SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- A promising season had its ups to go with the downs but at 20-14, it really didn’t deliver. It’s a continuation of 18-13, 23-14, 19-15, 23-14. We had our entire starting line-up back form a Sweet 16 team that nearly was an Elite 8 team and lost the same number of games while winning three fewer.
- It was the first time we lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament since 2006. Ironically, our point guard, Gerry McNamara didn’t play in that game due to injury and we lost to a team from Texas, Texas A&M 58-66.
- All season long we’ve been plagued by offensive dry spells, often in the second half of competitive games. Oshae Brissett produced the last tie at 57-57 with 9:42 left. We were 2 for 13 from the field after that and got outscored 12-21.
- Frank Howard wasn’t our best player but he was a key player and his disappointing senior season not only typified the year but, to a considerable extent, it created the year. He averaged 14.4 points and 4.7 assists. Last year and was said to be playing better than that last summer. Then came his injury and operation and a very shaky return both physically and perhaps mentally. He averaged 8.9p/2.9a and did little break down the defense. Last week he was suddenly the Frank we’d hoped for and scored 46 points in two games. His replacement, Buddy Boeheim went 0 for 6 and scored 2 points in this game. Also, we gave up way too many threes in this game and allowed penetration to the high post too easily. Frank was a good defensive guard and could have made a difference there, as well. With Frank, we’re probably playing on Saturday.
- Baylor hit 16 threes, shooting 47%. If they’d shot their normal 34%, they would have hit 12 of them. That’s 12 points and we lost by 9. Of course we normally make 33% and thus would have been 10 for 29 instead of 12 for 29 and still wound up short if both teams had shot their normal percentage.
- In the second half we were determined to get back to our normal game of driving to the basket and getting to the foul line but it didn’t seem to work for us tonight. We were 9 for 22 from two point range in this game, 6 for 17 in the second half. Baylor actually did much better 12 for 18 and 9 for 13 in the second half. We did get to the foul line in the second half, 11 of 13 but it wasn’t enough with the bears continuing to rein threes.
- Elijah Hughes was terrific in the first half with 18 points. He was bound to get extra defensive attention in the second half and was held to 7 points. But we didn’t take advantage of that. Buddy Boeheim went scoreless in that half. Oshae Brissett scored four points. Tyus Battle managed 9 points for a total of 16 in his final game but missed 9 of 15 field goals.
- Baylor looked so much physically stronger than our guys. Even the guy from Yale looked more like a football player than a basketball player. I wonder what kind of S & C program they have down there.
- Marek Dolezaj was one of those being pout-muscled. He scored 5 points and had a couple of assists and a steal but he had only one rebound in 22 minutes and committed four reach-in fouls. He also gave up a bunch of baskets in the paint that Chukwu might have stopped. Marek can do things Paschal can’t do but there are things he can’t do that Paschal can so JB had to alternate them and accept the limitations of each. That’s what mediocre teams do: they try to get one good player out of two limited players.
- We normally treat our wounds when the season ends by looking forward optimistically to next season. I’m not pessimistic about next year. I think we’ll have enough talent to have another good team but not to get out of the rut we’re in. if we don’t lose more than Chukwu, Howard and Battle but don’t recruit anybody else, we’ll have 12 recruited players next year, (more than JB usually has which raises suspicions that somebody else might be leaving). The disappointing Bourama Sidbie would be the center, backed up by freshman John Bol Ajak, still another stringbean project from Africa and Dolezaj once again playing out of position. Dolezaj, Brissett, Hughes, Robert Braswell and Quincy Guerrier give us plenty of talent and depth at forward but they can’t all play at once. Some of them will have to play out of positon to get into the game. The guards would be Jalen Carey, who struggled as a freshman, Bubby Boeheim who had some good games but needs to get strong and learn how to score when the defense is concentrating on him, Howard Washington, basically an unknown quantity due to his injury, Brycen Goodine, listed as a shooting guard but advertised as a point guard and Joe Girard, who set scoring records for a Class B high school team. It’s hard to see a powerhouse there. More of the same, I think.
- It was the first time we lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament since 2006. Ironically, our point guard, Gerry McNamara didn’t play in that game due to injury and we lost to a team from Texas, Texas A&M 58-66.
- All season long we’ve been plagued by offensive dry spells, often in the second half of competitive games. Oshae Brissett produced the last tie at 57-57 with 9:42 left. We were 2 for 13 from the field after that and got outscored 12-21.
- Frank Howard wasn’t our best player but he was a key player and his disappointing senior season not only typified the year but, to a considerable extent, it created the year. He averaged 14.4 points and 4.7 assists. Last year and was said to be playing better than that last summer. Then came his injury and operation and a very shaky return both physically and perhaps mentally. He averaged 8.9p/2.9a and did little break down the defense. Last week he was suddenly the Frank we’d hoped for and scored 46 points in two games. His replacement, Buddy Boeheim went 0 for 6 and scored 2 points in this game. Also, we gave up way too many threes in this game and allowed penetration to the high post too easily. Frank was a good defensive guard and could have made a difference there, as well. With Frank, we’re probably playing on Saturday.
- Baylor hit 16 threes, shooting 47%. If they’d shot their normal 34%, they would have hit 12 of them. That’s 12 points and we lost by 9. Of course we normally make 33% and thus would have been 10 for 29 instead of 12 for 29 and still wound up short if both teams had shot their normal percentage.
- In the second half we were determined to get back to our normal game of driving to the basket and getting to the foul line but it didn’t seem to work for us tonight. We were 9 for 22 from two point range in this game, 6 for 17 in the second half. Baylor actually did much better 12 for 18 and 9 for 13 in the second half. We did get to the foul line in the second half, 11 of 13 but it wasn’t enough with the bears continuing to rein threes.
- Elijah Hughes was terrific in the first half with 18 points. He was bound to get extra defensive attention in the second half and was held to 7 points. But we didn’t take advantage of that. Buddy Boeheim went scoreless in that half. Oshae Brissett scored four points. Tyus Battle managed 9 points for a total of 16 in his final game but missed 9 of 15 field goals.
- Baylor looked so much physically stronger than our guys. Even the guy from Yale looked more like a football player than a basketball player. I wonder what kind of S & C program they have down there.
- Marek Dolezaj was one of those being pout-muscled. He scored 5 points and had a couple of assists and a steal but he had only one rebound in 22 minutes and committed four reach-in fouls. He also gave up a bunch of baskets in the paint that Chukwu might have stopped. Marek can do things Paschal can’t do but there are things he can’t do that Paschal can so JB had to alternate them and accept the limitations of each. That’s what mediocre teams do: they try to get one good player out of two limited players.
- We normally treat our wounds when the season ends by looking forward optimistically to next season. I’m not pessimistic about next year. I think we’ll have enough talent to have another good team but not to get out of the rut we’re in. if we don’t lose more than Chukwu, Howard and Battle but don’t recruit anybody else, we’ll have 12 recruited players next year, (more than JB usually has which raises suspicions that somebody else might be leaving). The disappointing Bourama Sidbie would be the center, backed up by freshman John Bol Ajak, still another stringbean project from Africa and Dolezaj once again playing out of position. Dolezaj, Brissett, Hughes, Robert Braswell and Quincy Guerrier give us plenty of talent and depth at forward but they can’t all play at once. Some of them will have to play out of positon to get into the game. The guards would be Jalen Carey, who struggled as a freshman, Bubby Boeheim who had some good games but needs to get strong and learn how to score when the defense is concentrating on him, Howard Washington, basically an unknown quantity due to his injury, Brycen Goodine, listed as a shooting guard but advertised as a point guard and Joe Girard, who set scoring records for a Class B high school team. It’s hard to see a powerhouse there. More of the same, I think.
