sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Got there early. Much to my surprise, there was a band playing in a corner of the football field back court area. They played cover songs, mostly from the 1990s. Thought they were good. Some people stood around to listen. Good idea.
There were a fair number of people that were wearing Georgetown gear. Not as much as when we play Cornell, but I bet they had at least 100 fans in the house.
Only 24K for this one but walking to our seats 5 minutes before tipoff was tough. The concourses and staircases are woefully narrow. If you are wondering if this is another thinly veiled attempt to lobby for wider concourses and staircases (escalators would be nice too) as part of phase 2 of the Dome renovation, the answer is yes.
I noticed the students have brought back the chants after each of the starters are introduced for the opposition. Watching the student section get smaller, quieter and more lame and boring each season has been profoundly disappointing but nothing has been sadder to see than the decision to do away with that tradition. Not sure whose decision it was to do away with it but I am glad to see it is back. Even if the signs to that the students what to say have decreased in size just as much as the number of students attending the games.
It was great to see the football team get some love at halftime. Dino did a ‘Whose house? Our house!’ that was embraced enthusiastically by the fans. Why doesn’t the ‘cheer team’ embrace the chant as well? Their attempts to engage the crowd in chants have been a complete failure for 30 years. Why not embrace a chant people want to do? Perplexing.
The grande male cheerleader had the C flag last night. He kept up with the A flag but all the smaller letters got destroyed by type A holder of the giant S flag. Impressive. C flag did feign fainting afterwards, lining down in the middle of the open area south of the movable section section, but a couple of carts needed to be wheeled through and C flag had to be dragged out of the way.
On to the game...
That might have been the most substitutions I have ever seen JB make in the first half. He shuttled players in and out like a maniac, trying desperately to find a lineup that could play effectively. I think he probably pulled a Q and subbed too much. There is something to continuity. But everyone was playing poorly. It was a remarkably ugly half of basketball. Meanwhile, that hotdog McClung was putting on a show, hitting bombs from outside, penetrating and shredding the zone inside and even making a behind the back pass for an assist. Impressive half for him.
In the second half, JB probably wouldn’t have subbed at all if it wasn’t for foul trouble. He rode that nag til she dropped. And it worked.
Why did we play so bad in the first half? What is going on with this team? With so many scorers, how can we struggle to score so often?
Part of the problem is Frank. When he is just sitting around the perimeter, passing it around to someone else on the perimeter, and launching and missing 3s, he doesn’t need to be covered and becomes a big liability on offense.
The same applies to Paschal. Teams aren’t bothering to cover him at all. He does pick and rolls, gets open and is routinely ignored. Or, until the second half last night, he gets the ball and something really bad happens.
Frank actually had a breakthrough yesterday and got into the lane a few times, where good things happened. Great sign. He has gotten in foul trouble a coup,e of times since his return and is not playing smart when he does. He did better at this last year. Hope that is just rust.
Speaking if breakthroughs, thought Paschal’s second half was really good. His rebounding could be better and I thought his defense was okay, but wow, it was great to see him finish some plays consistently. I think he has to contribute if we are going to be a good team on offense. Another senior, another foul out. Disappointing. Not many rebounds. Disappointing.
I don’t think we even tried pressure once. Thry had a true frosh PG out there most of the time. Kind of surprised about that. Given the foul trouble we had, it probably was a good decision.
Was Frank’s foul trouble a good break? In some ways, yes. I think Frank is easily the best guy we have forcing turnovers. He gets a ton of steals. Does a good job covering ground an limiting good looks from the3 point circle too, though by the time his career here is over, I suspect he will have fouled a 3 point shooter in the act more than any SU player ever. When he is out, our defense is worse.
Our first looks at Carey, he was shooting a lot. Too much for a point guard. JB had to have talked to him about it because he is not looking for his shot nearly as much any longer. Why is our plus/minus so much better when Jalen is in? Part of it is tempo I think.
When Jalen is in, the team plays faster. Carey was born to run, Frank is a deliberate, walk in up the court guy. With Jalen out there, we get more transition opportunities, and it happens that Battle, Brissett and Howard all thrive in unsettled, transition settings. Tyus absolutely went off in the second half; real AA stuff again, he took the game over. But I bet o0% of his points were in unsettled situations. I think this is a big deal with this team. We don’t have great half court scorers on this team. We don’t have a traditional low post player.
When we get in half court situations, we need someone to penetrate and dish off. Battle can penetrate but he is not good finding the open guy when he gets doubled. Howard is just now getting comfortable getting to the paint again. Carey can do it but he is used to finishing himself from the paint and is getting embarrassed trying to finish against big guys at this level. He could help the team more by looking to dish when he gets inside. He is certainly capable of do8ng this and did it a few times. If we can get Frank and Jalen to slash inside and either dish or make floaters, it will help s lot.
Marek is part of the problem too. He is playing as timidly as he did at the start of last year. He needs to play with more confidence. Don’t just immediately pass it to the closest guy on the perimeter. Marek can drive and finish, drive and dish or shoot it. Make the other team have to account for you MD. And get some rebounds. Remember that you are 6’10.
Thought Brissett did okay. He get some tough rebounds and some big baskets. Played good defense. Missed a dunk and another bunny or two. But drew fouls and was tough.
Thought Gtown played good defense except for that stretch early in the second half when the lead was erased in short order. How good as they? I think the second half was a better indicator than the first, when our poor execution on offense made things easy for them.
Props to the crowd. They made a lot of noise. Looked like it bothered the Hoyas, who are not used to having people in the stands or noise. Even the students contributed.
Should we play them again? It would help if they ever get good again. I don’t think they are making the NCAA.tournament. Attendance for this game was only slightly more than it would have if we played had we played someone like Rhode Island. If we get no bump to our SOS, if the fans don’t care, should we bother to play the Hoyas and chase shadows from the past? Maybe. The away game gives our fan base in the DC metro area a chance to watch the team play. And we still recruit that area regularly.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out next season.
This was a nice win. It will be nice to be ranked again Monday and it sets up a huge game against the Mighty Bulls. Who would had ever thought there would be a game between two ranked teams from upstate NY? I wonder when the last time was that happened? Has it ever happened?
There were a fair number of people that were wearing Georgetown gear. Not as much as when we play Cornell, but I bet they had at least 100 fans in the house.
Only 24K for this one but walking to our seats 5 minutes before tipoff was tough. The concourses and staircases are woefully narrow. If you are wondering if this is another thinly veiled attempt to lobby for wider concourses and staircases (escalators would be nice too) as part of phase 2 of the Dome renovation, the answer is yes.
I noticed the students have brought back the chants after each of the starters are introduced for the opposition. Watching the student section get smaller, quieter and more lame and boring each season has been profoundly disappointing but nothing has been sadder to see than the decision to do away with that tradition. Not sure whose decision it was to do away with it but I am glad to see it is back. Even if the signs to that the students what to say have decreased in size just as much as the number of students attending the games.
It was great to see the football team get some love at halftime. Dino did a ‘Whose house? Our house!’ that was embraced enthusiastically by the fans. Why doesn’t the ‘cheer team’ embrace the chant as well? Their attempts to engage the crowd in chants have been a complete failure for 30 years. Why not embrace a chant people want to do? Perplexing.
The grande male cheerleader had the C flag last night. He kept up with the A flag but all the smaller letters got destroyed by type A holder of the giant S flag. Impressive. C flag did feign fainting afterwards, lining down in the middle of the open area south of the movable section section, but a couple of carts needed to be wheeled through and C flag had to be dragged out of the way.
On to the game...
That might have been the most substitutions I have ever seen JB make in the first half. He shuttled players in and out like a maniac, trying desperately to find a lineup that could play effectively. I think he probably pulled a Q and subbed too much. There is something to continuity. But everyone was playing poorly. It was a remarkably ugly half of basketball. Meanwhile, that hotdog McClung was putting on a show, hitting bombs from outside, penetrating and shredding the zone inside and even making a behind the back pass for an assist. Impressive half for him.
In the second half, JB probably wouldn’t have subbed at all if it wasn’t for foul trouble. He rode that nag til she dropped. And it worked.
Why did we play so bad in the first half? What is going on with this team? With so many scorers, how can we struggle to score so often?
Part of the problem is Frank. When he is just sitting around the perimeter, passing it around to someone else on the perimeter, and launching and missing 3s, he doesn’t need to be covered and becomes a big liability on offense.
The same applies to Paschal. Teams aren’t bothering to cover him at all. He does pick and rolls, gets open and is routinely ignored. Or, until the second half last night, he gets the ball and something really bad happens.
Frank actually had a breakthrough yesterday and got into the lane a few times, where good things happened. Great sign. He has gotten in foul trouble a coup,e of times since his return and is not playing smart when he does. He did better at this last year. Hope that is just rust.
Speaking if breakthroughs, thought Paschal’s second half was really good. His rebounding could be better and I thought his defense was okay, but wow, it was great to see him finish some plays consistently. I think he has to contribute if we are going to be a good team on offense. Another senior, another foul out. Disappointing. Not many rebounds. Disappointing.
I don’t think we even tried pressure once. Thry had a true frosh PG out there most of the time. Kind of surprised about that. Given the foul trouble we had, it probably was a good decision.
Was Frank’s foul trouble a good break? In some ways, yes. I think Frank is easily the best guy we have forcing turnovers. He gets a ton of steals. Does a good job covering ground an limiting good looks from the3 point circle too, though by the time his career here is over, I suspect he will have fouled a 3 point shooter in the act more than any SU player ever. When he is out, our defense is worse.
Our first looks at Carey, he was shooting a lot. Too much for a point guard. JB had to have talked to him about it because he is not looking for his shot nearly as much any longer. Why is our plus/minus so much better when Jalen is in? Part of it is tempo I think.
When Jalen is in, the team plays faster. Carey was born to run, Frank is a deliberate, walk in up the court guy. With Jalen out there, we get more transition opportunities, and it happens that Battle, Brissett and Howard all thrive in unsettled, transition settings. Tyus absolutely went off in the second half; real AA stuff again, he took the game over. But I bet o0% of his points were in unsettled situations. I think this is a big deal with this team. We don’t have great half court scorers on this team. We don’t have a traditional low post player.
When we get in half court situations, we need someone to penetrate and dish off. Battle can penetrate but he is not good finding the open guy when he gets doubled. Howard is just now getting comfortable getting to the paint again. Carey can do it but he is used to finishing himself from the paint and is getting embarrassed trying to finish against big guys at this level. He could help the team more by looking to dish when he gets inside. He is certainly capable of do8ng this and did it a few times. If we can get Frank and Jalen to slash inside and either dish or make floaters, it will help s lot.
Marek is part of the problem too. He is playing as timidly as he did at the start of last year. He needs to play with more confidence. Don’t just immediately pass it to the closest guy on the perimeter. Marek can drive and finish, drive and dish or shoot it. Make the other team have to account for you MD. And get some rebounds. Remember that you are 6’10.
Thought Brissett did okay. He get some tough rebounds and some big baskets. Played good defense. Missed a dunk and another bunny or two. But drew fouls and was tough.
Thought Gtown played good defense except for that stretch early in the second half when the lead was erased in short order. How good as they? I think the second half was a better indicator than the first, when our poor execution on offense made things easy for them.
Props to the crowd. They made a lot of noise. Looked like it bothered the Hoyas, who are not used to having people in the stands or noise. Even the students contributed.
Should we play them again? It would help if they ever get good again. I don’t think they are making the NCAA.tournament. Attendance for this game was only slightly more than it would have if we played had we played someone like Rhode Island. If we get no bump to our SOS, if the fans don’t care, should we bother to play the Hoyas and chase shadows from the past? Maybe. The away game gives our fan base in the DC metro area a chance to watch the team play. And we still recruit that area regularly.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out next season.
This was a nice win. It will be nice to be ranked again Monday and it sets up a huge game against the Mighty Bulls. Who would had ever thought there would be a game between two ranked teams from upstate NY? I wonder when the last time was that happened? Has it ever happened?