So a ton of negative comments in the postgame thread, which I get, but I actually thought this was a well-played games by two teams (neither of which is particularly great) that were battling their tails off. What it didn't have was a lot of made shots, which admittedly is more fun to watch, but compared to watching us beat a BC team that was absolutely brutal regardless of our solid defensive effort, thought this one was more enjoyable.
A few thoughts:
A few thoughts:
- I'll start by giving Tech some credit -- thought they moved the ball well most of the night and forced us to move to the 1-3-1. They didn't do a great job attacking that but until that point, they gave us fits, got open looks and did an excellent job of pushing the tempo to try and attack before we set up the zone.
- One thing we did most of the night was really limit the looks for Devoe, which was key because Sturdivant and Usher aren't bad but you'd much rather have them shooting than Devoe. They combined for 1-for-6.
- I saw a bunch of criticism of our Buddy iso offense, which I get. It's not the prettiest thing you've ever seen and it's not real imaginative. If I have a criticism of JB over the years, it's that I wish his teams ran a few more legit offensive sets. But, the reality is, we don't. Having said that, I'm not totally sure what people were watching at least in terms of Buddy's play the last four or five minutes. In five late possessions, he drove once and hit a pretty mid-range fade-away for two, found Jimmy with a nice bounce pass that Howard made a nice play to block clean, hit Girard for a good look from three, found Anselem (not ideal) close but he kind of flung up a wild layup attempt (which it's hard to knock buddy for) and then hit back-iron on another solid look from mid-range. The results were no bueno b/c Buddy's bucket was the only basket, but the looks were really pretty solid. In OT, he had another nice drive but came up short on the little floater from a few feet. The bottom line is that as much as Swider has improved as the year has gone on and as solid as Jimmy and Joe do at times, our only real consistent offensive threat (at least with Edwards out) is Buddy. Want to criticize the roster, it's fair game, but at least with the offense we run and the personnel we have, Buddy having the ball late is our best offense.
- I actually really liked the idea of going to Jimmy on that last possession of regulation. We took our center out which left him against Howard. You take your chance that Jimmy either can get an angle and score or potentially draw a 5th foul on Howard. Thought that was decently creative on JB's part.
- Swider. Like him and would actually love to see him for another year. There are flaws in his game (would love to see him get to the line more often), but man he competes and hustles his tail off. His defense has gotten better, he's a calming presence on the floor and coming into tonight for his last six games he was averaging a little under 16 and 7 (15.8/6.7) on 56/57/86 and he went for 18 and 12 tonight with a bunch of hustle plays. Those numbers are obviously cherry-picking a bit and the competition in those seven total games isn't great (wake by far the best team), but I only point them out to say he's played really well of late and we're 6-1 in those last seven games with him playing as well as he has.
- Sidibe -- We talk a lot about Kadary, and rightfully so, in terms of what-ifs. But it's interesting to think what last year might have looked like with a completely healthy Sidibe. This is a kid that averaged 10 and 12 in his last five games of 2019/20 but then had his entire season wiped out last year, which led to Marek playing a lot of 5 until Edwards came on late. Kadary/JGIII/Buddy in the backcourt with whatever the combination of Griffin/Braswell/Guerrier/Marek/Sidibe might have been would have been a really interesting team. Crazy to think we get two to three more wins with a truly healthy Sidibe? Oh well, regardless, fun to see him flying around, playing hard and contributing to wins.
- I get why folks are criticizing Buddy for pulling from three with 35 seconds or so left in OT but I didn't think it was the worst decision. It was a clean look from three with a 1-point lead and the clock only resets to 20. Tech is going to get a look regardless and if we get a three there, we're in really solid shape. I'm fine with the criticism but I'm also fine with the shot selection.
- Jimmy had a tough second half (after a great first half) but I thought he got good looks all night. They didn't fall in the second half. Maybe that's because he's a bit limited. Maybe it's because he simply missed the shots, but thought he played a pretty good game overall despite missing his last eight shots (I believe).
