sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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When you are a season ticket holder, you get a big book full of tickets before the season begins. There are around 20 games. When you have a few seasons, it seems like an almost infinite supply. Like the season will never end...
But each year it does, and when I extracted the tickets for the UL game, just two more sets of tickets looked back to me from my now near empty ticket book. The sadness felt with the ending of the season is only heightened due to the inspired play by our one senior and the announcement of the self imposed ban on post season play.
I didn't go to the game. Had some work being done on my house and had to be there for that. But I made sure my tickets were used and watched at home with great interest. Don't have much time but here are some thoughts...
This was a game like so many others this season against a good opponent. SU played well in spots but had enough bad stretches that it was behind most of the first half and ended up being fortunate to only trail by 4 at the half. The defense, which has normally been relatively good in the first half and bad in the second, was quite bad in the first, which set off a number of alert bells in the back of my head. Trev is decent at using his body to prevent someone from beating him off the dribble and getting into the lane. Kaleb really struggles here. When we let players routinely get into the paint, the zone has been breached and points or defensive fouls, maybe both are sure to ensue.
For one of the first times this season, the team shored up the zone in the second half and did a much better job keeping the UL guards out of the paint. SU was definitely helped by some poor outside shooting by the Cards, who are not a good outside shooting team by any means, as well as by some bad FT shooting, but there were long stretches of play when the Cards struggled to even get a shot off. Was really impressed by the intensity of the SU zone in that second half. Yes, UL had foul trouble and players with issues that prevented them from playing and it hurt them but hey, SU has had more than its share of key players out so it is hard to have sympathy for Louisville.
Looks like AO Junior is going to be a good one. You can see why SU didn't recruit him...he isn't particularly quick or athletic, more of a big body who plays the game below the hoop. But AO didn't have much to work with except strength and he managed to become one of the top centers in the country by the time he was a senior. This kid should have a good career.
I thought the biggest play of the game was made in the second half. Harrell got the ball on the high post, beat Rak to the hoop and threw up a bunny for an easy two. Except Christmas never gave up on the play, stayed on Mr Headband like white on rice and shocked him with a perfectly timed jump and block. After that, Harrell didn't do a lot and Rak continued to own him down low. 9 of 10 form the field and 11 of 13 from the FT line. Pretty darned efficient game for RC.
For much of his career, teams have been overplaying Silent G for the pass, leaving him open to take shots to double down on players in the paint. With his recent explosion of points, that is changing. He is getting covered tighter and has become much more of a focus on defenses. That might hurt his scoring a little but to his credit, as he gets more attention, he is seeing more chances to get the ball to a big down low and he is taking advantage. Had a number of really nice looks to our bigs. Was only credited with 6 assists, but that number is artifically low, as a number of the fouls our bigs drew were a direct result of Silent G getting them the ball in a great place. Also really nice seeing Mike make some key FTs. He is going to get a lot of them for the rest of his career here and it is important he improves his FT percentage from this point forward.
Really good seeing Roberson and Joseph playing well down the stretch of the season. Joseph only scored 6 but 4 of them were really important. I like his confidence (though at times it has been more of a bad thing than a good thing; confidence is great when combined with good judgement).
TC had a lot of good looks but was way off almost all game. Normally when he misses, it is only off by a tad but he is a mess right now. I guess the confidence level is not where it needs to be. Glad to see him realize it was not his day and focus on defense and passing in the second half. His floor game was very good.
Always nice to see JB beat Pitino. Would love to see him get another win over Dixon on Saturday. I think it is going to happen. Really like how the team is playing now...
But each year it does, and when I extracted the tickets for the UL game, just two more sets of tickets looked back to me from my now near empty ticket book. The sadness felt with the ending of the season is only heightened due to the inspired play by our one senior and the announcement of the self imposed ban on post season play.
I didn't go to the game. Had some work being done on my house and had to be there for that. But I made sure my tickets were used and watched at home with great interest. Don't have much time but here are some thoughts...
This was a game like so many others this season against a good opponent. SU played well in spots but had enough bad stretches that it was behind most of the first half and ended up being fortunate to only trail by 4 at the half. The defense, which has normally been relatively good in the first half and bad in the second, was quite bad in the first, which set off a number of alert bells in the back of my head. Trev is decent at using his body to prevent someone from beating him off the dribble and getting into the lane. Kaleb really struggles here. When we let players routinely get into the paint, the zone has been breached and points or defensive fouls, maybe both are sure to ensue.
For one of the first times this season, the team shored up the zone in the second half and did a much better job keeping the UL guards out of the paint. SU was definitely helped by some poor outside shooting by the Cards, who are not a good outside shooting team by any means, as well as by some bad FT shooting, but there were long stretches of play when the Cards struggled to even get a shot off. Was really impressed by the intensity of the SU zone in that second half. Yes, UL had foul trouble and players with issues that prevented them from playing and it hurt them but hey, SU has had more than its share of key players out so it is hard to have sympathy for Louisville.
Looks like AO Junior is going to be a good one. You can see why SU didn't recruit him...he isn't particularly quick or athletic, more of a big body who plays the game below the hoop. But AO didn't have much to work with except strength and he managed to become one of the top centers in the country by the time he was a senior. This kid should have a good career.
I thought the biggest play of the game was made in the second half. Harrell got the ball on the high post, beat Rak to the hoop and threw up a bunny for an easy two. Except Christmas never gave up on the play, stayed on Mr Headband like white on rice and shocked him with a perfectly timed jump and block. After that, Harrell didn't do a lot and Rak continued to own him down low. 9 of 10 form the field and 11 of 13 from the FT line. Pretty darned efficient game for RC.
For much of his career, teams have been overplaying Silent G for the pass, leaving him open to take shots to double down on players in the paint. With his recent explosion of points, that is changing. He is getting covered tighter and has become much more of a focus on defenses. That might hurt his scoring a little but to his credit, as he gets more attention, he is seeing more chances to get the ball to a big down low and he is taking advantage. Had a number of really nice looks to our bigs. Was only credited with 6 assists, but that number is artifically low, as a number of the fouls our bigs drew were a direct result of Silent G getting them the ball in a great place. Also really nice seeing Mike make some key FTs. He is going to get a lot of them for the rest of his career here and it is important he improves his FT percentage from this point forward.
Really good seeing Roberson and Joseph playing well down the stretch of the season. Joseph only scored 6 but 4 of them were really important. I like his confidence (though at times it has been more of a bad thing than a good thing; confidence is great when combined with good judgement).
TC had a lot of good looks but was way off almost all game. Normally when he misses, it is only off by a tad but he is a mess right now. I guess the confidence level is not where it needs to be. Glad to see him realize it was not his day and focus on defense and passing in the second half. His floor game was very good.
Always nice to see JB beat Pitino. Would love to see him get another win over Dixon on Saturday. I think it is going to happen. Really like how the team is playing now...
.
