sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Very sparse attendance. You have COVID, a bitter cold night and an underperforming team all at work here. Along with the students being out of session. No cheerleaders, no band, no Otto, no dancers, no Rasta Guy, not even the Camillus Master Orchestra.
It was a bad atmosphere for hoops.
I think Mr Excitement returned as the PA announcer last night. The guy who replaced him did a really good job. Very professional. Not sure why Mike was out. Can anyone confirm he was back last night? Can't see his face from where I sit but it sounded like him.
I never thought I would say it but I miss the singers that are normally brought in to sign the NA. A scratchy recording is a not so great way to start a game.
It was an interesting game. Thought Pitt played well in the first half. Got the ball into the paint pretty much at will and got a lot of easy shots. They even got a bunch of wide open 3s and made a bunch. We made no adjustments all half and really looked like a badly coached, unathletic and confused team on defense. On offense, things weren't much better.
It was nice to see vintage Buddy. We so need him to be great to win games. He did it all last night. Shot it great from outside, got some rebounds, made a number of nice passes and yes, he even played some of the best defense I have ever seen from him.
Joe continued to play in a funk. Struggled to penetrate. Struggled to move the ball and run the offense. Struggled to get decent shots.
Cole is the kind of player who can be successful if someone else sets him up with the ball in a good place. If he is asked to score on his own, at this point anyway, he is pretty much a non entity. You can see him trying to drive, trying to get to the basket. He usually gets cut off and is not willing to bang his way closer to the basket. I think he clearly trying to get mid range shots from inside 15 feet and while he is able to get good shots off, he seems to miss these contested shots almost all the time. He rebounds hard some games and other games, doesn't seem very interested. This was one of those games. I think he would be a lot better with a PG looking to set him up in positions he can score from. You get him some open looks and he is going to be successful. He made a cut in the second half to get a layup (I think Jimmy found him that time). Needs to do more of that and we need to do a better job as a team finding the open guy.
JB3 had a nice game. Got some rebounds, got some baskets inside, moved more, made some cuts. He did a better job crashing inside when the ball got into the paint in the second half. And he made some FTs which was nice to see. With his old man game, he is going to get fouled a lot. He really needs to make a lot of his FTs to be fully effective on offense.
Thought Symir had some good moments and some bad ones. He is our best guard down low, seems very comfortable converting down there. Think we should look to have him post his guy up whenever they try and cover him with a small guy. Speaking of getting covered with a small guy, it seems like most games, Buddy gets a forward assigned to him and they almost always put a guard on Cole. Cole is getting covered by a 6'3 guy or thereabouts all the time. We need to make teams pay for putting a forward on Buddy and run some plays to allow Cole to post up his guy. Problem is, I think he is not good at that right now. But it would help us a lot if he could start doing this.
Jesse had a strange game. I believe he had zero PFs at half time. Looked like JB must have stressed him not getting in foul trouble and he adjusted by pretty much standing away from the action and watching. A lot of the easy scores Pitt had in the first half was unchallenged by Jesse. Jesse didn't even try to rebound most of the half. Pretty sure he had 1 at half time.
To JAB's credit., changes were made at halftime to address the awful performance of the zone. They put Buddy in the top middle of the zone and Joe above him. Buddy was really aggressive defending players who came into the paint. Looked like he really tried to deny them the ball and if they got it and tried to dribble, Buddy dove for the ball. Really happy with how aggressive he was in this role. Looked like JB brought the forwards closer to the paint as well so if Pitt tried to get the ball to someone down low, a forward could (and generally did) swoop in and knock the ball away). Now Pitt is bad on offense and I don't want to make a big deal out of it. But it was great to see the defense play as a unit, really for the first time all season and consistently work hard to stop Pitt from getting good shots. It started last game and expanded in the second half of this game.
I actually saw Joe, Buddy and Sy bodying players trying to dribble by them. They were denying them the lane. Stuff that was second nature to players like Andy Rautins, Brandon Triche and Tyus Battle. But stuff we haven't seen in a lot time.
And Jesse played a lot more aggressive in the second half. Made a lot of good plays defensively, got a lot more rebounds, looked to score more...you name it, he did it. Yes, he made a number of the foolish fouls he has become notorious for and somehow still fouled out of the game but overall, he played really well in the second half. I continue to think he is the only player on our team that can be an above average rebounder and with so many poor rebounders on the team, it is imperative he hits the boards hard every game.
Watching the game about halfway through the second half, I started getting a strange feeling. A familiar but strange feeling. I should be thinking about something. An important decision was looming. But what was it?
Finally I got it. I needed to think about when to leave the game.
Wait for the 4 minute mark? Wait for the taco threshold? Wait for the walk ons to get in?
It has been so long since I have watched a game in person where I had the opportunity to think about this (because the game was a blow out). It hadn't happened this year (the exhibitions were must sees given the novelty of watching the new players in the renovated dome). It certainly didn't happen last year. And even the year before, it probably didn't happen until around mid December. Anyway, it was a good feeling to be able to leave the dome with a victory in hand and get home in time to get a decent night of sleep. For the record, we waited for the 70 point mark. I was with my nieces, who wanted to leave early but also wanted to know tacos were a done deal.
On the topic of tacos and SU basketball, I started thinking about how you could redeem your ticket for a taco in the electronic ticket age? Well, when SU reached 70 points, the PA guy said to go to Taco Bell and just tell them 'Taco Time'. So I guess there is no need to prove you went to the game any longer. I believe he also said fans had 3 hours to get their tacos. I have no issues with the 'Taco Time' message instead of showing proof of attendance, but why only 3 hours to redeem? Surely Taco Bell understand most of the tacos are getting eaten by kids and most of the kids have school the next day. A 3 hour deadline might be okay for weekend games but they should give kids the chance to get their tacos the next day. It is bad enough most of these kids don't get home from the game until 9:30 pm or later, going directly home.
Okay, let me jump off my taco soapbox and relax.
It is nice to get a win. It was nice to get the bench some minutes. Disappointed Benny didn't play more. 4 minutes? It should be clear the kid has talent and needs some time to figure things out. A game like this was perfect for that. Sigh.
It was a bad atmosphere for hoops.
I think Mr Excitement returned as the PA announcer last night. The guy who replaced him did a really good job. Very professional. Not sure why Mike was out. Can anyone confirm he was back last night? Can't see his face from where I sit but it sounded like him.
I never thought I would say it but I miss the singers that are normally brought in to sign the NA. A scratchy recording is a not so great way to start a game.
It was an interesting game. Thought Pitt played well in the first half. Got the ball into the paint pretty much at will and got a lot of easy shots. They even got a bunch of wide open 3s and made a bunch. We made no adjustments all half and really looked like a badly coached, unathletic and confused team on defense. On offense, things weren't much better.
It was nice to see vintage Buddy. We so need him to be great to win games. He did it all last night. Shot it great from outside, got some rebounds, made a number of nice passes and yes, he even played some of the best defense I have ever seen from him.
Joe continued to play in a funk. Struggled to penetrate. Struggled to move the ball and run the offense. Struggled to get decent shots.
Cole is the kind of player who can be successful if someone else sets him up with the ball in a good place. If he is asked to score on his own, at this point anyway, he is pretty much a non entity. You can see him trying to drive, trying to get to the basket. He usually gets cut off and is not willing to bang his way closer to the basket. I think he clearly trying to get mid range shots from inside 15 feet and while he is able to get good shots off, he seems to miss these contested shots almost all the time. He rebounds hard some games and other games, doesn't seem very interested. This was one of those games. I think he would be a lot better with a PG looking to set him up in positions he can score from. You get him some open looks and he is going to be successful. He made a cut in the second half to get a layup (I think Jimmy found him that time). Needs to do more of that and we need to do a better job as a team finding the open guy.
JB3 had a nice game. Got some rebounds, got some baskets inside, moved more, made some cuts. He did a better job crashing inside when the ball got into the paint in the second half. And he made some FTs which was nice to see. With his old man game, he is going to get fouled a lot. He really needs to make a lot of his FTs to be fully effective on offense.
Thought Symir had some good moments and some bad ones. He is our best guard down low, seems very comfortable converting down there. Think we should look to have him post his guy up whenever they try and cover him with a small guy. Speaking of getting covered with a small guy, it seems like most games, Buddy gets a forward assigned to him and they almost always put a guard on Cole. Cole is getting covered by a 6'3 guy or thereabouts all the time. We need to make teams pay for putting a forward on Buddy and run some plays to allow Cole to post up his guy. Problem is, I think he is not good at that right now. But it would help us a lot if he could start doing this.
Jesse had a strange game. I believe he had zero PFs at half time. Looked like JB must have stressed him not getting in foul trouble and he adjusted by pretty much standing away from the action and watching. A lot of the easy scores Pitt had in the first half was unchallenged by Jesse. Jesse didn't even try to rebound most of the half. Pretty sure he had 1 at half time.
To JAB's credit., changes were made at halftime to address the awful performance of the zone. They put Buddy in the top middle of the zone and Joe above him. Buddy was really aggressive defending players who came into the paint. Looked like he really tried to deny them the ball and if they got it and tried to dribble, Buddy dove for the ball. Really happy with how aggressive he was in this role. Looked like JB brought the forwards closer to the paint as well so if Pitt tried to get the ball to someone down low, a forward could (and generally did) swoop in and knock the ball away). Now Pitt is bad on offense and I don't want to make a big deal out of it. But it was great to see the defense play as a unit, really for the first time all season and consistently work hard to stop Pitt from getting good shots. It started last game and expanded in the second half of this game.
I actually saw Joe, Buddy and Sy bodying players trying to dribble by them. They were denying them the lane. Stuff that was second nature to players like Andy Rautins, Brandon Triche and Tyus Battle. But stuff we haven't seen in a lot time.
And Jesse played a lot more aggressive in the second half. Made a lot of good plays defensively, got a lot more rebounds, looked to score more...you name it, he did it. Yes, he made a number of the foolish fouls he has become notorious for and somehow still fouled out of the game but overall, he played really well in the second half. I continue to think he is the only player on our team that can be an above average rebounder and with so many poor rebounders on the team, it is imperative he hits the boards hard every game.
Watching the game about halfway through the second half, I started getting a strange feeling. A familiar but strange feeling. I should be thinking about something. An important decision was looming. But what was it?
Finally I got it. I needed to think about when to leave the game.
Wait for the 4 minute mark? Wait for the taco threshold? Wait for the walk ons to get in?
It has been so long since I have watched a game in person where I had the opportunity to think about this (because the game was a blow out). It hadn't happened this year (the exhibitions were must sees given the novelty of watching the new players in the renovated dome). It certainly didn't happen last year. And even the year before, it probably didn't happen until around mid December. Anyway, it was a good feeling to be able to leave the dome with a victory in hand and get home in time to get a decent night of sleep. For the record, we waited for the 70 point mark. I was with my nieces, who wanted to leave early but also wanted to know tacos were a done deal.
On the topic of tacos and SU basketball, I started thinking about how you could redeem your ticket for a taco in the electronic ticket age? Well, when SU reached 70 points, the PA guy said to go to Taco Bell and just tell them 'Taco Time'. So I guess there is no need to prove you went to the game any longer. I believe he also said fans had 3 hours to get their tacos. I have no issues with the 'Taco Time' message instead of showing proof of attendance, but why only 3 hours to redeem? Surely Taco Bell understand most of the tacos are getting eaten by kids and most of the kids have school the next day. A 3 hour deadline might be okay for weekend games but they should give kids the chance to get their tacos the next day. It is bad enough most of these kids don't get home from the game until 9:30 pm or later, going directly home.
Okay, let me jump off my taco soapbox and relax.
It is nice to get a win. It was nice to get the bench some minutes. Disappointed Benny didn't play more. 4 minutes? It should be clear the kid has talent and needs some time to figure things out. A game like this was perfect for that. Sigh.
(I like it, too.) So this is Codger Commentary.
