sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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I think this is going to be a short one. It should be a short one...
No Bville band. Sad. They do an excellent job.
Haven't read almost any of the writeups on the game but it looked to me as though we ran a new offense last night. The standing around, super stagnant, hoping someone can make an iso move offense we have been attempting to use for years was replaced by a dynamic half court set that featured the guards and the small forward doing constant loops from out on the wing to under the basket to out out the other wing.
The center and the power forward were more static. It appeared JB had Jesse trying to establish position closer to the basket, more in his usual scoring position. And they positioned Maliq down low, opposite the side Jesse was on, very consistently.
VT was small and had forward types covering Jesse all game long. They were mostly effective pushing him out of position and when he got the ball, they bodied him hard, as other ACC schools have been doing. This got him off balance and led to weird shots that didn't have much chance to go in. They doubled him as soon as he got the ball, which again is standard OP for defending SU right now. But with Maliq moving well and positioning himself well in the low post (he was in the game most of the time), Jesse had a good option for his passes. And he took advantage of it a lot. Nice job by him finding Brown. Us playing two guys down low presented VT with a lot of problems. They just didn't have the size to handle this.
And all the movement caused confusion and missed assignments as well. We had some open jumpers and some lanes opened up for our slashers. Very nice change that makes this team markedly harder to defend.
Was unhappy early. VT destroyed the zone last year by getting the ball into Mutts in the paint. He is a fine passer and can score from that range as well, so he is well suited to be their zone buster. Yet our guards let VT get the ball to him without any trouble almost every possession, and Jesse was late getting to him, and when Jesse came out to challenge Mutts, our the forwards did not remember to look out for a VT forward sneaking down lot to get an easy basket. VT was able to execute their zone offense without any trouble. I am sure this was a point of emphasis in practice and it looked like we had no idea it was coming.
This eventually changed. The guards rotated closer to the paint, especially on the opposite side from the ball. Jesse got a lot more aggressive coming out. And perhaps most importantly, Brown came in to replace Benny, who had been napping again on defense.
Brown is well suited to play in the zone. He anticipates the low post pass well, is quick and has long arms and when he came in, and Jesse got in Mutts' face, along with better work by the guard to prevent the ball from getting in the paint, it shut the VT offense down. They were reduced to launching 3s, mostly well covered low percentage 3s, and they shot poorly from the outside.
VT tried to replicate the extended pressure man defenses that others have used to good effect against Syracuse this season but their guards are small and not as strong and seasoned as some of the guys our guards have gone against, and maybe our guards are learning to handle the pressure better now. So it didn't disrupt things much and our guards were sometimes able to beat the pressure and get inside for 3 on 2 action, which usually led to an easy basket.
The only way VT was able to stop us was by feigning charges when a Syracuse player dribbled near them with the ball. That is on the refs, who were generally okay but really need to work on making blocking calls (or the lack thereof).
It was nice to see s have a good day shooting from the outside. Joe was a big factor here but Justin and Chris Bell also contributed and even Symir got one (late in the shot clock, where he threw up a tear drop that bounced around and fell in). That one almost broke that old guy who coaches VT and likes to stand on the court. Mike Young might be his name.
Judah was again a little wild and looked for his shot too much. I think his judgement here is slowly getting better though. He is really trying to draw fouls and I think the ACC refs have decided for some reason they are not going to give him any help at all this year. He cannot get a close call to save his life. Pretty sure there will be no Christmas cards being sent to ACC refs from the Mintz household this December.
Nice win. The first 5 minutes of the second half was really nice. We played solid on offense and defense and broke the game open then.
Still not sure how good this team is. They are well better defensively than last season and I think are harder to cover on offense most games too. JT and especially Maliq seem to get more comfortable and solid with each game they play. Benny and Chris have their moments but to me, they don't understand how to play the game was well as the Virginia boys. It is a shame Bell got hurt, as he was looking good when that happened.
Gotta give some props to Joe, who played like you want a senior to play and got a lot of important baskets to initially keep us in the game and later to end the game. Yes, he took a a few questionable shots but he was efficient and I am impressed that he was able to keep his confidence and return to form after than awful 3 game spell. That would have broken many.
I am enjoying watching this team. The young guys are developing. I like what JB is doing with subbing, playing the guys who are playing the best from game to game. If Jesse can remember how to make a 2 foot shot and stay out of foul trouble, we are going to be a problem for many in the conference.
Looking forward to ND Saturday already.
No Bville band. Sad. They do an excellent job.
Haven't read almost any of the writeups on the game but it looked to me as though we ran a new offense last night. The standing around, super stagnant, hoping someone can make an iso move offense we have been attempting to use for years was replaced by a dynamic half court set that featured the guards and the small forward doing constant loops from out on the wing to under the basket to out out the other wing.
The center and the power forward were more static. It appeared JB had Jesse trying to establish position closer to the basket, more in his usual scoring position. And they positioned Maliq down low, opposite the side Jesse was on, very consistently.
VT was small and had forward types covering Jesse all game long. They were mostly effective pushing him out of position and when he got the ball, they bodied him hard, as other ACC schools have been doing. This got him off balance and led to weird shots that didn't have much chance to go in. They doubled him as soon as he got the ball, which again is standard OP for defending SU right now. But with Maliq moving well and positioning himself well in the low post (he was in the game most of the time), Jesse had a good option for his passes. And he took advantage of it a lot. Nice job by him finding Brown. Us playing two guys down low presented VT with a lot of problems. They just didn't have the size to handle this.
And all the movement caused confusion and missed assignments as well. We had some open jumpers and some lanes opened up for our slashers. Very nice change that makes this team markedly harder to defend.
Was unhappy early. VT destroyed the zone last year by getting the ball into Mutts in the paint. He is a fine passer and can score from that range as well, so he is well suited to be their zone buster. Yet our guards let VT get the ball to him without any trouble almost every possession, and Jesse was late getting to him, and when Jesse came out to challenge Mutts, our the forwards did not remember to look out for a VT forward sneaking down lot to get an easy basket. VT was able to execute their zone offense without any trouble. I am sure this was a point of emphasis in practice and it looked like we had no idea it was coming.
This eventually changed. The guards rotated closer to the paint, especially on the opposite side from the ball. Jesse got a lot more aggressive coming out. And perhaps most importantly, Brown came in to replace Benny, who had been napping again on defense.
Brown is well suited to play in the zone. He anticipates the low post pass well, is quick and has long arms and when he came in, and Jesse got in Mutts' face, along with better work by the guard to prevent the ball from getting in the paint, it shut the VT offense down. They were reduced to launching 3s, mostly well covered low percentage 3s, and they shot poorly from the outside.
VT tried to replicate the extended pressure man defenses that others have used to good effect against Syracuse this season but their guards are small and not as strong and seasoned as some of the guys our guards have gone against, and maybe our guards are learning to handle the pressure better now. So it didn't disrupt things much and our guards were sometimes able to beat the pressure and get inside for 3 on 2 action, which usually led to an easy basket.
The only way VT was able to stop us was by feigning charges when a Syracuse player dribbled near them with the ball. That is on the refs, who were generally okay but really need to work on making blocking calls (or the lack thereof).
It was nice to see s have a good day shooting from the outside. Joe was a big factor here but Justin and Chris Bell also contributed and even Symir got one (late in the shot clock, where he threw up a tear drop that bounced around and fell in). That one almost broke that old guy who coaches VT and likes to stand on the court. Mike Young might be his name.
Judah was again a little wild and looked for his shot too much. I think his judgement here is slowly getting better though. He is really trying to draw fouls and I think the ACC refs have decided for some reason they are not going to give him any help at all this year. He cannot get a close call to save his life. Pretty sure there will be no Christmas cards being sent to ACC refs from the Mintz household this December.
Nice win. The first 5 minutes of the second half was really nice. We played solid on offense and defense and broke the game open then.
Still not sure how good this team is. They are well better defensively than last season and I think are harder to cover on offense most games too. JT and especially Maliq seem to get more comfortable and solid with each game they play. Benny and Chris have their moments but to me, they don't understand how to play the game was well as the Virginia boys. It is a shame Bell got hurt, as he was looking good when that happened.
Gotta give some props to Joe, who played like you want a senior to play and got a lot of important baskets to initially keep us in the game and later to end the game. Yes, he took a a few questionable shots but he was efficient and I am impressed that he was able to keep his confidence and return to form after than awful 3 game spell. That would have broken many.
I am enjoying watching this team. The young guys are developing. I like what JB is doing with subbing, playing the guys who are playing the best from game to game. If Jesse can remember how to make a 2 foot shot and stay out of foul trouble, we are going to be a problem for many in the conference.
Looking forward to ND Saturday already.
