribble... just a thought

[PtownClown]

As a whole I think the kids have hustled but they have had some lapses at times for sure... that too probably has a lot to do with lack of experience and maturity...I see a lot of frustration mistakes especially of late

[trojandave]

PtownClown: It's refreshing to see posts like yours that is intelligent, coherent, and honest. You and I are on the same page when it comes to the shooting situation of the Trojans. I am very concerned about it going into next season. As you said, we have some kids who appear to have good form and at times have shown the capability to shoot outside, but there just hasn't been enough of it to make a serious impact on the scoreboard.

I'm hoping that the returning kids like Roe, Johnson, Duff, Bryant, Shipp, Bowman, Thomas, Carr and others will take it upon themselves to develop a solid, consistent outside shot which will make them much tougher to defend. Fraulini needs help, because one shooter is not enough to make opposing coaches think of other ways to defend Portsmouth. Perhaps more success on the offensive end will result in more success on the defensive end as well, because kids sometimes tend to get frustrated when the ball doesn't go in the basket, and that unfortunately carries over on defense.

One point I would like to make is that the Trojans probably won't have a dominant post presence next season, with the tallest starters returning being Fraulini and Shipp at 6-2. That makes it imperative that PHS has the ability to score from outside.

If we can improve our shooting next season, I can almost guarantee that Portsmouth basketball will be back to the level of winning 15 games or so a year like has been the case throughout Coach Collins career. The last 3 years have resulted in 15-7 regular season records, and I don't see any reason why that can't happen again in 2019-2020 if we can put the ball in the basket more often. If we can score more, we will be a tougher team to beat.

Wobycat says we are a year away.......I sure hope he's right. LOVE MY TROJANS!! GO TROJANS!!

[smurray]

To the top

[PtownClown]

Trojan Dave can I add something else....when we talk of shooting anymore I think it’s strictly about the 3 pointer...the game has obviously changed...the Steph Curry effect...but how about the mid range game? ...A kid doesn’t have to be a 3 point shooter to be considered a great shooter or scorer...there have been a lot of great shooters/scores who made a living with the mid range game...work on that foul line extended jumper...work on that 10-12 foot bank shot from the wing...work on that floater in the lane...shooting and scoring is more than the 3 pointer... not everyone is blessed with the marksmanship of a Fraulini

[Pinky]

Might be a down year for the TROJANS but they will be back and it won't be long Collins has been a successful coach since being hired this program was on a downward spiral when he took over and in a matter of 3 or four years he took them to the state who does that ? Look at the record of this program the last few years before he took over.


One of the most underated coaches in the area.

[Jeff Lisath]

Never count out my beloved Portsmouth Trojans...once the regular season ends everybody is 0-0 and the postseason sometimes brings out the best in teams. Portsmouth is notorious for being a tough out in the tournament. Coach Collins is battle tested and if anyone can have them ready is Geno. Next year will take care of itself...right now is just trying to improve each day going into the tournament. Never know when lightening might strike! JMO.

[trojandave]

PtownClown: Your point about shooting including mid range and short bank shots is something that you and I see in total agreement. To be a great shooter, one must have the ability to knock down a variety of shots.....not just the 3 pointer. Looking at the Trojans, at having been to every game, the number of mid range made shots would probably number no more than a dozen for the season to date. Portsmouth's offense pretty much consists of a drive to the basket or a 3 pointer. The lack of mid range jumpers has really made the Trojans offense predictable and puts Coach Collins in a tough situation. He can only coach the team to its strengths and away from its weaknesses in order to try to win a game. The lack of mid range scoring ability leaves a good part of the floor that other teams don't have to defense because they know Portsmouth will not beat you from there.

Matthew Fraulini has been outstanding for the Trojans in providing scoring support, but just think how much better he and the team would be if the rest of the players could knock down mid range shots.

Austin Webb of South Point is the perfect example of what you and I are talking about......vs. the Trojans at South Point, the 6-3 Webb knocked down two mid range jumpers (both bank shots) late in the game that were critical to the Pointers comeback. Although Webb technically is their post player, he has the ability to make mid range shots. He also hit a 3 pointer in that game. Ideally, that's what I would like to see the Trojans become......a legitimate threat to score from anywhere, and making teams defend the mid range area, which right now has produced little scoring for Portsmouth.