Game Notes | Florida State

[Nicknack]

During the game, I decided to jot down a few notes while watching. They're listed as the game unfolded...

• Souare... if you didn't watch the first half (about 5 min worth) and only looked at the box score, you would miss his contributions. While in, he made a few very good plays. I think he's getting better. The last couple of games, he's actually doing some positives while in at limited time. Good to see. He may never be a key contributor, but really great to see him impact the game positively even if only a little).
• George... just killing me with some of these lob passes that end up being turnovers. Then, at the 15 min mark, he fires up a couple perfect passes that go for big time dunks. I also absolutely love the vision he showed spotting Betsey all the way down the court who made the shot and got us back to a 5pt lead. Really big play.
• In the second half, I jotted down at 12:18, where is Donnie? I was really wondering if he was sitting on the bench for some reason. He wasn't. He just wasn't in the game. You just can't have a player like Donnie who essentially doesn't touch the ball for the first 8 minutes of the second half - nothing was run to really get him the ball.
• Betsey... it's just so much fun to see a guy on our team able to hit 3's like he has, especially the past two games. That said, this might sound strange, but I think when he starts making 3's, he limits himself - he kind of just focuses on 3's rather than the other aspects of the game. There were a few games earlier in the season when he wasn't hitting 3's, he showed his midrange, and was effective. I'd like to see a better balance with Betsey. He's not a one trick pony so he needs to remember that even when all his 3's are going down - we still need his presence on D, rebounding, assists, etc.
• At the 10:31 mark in the second half when FSU went on their run and got the lead, I was relieved in one way. We are the better team. They got their run but you just knew that they weren't going to sustain it. They didn't. The killer is when a team does that when it's much later in the game - FSU just peaked too early (thankfully).
• Sadiq... dude needs to bring it together. Coaching staff also needs to look for more opportunities to get him involved in some easy ways. He's a very solid player who looks a little lost to me. The technical fouls must stop though. If they don't he should sit for games. No need for it.
• Kiyan... jury still out.
• Donnie is amazing. As great as he's been, it just looks like he has a lot of room still to improve which is a testament to how good he is. Man, if this was back in the 90's and we had him for a couple more years, I can't tell you how excited I would be. That's national championship kinda stuff there.
• I hope we're not trading rebounds for the 2-3 zone. Just seems like we're playing it more and at the same time, giving up more offensive rebounds.

 

[Newhouser]

I liked the zone for a change up - I do think we are going to it too much. I would much rather we find the defensive intensity we played with in Vegas. Let's get back to that.

 

[Nicknack]

I liked the zone for a change up - I do think we are going to it too much. I would much rather we find the defensive intensity we played with in Vegas. Let's get back to that.

I completely agree. It's great to see Red being more flexible and changing things up but hopefully he doesn't over do it. I'm also concerned with the impact that zone has on our ability to rebound and prevent second chance opportunities for the opponent.