Nice W and pulls us one step closer to what I would consider a pretty clean OOC portion of the sked. I know we may have made KU look a little better than they are by allowing Graham to shoot threes at the top of the key all night, but at no point in the offseason did I ever give us a chance in that game. We beat who we were supposed to beat, even if it was ugly at times, so far and we won another 50/50 game this afternoon. I'll take it.
Some thoughts:
Georgetown under Ewing is interesting
Cool to play a game against a regional rival and a team we care about. I will get used to the ACC but cool to see JB, Ewing and Orr on the sidelines and a crowd getting into a big game (the fat head of JB picking his nose is awesome). For those of us lucky enough to experience the height of the BE, I don't think we'll ever recapture it, but days like this are a fun reminder.
That said, jury is probably out on Ewing as a coach but if I'm a G'town fan I like what I see. They played three distinct defenses (something people here would love to see us do at times) -- decent M2M and OK zone and some relatively aggressive pressure. They also looked to push the tempo when they could -- a good move against our zone but also just a fun style to play and watch.
I have no problem with their schedule. BC beats Duke, Colgate is up 17 in the second half on BC, Ball State beats ND, yadda, yadda, yadda. Point is, it's not easy to win games in college basketball these days so if you want to load up on creampuffs and get your team essentially 320 minutes of gametime to gel before you face your first test -- I'm OK with it. Whatever -- if you don't win real games, you're not getting in the tourney anyway, so I feel like people need to relax on that stuff. Although at one point Kellog wrote it off as a good strategy for a 'young' team. G'town has three juniors and a senior among their top five in minutes. That's a pretty veteran group.
Anyway, regardless, I feel like the Ewing era is off to a decent start for Hoyas fans. Some other observations ...
Chuckwu needs to work on the cheap fouls he picks up
Paschal continues to play pretty well for the most part and I like the aggressiveness he's shown this year. But foul trouble is going to come regardless as we play bigger, more physical teams. Chuckwu's habit of picking up at least one if not two kind of clumsy over-the-back type fouls in the offensive end where he winds up leaning all over guys hurts b/c he's already going to have his hands full on the other end of the court. He doesn't have to be perfect but he does need to be cognoscente of that stuff to a certain degree.
Howard with the prettiest 7 TO game in Syracuse history
People get frustrated with howard which I understand. The body language when something goes wrong isn't great, the handle is a little loose and he's got that weird thing where he's a decent shooter but when he misses he misses bad (backboard and then back-iron or off the side of the rim, shanking out of bounds one way or the other ... even on a free throw occasionally).
But the dude put up 19 and 9 with three steals while logging 44 minutes. What's more, it's not crazy to think he could have been pretty close to a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio if all we did was finish layups and dunks he set up (three in the first half and two in the second).
Game's not pretty and he may have some ugly moments, but he was important today, particularly with Brissett struggling in the first half.
Offense is going to be spotty for this team ... obviously
There were a lot of complaints in the game thread from the end of the first half through about the 8 minute mark of the second half but I didn't think the play was that bad. I think we looked far worse in the exhibition vs. CCSU, for example. The issues in that exhibition were that no one seemed to have a clue how to create looks. Today, there were some mistakes and turnovers, but ultimately the differences in the second half during the run were the tempo (which helps a struggling offense) and the fact that, well, we made shots. Getting good looks may be a bit of a struggle all year (Battle is still probably the only real creator we have) but when we do we need to knock them down. Did that in the last 8-10 minutes and that led to the W.
Sometimes too, by the way, you have to give your opponent some credit. Not totally sure how good g'town or cuse are at this point, but Govan is a tough kid to check (even his missed jumpers hung on the rim) and Derrickson is a bull who also somehow hits 93% (seriously?) from the FT line. I'm pretty sure G'town fans would argue that his foul trouble and eventual fifth foul (questionable call?) were the reason they lost the game. Anyway, thought G'town looked OK and that played into our struggles.
Sidibe looked rusty
Not sure how healthy Sidibe is, but I think regardless, his first game action in a couple weeks looked like exactly that: a guy who's timing was off. He's shown pretty good hands, but he couldn't catch anything today and my guess is he would have struggled to finish as well. Nice to see him back out on the court and hope it's more a matter of rust and less continued struggles with his ankle/knee.
Brissett -- when he's shooting he's close to unstoppable
Not much more to write. Kid is a stud and if he's going to start dropping threes at a high rate, we have two of the tougher individual matchups in the ACC.
Moyer may now know who he is
Offensively, hang around the rim and finish strong when you get the chance. Otherwise rebound and defend. 33 minutes in an OT win against a team that should at least be competitive this season is a good sign. Credit JB with being decently patient with Moyer as well, by the way. Moyer has done little or nothing in most games he's played in, yet JB has played him at least 12 minutes 8 times and today was his fourth game of 25 or more minutes. Good to see b/c obviously it helps to have more bodies.
Last but not least ... LOVE this team's activity
Dolezaj takes a massive header ... and checks back in. Battle has already had a serious fall and resulting back injury and despite being a first-rounder, he's diving into the scorer's table for a loose ball. Brissett misses a shot and is the first one off the ground for the next two rebounds at the rim. Howard was working hard and comes up with a huge steal late. Chuckwu and Sidibe are working hard when they're in there. Nice game from Moyer as well and he grabs 11 boards. This team wants it and plays like it. That counts for something -- probably for at least a couple of W's over the course of the season. Today was probably one of them.
Some thoughts:
Georgetown under Ewing is interesting
Cool to play a game against a regional rival and a team we care about. I will get used to the ACC but cool to see JB, Ewing and Orr on the sidelines and a crowd getting into a big game (the fat head of JB picking his nose is awesome). For those of us lucky enough to experience the height of the BE, I don't think we'll ever recapture it, but days like this are a fun reminder.
That said, jury is probably out on Ewing as a coach but if I'm a G'town fan I like what I see. They played three distinct defenses (something people here would love to see us do at times) -- decent M2M and OK zone and some relatively aggressive pressure. They also looked to push the tempo when they could -- a good move against our zone but also just a fun style to play and watch.
I have no problem with their schedule. BC beats Duke, Colgate is up 17 in the second half on BC, Ball State beats ND, yadda, yadda, yadda. Point is, it's not easy to win games in college basketball these days so if you want to load up on creampuffs and get your team essentially 320 minutes of gametime to gel before you face your first test -- I'm OK with it. Whatever -- if you don't win real games, you're not getting in the tourney anyway, so I feel like people need to relax on that stuff. Although at one point Kellog wrote it off as a good strategy for a 'young' team. G'town has three juniors and a senior among their top five in minutes. That's a pretty veteran group.
Anyway, regardless, I feel like the Ewing era is off to a decent start for Hoyas fans. Some other observations ...
Chuckwu needs to work on the cheap fouls he picks up
Paschal continues to play pretty well for the most part and I like the aggressiveness he's shown this year. But foul trouble is going to come regardless as we play bigger, more physical teams. Chuckwu's habit of picking up at least one if not two kind of clumsy over-the-back type fouls in the offensive end where he winds up leaning all over guys hurts b/c he's already going to have his hands full on the other end of the court. He doesn't have to be perfect but he does need to be cognoscente of that stuff to a certain degree.
Howard with the prettiest 7 TO game in Syracuse history
People get frustrated with howard which I understand. The body language when something goes wrong isn't great, the handle is a little loose and he's got that weird thing where he's a decent shooter but when he misses he misses bad (backboard and then back-iron or off the side of the rim, shanking out of bounds one way or the other ... even on a free throw occasionally).
But the dude put up 19 and 9 with three steals while logging 44 minutes. What's more, it's not crazy to think he could have been pretty close to a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio if all we did was finish layups and dunks he set up (three in the first half and two in the second).
Game's not pretty and he may have some ugly moments, but he was important today, particularly with Brissett struggling in the first half.
Offense is going to be spotty for this team ... obviously
There were a lot of complaints in the game thread from the end of the first half through about the 8 minute mark of the second half but I didn't think the play was that bad. I think we looked far worse in the exhibition vs. CCSU, for example. The issues in that exhibition were that no one seemed to have a clue how to create looks. Today, there were some mistakes and turnovers, but ultimately the differences in the second half during the run were the tempo (which helps a struggling offense) and the fact that, well, we made shots. Getting good looks may be a bit of a struggle all year (Battle is still probably the only real creator we have) but when we do we need to knock them down. Did that in the last 8-10 minutes and that led to the W.
Sometimes too, by the way, you have to give your opponent some credit. Not totally sure how good g'town or cuse are at this point, but Govan is a tough kid to check (even his missed jumpers hung on the rim) and Derrickson is a bull who also somehow hits 93% (seriously?) from the FT line. I'm pretty sure G'town fans would argue that his foul trouble and eventual fifth foul (questionable call?) were the reason they lost the game. Anyway, thought G'town looked OK and that played into our struggles.
Sidibe looked rusty
Not sure how healthy Sidibe is, but I think regardless, his first game action in a couple weeks looked like exactly that: a guy who's timing was off. He's shown pretty good hands, but he couldn't catch anything today and my guess is he would have struggled to finish as well. Nice to see him back out on the court and hope it's more a matter of rust and less continued struggles with his ankle/knee.
Brissett -- when he's shooting he's close to unstoppable
Not much more to write. Kid is a stud and if he's going to start dropping threes at a high rate, we have two of the tougher individual matchups in the ACC.
Moyer may now know who he is
Offensively, hang around the rim and finish strong when you get the chance. Otherwise rebound and defend. 33 minutes in an OT win against a team that should at least be competitive this season is a good sign. Credit JB with being decently patient with Moyer as well, by the way. Moyer has done little or nothing in most games he's played in, yet JB has played him at least 12 minutes 8 times and today was his fourth game of 25 or more minutes. Good to see b/c obviously it helps to have more bodies.
Last but not least ... LOVE this team's activity
Dolezaj takes a massive header ... and checks back in. Battle has already had a serious fall and resulting back injury and despite being a first-rounder, he's diving into the scorer's table for a loose ball. Brissett misses a shot and is the first one off the ground for the next two rebounds at the rim. Howard was working hard and comes up with a huge steal late. Chuckwu and Sidibe are working hard when they're in there. Nice game from Moyer as well and he grabs 11 boards. This team wants it and plays like it. That counts for something -- probably for at least a couple of W's over the course of the season. Today was probably one of them.
