sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a player is to play a really bad game. We had a couple of players really struggle last game: Alan and Marek. I assume the coaching staff laid into them pretty good coming up to this game and I expect even if they didn’t, they were highly motivated to be assertive and make an impact today.
That they did.
Alan has pretty much been a liability on defense all season long. Not today. He was a manimal inside all game long. Rejecting shots (7 blocks!), getting rebounds, throwing down dunks, getting steals; you name it, if it was good, he did it. Probably a bunch of times. I don’t remember him forcing a single shot either. Did a really nice job playing within the offense. Even got out in transition a few times, which he is great at.
Last game, Marek didn’t even touch the ball for long periods. No points 1 rebound until late in the game. He was a non-entity. Today, it looked like the game plan was to get the ball to Marek and when Marek got the ball, he was to drive to the basket and take a shot. Teams have been overplayed the pass on him, making it harder for him to find players for good looks and they have been almost giving him a lane to score, which he has been consistently declining to take, He touched the ball a ton today. Took 9 shots from the field, and had 8 FTs, which means he actually took around 13 shots. Had 1 assist. That is an unbelievable change in his behavior from the last game. It had to happen and now that it is on film, he is going to get a little more respect from defenses, and it will be easier to make passes.
If getting the ball to Marek was Plan A today, Plan 1A was to get it to Quincy. Pretty clear the staff wants him to get the ball as much as possible, and when he gets it, they want him to try and score. He had 11 shots from the field, 2 shots from outside the circle and 9 FTs today. You have to have your most efficient scorers shoot as much as possible to be successful, and Marek and Q are our most efficient scorers. Very encouraging to see. The thing with both of these guys is that, besides shooting good percentages, neither turn it over much, both are fine passers (especially Marek) and both are outstanding at drawing fouls.
VT has a good team but they really only have 2 or 3 guys that are not guards. If you can get the bigs in foul trouble, you have a great chance to beat them. Marek and Q did that and it was huge.
Another big factor was that their best big, Aluma, their leading scorer, had an awful day. He was 1-10 from the field and got his shot blocked repeatedly. A lot of them were point blank dunk attempts where he got his dink blocked and got knocked on his butt. A very humiliating day. Most of those blocks were by Griffin, who was jumping like a maniac all game long. Good to see.
What else? VT plays man defense, and they do a lot of that shoving, bumping and holding that gutter teams like old school Butler and Pitt teams used to do a lot. The refs did a better job calling that crap than most crews, and this was one of the reasons they got in bad foul trouble. It is hard to play man and play a tiny guy like Cone and another small, not very strong or athletic guy like that Hunter guy.. Those guys got abused most of the game, as our excellent passing team was able to find mismatches with these poor defensive players and get a lot of layup or easy looks as needed. Buddy, Alan, Joe and Kadary all took turns posting up those guys.
Wanted to single out JGIII for doing a really nice job running the offense, not looking for his shot, making good passes and just being solid out there. He played 33 minutes, only took 5 shots, had 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 4 assists and 0, count them, 0 turnovers. This is how I want him to play, and how he can help the team best.
On the subject of PGs, Kadary only played 15 minutes and the Kadary fans (I am one too) are going to hate this. It should be pointed out that he had 3 PFs in limited minutes in the first half. This has been pretty common for him this year. It he wants to ever play 30 minutes, he has to cut down on the dumb fouls. That 3rd one he picked up body checking a guy at mid court was not his finest moment. Because he had a mismatch most of the time he was playing, he took a lot more shots than he normally does. Did a really nice job backing the smaller guy covering him down low and then just shot over him. That is upperclassman stuff that he is doing already. Very nice to see. Ended up playing 15 minutes. Shot 5 for 6 from the field Only 1 assist and 1 turnover. No blocks or steals, which is unusual for him but those little guards wisely just stayed away from his area in the zone.
The other thing I thought we did well as really hit the offensive boards hard, Harder than we have in most games. That lead to a lot of fouls and easy put back baskets. VT is a small team that generally plays with 3 guards and JB made them pay the price for trying to play small ball against us.
Props to JB and the coaching staff for having a really good game plan and attacking the VT weaknesses really well.
I think JB only playe the 3 guard lineup for a brief period late when Q got his 4th foul.
Marek did not get in foul trouble (ended up with 2 PFs). Jesse was put in for 2 minutes in the first half anyway, as JB experimented a bit with a normal substitution pattern. He didn’t do much; got called for a bogus foul. It probably would have been a good idea to give him some minutes in the second half once the game was out of hand, but JB didn’t do it. I bet if Hop was still here it would have happened. Would have been nice to see Bras and Woody get a few minutes in the second half too but I can’t complain much about JB when we win in a blowout against a top 20 team.
Nice win. If we can beat the Cavs on Monday, things start to get really interesting.
That they did.
Alan has pretty much been a liability on defense all season long. Not today. He was a manimal inside all game long. Rejecting shots (7 blocks!), getting rebounds, throwing down dunks, getting steals; you name it, if it was good, he did it. Probably a bunch of times. I don’t remember him forcing a single shot either. Did a really nice job playing within the offense. Even got out in transition a few times, which he is great at.
Last game, Marek didn’t even touch the ball for long periods. No points 1 rebound until late in the game. He was a non-entity. Today, it looked like the game plan was to get the ball to Marek and when Marek got the ball, he was to drive to the basket and take a shot. Teams have been overplayed the pass on him, making it harder for him to find players for good looks and they have been almost giving him a lane to score, which he has been consistently declining to take, He touched the ball a ton today. Took 9 shots from the field, and had 8 FTs, which means he actually took around 13 shots. Had 1 assist. That is an unbelievable change in his behavior from the last game. It had to happen and now that it is on film, he is going to get a little more respect from defenses, and it will be easier to make passes.
If getting the ball to Marek was Plan A today, Plan 1A was to get it to Quincy. Pretty clear the staff wants him to get the ball as much as possible, and when he gets it, they want him to try and score. He had 11 shots from the field, 2 shots from outside the circle and 9 FTs today. You have to have your most efficient scorers shoot as much as possible to be successful, and Marek and Q are our most efficient scorers. Very encouraging to see. The thing with both of these guys is that, besides shooting good percentages, neither turn it over much, both are fine passers (especially Marek) and both are outstanding at drawing fouls.
VT has a good team but they really only have 2 or 3 guys that are not guards. If you can get the bigs in foul trouble, you have a great chance to beat them. Marek and Q did that and it was huge.
Another big factor was that their best big, Aluma, their leading scorer, had an awful day. He was 1-10 from the field and got his shot blocked repeatedly. A lot of them were point blank dunk attempts where he got his dink blocked and got knocked on his butt. A very humiliating day. Most of those blocks were by Griffin, who was jumping like a maniac all game long. Good to see.
What else? VT plays man defense, and they do a lot of that shoving, bumping and holding that gutter teams like old school Butler and Pitt teams used to do a lot. The refs did a better job calling that crap than most crews, and this was one of the reasons they got in bad foul trouble. It is hard to play man and play a tiny guy like Cone and another small, not very strong or athletic guy like that Hunter guy.. Those guys got abused most of the game, as our excellent passing team was able to find mismatches with these poor defensive players and get a lot of layup or easy looks as needed. Buddy, Alan, Joe and Kadary all took turns posting up those guys.
Wanted to single out JGIII for doing a really nice job running the offense, not looking for his shot, making good passes and just being solid out there. He played 33 minutes, only took 5 shots, had 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 4 assists and 0, count them, 0 turnovers. This is how I want him to play, and how he can help the team best.
On the subject of PGs, Kadary only played 15 minutes and the Kadary fans (I am one too) are going to hate this. It should be pointed out that he had 3 PFs in limited minutes in the first half. This has been pretty common for him this year. It he wants to ever play 30 minutes, he has to cut down on the dumb fouls. That 3rd one he picked up body checking a guy at mid court was not his finest moment. Because he had a mismatch most of the time he was playing, he took a lot more shots than he normally does. Did a really nice job backing the smaller guy covering him down low and then just shot over him. That is upperclassman stuff that he is doing already. Very nice to see. Ended up playing 15 minutes. Shot 5 for 6 from the field Only 1 assist and 1 turnover. No blocks or steals, which is unusual for him but those little guards wisely just stayed away from his area in the zone.
The other thing I thought we did well as really hit the offensive boards hard, Harder than we have in most games. That lead to a lot of fouls and easy put back baskets. VT is a small team that generally plays with 3 guards and JB made them pay the price for trying to play small ball against us.
Props to JB and the coaching staff for having a really good game plan and attacking the VT weaknesses really well.
I think JB only playe the 3 guard lineup for a brief period late when Q got his 4th foul.
Marek did not get in foul trouble (ended up with 2 PFs). Jesse was put in for 2 minutes in the first half anyway, as JB experimented a bit with a normal substitution pattern. He didn’t do much; got called for a bogus foul. It probably would have been a good idea to give him some minutes in the second half once the game was out of hand, but JB didn’t do it. I bet if Hop was still here it would have happened. Would have been nice to see Bras and Woody get a few minutes in the second half too but I can’t complain much about JB when we win in a blowout against a top 20 team.
Nice win. If we can beat the Cavs on Monday, things start to get really interesting.
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