Cheriehoop
Moderator/ 2019-20 Iggy Winner Reg Season Rcd
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- Aug 17, 2011
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Last night my husband and myself had the honor to sit court side courtesy of CTO. Thank you, thank you! What a night! It was an unusually late game and I worried that no one was going to show up with the back court and stands virtually empty till tipoff. I assume there's a game being played to see how close people can time their arrival with tipoff. Hats off to those who did come, they got their money's worth watching this bizarre game.
Va Tech is a quick team. Seth Allen is a talented, quick guard who I first noticed in our game on a road trip to Maryland 2 years ago. He's also emotional and broods which plays into opponent's hands. That Blackshear kid who I wonder is injured or perhaps just possesses a very weird habit, plays on his tip toes acting as if it's painful for his heels to even hit the court. He had a good game in the paint in the 2nd half. VT is chippy and plays physical m2m defense using every part of their body to wear down opponents. Hip checks, riding opponents, active knee thrusts, and darting hands makes them really foul prone though. Buzz has to use lots of his bench to play this "they can't call them all" , we're small, quick and irritating full court pressure defense to wear down teams.
Watching close it's amazing how physical the game is. These kids must ache after games, VT's hard and high hedges would be considered clipping in football. That said, we couldn't hit the broadside of a barn till late in the game and again struggled from the free throw line making this game much closer than it should have been. Cooney was definitely horrific shooting the ball, Mal and MG had issues penetrating and making the pick n roll effective. Was hoping that Frank's ball handling would loosen up the offense to give us a few easy baskets but we continually came up short seeming to always fall 3 to 6 points behind. The most impressive factor was that SU never let their frustration effect their psyche so they kept battling and our "stars" all made key plays down the stretch.
We have no true point guard nor any post up threat and these grind it out games really highlight what we're missing. I miss the days of alley oops on back screens to our big men for dunks. These shorter aggressive over playing defensive teams should be fodder but we seem to be missing key elements to pull it off.
Court side at the exciting end of regulation, 6 men sitting to the right of us - all left! Unbelievable! It was so strange, they never were into the game. Sad. Their loss.
That said, what a comeback and ending!! Extremely loud crowd the last 8 minutes or so. I've seen more talented, balanced SU teams give up - this team doesn't - they compete and battle. Fun despite their frustrating short comings watching these kids battle though - no head hanging for this SU crew. They really reflect JB's relentless competitiveness and endure somehow.
Funny thing that happened. 2 brothers and a sister sat next to me on the left. One of the guys became so excited at the end of regulation that he dropped his cellphone and it went under the court totally out of reach. I told a security guy who brought over dome officials after the game. The brothers were very thankful because they were so excited over the win, they were going to leave it, saying the win was worth a new cellphone ( those are true fans or maybe a little crazy - lol). I left as the dome guy was calling maintenance to remove the section and get the cellphone. Kudos to the heroic cell phone Dome crew. It ended up a very good night. Thank you again Joyce for all these memories and making our upcoming 44th anniversary (love that number) special!!! Sorry this is so lengthy. :blah:
Va Tech is a quick team. Seth Allen is a talented, quick guard who I first noticed in our game on a road trip to Maryland 2 years ago. He's also emotional and broods which plays into opponent's hands. That Blackshear kid who I wonder is injured or perhaps just possesses a very weird habit, plays on his tip toes acting as if it's painful for his heels to even hit the court. He had a good game in the paint in the 2nd half. VT is chippy and plays physical m2m defense using every part of their body to wear down opponents. Hip checks, riding opponents, active knee thrusts, and darting hands makes them really foul prone though. Buzz has to use lots of his bench to play this "they can't call them all" , we're small, quick and irritating full court pressure defense to wear down teams.
Watching close it's amazing how physical the game is. These kids must ache after games, VT's hard and high hedges would be considered clipping in football. That said, we couldn't hit the broadside of a barn till late in the game and again struggled from the free throw line making this game much closer than it should have been. Cooney was definitely horrific shooting the ball, Mal and MG had issues penetrating and making the pick n roll effective. Was hoping that Frank's ball handling would loosen up the offense to give us a few easy baskets but we continually came up short seeming to always fall 3 to 6 points behind. The most impressive factor was that SU never let their frustration effect their psyche so they kept battling and our "stars" all made key plays down the stretch.
We have no true point guard nor any post up threat and these grind it out games really highlight what we're missing. I miss the days of alley oops on back screens to our big men for dunks. These shorter aggressive over playing defensive teams should be fodder but we seem to be missing key elements to pull it off.
Court side at the exciting end of regulation, 6 men sitting to the right of us - all left! Unbelievable! It was so strange, they never were into the game. Sad. Their loss.
That said, what a comeback and ending!! Extremely loud crowd the last 8 minutes or so. I've seen more talented, balanced SU teams give up - this team doesn't - they compete and battle. Fun despite their frustrating short comings watching these kids battle though - no head hanging for this SU crew. They really reflect JB's relentless competitiveness and endure somehow.
Funny thing that happened. 2 brothers and a sister sat next to me on the left. One of the guys became so excited at the end of regulation that he dropped his cellphone and it went under the court totally out of reach. I told a security guy who brought over dome officials after the game. The brothers were very thankful because they were so excited over the win, they were going to leave it, saying the win was worth a new cellphone ( those are true fans or maybe a little crazy - lol). I left as the dome guy was calling maintenance to remove the section and get the cellphone. Kudos to the heroic cell phone Dome crew. It ended up a very good night. Thank you again Joyce for all these memories and making our upcoming 44th anniversary (love that number) special!!! Sorry this is so lengthy. :blah:
