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Message: [QUOTE="Flacusian, post: 1245020, member: 264"] This is a very good point. There was no one particular thing which precipitated the early 2nd half malaise. It was a little of all the poisons which have affected this team this year. Poor shooting and most inextricably missing wide open looks, the team's inability to handle even a little bit of pressure bringing the ball up, throwing the ball away with What turnovers (the ones where the ball is thrown over the head of a team mate into the stands) and letting the opposition dictate the pace of the game. Cooney obviously needs to play and be out there as much as possible BUT not to the point of becoming inefficient from exhaustion. It seems clear that he would benefit from a brief breather or two especially in the 2nd half of games. When he is fatigued he is unarguably a different player. The attention which was being paid to Rak during the 2nd half could be best characterized as a continuous pressure bordering on assault and it was obvious he had his hands full just keeping his body upright and free from entanglement of Buzzys Brigade of Hokie Henchmen. When something the opposition is doing is becoming effective to the point of virtually shutting down the contribution of your best player you would think it would be best to do something strategically to change the metrics of the situation. Timonen's suggestion to bring Rak out to the foul line would certainly have had some type of effect on changing what was happening. It just seems that if Rak is going to be rendered ineffective by the other team there should be some type of contingent liability we could and should capitalize on as a result of it. In the end we won and certainly that matters but the victory feels somewhat muted by the fact that we were essentially kicking their a$$es the first half and it came down to the last nano second for the win, The early first half excitement with respect to what appeared to be significant team progress was quickly dampened by the return of the NIT- itis fashion of play. I'll take the win... and be happy with it. They bent but didn't break and that's a good thing. Next! [/QUOTE]

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