The Downside- Wake Forest

[SWC75]

- We had ‘em all the way. I was never worried!

- SU played this game like they expected it would be like the Georgia Tech and Boston College games. At the first media time out it was 2-4 at 15:40. JB got everyone organized and Buddy went on one of his tears after the next time out, (taken by Danny Manning at 12:16) it was 16-4. Game over right? Nope. Wake went on a 10-6 run to get it back to 22-14 and split the rest of the half to go in at 38-30. We came out like gangbusters and scored 8 points in a row to take a 46-30 lead. The rout is on! Nope. Pitt answers with a very quick 9 points in a row, (or was it 10- the refs couldn’t seem to figure it out). We stop the run but can’t pull away and get stuck on 54 while the Deacons close to within three at 54-51. And 8-2 run gave us a solid lead again at 62-53 with 10:17. Left. After that everything went wrong. We’d made our first 17 free throws, then missed 6 of our last 13, including the front end of a couple one and ones. The refs got whistle happy and fouled out all three of our big men, (Guerrier, Sidibe and Dolezaj). Wake went on a 3-16 run to take a 69-65 lead with 5:29 left. And all we had left was a line-up of a third string freshman center and four guards, two of them also freshmen. But somehow they closed the game out on a 10-4 run to rescue us. But it should not have taken a miracle to beat Wake Forest. We aren’t good enough and the other teams in the league aren’t bad enough to play in spurts and expect to win.

- We have 8 games left, two against nationally ranked teams and six against unranked teams, all ACC teams. So far we are 1-1 against ranked ACC teams and 6-4 against the unranked teams. That won’t do the rest of the way. We’ve got to run the table or close to it to get an NCAA bid. And tonight, we looked like a team with no momentum at all. Not only did we play in spurts but when we we’re spurting we looked disorganized with players trying to do everything themselves and not knowing quite how to do it. Hopefully we’ve bottomed out, the players will start listening to the coaches and recommit themselves to the task at hand.

- Joe Girard struggled the whole game, going 3 for 12 and 1 for 6 from the arc with 3 assists vs. 3 turnovers. But his worst moment came when JB yanked him for throwing a terrible pass at 16:08. He came to the bench and found a chair as far from the coach as possible. He looked like Tommy Lewis in the 1954 Cotton Bowl: Jim motioned him over to the chair next to his with a slash of his finger. When Joe reluctantly moved to that chair, JB didn’t use it as an opportunity to vent. He used it as an opportunity to teach. Joe might be the heart and soul of the team someday but he’s still a freshman right now.

- The referees aren’t freshmen so they have no excuses for how they called this game. It was a classic “ignore the rough stuff and call touch fouls on the next play” performance with some memorably awful calls. They didn’t all go against us: Joe Girard and a Pitt player both went after a loose ball, collided and the ball went out of bounds, apparently off Girard. They called it Syracuse ball. A flagrant foul was called on Dolezaj on a rebound scramble for his fourth foul. Marek isn’t strong enough to foul anyone flagrantly. A couple of possessions later, Marek was flat on his back with the ball after another rebound scramble and got called for having his shoulder on the end line. The Dome scoreboard operator made the mistake of showing a replay that made it obvious that he was fully in bounds. Marek excitedly pointed to it and the ref T’d him up. JB said in his presser that Marek didn’t need to point out that the ref was wrong: he already knew it.

- Marek didn’t have one of his better games, shooting 1 for 7 with 3 turnovers. He should have ripped up a team like Wake Forest.

- It was another game where we lost the battle of the boards by a significant margin: 34-44. I don’t have the second half box but I think the entire margin came from that half. (Brent Axe said it was 10-25 in the second half.)

- Up 2, 1.5 seconds left. Front the #%&^%@$#! inbounds man! FRONT THE &^%$@%$! INBOUNDS MAN! Make them launch it from 80 feet, not 50 feet!

- We had plenty of open shots that could have enabled us to keep the comfortable lead. We just couldn’t make them – and everybody missed them: Girard then Hughes then Boeheim. A team effort.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

The team would get a huge lead and then doze off..did this about 4 times. I don't understand why they think they have that luxury, as if they are that dominant.

For a team with this much shooting ability, there are way too many long scoring droughts and I blame it almost entirely on boneheaded plays where they just take dumb shots,, get extremely careless with the rock, or in JG's case, force shots for NO reason early in the clock to prove a point that you are more than just the god of NYS high school scoring.

they lack basketball intellect. That fifth foul on QG was laughably misguided. The Feisty Fouling trio of QG, MD, and BS don't adjust their play at ALL when in foul trouble. its mind bottling.

 

[CaptainJ]

- We had ‘em all the way. I was never worried!

View attachment 176602

- SU played this game like they expected it would be like the Georgia Tech and Boston College games. At the first media time out it was 2-4 at 15:40. JB got everyone organized and Buddy went on one of his tears after the next time out, (taken by Danny Manning at 12:16) it was 16-4. Game over right? Nope. Wake went on a 10-6 run to get it back to 22-14 and split the rest of the half to go in at 38-30. We came out like gangbusters and scored 8 points in a row to take a 46-30 lead. The rout is on! Nope. Pitt answers with a very quick 9 points in a row, (or was it 10- the refs couldn’t seem to figure it out). We stop the run but can’t pull away and get stuck on 54 while the Deacons close to within three at 54-51. And 8-2 run gave us a solid lead again at 62-53 with 10:17. Left. After that everything went wrong. We’d made our first 17 free throws, then missed 6 of our last 13, including the front end of a couple one and ones. The refs got whistle happy and fouled out all three of our big men, (Guerrier, Sidibe and Dolezaj). Wake went on a 3-16 run to take a 69-65 lead with 5:29 left. And all we had left was a line-up of a third strong freshman center and four guards, two of them also freshmen. But somehow they closed the game out on a 10-4 run to rescue us. But it should not have taken a miracle to beat Wake Forest. We aren’t good enough and the other teams in the league aren’t bad enough to play in spurts and expect to win.

- We have 8 games left, two against nationally ranked teams and six against unranked teams, all ACC teams. So far we are 1-1 against ranked ACC teams and 6-4 against the unranked teams. That won’t do the rest of the way. We’ve got to run the table or close to it to get an NCAA bid. And tonight, we looked like a team with no momentum at all. Not only did we play in spurts but when we we’re spurting we looked disorganized with players trying to do everything themselves and not knowing quite how to do it. Hopefully we’ve bottomed out, the players will start listening to the coaches and recommit themselves to the task at hand.

- Joe Girard struggled the whole game, going 3 for 12 and 1 for 6 from the arc with 3 assists vs. 3 turnovers. But his worst moment came when JB yanked him for throwing a terrible pass at 16:08. He came to the bench and found a chair as far from the coach as possible. He looked like Tommy Lewis in the 1954 Cotton Bowl: Jim motioned him over to the chair next to his with a slash of his finger. When Joe reluctantly moved to that chair, JB didn’t use it as an opportunity to vent. He used it as an opportunity to teach. Joe might be the heart and soul of the team someday but he’s still a freshman right now.

- The referees aren’t freshmen so they have no excuses for how they called this game. It was a classic “ignore the rough stuff and call touch fouls on the next play” performance with some memorably awful calls. They didn’t all go against us: Joe Girard and a Pitt player both went after a loose ball, collided and the ball went out of bounds, apparently off Girard. They called it Syracuse ball. A flagrant foul was called on Dolezaj on a rebound scramble for his fourth foul. Marek isn’t strong enough to foul anyone flagrantly. A couple of possessions later, Marek was flat on his back with the ball after another rebound scramble and got called for having his shoulder on the end line. The Dome scoreboard operator made the mistake of showing a replay that made it obvious that he was fully in bounds. Marek excitedly pointed to it and the ref T’d him up. JB said in his presser that Marek didn’t need to point out that the ref was wrong: he already knew it.

- Marek didn’t have one of his better games, shooting1 for 7 with 3 turnovers. He should have ripped up a team like Wake Forest.

- It was another game where we lost the battle of the boards by a significant margin: 34-44. I don’t have the second half box but I think the entire margin came from that half.

- Up 2, 1.5 seconds left. Front the #%&^%@$#! inbounds man! FRONT THE &^%$@%$! INBOUNDS MAN! Make them launch it from 80 feet, not 50 feet!

- We had plenty of open shots that could have enabled us to keep the comfortable lead. We just couldn’t make them – and everybody missed them: Girard then Hughes then Boeheim. A team effort.

Nice writeup as usual. I particularly appreciated it tonight because I missed most of the game and would not have even watched the ending live, but rather waited for replay on Watch ESPN, if I was not banned from it this season(I even got my brother to call Spectrum and get my parents' login info set up for them, and it too bans me...I don't get it).

For that reason, I really can't comment on much about the post other than an error I noticed, which I decided I was not going to make a joke about, ouf of respect. Then I noticed it again and wondered if it was purposeful, maybe commenting on the style of play? Either way, I wanted to say I am glad I wasn't the only one who was reminded of the term clutch and grab tonight, even if for different reasons.

PS were you really cussing at the TV about the inbounds? It doesn't seem like you, although I can picture it from a good many on here(maybe because they admit it).

 

[bballbeadle]

The team would get a huge lead and then doze off..did this about 4 times. I don't understand why they think they have that luxury, as if they are that dominant.

For a team with this much shooting ability, there are way too many long scoring droughts and I blame it almost entirely on boneheaded plays where they just take dumb shots,, get extremely careless with the rock, or in JG's case, force shots for NO reason early in the clock to prove a point that you are more than just the god of NYS high school scoring.

they lack basketball intellect. That fifth foul on QG was laughably misguided. The Feisty Fouling trio of QG, MD, and BS don't adjust their play at ALL when in foul trouble. its mind bottling.

Many minds were bottled last night.

I use this quote often, but will repeat it again. As the horse thief said on the gallows when asked if he had any last words, “Well, this shore is a mighty powerful lesson for me.”

As you point out, do they ever learn?? They cannot relax. They must go dog go the entire game! Can someone give them a tutorial on how not to foul? I love Marek but he has to learn he cannot give any attitude to the refs. Boeheim was acknowledging this in his press conference. If these things can’t be drilled into their heads, I will end up dropping my head into my hands way too much.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

What little I saw of the second half it looked like we sagged our guards in closer to the basket to deny distribution to the Wake center. If Wake reponds by shooting threes then we likely miss those long rebounds, no?

 

[MSOrange]

Marek could have easily had one of his usual games but he just missed shots he's been making. Frustrating night for him.

 

[Newhouser]

The lack of game awareness in all of college basketball is insane, and our team is among the worst. I truly believe Marek got Td because he thought the play was reviewable. Nobody understanding how to play with fouls, shot selection on fast break opportunities, etc.
Also Mareks hook and hold was text book. And I love Hughes but watch him rebound on the defensive end. It is infuriating.

 

[Red Holzman]

Bad officiating a hot topic this season, and rightly so-
More infuriating is the ongoing slap-happy fouling by our 3 inside players who fouled out last night.
WHYWHYWHY?
Stupid fouls are allowing the bad calls to become a much larger challenge to overcome and win games.
SU thankfully had many fortunate bounces of the ball avert an ugly 3DQ-related loss last night!

 

[tbonezone]

downside. second half fade once again.

 

[tbonezone]

They must go dog go the entire game!

nice hat !

 

[Halfmooncuse]

- We had ‘em all the way. I was never worried!

View attachment 176602

- SU played this game like they expected it would be like the Georgia Tech and Boston College games. At the first media time out it was 2-4 at 15:40. JB got everyone organized and Buddy went on one of his tears after the next time out, (taken by Danny Manning at 12:16) it was 16-4. Game over right? Nope. Wake went on a 10-6 run to get it back to 22-14 and split the rest of the half to go in at 38-30. We came out like gangbusters and scored 8 points in a row to take a 46-30 lead. The rout is on! Nope. Pitt answers with a very quick 9 points in a row, (or was it 10- the refs couldn’t seem to figure it out). We stop the run but can’t pull away and get stuck on 54 while the Deacons close to within three at 54-51. And 8-2 run gave us a solid lead again at 62-53 with 10:17. Left. After that everything went wrong. We’d made our first 17 free throws, then missed 6 of our last 13, including the front end of a couple one and ones. The refs got whistle happy and fouled out all three of our big men, (Guerrier, Sidibe and Dolezaj). Wake went on a 3-16 run to take a 69-65 lead with 5:29 left. And all we had left was a line-up of a third strong freshman center and four guards, two of them also freshmen. But somehow they closed the game out on a 10-4 run to rescue us. But it should not have taken a miracle to beat Wake Forest. We aren’t good enough and the other teams in the league aren’t bad enough to play in spurts and expect to win.

- We have 8 games left, two against nationally ranked teams and six against unranked teams, all ACC teams. So far we are 1-1 against ranked ACC teams and 6-4 against the unranked teams. That won’t do the rest of the way. We’ve got to run the table or close to it to get an NCAA bid. And tonight, we looked like a team with no momentum at all. Not only did we play in spurts but when we we’re spurting we looked disorganized with players trying to do everything themselves and not knowing quite how to do it. Hopefully we’ve bottomed out, the players will start listening to the coaches and recommit themselves to the task at hand.

- Joe Girard struggled the whole game, going 3 for 12 and 1 for 6 from the arc with 3 assists vs. 3 turnovers. But his worst moment came when JB yanked him for throwing a terrible pass at 16:08. He came to the bench and found a chair as far from the coach as possible. He looked like Tommy Lewis in the 1954 Cotton Bowl: Jim motioned him over to the chair next to his with a slash of his finger. When Joe reluctantly moved to that chair, JB didn’t use it as an opportunity to vent. He used it as an opportunity to teach. Joe might be the heart and soul of the team someday but he’s still a freshman right now.

- The referees aren’t freshmen so they have no excuses for how they called this game. It was a classic “ignore the rough stuff and call touch fouls on the next play” performance with some memorably awful calls. They didn’t all go against us: Joe Girard and a Pitt player both went after a loose ball, collided and the ball went out of bounds, apparently off Girard. They called it Syracuse ball. A flagrant foul was called on Dolezaj on a rebound scramble for his fourth foul. Marek isn’t strong enough to foul anyone flagrantly. A couple of possessions later, Marek was flat on his back with the ball after another rebound scramble and got called for having his shoulder on the end line. The Dome scoreboard operator made the mistake of showing a replay that made it obvious that he was fully in bounds. Marek excitedly pointed to it and the ref T’d him up. JB said in his presser that Marek didn’t need to point out that the ref was wrong: he already knew it.

- Marek didn’t have one of his better games, shooting1 for 7 with 3 turnovers. He should have ripped up a team like Wake Forest.

- It was another game where we lost the battle of the boards by a significant margin: 34-44. I don’t have the second half box but I think the entire margin came from that half.

- Up 2, 1.5 seconds left. Front the #%&^%@$#! inbounds man! FRONT THE &^%$@%$! INBOUNDS MAN! Make them launch it from 80 feet, not 50 feet!

- We had plenty of open shots that could have enabled us to keep the comfortable lead. We just couldn’t make them – and everybody missed them: Girard then Hughes then Boeheim. A team effort.

Front the inblunder...cmon...next you won’t let them roll the ball to half court

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

A little worrying that we had another one of ‘those’ home games this time against a much worse team but I never thought we’d lose Wake just sucks that much.

We need Hughes to come back he’s been MIA. And we should have had Buddy jack more threes last night and it doesn’t get close IMO.

 

[Madbiker]

Every game Sidibe gets a foul for running up the back of an opposing player on the transition to defense after a missed shot plus 3 over the back rebounding fouls. Every game. The guy just doesn't learn.

 

[bballbeadle]

nice hat !

Loved that book! Do you like my party hat? No, I do not like that party hat!

One time I ran into Scooooop outside an office building. I told him I was a big fan. Duh. He smiled and said thanks. As he was walking away, I shouted after him, “Go dog go!”

Honestly, I should replace that as my tag line of stupid things I’ve said to players. The one I have currently is the result of my walking past Andy Rautins house, and he and Devendorf were sitting on his front steps. I was awkwardly surprised. I put my hands on my hips like a super hero and said “Well, hello, boys!” They waved weakly

 

[SBU72]

- We had ‘em all the way. I was never worried!

View attachment 176602

- SU played this game like they expected it would be like the Georgia Tech and Boston College games. At the first media time out it was 2-4 at 15:40. JB got everyone organized and Buddy went on one of his tears after the next time out, (taken by Danny Manning at 12:16) it was 16-4. Game over right? Nope. Wake went on a 10-6 run to get it back to 22-14 and split the rest of the half to go in at 38-30. We came out like gangbusters and scored 8 points in a row to take a 46-30 lead. The rout is on! Nope. Pitt answers with a very quick 9 points in a row, (or was it 10- the refs couldn’t seem to figure it out). We stop the run but can’t pull away and get stuck on 54 while the Deacons close to within three at 54-51. And 8-2 run gave us a solid lead again at 62-53 with 10:17. Left. After that everything went wrong. We’d made our first 17 free throws, then missed 6 of our last 13, including the front end of a couple one and ones. The refs got whistle happy and fouled out all three of our big men, (Guerrier, Sidibe and Dolezaj). Wake went on a 3-16 run to take a 69-65 lead with 5:29 left. And all we had left was a line-up of a third strong freshman center and four guards, two of them also freshmen. But somehow they closed the game out on a 10-4 run to rescue us. But it should not have taken a miracle to beat Wake Forest. We aren’t good enough and the other teams in the league aren’t bad enough to play in spurts and expect to win.

- We have 8 games left, two against nationally ranked teams and six against unranked teams, all ACC teams. So far we are 1-1 against ranked ACC teams and 6-4 against the unranked teams. That won’t do the rest of the way. We’ve got to run the table or close to it to get an NCAA bid. And tonight, we looked like a team with no momentum at all. Not only did we play in spurts but when we we’re spurting we looked disorganized with players trying to do everything themselves and not knowing quite how to do it. Hopefully we’ve bottomed out, the players will start listening to the coaches and recommit themselves to the task at hand.

- Joe Girard struggled the whole game, going 3 for 12 and 1 for 6 from the arc with 3 assists vs. 3 turnovers. But his worst moment came when JB yanked him for throwing a terrible pass at 16:08. He came to the bench and found a chair as far from the coach as possible. He looked like Tommy Lewis in the 1954 Cotton Bowl: Jim motioned him over to the chair next to his with a slash of his finger. When Joe reluctantly moved to that chair, JB didn’t use it as an opportunity to vent. He used it as an opportunity to teach. Joe might be the heart and soul of the team someday but he’s still a freshman right now.

- The referees aren’t freshmen so they have no excuses for how they called this game. It was a classic “ignore the rough stuff and call touch fouls on the next play” performance with some memorably awful calls. They didn’t all go against us: Joe Girard and a Pitt player both went after a loose ball, collided and the ball went out of bounds, apparently off Girard. They called it Syracuse ball. A flagrant foul was called on Dolezaj on a rebound scramble for his fourth foul. Marek isn’t strong enough to foul anyone flagrantly. A couple of possessions later, Marek was flat on his back with the ball after another rebound scramble and got called for having his shoulder on the end line. The Dome scoreboard operator made the mistake of showing a replay that made it obvious that he was fully in bounds. Marek excitedly pointed to it and the ref T’d him up. JB said in his presser that Marek didn’t need to point out that the ref was wrong: he already knew it.

- Marek didn’t have one of his better games, shooting1 for 7 with 3 turnovers. He should have ripped up a team like Wake Forest.

- It was another game where we lost the battle of the boards by a significant margin: 34-44. I don’t have the second half box but I think the entire margin came from that half.

- Up 2, 1.5 seconds left. Front the #%&^%@$#! inbounds man! FRONT THE &^%$@%$! INBOUNDS MAN! Make them launch it from 80 feet, not 50 feet!

- We had plenty of open shots that could have enabled us to keep the comfortable lead. We just couldn’t make them – and everybody missed them: Girard then Hughes then Boeheim. A team effort.

I want to know why the obvious shoulder block the kid gave Buddy wasn't flagrant? There was no attempt to get to the ball and the foul could have hurt Buddy.

 

[SWC75]

Nice writeup as usual. I particularly appreciated it tonight because I missed most of the game and would not have even watched the ending live, but rather waited for replay on Watch ESPN, if I was not banned from it this season(I even got my brother to call Spectrum and get my parents' login info set up for them, and it too bans me...I don't get it).

For that reason, I really can't comment on much about the post other than an error I noticed, which I decided I was not going to make a joke about, ouf of respect. Then I noticed it again and wondered if it was purposeful, maybe commenting on the style of play? Either way, I wanted to say I am glad I wasn't the only one who was reminded of the term clutch and grab tonight, even if for different reasons.

PS were you really cussing at the TV about the inbounds? It doesn't seem like you, although I can picture it from a good many on here(maybe because they admit it).

I was cussing from section 308. But JB can't hear me from there.