SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- I had an unpleasant flashback to my youth watching this game. I was watching Syracuse play poorly and lose a game, (I seem to remember we were playing West Virginia), in a disappointing season, (which they mostly were at the time: this was the late 60’s). I was groaning, shouting and cringing at what was happening on the TV screen. Mom, who never knew why anybody would care about sports, said to me: “I thought following sports was something that was supposed to make you happy? You don’t seem very happy.” It was one of those comments people sometimes make that are kind of burned on your memory because they made you so mad. I had to carefully explain to mom that playing poorly, losing and having a bad season had no potential to make me happy. Only playing well and winning or the expectation or hope of doing so in future games could do that. My older brother was amused by the exchange and started asking me why I wasn’t happy when we missed a shot, failed to get a rebound, threw the ball out of bounds, etc., while I fumed. Ever since then when watching the Orange play has been unpleasant, I hear my mother and brother asking me how come I’m not happy….
- We are 17-8 and 8-4 in the conference, which isn’t bad but we have looked bad in the losses, very much like an NIT team. We are about to run a gauntlet of Louisville, Duke, North Carolina and, two games later, Virginia. We absolutely need to win the other games to give us a cushion in case we got 0 for the games against the nationally ranked teams, which could certainly happen. Yet we came out in this game and got out-rebounded by a shorter team, 30-42, made awful turnovers, shot poorly and didn’t guard their best shooter. We repeatedly had match-ups against their shortest play and did take advantage of it. We just didn’t play with any sense of purpose at all.
- It’s good that Frank Howard and Marek Dolezaj had big games but if those two guys are our leading scorers, that’s an “L”. This season’s “Big three” of Tyus battle, Oshae Brissett and Elijah Hughes were 6 for 27 from the field.
- Frank scored a lot, (and we would have lost by 30 if he hadn’t), but he never really did anything to set anybody else up. He’s a 2 guard that brings the ball up. This team does not have a point guard. We really haven’t since Tyler Ennis left.
- Amazingly, we were credited with only 12 turnovers. 10 of those were credited as steals but most of those were plays were we just bobbled the ball in to the Wolfpack’s hands. Our starting backcourt of Battle and Howard had 1 assist and 8 turnovers.
- KenPom says that we are the tallest team in the country. That means nothing when you are getting out-rebounded 30-42. One sponsor gives out a “hustle award” to the team that has the most combined rebounds, blocks and steals. We lost that stat 44-56.
- Our two big guys, Chukwu and Sidibe totaled 3 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block. They played all the way at center.
- Oshae Brissett’s run of three straight triple doubles ended with a 2 point, 5 rebound effort. He never got to the line once.
- Elijah Hughes averaged 15.0 ppg through the first 19 games, has now had consecutitive games of 6-10-5-17-7-4-6. He's shot 17 for 61 from the field in those games., (27.9%)
- After a 7 game stretch in which he was 17 for 33 from the arc, Buddy Boeheim came up empty tonight with 0 for 4.
- We shot 16 for 35 from two point range, (45.7%), 5 for 25 from three point range, (20.0%) and 11 for 22 from the free throw line (50%). That’s a recipe for defeat.
- The officiating was, at best, strange. But as we lost and deserved to lose, we can’t even complain about it.
- We are 17-8 and 8-4 in the conference, which isn’t bad but we have looked bad in the losses, very much like an NIT team. We are about to run a gauntlet of Louisville, Duke, North Carolina and, two games later, Virginia. We absolutely need to win the other games to give us a cushion in case we got 0 for the games against the nationally ranked teams, which could certainly happen. Yet we came out in this game and got out-rebounded by a shorter team, 30-42, made awful turnovers, shot poorly and didn’t guard their best shooter. We repeatedly had match-ups against their shortest play and did take advantage of it. We just didn’t play with any sense of purpose at all.
- It’s good that Frank Howard and Marek Dolezaj had big games but if those two guys are our leading scorers, that’s an “L”. This season’s “Big three” of Tyus battle, Oshae Brissett and Elijah Hughes were 6 for 27 from the field.
- Frank scored a lot, (and we would have lost by 30 if he hadn’t), but he never really did anything to set anybody else up. He’s a 2 guard that brings the ball up. This team does not have a point guard. We really haven’t since Tyler Ennis left.
- Amazingly, we were credited with only 12 turnovers. 10 of those were credited as steals but most of those were plays were we just bobbled the ball in to the Wolfpack’s hands. Our starting backcourt of Battle and Howard had 1 assist and 8 turnovers.
- KenPom says that we are the tallest team in the country. That means nothing when you are getting out-rebounded 30-42. One sponsor gives out a “hustle award” to the team that has the most combined rebounds, blocks and steals. We lost that stat 44-56.
- Our two big guys, Chukwu and Sidibe totaled 3 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block. They played all the way at center.
- Oshae Brissett’s run of three straight triple doubles ended with a 2 point, 5 rebound effort. He never got to the line once.
- Elijah Hughes averaged 15.0 ppg through the first 19 games, has now had consecutitive games of 6-10-5-17-7-4-6. He's shot 17 for 61 from the field in those games., (27.9%)
- After a 7 game stretch in which he was 17 for 33 from the arc, Buddy Boeheim came up empty tonight with 0 for 4.
- We shot 16 for 35 from two point range, (45.7%), 5 for 25 from three point range, (20.0%) and 11 for 22 from the free throw line (50%). That’s a recipe for defeat.
- The officiating was, at best, strange. But as we lost and deserved to lose, we can’t even complain about it.
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