My Take

[sutomcat]

I will always remember this as the year of the Wednesday night late game. Thank God this was the last one, though we get another late one on Friday night. I can live with a Friday night game. At least I can sleep in some on Saturday morning.

Thought the refs called the game tight. Maybe tighter than any game we have played in all season. I really only watch ACC games so I don't know if this is because ACC games tend to be called looser than most other leagues or if something else was in play. Anyway, it looked like the Syracuse players were surprised by a bunch of the early touch type fouls and it took a while for them to adjust.

One very apparent theme for this tournament is the demise of the Pac 12 conference. Only 3 teams in, with 2 assigned the dreaded play in games and both of the play in teams lost immediately. I guess they can't complain much about lack of respect. It looks like the committee was dead on not giving that conference much credit.

Frank is an interesting player. He got off to an awful start with two turnovers in the first 2 minutes but he settled in and made better decisions after that. I would have thought he would venture into the paint a lot against this under sized opponent, which often played with 3 or 4 guards and a forward, but he really shied away from driving inside. Can only assume he was not feeling up to it. It looked like he really got gassed in the second half, which is unusual for him. Props to him for digging deep and finding a way to play the whole game. Thought his defense was really good; he got some really nice steals and he hit a couple of jumpers early that helped open things up inside some.

Thought Battle's effectiveness was limited by his concern of drawing charges. Every year new, stronger rules are put in place that are designed to make it harder for defenders to draw charges and use the flop defense and every year refs ignore the rule changes and call charges anyway. These refs were really bad like that. It is a shame because when refs abuse the game this way, it makes for ugly games where teams just throw the ball around the perimeter, afraid to take the ball inside. I contend the rock fights are largely due to poor refereeing. What a shame.

Oshae has been up and down this year and has struggled at times to find a role. With Frank and Tyus largely neutralized, it was up to him to find ways to score in the second half when we got down and he came through in a big way. When he gets hot, he gets really hot and is capable of completely dominating games, even as a frosh. Great to see. He was dominant on the glass too. I haven't checked but I bet he has been our best outside shooter in the last month or two of the season. And our best rebounder. And our best at drawing fouls and making foul shots. Impressive.

Marek wasn't far from having a big game. He got the ball in the paint a lot, which normally means baskets, but he was really unselfish and tried to get the ball into Paschal a lot down low. If he is open and inside 15 feet, he should shoot it. He has a nice touch. If he really wants to pass it to Chukwu under the basket, he needs to throw it up high, in alley oop range, where Paschal is much more effective finishing shots.

Thought Paschal did a nice job avoiding foul trouble, getting rebounds and playing good defense. The quality of our zone is completely different when he is in the game. Yes, he missed some easy shots and yes, he struggled to catch and finish but he does a lot of important things and needs to play 35 minutes to give us a chance to win.

I wish JB gave Moyer a little more playing time. He was playing in front of a lot of friends and family, close to home and having more of a chance to contribute would have been huge for him. He got stuffed down low shortly after coming in and that was that for him. I understand why JB was impatient and it might have been the right move but I wish the kid could have had a couple of good moments for himself out there.

I don't have grand expectations for this team. Was just hoping for a winning season from them. The NCAA bid was a pleasant surprise and the win last night was great, especially for the kids on the team. The experience they are getting now will be invaluable next season. TCU sounds like a good matchup; another team that is really good offensively and really bad on defense. They have some shooters and a coach who has an idea who to play us and the game will be a challenge.

But the way I see it, we match up better against a team with good offense and bad defense. I really want to avoid having to play a really good defensive team. I have more confidence in our defense overcoming a good offense than our offense overcoming a good defense. But I could be wrong.

Nice to play so late on Friday. It makes watching the rest of the games so much more interesting.

The team should be loose and ready to play. We are playing with house money. Nothing to lose. I have a feeling this game Friday night is going to be fun to watch. Let's get it on!

 

[phillydad]

I will always remember this as the year of the Wednesday night late game. Thank God this was the last one, though we get another late one on Friday night. I can live with a Friday night game. At least I can sleep in some on Saturday morning.

Thought the refs called the game tight. Maybe tighter than any game we have played in all season. I really only watch ACC games so I don't know if this is because ACC games tend to be called looser than most other leagues or if something else was in play. Anyway, it looked like the Syracuse players were surprised by a bunch of the early touch type fouls and it took a while for them to adjust.

One very apparent theme for this tournament is the demise of the Pac 12 conference. Only 3 teams in, with 2 assigned the dreaded play in games and both of the play in teams lost immediately. I guess they can't complain much about lack of respect. It looks like the committee was dead on not giving that conference much credit.

Frank is an interesting player. He got off to an awful start with two turnovers in the first 2 minutes but he settled in and made better decisions after that. I would have thought he would venture into the paint a lot against this under sized opponent, which often played with 3 or 4 guards and a forward, but he really shied away from driving inside. Can only assume he was not feeling up to it. It looked like he really got gassed in the second half, which is unusual for him. Props to him for digging deep and finding a way to play the whole game. Thought his defense was really good; he got some really nice steals and he hit a couple of jumpers early that helped open things up inside some.

Thought Battle's effectiveness was limited by his concern of drawing charges. Every year new, stronger rules are put in place that are designed to make it harder for defenders to draw charges and use the flop defense and every year refs ignore the rule changes and call charges anyway. These refs were really bad like that. It is a shame because when refs abuse the game this way, it makes for ugly games where teams just throw the ball around the perimeter, afraid to take the ball inside. I contend the rock fights are largely due to poor refereeing. What a shame.

Oshae has been up and down this year and has struggled at times to find a role. With Frank and Tyus largely neutralized, it was up to him to find ways to score in the second half when we got down and he came through in a big way. When he gets hot, he gets really hot and is capable of completely dominating games, even as a frosh. Great to see. He was dominant on the glass too. I haven't checked but I bet he has been our best outside shooter in the last month or two of the season. And our best rebounder. And our best at drawing fouls and making foul shots. Impressive.

Marek wasn't far from having a big game. He got the ball in the paint a lot, which normally means baskets, but he was really unselfish and tried to get the ball into Paschal a lot down low. If he is open and inside 15 feet, he should shoot it. He has a nice touch. If he really wants to pass it to Chukwu under the basket, he needs to throw it up high, in alley oop range, where Paschal is much more effective finishing shots.

Thought Paschal did a nice job avoiding foul trouble, getting rebounds and playing good defense. The quality of our zone is completely different when he is in the game. Yes, he missed some easy shots and yes, he struggled to catch and finish but he does a lot of important things and needs to play 35 minutes to give us a chance to win.

I wish JB gave Moyer a little more playing time. He was playing in front of a lot of friends and family, close to home and having more of a chance to contribute would have been huge for him. He got stuffed down low shortly after coming in and that was that for him. I understand why JB was impatient and it might have been the right move but I wish the kid could have had a couple of good moments for himself out there.

I don't have grand expectations for this team. Was just hoping for a winning season from them. The NCAA bid was a pleasant surprise and the win last night was great, especially for the kids on the team. The experience they are getting now will be invaluable next season. TCU sounds like a good matchup; another team that is really good offensively and really bad on defense. They have some shooters and a coach who has an idea who to play us and the game will be a challenge.

But the way I see it, we match up better against a team with good offense and bad defense. I really want to avoid having to play a really good defensive team. I have more confidence in our defense overcoming a good offense than our offense overcoming a good defense. But I could be wrong.

Nice to play so late on Friday. It makes watching the rest of the games so much more interesting.

The team should be loose and ready to play. We are playing with house money. Nothing to lose. I have a feeling this game Friday night is going to be fun to watch. Let's get it on!

Not so sure about TCU being a good matchup for us, but, like you said, all house money now...

LGO!!!

 

[Lucid]

This is a great post tomcat, thanks for taking the time to write it.

Just a couple of things...

First, I thought maybe Frank's illness was effecting him quite a bit, especially his stamina. He did play great defense, but his offensive game seemed a little off.

I agree completely about the better matchups for us being poor defensive teams. Our strength is our defense. It will give quite a few tournament teams fits, especially non-ACC teams who haven't seen it before - no matter what some other posters on the board may believe.

My biggest wish is that Marek would develop a slightly more aggressive style with the ball, shooting when he has the chance and looking to get the ball closer to the basket with a feed or even a dribble, instead of getting a pass and then passing it right back out. I think that could take our offense from bad to mediocre, which (combined with our defense) could take us pretty far in this tournament.

 

[bballbeadle]

Marek reminds me of Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football. He needs to understand that if he passes to Chukwu, Chookie will drop it every time. He has to shoot the ball! This is no diss on Chookie, because he does good things, but catching a pass and putting it in the basket is rarely one of them.

SHOOT, Marek, shoot!

 

[Lucid]

One more thought...

If we had just shot our AVERAGE FT percentage (.735) we would have beat ASU by 8 points, 64 - 56.

 

[Waltdods]

One more thought...

If we had just shot our AVERAGE FT percentage (.735) we would have beat ASU by 8 points, 64 - 56.

This was driving me nuts during the game, but in fairness ASU was even worse. They shot 30 percent instead of their average of 73% (granted on fewer shots).

The 16 seeds playing in the game before shot 84 and 67 percent from the foul line, so probably not the rims.

 

[bballbeadle]

I really like this team, even though it can hurt to watch them play. They are valiant!

 

[tbonezone]

my take. lost power about 6 minutes in. went to bed.woke up and checked the score about 1am.
slept better.

 

[Newhouser]

I think we won playing our C game. I expect a much better performance Friday. May not be enough but I would be surprised if we didn't play much better.

 

[SWC75]

I will always remember this as the year of the Wednesday night late game. Thank God this was the last one, though we get another late one on Friday night. I can live with a Friday night game. At least I can sleep in some on Saturday morning.

Thought the refs called the game tight. Maybe tighter than any game we have played in all season. I really only watch ACC games so I don't know if this is because ACC games tend to be called looser than most other leagues or if something else was in play. Anyway, it looked like the Syracuse players were surprised by a bunch of the early touch type fouls and it took a while for them to adjust.

One very apparent theme for this tournament is the demise of the Pac 12 conference. Only 3 teams in, with 2 assigned the dreaded play in games and both of the play in teams lost immediately. I guess they can't complain much about lack of respect. It looks like the committee was dead on not giving that conference much credit.

Frank is an interesting player. He got off to an awful start with two turnovers in the first 2 minutes but he settled in and made better decisions after that. I would have thought he would venture into the paint a lot against this under sized opponent, which often played with 3 or 4 guards and a forward, but he really shied away from driving inside. Can only assume he was not feeling up to it. It looked like he really got gassed in the second half, which is unusual for him. Props to him for digging deep and finding a way to play the whole game. Thought his defense was really good; he got some really nice steals and he hit a couple of jumpers early that helped open things up inside some.

Thought Battle's effectiveness was limited by his concern of drawing charges. Every year new, stronger rules are put in place that are designed to make it harder for defenders to draw charges and use the flop defense and every year refs ignore the rule changes and call charges anyway. These refs were really bad like that. It is a shame because when refs abuse the game this way, it makes for ugly games where teams just throw the ball around the perimeter, afraid to take the ball inside. I contend the rock fights are largely due to poor refereeing. What a shame.

Oshae has been up and down this year and has struggled at times to find a role. With Frank and Tyus largely neutralized, it was up to him to find ways to score in the second half when we got down and he came through in a big way. When he gets hot, he gets really hot and is capable of completely dominating games, even as a frosh. Great to see. He was dominant on the glass too. I haven't checked but I bet he has been our best outside shooter in the last month or two of the season. And our best rebounder. And our best at drawing fouls and making foul shots. Impressive.

Marek wasn't far from having a big game. He got the ball in the paint a lot, which normally means baskets, but he was really unselfish and tried to get the ball into Paschal a lot down low. If he is open and inside 15 feet, he should shoot it. He has a nice touch. If he really wants to pass it to Chukwu under the basket, he needs to throw it up high, in alley oop range, where Paschal is much more effective finishing shots.

Thought Paschal did a nice job avoiding foul trouble, getting rebounds and playing good defense. The quality of our zone is completely different when he is in the game. Yes, he missed some easy shots and yes, he struggled to catch and finish but he does a lot of important things and needs to play 35 minutes to give us a chance to win.

I wish JB gave Moyer a little more playing time. He was playing in front of a lot of friends and family, close to home and having more of a chance to contribute would have been huge for him. He got stuffed down low shortly after coming in and that was that for him. I understand why JB was impatient and it might have been the right move but I wish the kid could have had a couple of good moments for himself out there.

I don't have grand expectations for this team. Was just hoping for a winning season from them. The NCAA bid was a pleasant surprise and the win last night was great, especially for the kids on the team. The experience they are getting now will be invaluable next season. TCU sounds like a good matchup; another team that is really good offensively and really bad on defense. They have some shooters and a coach who has an idea who to play us and the game will be a challenge.

But the way I see it, we match up better against a team with good offense and bad defense. I really want to avoid having to play a really good defensive team. I have more confidence in our defense overcoming a good offense than our offense overcoming a good defense. But I could be wrong.

Nice to play so late on Friday. It makes watching the rest of the games so much more interesting.

The team should be loose and ready to play. We are playing with house money. Nothing to lose. I have a feeling this game Friday night is going to be fun to watch. Let's get it on!

A Jamie Dixon team is "really bad on defense"?

Really, any team that faces us suddenly gets really good on defense.

 

[DeGrozz]

I'm really excited for what Marek is gonna do down the line. If he's around his Junior and Senior year, he looks like he's gonna develop into quite a nice glue guy.

 

[PhatOrange]

Had the same thought on the refs causing the rock fight. When guards are allowed to bump, grab, hand check and flop and the offensive guys cant make contact without drawing an offensive foul then the game is going to be ugly.

our guys need to watch the free arm push offs but that's product of the defender being allowed to grab, bump and body them. The D should NOT be allowed to do that.

 

[xc84]

My take is they don't pass enough. When someone is not well covered, you pass to them even if they are not wide open for a shot. Passes lead to good shots. Sometimes this team wins in spite of itself. The isolation will only get them so far. Sometimes I feel like I am watching my kid's biddy team. I think they have the talent to do more and that Pascal and Marek are underutilized.