SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- JB said it well in his presser. He listed all the signs he saw that his team “just didn’t have it” in this game: the missed shots, the bobbled balls, not getting back on defense, not covering their main shooters, etc. etc. He said he could go in but it wasn’t necessary and it wasn’t. I came into this stretch thinking that this team wa splaying so well that it was too bad that they were going to have 8 days off after this game: it would break our momentum. Tonight the Orange played like a team badly in need of 8 days off.
- A sign of our fatigue: our incredible streak of not giving up a fast break point in 6 games ended as Tech got a couple of baskets off of us. It seemed like more. We just weren’t getting back. The last am to get one had been UNC, a team that would have beaten us by 20+ tonight.
- You had to see Trevor Cooney’s first half to believe how bad it was: 0 for 6 from the field, 0 for 5 from the three point arc, (including several wide-open shots) and, worst of all 0f or 3 from the free throw line, where he’s an 80% guy. Jim was asked a question about Trevor that began with “Trevor had a bad game tonight” and responded with “You think??” I realize that being a team’s leading three point threat is, by its nature, going to prevent you from being a consistent performer as that’s the hardest thing to do on a basketball court, especially when the other team knows you are the leading threat and makes sure to have a defender or two on you at all times. But it’s still amazing that these guys could look so good against Wake Forest and Notre Dame and look this awful in other games. I just think he does things too fast sometimes and loses his fundamentals. That 0 for three from the line also indicates his confidence wavers too much from game to game. He has the ability to score in other ways when the long ones aren’t falling but he still doesn’t use them enough, even in his senior year. That’s the difference between Trevor and Michael Gbinije/: Mike finds a way.
- Buzz Williams used two strategies that we never use because Jim Boeheim doesn’t believe in them He used the press as a weapon, rather a desperation move. It got him some turnovers and yet his team was still able to set to play some very aggressive half-court defense. We helped to some extent with our lack of aggressiveness. We had some opportunities to beat them down court and score but always seemed to hold the ball up, allowing their guys to take their positons. But heck, Buzz proved you can do it. You’ve just got to want to.
- The other strategy was to do what teams have so successfully done all season against us: get the ball into the top of the key and then pass it from there to set up shots. They did it over and over again. Meanwhile I looked at the top of the key on our end and it was like looking at a donut hole. Our offense continues to be based on 20 foot shots and a 20 foot drives. It’s a hard way to play basketball, even if we somehow eventually make it work.
- It wasn’t just that we were 8 for 24 from the arc, (and 2 for 14 in the first half). It was that we were 12 for 28 inside of it. We continue to miss lay-ups and dunks at a record rate.
- When we recruited Tyler Lydon I thought he was going to be a small forward. Tall but skinny and mostly a shooter. That he’s wound up playing center for long stretches for us is amazing and dis appointing a the same time. He was just totally overmatched inside tonight. Blackshear and LeDay were 10 for 16 and scored 21 points against us. Down the stretch, they were tech’s whole offense. Just get it to the top of the key, then inside and watch them score. This has got to be the last year of this “stretch four” garbage. A program as strong as ours is supposed to be should have centers who are centers.
- A sign of our fatigue: our incredible streak of not giving up a fast break point in 6 games ended as Tech got a couple of baskets off of us. It seemed like more. We just weren’t getting back. The last am to get one had been UNC, a team that would have beaten us by 20+ tonight.
- You had to see Trevor Cooney’s first half to believe how bad it was: 0 for 6 from the field, 0 for 5 from the three point arc, (including several wide-open shots) and, worst of all 0f or 3 from the free throw line, where he’s an 80% guy. Jim was asked a question about Trevor that began with “Trevor had a bad game tonight” and responded with “You think??” I realize that being a team’s leading three point threat is, by its nature, going to prevent you from being a consistent performer as that’s the hardest thing to do on a basketball court, especially when the other team knows you are the leading threat and makes sure to have a defender or two on you at all times. But it’s still amazing that these guys could look so good against Wake Forest and Notre Dame and look this awful in other games. I just think he does things too fast sometimes and loses his fundamentals. That 0 for three from the line also indicates his confidence wavers too much from game to game. He has the ability to score in other ways when the long ones aren’t falling but he still doesn’t use them enough, even in his senior year. That’s the difference between Trevor and Michael Gbinije/: Mike finds a way.
- Buzz Williams used two strategies that we never use because Jim Boeheim doesn’t believe in them He used the press as a weapon, rather a desperation move. It got him some turnovers and yet his team was still able to set to play some very aggressive half-court defense. We helped to some extent with our lack of aggressiveness. We had some opportunities to beat them down court and score but always seemed to hold the ball up, allowing their guys to take their positons. But heck, Buzz proved you can do it. You’ve just got to want to.
- The other strategy was to do what teams have so successfully done all season against us: get the ball into the top of the key and then pass it from there to set up shots. They did it over and over again. Meanwhile I looked at the top of the key on our end and it was like looking at a donut hole. Our offense continues to be based on 20 foot shots and a 20 foot drives. It’s a hard way to play basketball, even if we somehow eventually make it work.
- It wasn’t just that we were 8 for 24 from the arc, (and 2 for 14 in the first half). It was that we were 12 for 28 inside of it. We continue to miss lay-ups and dunks at a record rate.
- When we recruited Tyler Lydon I thought he was going to be a small forward. Tall but skinny and mostly a shooter. That he’s wound up playing center for long stretches for us is amazing and dis appointing a the same time. He was just totally overmatched inside tonight. Blackshear and LeDay were 10 for 16 and scored 21 points against us. Down the stretch, they were tech’s whole offense. Just get it to the top of the key, then inside and watch them score. This has got to be the last year of this “stretch four” garbage. A program as strong as ours is supposed to be should have centers who are centers.
