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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 159363, member: 289"] - Well, tonight was the night. Predictably it came when we didn’t expect it. The challenge now is to prevent it from becoming a slump as it did last year when we opened 18-0 and then lost four in a row. Monday night’s game is the one many people thought would be the first lost, (I was one). It’s even more likely to be the second loss, even though the Cincinnati also lost. - But the biggest loss will be Fab Melo if he doesn’t win his appeal on Tuesday. We saw what a void we had art center without him. Baye Keita just isn’t’ strong enough, at least against a 270 pounder like Jack Cooley. Rak Christmas just isn’t experienced enough. I’m amazed they played a total of 38 minutes and were called fore only five fouls between them. How much will that happen? - Hubert Davis and the other talking heads keep sawing that “we don’t have a go-to-guy”. That’s wrong but tonight our Go-to-guys didn’t tell the ball to go to the basket. Kris Joseph was 1 for 6 in the first half and had two ugly turnovers where he basically dribbled the ball into the defender’s hands for a break-away. Dion Waiters hit two big threes at the end of the half to get us within sight of the Irish but was 2 for 12 otherwise and had a big turnover after we’d scored, gotten a steal, scored to pull within 8 and gotten another turnover. Scoop Jardine, who had been shooting well, was 0 for 5. Brandon Triche was 2 for 6. Those are our “go-to” guys and between them they were 10 for 37 from the field. - It’s not that we don’t have a ‘go-to’ guy. The real problem is that we don’t have a power forward- a guy who can score inside and also has a mid-range jumper and who can rebound and block shots. Rak Christmas starts in that position but he isn‘t in there for long and he‘s having a typical freshman year for a big man. CJ Fair has a knack for being where the ball is but that doesn’t make him a power forward. Basically, we’ve gone all year with two small forwards. It’s worked as long as we use the additional quickness to create turnovers on the perimeter to make up for the lack of rebounds. But now we are facing the really physical teams of the Big east. Even with Fab getting a career high 10 rebounds vs. Pitt, we were out-rebounded 28-40. In this game, without Fab, it was 24-37. This is likely to be routine from here on in unless we get Fab back and, Christmas begins developing rapidly and the small forwards make a special effort to rebound. If only we had Kevin, not Mookie Jones! If only we had Anthony Davis! Well, we don’t. - The referees? Outplay the other team and we’ll talk about them. [/QUOTE]

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