We won by 20! Rah, rah, sis boom bah. Is that superfanny enough?
Great, now that that is out of the way, in no particular order:
- The circus shots are fun when they go in, but torture when they don't. Are they really necessary? Do they somehow define SU; the run and gun, treated like an undisciplined NBA team, anything goes, the more tickets it sells the better? In the lat 8 mins, Dion had a nice drive into a crowded lane. He had two men blocked off to his left, one trailing him, but still had what could have been a good shot attempt with his right hand. Instead, he tried some kind of windmill motion, under and up finger roll. His shot went straight towards the underside of the rim, but never even made it to the rim. Scoops 3s are nice when they go in, but one was an off balance fade away, and the other was a scissor kick shot put. We are not that far removed from shooting around 20% from 3. One thing I like about Duke is every shot from their guards is perfect form.
- Non-chalance. We seriously out-manned UConn skill wise, but they were seriously mas macho on the court. We started this season playing with more grit and intensity than many other Cuse teams. We used to play like we had a chip on our shoulders. Yet now we play like we are mesmerized by our lauded spot in the polls. We have a "ho hum wake me up in the F4 attitude".
- Fab's fouls. He was really out of sorts in the 2nd half. I'm sure it is a temporary, hangover induced thing, but what a day to return to freshman form.
- JS: nice three. Yet, I wonder if he understands the offense does not center around him. Especially with Fab, KJo, and Dion on the court. You can argue whether his 3s are good or not...he can shoot over anybody and is always 25 feet from the hoop, so arguably all of his shots are "good". However, he often jacks them up 3 seconds into the possession. Those are bad, momentum killing shots.
- Non-chalance Kris Joseph...really just that one turnover comes to mind. It was just so pathetically avoidable, yet he turns around and walks down the court like it doesn't make a difference. I wish we would relegate our TOs to ones where the defense does something to us.
- Higgins. Really terrible calls today.
- Fair got lost on D a few times.
- The fact that some pollyanna will trumpet this as a reason for the pay board.
We have survived so much this season. From Fine, to Fab. The hottest fire forges the strongest steal, or whatever the saying is. Yet, there is a certain lack of cohesion about how we're playing. It's as if we are on a remarkable survival streak, and not day, by day, getting better and better. We're clearly not falling apart, but I don't feel that we are gelling. Triche, Keita, and Southerland are getting lost in the shuffle. Dare I say Fair?
Maybe I just need to take a step back and enjoy the ride. This season just feels like it should be a special one. Yet, nothing less than the elite 8, for this squad, should be considered special.
