- Very frustrating game on one hand, but encouraging on the other
- Think we need to feed Battle more, particularly in the 1st half (though 1st half scoring wasn't issue in this game)
- Obviously the foul disparity was frustrating. We should have been up by 10 at the half
- Thought Chucky was okay, some touch fouls called on him and Dolezaj. Not sure what he was doing when he jumped on top of a UNC player in the 2nd half, though he at least hustles
- We are way too dependent on the 3, particularly Hughes. It's great when we're hot, but we can never maintain and need to get to the basket more. The only one who does it semi consistently is Battle. It's not like they had Mutombo and Mourning inside blocking shots.
- Not as down on Howard as some. He'll generally make a couple of boneheaded passes a game, but he gives you shooting and Defense. He actually might be our most consistent shooter outside of Boeheim in recent weeks. Like Hughes, he just needs to diversify his Offensive game more and drive to the basket to score or create for others.
- Can't ask for anything more from Dolezaj or Boeheim. Dolezaj, in particular, continues to impress. Would have liked to see us try to backdoor Battle, as they were defending him very aggressively
- Asked this last year, but still not sure why we send Chukwu to the perimeter to set a pick. The D totally ignores him and all it does is cause Battle (or whoever he's etting the pick for) to have 2 defenders instead of 1. I liked one time when Battle told Chukwu to stay away and give him space before nailing the shot.
- Brissett is finally finishing at the basket, but now can't hit anything from outside 12 feet. Agree that the free throw issue is his head at this point. He'll eventually overcome it, but hope it's soon. Can we agree that he's not allowed to shoot another 3 until he at least hits 2 free throws in a row? Put on the red light.
- Is there any doubt that Battle is our best player?
What hurts was we did some things very well but other than the referees we were our own worst enemy.
-Oshae was the biggest culprit. We lost the game mostly because of defensive rebounding and missed free throws. Oshae going 0-5 from the line and getting only 3 boards absolutely killed us. It is incomprehensible how much his free throw shooting has regressed.
-It still slays me that our senior point guard makes the kind of turnovers that he does but then again I shouldn't be surprised because he consistently does so. But Frank had no business taking that rushed, off balance three when Tyus couldn't convert that fast break. Critical spot for an indefensible decision. Frank is a two who can only shoot when wide open. In the half court offense he killed us by holding the ball because he can't get by anyone off the dribble and he can't shoot when guarded, so effectively he burns the shot clock and we can't get a good shot off.
-Marek should not have been in with under 2 minutes left in the first half with 2 fouls, especially given how he often commits dumb fouls plus the way the refs were calling the game. An incredibly poor decision by JB. Why can't Marek understand when not to foul? His third and fifth fouls were avoidable and dumb and he did the same thing on Saturday against Duke and has done so throughout the year. For such a cerebral player you would think this could be fixed by the staff yet it continues to occur.
-I would have given Paschal more minutes than 18 and Sidibe less than the 8 he got. Not sure what Bourama brings to the table. Paschal has shown he can rebound (see first Duke game) and that was where we were getting killed.
-At some point on defense it would have been nice to identify White as a shooter.
-Credit Battle for coming up big in the second half. But to win there we needed more than 7 for 17 and 3 missed free throws from our best player.
-Loved how Buddy looked unafraid. He is dying to shoot the ball.
-There were a lot of good things. Marek played well and continued to look to score. Hughes was great in the first half and at least attempted to go to the basket. But we played a B/B plus game when we needed an A/A- to win against that team in that building.
