sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Sorry I haven’t been posting takes for basketball games. So many end at 9 pm on weeknights and I have to get up early for work so it just is very hard to find the time.
But it is a Sunday, everyone is sleeping and I have my iPad in front of me. So here goes.
I had the pleasure of sitting in courtside seats courtesy of the board mama and general ‘do gooder’ cto. (Thanks again Joyce).
I always enjoy sitting in those seats but I was particularly excited about it given the timing of this game. Something special seems to be happening and I wanted to get an up close look at this team. How the heck are they doing what they are doing?
Thought the defense was solid through most of the first half, though to be fair, Pitt did a really bad job of attacking the zone for a very long time. They don’t have much in the way of outside shooting and they don’t have a traditional low post presence big guy, and without those resources, it is hard to beat the Syracuse 2-3.
Thought we did a good job attacking mismatches when we were on offense. Buddy missed a few open looks at 3s in the first half but still outscored Pitt by himself into the last 4 minutes of the half because they tried to defend him with little guys. When trams do that, he just slashes to the hoop and uses his size (and some surprising strength) to physically overwhelm whoever is covering him. Pitt was forced to move Toney, their best defender, over to cover him. He did a capable job but it meant Hughes had a favorite mismatch (mostly McGowan) the last 24 minutes of the game. He unfortunately didn’t have a great game and his inability to take advantage was one of the reasons Pitt stayed in the game.
Thought Pitt got back in the game partly by ramping up how physical they were on defense. They didn’t do a lot of bumping, pushing and hand checking most of the first half but that changed around the 4 minute mark and that largely shut down the SU slashing that was so effective most of the first half. It is unfortunate that the refs allowed play to become really physical. Pitt has some excellent athletes on their team but not much size and not much shooting. Their best bet to win is to beat the crap out of the other team on defense and hope the refs allow it. Thought the refs called some fouls on Pitt but let quite a lot of banging go on. A little too much.
Champagnie got in early foul trouble for Pitt and once he was out, they looked pretty lost on offense. They had no low post presence at all, and without that, and with little outside shooting, they were outmatched. Once he got back in the game and started roaming behind our bigs on the baseline, finding seams, it was a whole different ball game. Especially after Sidibe got in foul trouble and missed so much time. But props to Champagnie. He is an impressive fresh and going to be very good. I like Xavier Johnson a lot too but his shooting form is really messed up. He has a really slow release and it looks really wrong. Like he is shooting with the wrong hand or had a stroke.
Hughes did ask a couple of players on Pitt about their sneakers before the game. One was Champagnie, who had on a pair of day glow yellow shoes that were a bold choice.
If you look at the box scores for recent games, Buddy is playing like a first team AA in the first half and doing little in the second. I am sure part of the reason is defensive adjustments. Teams come in putting their best defender on Elijah and end up switching that guy to Buddy. Usually this results in Elijah having a much better second half, as he benefits from the trade off. But from what I see, I think part of this is related to Buddy getting tired. He plays hard, goes 100% at all times and aside from the one game where he got 3 fouls in the first half, he almost never gets a rest. It might be a good idea to give him a couple of minutes off each half to help keep him with some gas in the tank for the last 5 minutes of the game. But then there is the OT game where Buddy did very little until near the end of the game, and suddenly morphed into Larry Bird. So who knows?
In the end, I think it comes down to JB identifying the best matchups to exploit when Syracuse has the ball and going after the weak links on defense. If there is something that this team does better than most, I think it is this. They have been great at understanding how they are being defended and making the other team pay for playing poor defensive players (or undersized players who are too small to cover our guys).
This team is a tough one to match up and play defense against. You need a big, strong guy with some quickness to cover Buddy. You need a big, strong, quick guy to cover Elijah. You need another big, strong guy to cover Marek. You can’t leave JGIII alone and if you leave Sidibe or Guerrier to double, we have good enough passers to find the open guy and get an easy basket.
Great job by JB to leverage the assets he has and make it work. Credit to the kids too. It is rare to see a team disciplined enough to understand the matchups and attack the weak link consistently.
Great to see us now playing passable defense. We are finally seeing our guys really attack the ball when it gets down low, going all out to get blocks and shut down the inside game, which has been a staple of our defense for so long. What did we have, 5 or 6 blocks in the first 5 minutes of the game?
We are finally showing the ability to consistently take the biggest threats the opponent has and take them out of the game. For a long time early in the season, it was hard to see who we were trying to take away when we were on defense. That almost never happens with the SU defense.
And it is great to see us rebounding well. It is a team effort. I don’t think many of the guys on this team are natural rebounders. We have a team comprised mostly of finesse guys who do not love mixing it up. But they are doing the dirty work needed to be successful rebounding, as a team, and this effort has been consistent through the winning streak. If they can keep this up, this team can do some special things.
Love the unselfish attitude. Love how well everyone passes the ball, the ball movement and willingness to make the extra pass for a better shot. What a refreshing change from the stagnant offense we have been running in recent years. What a pleasure it is to watch a team play hard, play fast and make steady improvement through the course of the season.
Keep it going guys! War Damn Otto! Beat Clemson!
But it is a Sunday, everyone is sleeping and I have my iPad in front of me. So here goes.
I had the pleasure of sitting in courtside seats courtesy of the board mama and general ‘do gooder’ cto. (Thanks again Joyce).
I always enjoy sitting in those seats but I was particularly excited about it given the timing of this game. Something special seems to be happening and I wanted to get an up close look at this team. How the heck are they doing what they are doing?
Thought the defense was solid through most of the first half, though to be fair, Pitt did a really bad job of attacking the zone for a very long time. They don’t have much in the way of outside shooting and they don’t have a traditional low post presence big guy, and without those resources, it is hard to beat the Syracuse 2-3.
Thought we did a good job attacking mismatches when we were on offense. Buddy missed a few open looks at 3s in the first half but still outscored Pitt by himself into the last 4 minutes of the half because they tried to defend him with little guys. When trams do that, he just slashes to the hoop and uses his size (and some surprising strength) to physically overwhelm whoever is covering him. Pitt was forced to move Toney, their best defender, over to cover him. He did a capable job but it meant Hughes had a favorite mismatch (mostly McGowan) the last 24 minutes of the game. He unfortunately didn’t have a great game and his inability to take advantage was one of the reasons Pitt stayed in the game.
Thought Pitt got back in the game partly by ramping up how physical they were on defense. They didn’t do a lot of bumping, pushing and hand checking most of the first half but that changed around the 4 minute mark and that largely shut down the SU slashing that was so effective most of the first half. It is unfortunate that the refs allowed play to become really physical. Pitt has some excellent athletes on their team but not much size and not much shooting. Their best bet to win is to beat the crap out of the other team on defense and hope the refs allow it. Thought the refs called some fouls on Pitt but let quite a lot of banging go on. A little too much.
Champagnie got in early foul trouble for Pitt and once he was out, they looked pretty lost on offense. They had no low post presence at all, and without that, and with little outside shooting, they were outmatched. Once he got back in the game and started roaming behind our bigs on the baseline, finding seams, it was a whole different ball game. Especially after Sidibe got in foul trouble and missed so much time. But props to Champagnie. He is an impressive fresh and going to be very good. I like Xavier Johnson a lot too but his shooting form is really messed up. He has a really slow release and it looks really wrong. Like he is shooting with the wrong hand or had a stroke.
Hughes did ask a couple of players on Pitt about their sneakers before the game. One was Champagnie, who had on a pair of day glow yellow shoes that were a bold choice.
If you look at the box scores for recent games, Buddy is playing like a first team AA in the first half and doing little in the second. I am sure part of the reason is defensive adjustments. Teams come in putting their best defender on Elijah and end up switching that guy to Buddy. Usually this results in Elijah having a much better second half, as he benefits from the trade off. But from what I see, I think part of this is related to Buddy getting tired. He plays hard, goes 100% at all times and aside from the one game where he got 3 fouls in the first half, he almost never gets a rest. It might be a good idea to give him a couple of minutes off each half to help keep him with some gas in the tank for the last 5 minutes of the game. But then there is the OT game where Buddy did very little until near the end of the game, and suddenly morphed into Larry Bird. So who knows?
In the end, I think it comes down to JB identifying the best matchups to exploit when Syracuse has the ball and going after the weak links on defense. If there is something that this team does better than most, I think it is this. They have been great at understanding how they are being defended and making the other team pay for playing poor defensive players (or undersized players who are too small to cover our guys).
This team is a tough one to match up and play defense against. You need a big, strong guy with some quickness to cover Buddy. You need a big, strong, quick guy to cover Elijah. You need another big, strong guy to cover Marek. You can’t leave JGIII alone and if you leave Sidibe or Guerrier to double, we have good enough passers to find the open guy and get an easy basket.
Great job by JB to leverage the assets he has and make it work. Credit to the kids too. It is rare to see a team disciplined enough to understand the matchups and attack the weak link consistently.
Great to see us now playing passable defense. We are finally seeing our guys really attack the ball when it gets down low, going all out to get blocks and shut down the inside game, which has been a staple of our defense for so long. What did we have, 5 or 6 blocks in the first 5 minutes of the game?
We are finally showing the ability to consistently take the biggest threats the opponent has and take them out of the game. For a long time early in the season, it was hard to see who we were trying to take away when we were on defense. That almost never happens with the SU defense.
And it is great to see us rebounding well. It is a team effort. I don’t think many of the guys on this team are natural rebounders. We have a team comprised mostly of finesse guys who do not love mixing it up. But they are doing the dirty work needed to be successful rebounding, as a team, and this effort has been consistent through the winning streak. If they can keep this up, this team can do some special things.
Love the unselfish attitude. Love how well everyone passes the ball, the ball movement and willingness to make the extra pass for a better shot. What a refreshing change from the stagnant offense we have been running in recent years. What a pleasure it is to watch a team play hard, play fast and make steady improvement through the course of the season.
Keep it going guys! War Damn Otto! Beat Clemson!
