sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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This is late because I stayed for the 2nd game of the doubleheader (the women played UC at about 4:10 PM and lost a heartbreaker, extremely ugly basketball, extremely ugly ending, enough said about that).
Nice crowd that could have reached the 30K barrier had the students showed up in big numbers. As others have surely mentioned, 3 entire sections of the upper deck was reserved for students, and less than half of one section was actually used. The students that did show were loud and solid. The disturbing lack of creativity and humor that has been a hallmark of SU students since the days of Edmund Dollard and Lew Andreas have been sadly lacking this year. At least a handful of big heads appeared today, though they weren't really big and I didn't see any that were inspired or Kennel Klub worthy.
Thought the crowd was overall quite loud and played a role in getting the victory. WVU panicked a bit at times, though I thought they showed pretty good poise most of the time.
Some dude from Liverpool sang the NA, screwed up one line but did a fine job singing the plodding, ponderous hard to sing saloon song. Props to him. An SU student had a chance to win thousands shooting a FT, a 3 pointer and a half court shot. He missed all of them, which I suppose was appropriate given how SU shot the ball today.
On the positive side, another dude did something very unusual by hitting his first shot in the Dunk & Bright shoot from the lane contest. He raised his arms in glory and pranced around the floor like he was Keith Smart and the year was 1987.
Not sure who the refs were. Karl Hess, Brian O'Connell and Gene Steratore maybe? Thought they were really inconsistent, let major contact go a lot but then called little ticking tack calls away from the ball, just flat out missed an alarming number of calls, made some calls really really late, etc. They blew them for both sides. I guess impartial incompetence is better than nothing. O'Connell in particular was a mess. This continues a regular trend this season in conference play. The refs, for whatever reason, are really struggling.
First half was really ugly. WVU played us in man most of the time. Tried a little pressure that was not effective. We were able to get into the paint and to the hoop seemingly whenever we wanted but were unable to finish and usually unable to even get a foul. Also had lots of wide open 3 attempts, all of which seemed to miss. Some of the worst outside shooting I have seen from SU. Ever.
Like the UC game, it seems like we stunk things up all half long, were down pretty big and in danger of getting blown out, then late in the half something clicked, we got a few baskets, again did a nice job running a play in the final seconds and ended up with a nice lead at halftime. Good to see us regularly scoring in the last play of a half. It has been a while since we have been able to do that well. Dion hit Scoop who got a 3 at the end of the first half.
Dion again had some plays where he looked really selfish but unlike the last couple of games, he did make a few good passes and he did play really good defense most of the time he was in. But he is forcing some really bad shots, getting caught stuck in the air with the ball and no where to go, and just generally getting out of control on offense on a regular basis. I thought JB really stayed with him today...I think Dion is a sensitive guy who needs support in order to do well and JB played him more than he deserved to play to try and show him he believes in Dion. But it really didn't work. He is still on the snide and a mess in general. Hope he pulls out of this soon. Did want to mention the one great play he made on offense when he beat his man in the 1st half, took it to the hoop and dunked with authority. Impressive and this drew the biggest ovation SU was to get all game long.
Thought Scoop had a decent game but was quite a bit off from where he has been in recent weeks. Thank God Brandon had another stellar game. When we started ripping apart the WVU man in the 2nd half, Huggy went to a 3-2 zone that was very effective and got them right back in the game. BT came in and made some big plays attacking that zone that gave the team a lift when it was badly needed.
Thought Fair and Southerland did decent jobs. Fair hit a really important mid range jumper late in the game that was crucial but was pretty quiet. Has to rebound better. The old 1 dimenional JS that could shoot the ball and do nothing else is happily gone. He is rebounding much better and I think his defenses continues to make inroads as the season progresses. That being said, he had a bunch of old 3s that he has to hit and that he did not hit today.
KJ had some bad turnovers and was out muscled for some rebounds but I thought he rebounded quite well given his height and frame and who he was up against. Made a huge 3 point play that might have been the turning point in the game and got some really big rebounds when we needed them most. Thought overall he did a good job.
Thought RC did okay on defense, had a couple controversial calls go against him, wasn't really aggressive on offense or on the boards. That has to change or he will not play regularly here.
Keita's hands are so troubled it is almost a running joke these days but he had by far his best game of 2012. Defense was good, denied the ball well, got some blocks, got in the hands of Kevin Jones and especially the Turkish dude who overuses steroids and his right handed hook. Also got a couple big baskets...was delighted to see him execute a pick and roll with Scoop so nicely. A thing of beauty, wasn't it? Even had a few rebounds, I think.
WVU had some prayers answered with some no talent guy making a 3 off the backboard, Kevin Jones hitting a 3 with no time left on the clock, #14 hitting 3 forced runners that had no business going in, etc. They had a bunch of offensive rebounds from freak bounces too that led to easy baskets. Was overall pleased with the SU defense. WVU struggled many times to get a decent shot off in their half court sets and were called for shot clock violations 2 times in a row in the 2nd half. Team effort, everyone played a role in this.
Nice win. WVU is, I think, a good but flawed team with little outside shooting and not much in the way of playmakers on their team. It doesn't help when you have a true frosh playing point. They play decent defense but are not where they were there a couple of years ago. You can't be playing a couple of frosh so much. I think they are going to be in trouble next year especially if Turkish McGuire does not come back.
Regarding the goal tend at the end, I definitely thought it was a goal tend. Awful call. Almost as bad was the no call when KJ got the ball, was hit, lost the ball OB and no call was made. Or the dozens of other blown calls in the game. No question we would have won the game regardless...the only remaining thing to be decided was whether it was going to happen in regulation or in overtime. I understand WVU fans don't understand the rules of basketball, too busy learning how to best incinerate sofas, but SU was clearly the better team, they could score when they needed to, and could stop WVU when they needed to and WVU wouldn't win this game if it were played 100 times. They were really fortunate to be within 10 late in the game.
Wanted to note that WVU brought a couple of hundred people to the game. Not a lot, nothing by our standards but for a BE team, this is a great showing. They have a nice fan base that travels really well, even for hoops. I respect the Eers a lot. Am sad I am unlikely to ever seen them play a hoops game in the Dome again. Good luck in the Big 12 guys. I hope you do well there.
After the game, KJ, JS, MCW and Trevor Cooney came back out and signed autographs for an extended period. Trev might not have...he was not recognized at least while I was there and I was not going to give him up to the graph hounds. Good to see these kids doing something to give back to the fans. KJ stayed a long time, posed for lots of photos and his fan friendliness was almost GMacian. That is one great kid. Happy he was able to step up and hit another big shot or two late to help win another game.
Nice crowd that could have reached the 30K barrier had the students showed up in big numbers. As others have surely mentioned, 3 entire sections of the upper deck was reserved for students, and less than half of one section was actually used. The students that did show were loud and solid. The disturbing lack of creativity and humor that has been a hallmark of SU students since the days of Edmund Dollard and Lew Andreas have been sadly lacking this year. At least a handful of big heads appeared today, though they weren't really big and I didn't see any that were inspired or Kennel Klub worthy.
Thought the crowd was overall quite loud and played a role in getting the victory. WVU panicked a bit at times, though I thought they showed pretty good poise most of the time.
Some dude from Liverpool sang the NA, screwed up one line but did a fine job singing the plodding, ponderous hard to sing saloon song. Props to him. An SU student had a chance to win thousands shooting a FT, a 3 pointer and a half court shot. He missed all of them, which I suppose was appropriate given how SU shot the ball today.
On the positive side, another dude did something very unusual by hitting his first shot in the Dunk & Bright shoot from the lane contest. He raised his arms in glory and pranced around the floor like he was Keith Smart and the year was 1987.
Not sure who the refs were. Karl Hess, Brian O'Connell and Gene Steratore maybe? Thought they were really inconsistent, let major contact go a lot but then called little ticking tack calls away from the ball, just flat out missed an alarming number of calls, made some calls really really late, etc. They blew them for both sides. I guess impartial incompetence is better than nothing. O'Connell in particular was a mess. This continues a regular trend this season in conference play. The refs, for whatever reason, are really struggling.
First half was really ugly. WVU played us in man most of the time. Tried a little pressure that was not effective. We were able to get into the paint and to the hoop seemingly whenever we wanted but were unable to finish and usually unable to even get a foul. Also had lots of wide open 3 attempts, all of which seemed to miss. Some of the worst outside shooting I have seen from SU. Ever.
Like the UC game, it seems like we stunk things up all half long, were down pretty big and in danger of getting blown out, then late in the half something clicked, we got a few baskets, again did a nice job running a play in the final seconds and ended up with a nice lead at halftime. Good to see us regularly scoring in the last play of a half. It has been a while since we have been able to do that well. Dion hit Scoop who got a 3 at the end of the first half.
Dion again had some plays where he looked really selfish but unlike the last couple of games, he did make a few good passes and he did play really good defense most of the time he was in. But he is forcing some really bad shots, getting caught stuck in the air with the ball and no where to go, and just generally getting out of control on offense on a regular basis. I thought JB really stayed with him today...I think Dion is a sensitive guy who needs support in order to do well and JB played him more than he deserved to play to try and show him he believes in Dion. But it really didn't work. He is still on the snide and a mess in general. Hope he pulls out of this soon. Did want to mention the one great play he made on offense when he beat his man in the 1st half, took it to the hoop and dunked with authority. Impressive and this drew the biggest ovation SU was to get all game long.
Thought Scoop had a decent game but was quite a bit off from where he has been in recent weeks. Thank God Brandon had another stellar game. When we started ripping apart the WVU man in the 2nd half, Huggy went to a 3-2 zone that was very effective and got them right back in the game. BT came in and made some big plays attacking that zone that gave the team a lift when it was badly needed.
Thought Fair and Southerland did decent jobs. Fair hit a really important mid range jumper late in the game that was crucial but was pretty quiet. Has to rebound better. The old 1 dimenional JS that could shoot the ball and do nothing else is happily gone. He is rebounding much better and I think his defenses continues to make inroads as the season progresses. That being said, he had a bunch of old 3s that he has to hit and that he did not hit today.
KJ had some bad turnovers and was out muscled for some rebounds but I thought he rebounded quite well given his height and frame and who he was up against. Made a huge 3 point play that might have been the turning point in the game and got some really big rebounds when we needed them most. Thought overall he did a good job.
Thought RC did okay on defense, had a couple controversial calls go against him, wasn't really aggressive on offense or on the boards. That has to change or he will not play regularly here.
Keita's hands are so troubled it is almost a running joke these days but he had by far his best game of 2012. Defense was good, denied the ball well, got some blocks, got in the hands of Kevin Jones and especially the Turkish dude who overuses steroids and his right handed hook. Also got a couple big baskets...was delighted to see him execute a pick and roll with Scoop so nicely. A thing of beauty, wasn't it? Even had a few rebounds, I think.
WVU had some prayers answered with some no talent guy making a 3 off the backboard, Kevin Jones hitting a 3 with no time left on the clock, #14 hitting 3 forced runners that had no business going in, etc. They had a bunch of offensive rebounds from freak bounces too that led to easy baskets. Was overall pleased with the SU defense. WVU struggled many times to get a decent shot off in their half court sets and were called for shot clock violations 2 times in a row in the 2nd half. Team effort, everyone played a role in this.
Nice win. WVU is, I think, a good but flawed team with little outside shooting and not much in the way of playmakers on their team. It doesn't help when you have a true frosh playing point. They play decent defense but are not where they were there a couple of years ago. You can't be playing a couple of frosh so much. I think they are going to be in trouble next year especially if Turkish McGuire does not come back.
Regarding the goal tend at the end, I definitely thought it was a goal tend. Awful call. Almost as bad was the no call when KJ got the ball, was hit, lost the ball OB and no call was made. Or the dozens of other blown calls in the game. No question we would have won the game regardless...the only remaining thing to be decided was whether it was going to happen in regulation or in overtime. I understand WVU fans don't understand the rules of basketball, too busy learning how to best incinerate sofas, but SU was clearly the better team, they could score when they needed to, and could stop WVU when they needed to and WVU wouldn't win this game if it were played 100 times. They were really fortunate to be within 10 late in the game.
Wanted to note that WVU brought a couple of hundred people to the game. Not a lot, nothing by our standards but for a BE team, this is a great showing. They have a nice fan base that travels really well, even for hoops. I respect the Eers a lot. Am sad I am unlikely to ever seen them play a hoops game in the Dome again. Good luck in the Big 12 guys. I hope you do well there.
After the game, KJ, JS, MCW and Trevor Cooney came back out and signed autographs for an extended period. Trev might not have...he was not recognized at least while I was there and I was not going to give him up to the graph hounds. Good to see these kids doing something to give back to the fans. KJ stayed a long time, posed for lots of photos and his fan friendliness was almost GMacian. That is one great kid. Happy he was able to step up and hit another big shot or two late to help win another game.
