This has to be short, lots going on.
Encouraging game. Brown has played well all season but we throttled them. Perhaps the most encouraging thing was how well we played in the second half. particularly the start of the second half.
This has been a huge issue for this team all season, but it was not a problem last night.
I think a big reason was matchup issues Brown had with the Syracuse players. Teams have been having good success putting a tall, lanky, athletic player on Buddy. Buddy can't really get a good shot off against this type of player going inside and he has even had problems getting his jumper off against this kind of player. When teams do this to us, they are usually putting their center or a big forward on Buddy, and it means there is a great matchup elsewhere that we need to take advantage of. Buddy has usually been unable to find the guy with the mismatch, so teams have been able to get away with this tactic to date.
Last night, Buddy usually had a guy his size or smaller on him and it seemed he could go inside whenever he wanted and get a good shot. Looked like they were running a lot of pick and rolls too, with Jesse starting near the foul line, and when he got it there, Buddy would try and beat him man to the spot directly behind Jesse, where he got a few open looks for 3s. When Buddy was covered, it was usually by the center who had Jesse and switched off. When they switched, Jesse headed for the basket and got a couple baskets/drawn fouls.
Good play, makes good use of our talent. Hope to see more of this in the future.
Good to see Buddy in Killer Mode again. Liked the 5 rebounds and another game with a bunch of assists. t is easy to take him for granted but he is a pretty special player.
Speaking of taking advantage of mismatches, thought Joe did another good job identifying mismatches and getting the ball to the player with the advantage. He ran the offense really well last night. Made some nice passes, lots of good decisions, and his shot selection was again solid. If he makes good decisions on when to shoot, his shooting percentage is going to be very good. I think this is pretty much a given now. He also played one of his best games defensively, anticipating passes and getting steals. Great game for him, other that his usual couple of inexplicable unforced turnovers. He has cut down on these pretty well, isn't where he needs to be but I see a lot of progress and like where he is at right now. Let's see how he does in conference play, I am sure he will get a lot of pressure in his face that will be uncomfortable to deal with.
JB3 rebounds better with a beard. That is the one conclusion I think we all can agree on. I was really happy one time when he was driving in the paint, had a guy in his face and instead of forcing a bad shot, saw Jesse and set him up for a dunk. Jimmy is a good passer and if he can find the open guy when he drives, it will make him a lot more effective.
Was again really pleased with what I saw from Symir. I know it was only Brown but he is playing with a lot of confidence right now and doing a really nice job finding the open man. I think he ended up with 7 assists and 0 turnovers. And he made a 3. Happy for him. It is good to see him playing a lot. I think JB playing the subs more in the first and second halves might have played a role in how much better we played as a team in the second half.
Brown was flummoxed by the zone for a long time, and dug a deep hole for themselves, but give them credit. They made some adjustments, started getting the ball into the paint regularly and started scoring a lot of points in the latter part of the first half. It is nice JB has the new option of stacking the guards to cut down on that. Looked like he made that adjustment and it was very effective making it harder for Brown to get it into the paint. It will be interesting to see how much JB uses this tweak in future games.
Thought Cole had a nice job offensively but I wish he hit the boards harder. Jimmy did a really nice job down low getting boards but he needs help. Jesse wasn't great on the boards either. Looked like he lost a few boards he was in position for. Just couldn't hold on to them. His hands were solid early in the season. Not sure if he is just frustrated, or nervous but he needs to be more of a factor rebounding, especially against a team like Brown. Weird to see him struggling with FTs now too.
Benny got a lot of PT and JB gave him the opportunity to play through a number of mistakes. The adjustment from HS to college is a big one and almost everyone struggles making it. Benny is not exception. It was good to see him getting a chance to learn from his mistakes, and getting a chance to make changes and address issues in real time. He has to get tougher, smarter, more assertive. I think he will get there and hope JB is able to find some minutes for him each game to help further his development. Think he can become a meaningful contributor in the second half of the season if JB is patient with him. That said, right now, he is costing us points a lot and it is hard to take that hit when wins are desperately needs and the margin for victories is so thin.
Thought Frank had a typical game. When he is in, players are able to get to the rim way easier than when Jesse is in. But Frank is a better rebounder I think, and might be a better finisher too (i.e. he dunks whenever he can).
Hope we play like this again Wednesday and Saturday. Cornell isn't great and this is a good time to play Virginia, who might be getting slowly better but are not playing like a Tony Bennett coached team yet.
A 3 win week would be awesome.
Fingers crossed.
