SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- I drove home listening to the post game show on 97.7 and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought we’d lost. Caller after caller were bemoaning the idea that Jim might be back next year and keeping all the problems in place, predicting disaster if we don’t hit the portal hard, bitching about why players like Quincy Guerrier and Kadari Richardson aren’t this team, etc. etc. It’s not that their concerns aren’t valid, but can’t they just enjoy the win and the ceremony? We can go back to complaining later. Use the 24 hour rule!
- At the same time, I’m tired of Jim’s delusion about how everyone there has never criticized him and they never call into radio shows or criticize him on social media, (see his presser). It’s not a Trump rally. It’s a basketball game. I’ve been sitting in section 308 rooting on the team since the Dome opened. (I’d like to go home someday). I call into radio shows – INCLUDING YOURS, COACH. I’m critical where it’s appropriate but I also praise when it’s due. If you do what you can to support the team and are fair about it. It’s not disloyal to be critical. Critics are not the problem coach. The problem is that, on an occasion like this, I’m sitting in seat #1 of my row and the 16 seats next to me were empty. We used to put 30,000 in the Dome for this sort of thing and we might have had 20,000 tonight. That’s the problem, coach.
- Despite bullet #1, this is the downside so I’ve got to mention that, aside from Jesse Edward’s domain performance and the fact that Wake hit 26% of their three pointers instead of 40%, this game statistically resembled the defeats we’ve bene having. Wake shot 66.7% inside the arc, SU 14.3% outside of it. We got nothing from the small forward position. Chris Bell was 1 for 7/ Benny Williams didn’t score and Quadir Copeland scored 1 point in 12 minutes. We had 14 turnovers, only 7 of which were steals. The others were unforced turnovers. We missed 8 free throws, including the second one of two three times after making the first. (If you made the first, it’s just muscle memory.) So, no, our problems haven’t gone away. We just overcame them tonight.
- For years we’ve grimaced as teams put up desperation three pointers with a second left on the shot clock. Our defense, when it’s played well, causes teams to take a long time to get a good shot and they often have to make those desperation heaves. We usually get a good shot before then, (or don’t wait for a good one), so we rarely do. So we are used to tightening our buttocks as the shot clock winds down. But never in my life have I ever seen anything like Tyree Appleby’s 40-footer at the buzzer with 6:41 left in the first half. We’ve forged our first good lead, 25-14. Matthew March battled for a rebound of Bobi Klintman’s trey and saved the ball towards his own goal – a big no-no. But it came right to Appleby at the midcourt line and he launched a three that banked in ala Herve Laminzana, (I guess I have seen it before). It was the first of three straight makes by Appleby, the second a well-defended, off-balance effort that had no right to go in. It looked like the onslaught that would deprive us of the game. But we wouldn’t let it – not tonight.
- At the same time, I’m tired of Jim’s delusion about how everyone there has never criticized him and they never call into radio shows or criticize him on social media, (see his presser). It’s not a Trump rally. It’s a basketball game. I’ve been sitting in section 308 rooting on the team since the Dome opened. (I’d like to go home someday). I call into radio shows – INCLUDING YOURS, COACH. I’m critical where it’s appropriate but I also praise when it’s due. If you do what you can to support the team and are fair about it. It’s not disloyal to be critical. Critics are not the problem coach. The problem is that, on an occasion like this, I’m sitting in seat #1 of my row and the 16 seats next to me were empty. We used to put 30,000 in the Dome for this sort of thing and we might have had 20,000 tonight. That’s the problem, coach.
- Despite bullet #1, this is the downside so I’ve got to mention that, aside from Jesse Edward’s domain performance and the fact that Wake hit 26% of their three pointers instead of 40%, this game statistically resembled the defeats we’ve bene having. Wake shot 66.7% inside the arc, SU 14.3% outside of it. We got nothing from the small forward position. Chris Bell was 1 for 7/ Benny Williams didn’t score and Quadir Copeland scored 1 point in 12 minutes. We had 14 turnovers, only 7 of which were steals. The others were unforced turnovers. We missed 8 free throws, including the second one of two three times after making the first. (If you made the first, it’s just muscle memory.) So, no, our problems haven’t gone away. We just overcame them tonight.
- For years we’ve grimaced as teams put up desperation three pointers with a second left on the shot clock. Our defense, when it’s played well, causes teams to take a long time to get a good shot and they often have to make those desperation heaves. We usually get a good shot before then, (or don’t wait for a good one), so we rarely do. So we are used to tightening our buttocks as the shot clock winds down. But never in my life have I ever seen anything like Tyree Appleby’s 40-footer at the buzzer with 6:41 left in the first half. We’ve forged our first good lead, 25-14. Matthew March battled for a rebound of Bobi Klintman’s trey and saved the ball towards his own goal – a big no-no. But it came right to Appleby at the midcourt line and he launched a three that banked in ala Herve Laminzana, (I guess I have seen it before). It was the first of three straight makes by Appleby, the second a well-defended, off-balance effort that had no right to go in. It looked like the onslaught that would deprive us of the game. But we wouldn’t let it – not tonight.
