My Take

[Sherman20]

JB said after the game that they need to start working on setting picks and screens. If so, makes you wonder what they’ve been doing in practice.

Well, at least he said that. But, yes, what the h have they been doing in practice? I did see more moving and screening in the exhibition games, but I wish he would spend more time and effort designing more offensive sets and then practice time working on said offense. (Apparently our practices are some of the shortest in the country.)

 

[Cusefan0307]

It was 10-2 to start when Carey started the game. Girard came in and instantly we went on a run. He also is 10 times the passer that Carey is. That's why he played.

 

[dollarbill44]

Oh please players do it all the time.

He really didn't make any boneheaded plays. He didn't do much of anything, positive or negative. He pretty much handled the defense being played on him though, no one else could. He had one drive where he was stripped and had an ugly 3-pt shot (joined the club).

I disagree. Is it merely a coincidence we closed the gap in the first half when he came out?

 

[Sherman20]

I disagree. Is it merely a coincidence we closed the gap in the first half when he came out?

But then what happened in the 2nd half when Girard was in? Joe G has stones and oozes confidence, which I like, but he has weaknesses (defense, driving ability) that are Carey’s strengths. Agree that he might be a bit better passer than Carey at this point but not by much. I still think Carey has the higher upside as a PG because of his speed and athleticism, but it may take a long while to get there. He was also a good shooter in HS. Not sure what happened with that.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

sid didnt get any sort of quick hooks last night

Sid had two quick fouls.

JB put him back in the game at the end of the 1st half. Must have trusted him not to pick up #3.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Edwards is at least a year from making an impact but he has the best upside in a very limited frontcourt. Sid gives us nothing on both ends. He has some semblance of post moves but JB has him scared to do anything at this point.

 

[cuseguy]

But then what happened in the 2nd half when Girard was in? Joe G has stones and oozes confidence, which I like, but he has weaknesses (defense, driving ability) that are Carey’s strengths. Agree that he might be a bit better passer than Carey at this point but not by much. I still think Carey has the higher upside as a PG because of his speed and athleticism, but it may take a long while to get there. He was also a good shooter in HS. Not sure what happened with that.

Carey can’t shoot or finish. He looks good until he’s actually asked to score.

 

[FrancoPizza]

But then what happened in the 2nd half when Girard was in? Joe G has stones and oozes confidence, which I like, but he has weaknesses (defense, driving ability) that are Carey’s strengths. Agree that he might be a bit better passer than Carey at this point but not by much. I still think Carey has the higher upside as a PG because of his speed and athleticism, but it may take a long while to get there. He was also a good shooter in HS. Not sure what happened with that.

Carey has no confidence anymore. His handle was always weak and his shot is not good enough. He's tyus battle without the 20-foot stepback 2 point ability.

 

[sutomcat]

Carey has no confidence anymore. His handle was always weak and his shot is not good enough. He's tyus battle without the 20-foot stepback 2 point ability.

Carey has talent. You don't do what he did, playing at a high level HS in NJ, growing up in Harlem, unless you have serious skills.

The jump to the highest level of college basketball is a big one, especially for a PG. Their mistakes are magnified and they tend to get pulled quickly if they screw up.

It is a similar situation to what JB faced with Frank Howard. You have a talented player who is not producing at the level you want and need.

Do you give him almost unconditional love, lots of playing time, freedom and latitude to figure things out on the court?

Or do you make the judgment this is never going to work for him and move on to the next man up?

If you bench him, there are major ramifications to his pysche, and you may well lose him forever (figuratively and perhaps literally).

It is a huge decision and making the right call here (along with similar calls for the other PGs on the roster) could well make or break the season.

 

[two3zone]

Well, at least he said that. But, yes, what the h have they been doing in practice?

I'd rather not know.

 

[721Comstock]

I think we forced up way too many 3's way too early in the shot clock.

Of course, if we shot 15-29 instead of 5-29, it's a different story.

Don't even 'need' 15-29 (but we'll take it!), just 10 or 11/29 is more than sufficient & completely realistic, and there's another 15-18 points and it's a completely different game.

 

[orangecuse]

Oh please players do it all the time.

He really didn't make any boneheaded plays. He didn't do much of anything, positive or negative. He pretty much handled the defense being played on him though, no one else could. He had one drive where he was stripped and had an ugly 3-pt shot (joined the club).

With the emphasis of our struggles last night being on offense, here's where you truly hit the nail on the head. However, the larger point you miss here is that I don't know under what circumstance in the game of college hoops where you can argue that the lead guard on your team did precisely what you said and it not being a major problem/having severe consequences for your team, especially on O. The point guard is the QB of the team, except without having to blame the O line for him not being effective.

 

[Orangefan1]

I know JB is all about loyalty but there is no reason Guerrier didn't start last night. Marek played way too long in my opinion and for stretches I asked five different times where is Braswell? Why isn't Guerrier in the game? Guerrier may have lost confidence knowing he wasn't the starter also which does make a difference in the minds of twenty year olds.

 

[bballbeadle]

etan's take

Was he there last night? Because I thought I saw him walk past me.

 

[HOFCeluck]

Carey has talent. You don't do what he did, playing at a high level HS in NJ, growing up in Harlem, unless you have serious skills.

The jump to the highest level of college basketball is a big one, especially for a PG. Their mistakes are magnified and they tend to get pulled quickly if they screw up.

It is a similar situation to what JB faced with Frank Howard. You have a talented player who is not producing at the level you want and need.

Do you give him almost unconditional love, lots of playing time, freedom and latitude to figure things out on the court?

Or do you make the judgment this is never going to work for him and move on to the next man up?

If you bench him, there are major ramifications to his pysche, and you may well lose him forever (figuratively and perhaps literally).

It is a huge decision and making the right call here (along with similar calls for the other PGs on the roster) could well make or break the season.

I know he has talent and I don't want to write him off after game one, but we havent been able to recruit a serviceable point guard now since Ennis committed. Since then our best PG was a converted forward.

 

[sutomcat]

Was he there last night? Because I thought I saw him walk past me.

He and Danny Schayes were in the house.

 

[VaBeachOrFan]

To all those who used to complain when JB scheduled cupcakes at the beginning of the year: Don't!

Total lack of confidence among our alleged good shooters, but then a Tony Bennett defense can do that to the best of teams. ACC needs to nip this "exhibition" league game idea in the bud and not repeat next year. Hard enough to get young teams to experiment, learn plays and gel in advance of a normal ACC man-eating schedule. Glad the game wasn't on ESPN for an even wider audience to see.-VBOF

 

[RoysRunts]

BoeHeim should have been yanked 5 years ago.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Carey has talent. You don't do what he did, playing at a high level HS in NJ, growing up in Harlem, unless you have serious skills.

The jump to the highest level of college basketball is a big one, especially for a PG. Their mistakes are magnified and they tend to get pulled quickly if they screw up.

It is a similar situation to what JB faced with Frank Howard. You have a talented player who is not producing at the level you want and need.

Do you give him almost unconditional love, lots of playing time, freedom and latitude to figure things out on the court?

Or do you make the judgment this is never going to work for him and move on to the next man up?

If you bench him, there are major ramifications to his pysche, and you may well lose him forever (figuratively and perhaps literally).

It is a huge decision and making the right call here (along with similar calls for the other PGs on the roster) could well make or break the season.

I think the difference with Frank Howard is we truly had nobody else. JGIII is a better option right now.

 

[phil77]

It was a nice drive, for sure, but you can't just drive into the lane and go up against a 7 footer with no plan. There also wasn't a cutter to pass to, which isn't his fault (coaching?).
He also made some boneheaded plays before that, so the accumulation of plays likely resulted in his reduced PT, not just that one play.

You also can't chuck 30 footers over and over again with no plan.

 

[phil77]

Always the PG fault here no matter who it is.

 

[Roger N]

for the "our shots will fall" crowd, we actually outshot UVa from 3-point range. Won't our opponents' shots eventually fall as well?

How appropriate the advertisement that popped up is for:

Squatty Potty
Raising your knees up will open your colon for a complete elimination.

You can't make this up. It is the most appropriate ad I have ever seen. I am afraid to see what ad will show up on the football board.

 

[dollarbill44]

Carey has talent. You don't do what he did, playing at a high level HS in NJ, growing up in Harlem, unless you have serious skills.

The jump to the highest level of college basketball is a big one, especially for a PG. Their mistakes are magnified and they tend to get pulled quickly if they screw up.

It is a similar situation to what JB faced with Frank Howard. You have a talented player who is not producing at the level you want and need.

Do you give him almost unconditional love, lots of playing time, freedom and latitude to figure things out on the court?

Or do you make the judgment this is never going to work for him and move on to the next man up?

If you bench him, there are major ramifications to his pysche, and you may well lose him forever (figuratively and perhaps literally).

It is a huge decision and making the right call here (along with similar calls for the other PGs on the roster) could well make or break the season.

I would play all of the guards for meaningful minutes, but JB doesn't do that. Honestly, I can't even remember the last player we developed here from an offensive standpoint. The main difference in guys scoring is the role they get and the minutes they play. Maybe Rak, but he did that on his own time over the summer.

 

[dollarbill44]

You also can't chuck 30 footers over and over again with no plan.

But everybody was doing that as if it was the gameplan or something.
Look, i'm not saying he should have been yanked for that drive. I just don't subscribe that he didn't do anything wrong. JB has always been quick with certain guys fir whatever reasons. Maybe he has a set of cardinal sins that get a guy yanked immediately. We've seen it over and over again through the years.
It wouldn't be my style, but i'm not the coach.

 

[VirginiaOrange]

Long night, at work, struggling so this is going to be short.

The crowd was pretty small but surprisingly loud. The student section actually showed up and made some noise. It could have gotten very loud if there was more to cheer about.

Someone sang a great NA and got one of the best ovations after I have ever seen. Nice.

A couple of people in my section fell asleep during the game. Literally. If it was ever going to happen, it was going to be last night. Ugly confluence of events.

Some character dressed in a giant orange wig, orange shirt and orange pants got the chance to try and make a shot from the Dunk & Bright bed. When he was asked who he was, he said 'Dome Dude' and took the opportunity to tell Melo his wife loved him. When he made the shot, he walked over to Melo and got a high five.

Melo and Bing both attended the game and were introduced to the crowd during one of the timeouts. Simultaneously using a split screen. I don't know who replaced Brett doing the game production but well done.

This looks to me like an historically bad rebounding team. No one is interested in getting offensive rebounds, we have no good shot blocker and it appears we will be without a real PG this season as well. So there are some problems to overcome.

That said, this should be one of the best outside shooting teams we have had. I think we have a lot of unselfish players who can pass it and there is real hope that the offense is going to be improved. We have the athletes and length to be a good defensive team as well. I am here to say there is hope.

I think there are going to be games when we shoot well and beat really good teams. And games where we shoot poorly and lose to not so good teams. We have a gaggle of athletic bigs. Can a couple of them develop into servicable rebounders? Sidibe and Guerrier are probably our best hopes and they were both disasters last night.

Girard might be the most popular player on the team right now. Already. Big ovation when he came into the game and whenever he did something right. His progress as a college player is going to be fascinating to watch. Few freshman start as fearless as he appears to be.

On the positive side, Edwards looked really promising late. I wonder why we didn't put Carey in when we were pressing? He seems like our fastest guy and most likely player to get steals in the open court.

Regarding the crowd - the price for tickets was ridiculous for a Wednesday at 9PM game. Lower tickets not even facing the court (beyond the baseline) were $140. I have traveled up to Syracuse for a couple football games this year and I cannot imagine how they find people up there willing to spend $140.