Quick thoughts from SU-G-Town

[orangepassion]

• Can't believe Louie Orr joined the dark side. I guess a job is a job.
• Brissett stepping up and hitting shots from the outside was the most important development of the game. If he can be a true no. 2 scorer, that allows Howard to become a no. 3, where he belongs. Considering we get basically zero offensively from our 4's and 5's, we need this development to be any better than average.
• Speaking of Howard, watching him is what Dickens would describe "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times". Roller coaster of good and bad plays, punctuated by his huge steal at the end of regulation to tie it up.
• Dolezaj passes up wide open 10 footers. Can we really not hit that or is it a confidence thing? If he can, would give us another dimension
• Obviously, Battle was excellent
• Our Centers need to give us more. I'm not asking for much Offense-just make it through 40 Minutes without fouling out b/w the 2 of them, so Dolezaj doesn't have to try to play the middle, which leads to...
• Would like to see Brissett in the middle if our 2 bigs are out due to foul trouble. Dolezaj tries but he can't hold his ground at this point. If I had a dollar for how many times this year he's had his hands on the ball and had it knocked out, I'd be a wealthy man. Brissett is a man and think he could hold his ground better. Maybe Moyer, too.
• Brissett was fouled on the last shot of regulation. If you're not going to call that, no way you can call it on him seconds later.
• Midway through the game, one of my kids asked-"What's a Hoya"? Still not sure the proper answer to that
• Not gonna lie-thought the game was over midway through the second half. Glad our guys didn't.

 

[kuethstheman]

• Midway through the game, one of my kids asked-"What's a Hoya"? Still not sure the proper answer to that

That's an easy one! The answer is "It's not 'What's a Hoya?', it's 'What the &@%'s a Hoya?'"

 

[721Comstock]

One nit I'll pick - Battle was excellent overall, but basically only for about 5 minutes in the first half, the last 5 minutes, and then OT.
He struggled horrifically for a lot of that game.

There was about a 10 minute block in each half, where he missed every shot he took.
Hence, 8/23 overall.
But 6/11 from 3. (which means, 2/12 from 2 - woof.)

But, it just goes to show, that's basketball - streaky players are streaky, both hot and cold.
Or in this case, hot, then cold, hot, then cold, then white hot.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Great post. Agreed with 721Comstock also on how Battle overall played well but he had some rough moments. I’m not that high on these mid-range jumpers where he is shooting on the move from about 18 ft out with a hand in the face and doing these double-clutching type shots. Risky business.

Agreed on Oshae needing to become the number 2 guy which he looks totally capable of. Howard is improving, made some huge plays, and I realize he is asked to do an awful lot. Probably too much given his skill set and how we still don’t have a post game where we can dump it down to a big and let him go to work. This means extra moments and time with Frank having the ball. This means turnovers. It is what it is. We haven’t hit the ACC yet and he is at 5 TO/game. The more Oshae can go to work and abuse his matchup the more Frank can be preserved physically and neutralized. Brissett is going to get extra attention soon IMO and Frank can benefit since he can score. Love the idea of Frank as a solid num 3 scorer.

 

[longtimefan]

One nit I'll pick - Battle was excellent overall, but basically only for about 5 minutes in the first half, the last 5 minutes, and then OT.
He struggled horrifically for a lot of that game.

There was about a 10 minute block in each half, where he missed every shot he took.
Hence, 8/23 overall.
But 6/11 from 3. (which means, 2/12 from 2 - woof.)

But, it just goes to show, that's basketball - streaky players are streaky, both hot and cold.
Or in this case, hot, then cold, hot, then cold, then white hot.

Brissett had a similar 2-point/3-point result on Saturday. Some of those ventures into the lane and to the rim are interrupted by lots of defensive bumping, which often goes uncalled. They must continue to drive it though, working on finishing better and/or getting to the foul line more often.

 

[reedny]

Interesting post. OB certainly has the ceiling to shoot it better and take a bigger offensive role. Right now, he's taking just under 13 shots per game, and Frank is taking about 13.5 shots per game. I'd like to see that move in the opposite direction. [Add: I like Dolezaj in the middle, not OB, because of his length and the fact that it doesn’t impact our offense significantly].

Another big factor as we get into conference play is keeping our centers involved in the offense. In earlier games, Chukwu/Sidibe averaged about 10/10. Production hasn't been as good against better teams and it disappeared against GT/Govan. Right now, Sidibe's hurt, and when he bounces back I'd love to see him work on his LP game. Chukwu also needs to see the ball better so that he can catch it and do something with it. We're going to need that balance and it's not going to be easy against beefy ACC teams. They're all going to pack it in with their bigs and force us to rely on jump shots. Getting the ball inside is critical ... even if we don't make the shots right away. That will spread the floor better, draw fouls and maybe it’ll be the opposing bigs who walk off early.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Interesting post. OB certainly has the ceiling to shoot it better and take a bigger offensive role. Right now, he's taking just under 13 shots per game, and Frank is taking about 13.5 shots per game. I'd like to see that move in the opposite direction.

Another big factor as we get into conference play is getting our centers involved offensively. In earlier games, Chukwu/Sidibe averaged about 10/10. Production hasn't been as good against better teams and it disappeared against GT/Govan. Right now, Sidibe's hurt, and when he bounces back I'd love to see him work on his LP game. Chukwu also needs to see the ball better so that he can catch it and do something with it. We're going to need that balance and it's not going to be easy against beefy ACC teams. They're all going to pack it in with their bigs and force us to rely on jump shoots. Getting the ball inside is critical ... even if we don't make the shots right away. They'll draw foul and for a change, maybe the opposing bigs will be walking off early.

A healthy Sidibe will be crucial moving forward.

 

[newmexicuse]

• Can't believe Louie Orr joined the dark side. I guess a job is a job.
• Brissett stepping up and hitting shots from the outside was the most important development of the game. If he can be a true no. 2 scorer, that allows Howard to become a no. 3, where he belongs. Considering we get basically zero offensively from our 4's and 5's, we need this development to be any better than average.
• Speaking of Howard, watching him is what Dickens would describe "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times". Roller coaster of good and bad plays, punctuated by his huge steal at the end of regulation to tie it up.
• Dolezaj passes up wide open 10 footers. Can we really not hit that or is it a confidence thing? If he can, would give us another dimension
• Obviously, Battle was excellent
• Our Centers need to give us more. I'm not asking for much Offense-just make it through 40 Minutes without fouling out b/w the 2 of them, so Dolezaj doesn't have to try to play the middle, which leads to...
• Would like to see Brissett in the middle if our 2 bigs are out due to foul trouble. Dolezaj tries but he can't hold his ground at this point. If I had a dollar for how many times this year he's had his hands on the ball and had it knocked out, I'd be a wealthy man. Brissett is a man and think he could hold his ground better. Maybe Moyer, too.
• Brissett was fouled on the last shot of regulation. If you're not going to call that, no way you can call it on him seconds later.
• Midway through the game, one of my kids asked-"What's a Hoya"? Still not sure the proper answer to that
• Not gonna lie-thought the game was over midway through the second half. Glad our guys didn't.

Really like most of your post.

Louie and Patrick have been good friends over the years from back in the Knick days when they were teammates, so i do not see it as a betrayal by Louie.

I think Marek can hit open looks out to at least 15'. Though his release is funky and slow, he does make a decent percentage of FTs., so that is a shot he should and could make when wide open. I have even seen him make one or two of those. It is a shot he has to start taking. The shot he really needs is some sort of a 3' to 8' baby hook. How many times does he look like he is free close to the hoop only to kick out ???

Great point on our centers simply not fouling out.

Don't think Brisset should go to the middle. He is too valuable to be put in a situation where he would be likely to pickup some cheap fouls. I had started a thread on Moyer v Marek in the middle. I was on the fence about that, and still am on that fence, but the concensus of others in the thread was that marek was the right answer.

I had no complaints about the Gtown game reffing. i thought it was fair overall. The single most controversial call was when their big fouled out, so that call went our way. I think it was a good call as he had lowered his shoulder, but it was certainly arguable as our guy (MD) was still moving.

 

[orangepassion]

Really like most of your post.

Louie and Patrick have been good friends over the years from back in the Knick days when they were teammates, so i do not see it as a betrayal by Louie.

I was joking about Orr. I never begrudge someone for taking a job.

 

[Orange87]

• Midway through the game, one of my kids asked-"What's a Hoya"? Still not sure the proper answer to that

The original name for the Georgetown athletic teams was 'The Stonewalls'

Georgetown students were required to study Greek & Latin and one student started a cheer "Hoya Saxa!" which translates to 'What Rocks!'.

Eventually they just started calling the teams the Hoyas, which is stupid, basically means nothing and as of 9:58am this morning, sucks.

 

[CusefanATL]

• Speaking of Howard, watching him is what Dickens would describe "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times". Roller coaster of good and bad plays, punctuated by his huge steal at the end of regulation to tie it up.
• Obviously, Battle was excellent

Just out of curiosity - why do you speak of Howard's bad play when he was huge the last 10 min?

But say Battle played excellent? Battle played easily his worst 30 min of the season from his first bucket to about the 8-10 minute mark. And heck even at the end, we got the steal and he lost all court awareness and was stuffed from behind from a wild desperate block attempt on what should have been an easy 2 AND THEN turned the ball over the next play. He was awful for the majority of the minutes. He literally was the best of times, worst of times.

 

[orangepassion]

Just out of curiosity - why do you speak of Howard's bad play when he was huge the last 10 min?

But say Battle played excellent? Battle played easily his worst 30 min of the season from his first bucket to about the 8-10 minute mark. And heck even at the end, we got the steal and he lost all court awareness and was stuffed from behind from a wild desperate block attempt on what should have been an easy 2 AND THEN turned the ball over the next play. He was awful for the majority of the minutes. He literally was the best of times, worst of times.

Howard's Turnovers jumped out to me the most, but that's a fair point

 

[CusefanATL]

Howard's Turnovers jumped out to me the most, but that's a fair point

I think its fair to say that both were best of times worst of times.

And lets be honest, in hindsight - i wouldnt want that game going any differently. I love the way we won that game.

 

[orangepassion]

I think its fair to say that both were best of times worst of times.

And lets be honest, in hindsight - i wouldnt want that game going any differently. I love the way we won that game.

You know they both did it that way just to make it more painful for georgetown and their fans