SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- A basketball season is like life. No matter how great it’s been, it always ends unpleasantly. For almost everybody. Including us.
- And it almost inevitably ends with a game in which we could have played a lot better. If you lost to a top team, that helps. A little. But we still could have played better. We got off to our usual 2-9 start- and lost by that margin. We missed enough lay-ups to have won the game comfortably- and this was one of our best finishing teams. A couple of key players ended up, (probably their careers), with sub-par performances.
- JB said we’d go as far as our seniors would take us. Kris Joseph came up small, scoring 40 points in four games but on 12 for 36 shooting, (1 for 10 from the arc), getting 13 rebounds, (only 5 in the last three games) with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1 to 9. I recall after last season there was an article about how Kris has had a disappointing year but nobody knew about the injuries he had been dealing with. Early in this game, he missed a lay-up and Matt Roe said that “he wanted to dunk it but his knee gave way and he tried to lay it in”. I didn’t notice him being hobbled but he had such a bad tournament I wonder if there are again some injuries we don’t know about that affected his performance. I’m sure that’s not the way he wanted to go out after being a part of more victories than any player in Syracuse history.
- Dion Waiters went out on a sour note, as well, going 2 for 8. He did get to the line and scored 9 points but he was hardly the explosive offensive player he’s capable of being.
- CJ Fair was 6 for 6 from the line but was otherwise a non-factor, getting off only 2 shots in 31 minutes.
- The only thing I would fault JB for is not going with a three guard line-up at the end when we were pressing. Why did we even need a center in the game at that point? I guess he doesn’t like to do things we haven’t done before but he doesn’t like to press either, and we were doing that.
- Yeah, I know. The refs didn’t cost us the game. In a close game everything matters and the refereeing mattered in this game. There have been some strange calls over the year but this was the first time the referees, (and specifically one- John Higgins- any relation?), took over a game. They called 48 fouls- 28 of them on us. The Buckeyes went to the line 42 times compared to our 25. We out-scored them from the field by 50-46 and out-shot them from the line, 80.0%-73.8% but lost because of the number of free throws they got. There were also some strange out of bounds calls and too many conferences. Matt Park commented that this game wasn’t played any differently, in terms of rough play, than any other game this season but it sure was being called differently. For much of the game, any defensive move our players made seemed to be a foul. Key players had to miss long stretches and late in the game, Dion Waiters had a chance to foul Shannon Scott, who is only 2 for 8 from the line this year but backed off because he had four fouls. Scott got the ball to Sullinger, a 77% shooter, who was fouled and made both. It mattered.
- We really lost the game when we didn’t take advantage of Sullinger’s long absence in the first half. Our best quarter is usually the second quarter and we should have taken over the game then. But we stopped driving to the basket, which was open all night. We were down 10-13 when Sully went out and only won the rest of the half by 19-16. The Buckeyes had their big gun for the whole second half and won that, 48-41.
- We got belted on the boards, 26-39 and didn’t make up for it with turnovers, which were 12-12. We were -13 in “manufactured possessions”- the worst of the season. Keita had 38% of our rebounds. We got 7 from the forwards in 69 minutes and one each from the guards.
- Would Fab have made a difference? His numbers wouldn’t have been any better than Rak’s and Keita’s combined stats. But he might have drawn some charges on Sullinger, who had those two early fouls but no other until the game‘s final minute. I also keep remembering what Fab did to Herb Pope. We’ll never know.
- I don’t care that much who wins now. I’d prefer Ohio State because I would like to have lost to the champs but I think their weak interior defense will hurt them. The big thing is that I don’t want Rick Pitino cutting down the nets the way Calhoun did last year when I KNOW they didn’t have the best team in the country.
- And it almost inevitably ends with a game in which we could have played a lot better. If you lost to a top team, that helps. A little. But we still could have played better. We got off to our usual 2-9 start- and lost by that margin. We missed enough lay-ups to have won the game comfortably- and this was one of our best finishing teams. A couple of key players ended up, (probably their careers), with sub-par performances.
- JB said we’d go as far as our seniors would take us. Kris Joseph came up small, scoring 40 points in four games but on 12 for 36 shooting, (1 for 10 from the arc), getting 13 rebounds, (only 5 in the last three games) with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1 to 9. I recall after last season there was an article about how Kris has had a disappointing year but nobody knew about the injuries he had been dealing with. Early in this game, he missed a lay-up and Matt Roe said that “he wanted to dunk it but his knee gave way and he tried to lay it in”. I didn’t notice him being hobbled but he had such a bad tournament I wonder if there are again some injuries we don’t know about that affected his performance. I’m sure that’s not the way he wanted to go out after being a part of more victories than any player in Syracuse history.
- Dion Waiters went out on a sour note, as well, going 2 for 8. He did get to the line and scored 9 points but he was hardly the explosive offensive player he’s capable of being.
- CJ Fair was 6 for 6 from the line but was otherwise a non-factor, getting off only 2 shots in 31 minutes.
- The only thing I would fault JB for is not going with a three guard line-up at the end when we were pressing. Why did we even need a center in the game at that point? I guess he doesn’t like to do things we haven’t done before but he doesn’t like to press either, and we were doing that.
- Yeah, I know. The refs didn’t cost us the game. In a close game everything matters and the refereeing mattered in this game. There have been some strange calls over the year but this was the first time the referees, (and specifically one- John Higgins- any relation?), took over a game. They called 48 fouls- 28 of them on us. The Buckeyes went to the line 42 times compared to our 25. We out-scored them from the field by 50-46 and out-shot them from the line, 80.0%-73.8% but lost because of the number of free throws they got. There were also some strange out of bounds calls and too many conferences. Matt Park commented that this game wasn’t played any differently, in terms of rough play, than any other game this season but it sure was being called differently. For much of the game, any defensive move our players made seemed to be a foul. Key players had to miss long stretches and late in the game, Dion Waiters had a chance to foul Shannon Scott, who is only 2 for 8 from the line this year but backed off because he had four fouls. Scott got the ball to Sullinger, a 77% shooter, who was fouled and made both. It mattered.
- We really lost the game when we didn’t take advantage of Sullinger’s long absence in the first half. Our best quarter is usually the second quarter and we should have taken over the game then. But we stopped driving to the basket, which was open all night. We were down 10-13 when Sully went out and only won the rest of the half by 19-16. The Buckeyes had their big gun for the whole second half and won that, 48-41.
- We got belted on the boards, 26-39 and didn’t make up for it with turnovers, which were 12-12. We were -13 in “manufactured possessions”- the worst of the season. Keita had 38% of our rebounds. We got 7 from the forwards in 69 minutes and one each from the guards.
- Would Fab have made a difference? His numbers wouldn’t have been any better than Rak’s and Keita’s combined stats. But he might have drawn some charges on Sullinger, who had those two early fouls but no other until the game‘s final minute. I also keep remembering what Fab did to Herb Pope. We’ll never know.
- I don’t care that much who wins now. I’d prefer Ohio State because I would like to have lost to the champs but I think their weak interior defense will hurt them. The big thing is that I don’t want Rick Pitino cutting down the nets the way Calhoun did last year when I KNOW they didn’t have the best team in the country.
