One Point Lost in Last Night's Game

[Col. Bleep]

The box score does not reveal THE most important fact of the game:
MCW finally connected on a scaled down version his patented "drive the lane, jump in the air and blindly fling the ball backwards pass."
At about the 13:30 mark of first half.

Note to MCW: We're on a roll. Now that you've done it...PLEASE forget about trying it ever again.

 

[Shermthegeneral]

In the last 5 games of the regular season he did it like clock work at around 5 min to go in the game. I think all but one resulted in a turn over.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

In the last 5 games of the regular season he did it like clock work at around 5 min to go in the game. I think all but one resulted in a turn over.

Yep. Looks great on a highlight reel if it works. Real games aren't highlight reels, or video games with do-overs till you get it right.

 

[jdubs30]

Most turnovers look bad, I don't care who you are.

You have to live with MCW turning the ball over (like all PG's) with all the great things he does. No big deal.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

Most turnovers look bad, I don't care who you are.

You have to live with MCW turning the ball over (like all PG's) with all the great things he does. No big deal.

The turnovers, esp at critical junctures against the elite teams, are the difference between us as a Sweet 16 team and an NC contender.

If that is no big deal to you, fine. I'm glad you are satisfied with forgettable mediocrity.

 

[jdubs30]

The turnovers, esp at critical junctures against the elite teams, are the difference between us as a Sweet 16 team and an NC contender.

If that is no big deal to you, fine. I'm glad you are satisfied with forgettable mediocrity.

You can say that about every team. Louisville is the saying the same thing about Siva. Obviously you want to limit the turnovers, but I'd rather have MCW try to make plays and have 9 assists and 3 turnovers as opposed to being passive and having 3 assists and 0 turnovers.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

You can say that about every team. Louisville is the saying the same thing about Siva. Obviously you want to limit the turnovers, but I'd rather have MCW try to make plays and have 9 assists and 3 turnovers as opposed to being passive and having 3 assists and 0 turnovers.

I don't know the numbers for sure, but it seemed like 1 assist and 5 turnovers in the last 15 minutes against Louisville. And it's not just the boxscore turnovers, but the inability of our point guard to dribble break pressure against even one-on-one defense, or once broken, to take the ball aggressively and effectively to the hole is not the stuff of a PG on a national championship contender.

When you have double digit leads in the second half, your PG does not necessarily need to "make plays". He just needs to break pressure, and take care of the ball. That does not equate to "being passive". You can still be aggressive and in command in playing to protect a big lead. Stay in control, wait for your opponent to overcommit out of desperation, and pounce on their mistake.

 

[realorange]

Most turnovers look bad, I don't care who you are.

You have to live with MCW turning the ball over (like all PG's) with all the great things he does. No big deal.

Turnover is one thing. Foolish turnover is something entirely different.

 

[kuethstheman]

It's particularly frustrating when SU players make mistakes that I wouldn't make.

 

[orangecuse]

I don't know the numbers for sure, but it seemed like 1 assist and 5 turnovers in the last 15 minutes against Louisville. And it's not just the boxscore turnovers, but the inability of our point guard to dribble break pressure against even one-on-one defense, or once broken, to take the ball aggressively and effectively to the hole is not the stuff of a PG on a national championship contender.

When you have double digit leads in the second half, your PG does not necessarily need to "make plays". He just needs to break pressure, and take care of the ball. That does not equate to "being passive". You can still be aggressive and in command in playing to protect a big lead. Stay in control, wait for your opponent to overcommit out of desperation, and pounce on their mistake.

In my opinion, your assessment is 100% accurate, especially when it comes to MCW against stiffer competition.

 

[Melancer46]

I don't know the numbers for sure, but it seemed like 1 assist and 5 turnovers in the last 15 minutes against Louisville. And it's not just the boxscore turnovers, but the inability of our point guard to dribble break pressure against even one-on-one defense, or once broken, to take the ball aggressively and effectively to the hole is not the stuff of a PG on a national championship contender.

When you have double digit leads in the second half, your PG does not necessarily need to "make plays". He just needs to break pressure, and take care of the ball. That does not equate to "being passive". You can still be aggressive and in command in playing to protect a big lead. Stay in control, wait for your opponent to overcommit out of desperation, and pounce on their mistake.

He had two turnovers the entire game against Louisville (4 according to the box score, but one was the flagrant foul and one was the play where he bobbled the ball a little and Hancock just plowed through him to jar the ball loose). And he may have only had like 2 or 3 assists to those 2 turnovers in the 2nd half, but that's because any time he made a good pass (which I know it's hard to realize because of how ugly that game got, but if you go back and re-watch that second half again, he made a lot of them), it resulted in a missed bunny/missed open shot/free throws.

I wish there was a stat that kept track of passes that led to open shots. MCW probably leads the country in it.

Edit: Trey Burke is the best PG in the country, and he probably struggles beating his man off the dribble more than MCW. MCW was still able to get inside against Louisville a pretty good amount, and when we actually got the ball in his hands against Louisville's press, he was the only guy that was able to easily break it.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

In my opinion, your assessment is 100% accurate, especially when it comes to MCW against stiffer competition.

Thank you. It's not too late to fix. MCW should start by watching tapes of Aaron Craft on OSU.

 

[orangecuse]

Thank you. It's not too late to fix. MCW should start by watching tapes of Aaron Craft on OSU.

Maybe not...but his continued behavior is troublesome. At this stage, it appears he hasn't learned from his repeated mistakes (as mentioned) as he's generally good for at least one of those every game. Really makes me question his mental capacity, let alone his floor leadership...

 

[Melancer46]

Maybe not...but his continued behavior is troublesome. At this stage, it appears he hasn't learned from his repeated mistakes (as mentioned) as he's generally good for at least one of those every game. Really makes me question his mental capacity, let alone his floor leadership...

I honestly think it's more MCW reverting back to bad habits when he doesn't have to focus (let's be honest, our players were just out there having fun last night). I don't think MCW had one of those passes against Louisville or Georgetown in the BET. Didn't watch the Seton Hall game, but I think he made that pass once against Pitt.

Ironically, Triche made one of those passes against Georgetown and it just so happened that Fair caught it and dunked all over Porter (and yes, I know MCW generally does it far more than Triche).

He probably won't fix that this year. That's more of something you work on in the offseason when you can really fix how you play. Hard to break habits in game situations. But I'd still much rather have the ball in his hands making passes than anyone else. He flat out can make passes and see passing lanes that nobody else can.