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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3254506, member: 289"] - I’m still waiting for the scenario where we have a 3-4 lead with a minute to go and the other team has to foul our guys. Marek is now 78% in his last 11 games after a bad start, (and he may have missed the last one on purpose). Joe leads the country at 96%. Buddy is 77%. Elijah is 78%. These guys can lock it down. But we need to make it a multi-possession game in the final minute. - We had a 36-20 lead in the first half and allowed tech to end the half with a 0-8 run. Then we had a 66-58, (after it had been 53-51), lead with 3:48 left and were out-scored 4-11 after that. That doesn’t do much for the digestion. - Howard Washington was in during most of the Boeheim run in the first half. His +/- is probably well on the + side. But Joe Girard would likely have made that wide open three with 3:06 left that could have given us a much-needed cushion. Jim quickly put Joe back in the game, even though he’d had a rather quiet game, (6 points, 1 assist in 24 minutes). Howard in his 16 minutes had 2 points and 1 assist. He’s a good fill-in guy but you don’t want him in there when the game is being decided. - The game was like taking a gun to a knife fight. Tech guarded the three point area, (whether our guys were actually at the arc or not), forcing us to drive inside to try to get two point shots. Meanwhile we sat back in our zone and dared them to shoot from distance –and they did. We wound up 23 of 36 from two, (63.9%) and just 6 of 24 from three (25.0%). I’d match our shooter against anybody but not with defenders all over them. Fortunately we are getting better at those drives to the basket that have been our staple in recent years but were lacking from the offense this season. Tech was 10 for 22 inside the arc (45.5%), and 15 for 37 outside of it (40.5%). JB just refused to extend the defense until the final minutes when we were able to hold them off. The refs called only 28 fouls that produced only 18 free throws so it was twos vs. threes. The 9 more threes actually beat the 13 extra twos 27-26. Ironically we won it from the foul line, hitting 7 of 10 vs. 4 of 8. Tech had no inside game to speak of, (their twos tended to be jumpers from the high post). We should have extended our defense much earlier. - Meanwhile, Tech had all five guys extended to and past the three point arc much of the game. The baseline and paint were wide open. We could have scored at will with lobs and baseline moves. Dolezaj could have fed the drivers. Instead we had to use long dribble-drives to the basket. - Jalen Cone continued to torture us, following up his 19 point, 5 for 7 three point game in the Dome with a 14 point, 4 for 6 first half. We finally silenced him in the second half only to have Nahiem Alleyne go 4 for 4 and score 14 points himself. - Wabissa Bede, 6-1, positioned himself in the high post and scored 9 points from there as we laid off of him, assuming he couldn’t hurt us. - There were just too many plays where Sidibe and Dolezaj were ridden out of the play by a shorter, more muscular player. [/QUOTE]

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