My Take

[sutomcat]

Very small crowd. Very quiet crowd. I hope the money ESPN paid to get a 3 PM start on New Years Eve was worth it. No band, no dancers, no cheerleaders, no Otto, not even a mouse.

CC State played well early. They have a couple of fine scorers, and were quick; quicker than we were. JB made a rare coaching mistake and tried to press them, which gave their offense a big burst as they were able to get open looks and easy shots almost every time we pressured them. Once he took it off and they were forced to beat the zone, it was inevitable they would lose. They were really small and didn't even try to rebound on the offensive end. They did do a good job early defensive rebounding but SU eventually enjoyed success here, and that was the beginning of the end for the whatever Central Connecticut's nickname is.

Better ball movement, better spacing, better shooting, better offensive rebounding. Good to see SU blow someone out but CCSU was really small. Don't get your reservations for the Final Four quite yet.

MCW played scary bad early but played very well after that and barely missed a triple double. His defense was back to very good level again...had some steals. BT had a good game, scored inside and outside, played some good defense and drew a charge. Trevor missed some 3s badly, had a couple bad turnovers, but also hit a couple of 3s and had a great pass on the fast break. I like his hustle.

CJ had one of his better games. Seemed to hit almost every shot he threw up, rebounded well, did not force anything. Christmas had a really strong effort, played maybe his best half as an Orangeman in the 1st half, was solid defensively, rebounded the ball well and finished in the paint consistently. If he could play this way all the time, this team would be a handful.

DC2 got a lot more playing time than his has been getting, played reasonably well. Still getting his shot blocked with Paul Harris-like regularity but he is getting better at going up strong, his defense is slowly improving and his continues to get rebounds as well as any Orangeman in a long time.

Keita played his usual efficient game. With DC2 and Christmas getting extended minutes, he didn't get a lot of PT but he did reasonably well with the time he was out there. This has happened a few times this year...it is kind of unfair to Baye but JB is trying to give the younger bigs time to work out their issues and get better.

James played pretty well...CCSU played man all game and he consequently had someone in his face most of the time he was in, so it was not an ideal setting for him to have a big game but he was fine.

Grant did a nice job again, jack of all trades, it will be interesting to see if JB gives him minutes against Rutgers on Wednesday. He got caught in the air under the basket and travelled, one of the few mental errors I have ever seen him make.

CCSU has a pretty good team. No depth but #1 is a fine player who lit up our zone and was very impressive. Some good role players in other spots, #0 has some game. Would not be surprised if they win their conference as well. Their coach Howie Dickleman (something like that) was very funny on his pregame interview. A former UConn assistant, he had some good stories about the old days when he was an assistant for Jim Calhoun.

 

[RF2044]

Agree with most of this post, Tom.

Had the same thought when Grant made that baseline move--one of the few mistakes / forces I can recall from him.

 

[llandz]

Nice summary. When MCW made the turn in the game, you could all of a sudden see the change on his face. He looked very determined. It was amazing how it showed on the close up shots of him. Also he had the assists going again, That is what was missing the last game and a half. When MCW is feeding the ball the team steps up a couple of levels. Almost 3 double doubles!! Rak needed one more point to join MCW and CJ!!

 

[tbonezone]

"and that was the beginning of the end for the whatever Central Connecticut's nickname is."


i believe the program called them the C.C. MINUTE MICE. so yes there was at least one mouse in the house.

 

[pfister1]

They were really small and didn't even try to rebound on the offensive end.

I noticed a couple of times when the shot went up and all 5 CCSU players took off for the other end. There was one shot in particular where it was noticeable because the shot hit the rim and then bounced very high in the air off the rim. CJ had to wait to to jump for the rebound, but by the time he did the CCSU players had already turned tail and run for the other end. Thought it was very odd.