Nicknack
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This post is not in response to our loss last night but something that has been bothering me ever since the Duke game. It has been very concerning to me that after that win, our game play has progressively gotten worse. I don't care to dissect every game, but can anyone tell me a game since Duke that you could say that we played well collectively?
Remember when it was a sure reality that Fair could only have one bad game a season and if he dared have more, they certainly couldn't be back to back. Fair has been, well, fair lately. He definitely has some great moments (i.e. the two late game shots against NC State), but to get his 16+ points, he has to take so many darn shots. I love Grant but he has appeared to fade in and out more lately rather than being a consistent force. Even Tyler has been suspect the last two games at times doing things that are very uncharacteristic of what we have seen most of the year. Cooney is Cooney. I'm a big fan of his but he lacks consistency which is nothing different than what we have seen all year. Therefore, his game really hasn't gone anywhere, it is where it is and I'm sure he will have many more big moments ahead of us, although just not consistently.
Christmas is actually the only one that I can say has increased his play. I really like his development and wish he got the ball a bit more. Keita being out has probably helped him. However, the problem with Keita not playing (or only playing for a couple minutes) is that Christmas is unable to play as aggressively as what he can which hurts our D. I'm not sure what happened with Keita last night; I'm sure hoping he is okay and that his limited play wasn't due to re-aggravating his injury.
Last night's loss was a stinger for me, although in the whole grand scheme of things, it won't matter as long as we can get back on track. What I'm mostly concerned about is the fact that I haven't seen our team all play well collectively for a good three weeks which is why the loss hurts because if this continues, more L's are likely to follow.
I don't mean to be pessimistic here, particularly after such a bad loss, but there is a bigger issue that is concerning to me than just losing one game. Perhaps playing Duke on Saturday is just what we need to get our juices flowing again. I have great hopes for this team and believe they could make it back to the final four although some things definitely need to get better before any of that happens.
Remember when it was a sure reality that Fair could only have one bad game a season and if he dared have more, they certainly couldn't be back to back. Fair has been, well, fair lately. He definitely has some great moments (i.e. the two late game shots against NC State), but to get his 16+ points, he has to take so many darn shots. I love Grant but he has appeared to fade in and out more lately rather than being a consistent force. Even Tyler has been suspect the last two games at times doing things that are very uncharacteristic of what we have seen most of the year. Cooney is Cooney. I'm a big fan of his but he lacks consistency which is nothing different than what we have seen all year. Therefore, his game really hasn't gone anywhere, it is where it is and I'm sure he will have many more big moments ahead of us, although just not consistently.
Christmas is actually the only one that I can say has increased his play. I really like his development and wish he got the ball a bit more. Keita being out has probably helped him. However, the problem with Keita not playing (or only playing for a couple minutes) is that Christmas is unable to play as aggressively as what he can which hurts our D. I'm not sure what happened with Keita last night; I'm sure hoping he is okay and that his limited play wasn't due to re-aggravating his injury.
Last night's loss was a stinger for me, although in the whole grand scheme of things, it won't matter as long as we can get back on track. What I'm mostly concerned about is the fact that I haven't seen our team all play well collectively for a good three weeks which is why the loss hurts because if this continues, more L's are likely to follow.
I don't mean to be pessimistic here, particularly after such a bad loss, but there is a bigger issue that is concerning to me than just losing one game. Perhaps playing Duke on Saturday is just what we need to get our juices flowing again. I have great hopes for this team and believe they could make it back to the final four although some things definitely need to get better before any of that happens.
