sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Been really busy but I wanted to jot down a few thoughts on the game last night.
Was impressed with Smith for NC State. Really nice athlete. Looked like their best defender already. Probably their best outside shooter, seems to do everything well.
Hellems has hurt us from the paint in the past but had an awful game. That made it almost impossible for NC State to overcome.
The first half was some of the worst defense I have ever seen in a college basketball game. NC State had pressure on all game long, and extended their defense but once Syracuse got past that, a layup or a wide open jumper always seemed their for the taking.
Saw some progress from our defense in recent games but we relapsed in the first half. NC State got open looks all the time as well. And they made a lot of the open shots they had from the outside. It seemed at one point as though they had 5 3 pointers in the span of 2 minutes. Our team is capable of playing decent defense but everyone needs to be on board and focusing for that to happen. That has rarely been the case this year.
It was great to how Joe handled the extended pressure in half court settings. He beat his guy and got into the paint a lot and made a lot of good decisions once that happened. So often this year he has just passed it around the perimeter or taken an ill advised long 3 instead.
Thought a big reason we slowed their attack down in the second half was JB's decision to stack JG3 and Buddy (1-1-3). That made it harder for them to get it into the paint and harder to get good looks from the outside. Jesse was like a black hole where ever he went, causing problems for NC State with his presence. Was unhappy with his rebounding in the first half but happy with his work on the boards in the second. I think this happens a lot. Bet if you tracked his rebounds in the first and second halves, he would have close to double in the second to what he gets in the first. Maybe he needs a good lecture from JB to get motivated.
Everyone knows this team is built around Buddy and he is the go to guy, especially at crunch time. Teams assign their best guy to him and try and take him away. Buddy has had mixed success passing out of the doubles teams throw at him and that happened again last night. He missed a couple of easy passes to Jesse on pick and rolls. But overall, good job. That one 3 he took and made early in the clock around the 2 minute mark (I think we were up 1 at the time) was a big play.
I have been frustrated because teams have been covering Buddy with a SF or PF and covering Cole, who tends to play small, with a guard. We have to make them pay for doing that and for most of the year have not. The last couple of games though, Cole has been way better about being aggressive and getting a good shot when he has a mismatch. He struggled making big shots for a long time this year but the last couple of games, I see a new Cole, who does not hesitate when he has a scoring chance at a key moment. He is taking the shots and he is making the shots now. This is great because we become a lot harder to defend when more players can take advantage of mismatches.
One of the things I love best about college basketball is watching young players develop. It has been great to see Jesse grow a little bit with every passing game. At first, he struggled with footwork and just catching the ball was a problem. He still has a lot of room to grow polish his game on offense. Needs a go to move inside, a better handle, etc. But his footwork is much improved, his hands are solid and he is at a point now where if he gets it within 5 feet of the basket, we are going to get a basket or a foul or both. His defense is vastly improved and I think he has a shot at making the All ACC defensive team (if this exists; I think it does). Heck, he even made a couple good passes last night.
Our bench did almost nothing. Frankie got a couple of awful calls against him to get in foul trouble in record time, which is a shame because he is also progressing nicely recently. Benny forced a bad shot and wasn't able to handle a tough pass. Wish he had been given a little more time. I think if we give him a chance now, he will contribute.
Jimmy had a couple of moments where his lack of athleticism hurt him and struggled on defense again, but out outside shooting forced NC State to spread out and gave him room to operate in the paint and he got some easy baskets/drew some fouls/got some offensive rebounds that allowed him to be a big factor in the game. I wish he would look pass a bit more; he misses a couple of easy assists every game. Same with Buddy.
Symir struggled some in limited minutes. Would have thought he would do well in a game like this and maybe he would have if he played a bit more. No points, 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers, 2 assists in 20 minutes for the bench as a whole. Not good.
JB again went with JB3 in the middle for a while with Jesse and Frankie in foul trouble. NC State had little in terms of an inside game some it didn't hurt us much.
That stretch early in the second half where we outscored NC State 12-0 and just went off was fun to watch. No missed shots in a half for more than 10 minutes. Wow. Impressive. We all thought we would be capable of this
kind of stuff before the season started. Good to see it actually happening.
Another game where we outrebounded an ACC opponent. I would like to give all the credit to our guys (Cole in particular was good here) but at least part of this is surely because this is not your father's ACC this season.
Hope we can play well against UL and get another win Saturday. We have struggled so badly to put together a string of good games. It needs to continue if we are to have a winning season this year.
Was impressed with Smith for NC State. Really nice athlete. Looked like their best defender already. Probably their best outside shooter, seems to do everything well.
Hellems has hurt us from the paint in the past but had an awful game. That made it almost impossible for NC State to overcome.
The first half was some of the worst defense I have ever seen in a college basketball game. NC State had pressure on all game long, and extended their defense but once Syracuse got past that, a layup or a wide open jumper always seemed their for the taking.
Saw some progress from our defense in recent games but we relapsed in the first half. NC State got open looks all the time as well. And they made a lot of the open shots they had from the outside. It seemed at one point as though they had 5 3 pointers in the span of 2 minutes. Our team is capable of playing decent defense but everyone needs to be on board and focusing for that to happen. That has rarely been the case this year.
It was great to how Joe handled the extended pressure in half court settings. He beat his guy and got into the paint a lot and made a lot of good decisions once that happened. So often this year he has just passed it around the perimeter or taken an ill advised long 3 instead.
Thought a big reason we slowed their attack down in the second half was JB's decision to stack JG3 and Buddy (1-1-3). That made it harder for them to get it into the paint and harder to get good looks from the outside. Jesse was like a black hole where ever he went, causing problems for NC State with his presence. Was unhappy with his rebounding in the first half but happy with his work on the boards in the second. I think this happens a lot. Bet if you tracked his rebounds in the first and second halves, he would have close to double in the second to what he gets in the first. Maybe he needs a good lecture from JB to get motivated.
Everyone knows this team is built around Buddy and he is the go to guy, especially at crunch time. Teams assign their best guy to him and try and take him away. Buddy has had mixed success passing out of the doubles teams throw at him and that happened again last night. He missed a couple of easy passes to Jesse on pick and rolls. But overall, good job. That one 3 he took and made early in the clock around the 2 minute mark (I think we were up 1 at the time) was a big play.
I have been frustrated because teams have been covering Buddy with a SF or PF and covering Cole, who tends to play small, with a guard. We have to make them pay for doing that and for most of the year have not. The last couple of games though, Cole has been way better about being aggressive and getting a good shot when he has a mismatch. He struggled making big shots for a long time this year but the last couple of games, I see a new Cole, who does not hesitate when he has a scoring chance at a key moment. He is taking the shots and he is making the shots now. This is great because we become a lot harder to defend when more players can take advantage of mismatches.
One of the things I love best about college basketball is watching young players develop. It has been great to see Jesse grow a little bit with every passing game. At first, he struggled with footwork and just catching the ball was a problem. He still has a lot of room to grow polish his game on offense. Needs a go to move inside, a better handle, etc. But his footwork is much improved, his hands are solid and he is at a point now where if he gets it within 5 feet of the basket, we are going to get a basket or a foul or both. His defense is vastly improved and I think he has a shot at making the All ACC defensive team (if this exists; I think it does). Heck, he even made a couple good passes last night.
Our bench did almost nothing. Frankie got a couple of awful calls against him to get in foul trouble in record time, which is a shame because he is also progressing nicely recently. Benny forced a bad shot and wasn't able to handle a tough pass. Wish he had been given a little more time. I think if we give him a chance now, he will contribute.
Jimmy had a couple of moments where his lack of athleticism hurt him and struggled on defense again, but out outside shooting forced NC State to spread out and gave him room to operate in the paint and he got some easy baskets/drew some fouls/got some offensive rebounds that allowed him to be a big factor in the game. I wish he would look pass a bit more; he misses a couple of easy assists every game. Same with Buddy.
Symir struggled some in limited minutes. Would have thought he would do well in a game like this and maybe he would have if he played a bit more. No points, 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers, 2 assists in 20 minutes for the bench as a whole. Not good.
JB again went with JB3 in the middle for a while with Jesse and Frankie in foul trouble. NC State had little in terms of an inside game some it didn't hurt us much.
That stretch early in the second half where we outscored NC State 12-0 and just went off was fun to watch. No missed shots in a half for more than 10 minutes. Wow. Impressive. We all thought we would be capable of this
kind of stuff before the season started. Good to see it actually happening.
Another game where we outrebounded an ACC opponent. I would like to give all the credit to our guys (Cole in particular was good here) but at least part of this is surely because this is not your father's ACC this season.
Hope we can play well against UL and get another win Saturday. We have struggled so badly to put together a string of good games. It needs to continue if we are to have a winning season this year.
