sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Gotta go to sleep so this is going to be short.
Thought San Diego State was really ill prepared to attack the 2-3. They got a lot of shots blocked when they tried to go inside, were intimidated as hell and just kept taking long ill advised 3s.
A lot of the credit goes to the Syracuse 2-3. It was really active. The players played more extended than normal and the shooters on the Aztecs had someone in their face almost all the time. That lineup with Edwards at center and Marek and Robert at the forwards is really effective on defense. We challenge everything inside like in the old days, we can rebound well and cover a ton of ground defending 3s. When Kadary comes in with these guys, the defense is close to elite.
SD State really only has 2 guys who can score. Mitchell and the 6’6 guard who looks like a bear. When played correctly, the 2-3 can take away 2 or 3 scorers pretty reliably, and that is what happened today. SU didn’t bother to cover the 3 role player guys always on the court that did not have much ability to make baskets, and let Mitchell stand around on the perimeter, taking ill advised extended 3s most of the game. Good game plan by Syracuse, and one that Dutcher had no answers for until the game was over late in the second half.
For much of the season, we have had problems scoring. Lots of games where everyone stood around, whoever had the ball tried to beat their guy one on one, failed and we end up forcing a bad shot with the shot clock about to go off.
Buddy is the only guy on the team who can consistently get a good shot off going one on one. He struggled shooting for a while early in the season but that problem is gone now, his confidence is sky high and he can score on anyone. SDS tried everyone they had on him and had no success. Buddy embarrassed their conference player of the year, and everyone else who tried to cover him.
But his emergence as a reliable scorer has helped open things up for his teammates. Teams are throwing double teams at him all the time, and he is savvy enough to recognize this and find the open guy. SD State tried to cover Buddy with their PF, and that led to mismatches all over the place. One of the strong points of this team is their ability to identify and take advantages of these and we did that again well today.
The Aztecs tried to play in our face, extended from the basket, and tried to hold and bump our players to slow their progress but the refs were not allowing that. That was really their only chance to win, as they didn’t have the skill, length or athletic ability to cover our players.
Great to see Kadary, Edwards and Braswell all play big minutes and make big contributions. Edwards was a force inside. Bras was a savvy vet who found a bunch of ways to contribute. Kadary looked close to 100% physically for the first time in weeks and even hit a couple of 3s. JGIII isn’t a great ball handler and has some defensive limitations but he made a lot of nice passes and hit some key shots to get us going.
Q and Alan did not have great games and if you told me before the game they would have 3 points and 4 rebounds between them. I would have been very concerned. It seems like every time Alan makes a move, it is ill advised. Definitely has lost confidence and needs better judgement. Hope he has a good game or two left in him this year. Q was okay but didn’t touch the ball a lot or get a lot of rebounds. When Edwards is in the game, he mostly plays the low post, and I think that leaves less room for Q to operate.
Gotta mention Marek though and how important of a role he played in the game. He was key in breaking the Aztec pressure, he got big rebounds, got some blocks and was really good defensively ( the refs blew a couple of calls with him). Made a bunch of great passes and scored when he had the opportunity. And hit his FTs too. He is our senior leader, and teams need senior leaders to lead them this time of year.
Good to see us playing our best basketball late in the season. It will be interesting to see how we match up with the Mountaineers after all this time in different conferences. I don’t know much about them and haven’t barely seen them play since they were exiled out West.
Thought San Diego State was really ill prepared to attack the 2-3. They got a lot of shots blocked when they tried to go inside, were intimidated as hell and just kept taking long ill advised 3s.
A lot of the credit goes to the Syracuse 2-3. It was really active. The players played more extended than normal and the shooters on the Aztecs had someone in their face almost all the time. That lineup with Edwards at center and Marek and Robert at the forwards is really effective on defense. We challenge everything inside like in the old days, we can rebound well and cover a ton of ground defending 3s. When Kadary comes in with these guys, the defense is close to elite.
SD State really only has 2 guys who can score. Mitchell and the 6’6 guard who looks like a bear. When played correctly, the 2-3 can take away 2 or 3 scorers pretty reliably, and that is what happened today. SU didn’t bother to cover the 3 role player guys always on the court that did not have much ability to make baskets, and let Mitchell stand around on the perimeter, taking ill advised extended 3s most of the game. Good game plan by Syracuse, and one that Dutcher had no answers for until the game was over late in the second half.
For much of the season, we have had problems scoring. Lots of games where everyone stood around, whoever had the ball tried to beat their guy one on one, failed and we end up forcing a bad shot with the shot clock about to go off.
Buddy is the only guy on the team who can consistently get a good shot off going one on one. He struggled shooting for a while early in the season but that problem is gone now, his confidence is sky high and he can score on anyone. SDS tried everyone they had on him and had no success. Buddy embarrassed their conference player of the year, and everyone else who tried to cover him.
But his emergence as a reliable scorer has helped open things up for his teammates. Teams are throwing double teams at him all the time, and he is savvy enough to recognize this and find the open guy. SD State tried to cover Buddy with their PF, and that led to mismatches all over the place. One of the strong points of this team is their ability to identify and take advantages of these and we did that again well today.
The Aztecs tried to play in our face, extended from the basket, and tried to hold and bump our players to slow their progress but the refs were not allowing that. That was really their only chance to win, as they didn’t have the skill, length or athletic ability to cover our players.
Great to see Kadary, Edwards and Braswell all play big minutes and make big contributions. Edwards was a force inside. Bras was a savvy vet who found a bunch of ways to contribute. Kadary looked close to 100% physically for the first time in weeks and even hit a couple of 3s. JGIII isn’t a great ball handler and has some defensive limitations but he made a lot of nice passes and hit some key shots to get us going.
Q and Alan did not have great games and if you told me before the game they would have 3 points and 4 rebounds between them. I would have been very concerned. It seems like every time Alan makes a move, it is ill advised. Definitely has lost confidence and needs better judgement. Hope he has a good game or two left in him this year. Q was okay but didn’t touch the ball a lot or get a lot of rebounds. When Edwards is in the game, he mostly plays the low post, and I think that leaves less room for Q to operate.
Gotta mention Marek though and how important of a role he played in the game. He was key in breaking the Aztec pressure, he got big rebounds, got some blocks and was really good defensively ( the refs blew a couple of calls with him). Made a bunch of great passes and scored when he had the opportunity. And hit his FTs too. He is our senior leader, and teams need senior leaders to lead them this time of year.
Good to see us playing our best basketball late in the season. It will be interesting to see how we match up with the Mountaineers after all this time in different conferences. I don’t know much about them and haven’t barely seen them play since they were exiled out West.
