The Downside

[SWC75]

- JB is 307-181 in games decided by less than points or overtime. That’s a 63% success rate. He’s done that because his teams know how to nurse a lead down the stretch. This team hasn’t learned how to do that yet. At first they were aggressively driving to the basket and getting turnovers and awkward shots. Then, when they were trying to milk the clock, they milked it until all they had was a heavily defended trey. You can’t force it but you have to take advantage of scoring opportunities when you see them.

- The bad, the worse and the ugly: Here is a break down of the 0-16 streak, (I think it’s the longest since that 0-18 start vs. Pittsburgh two years ago). We led 67-48 at 5:36 and had the ball. Trevor Cooney missed a trey. Anderson got a dunk on the other end. Coleman got a turn-over in a mix up about who was taking it out after the dunk. Detroit missed a trey but got the rebound and scored a 2 point jumper. Grant had a turnover. We got it back but Triche had a turnover. They got a trey. MCW tried to answer but missed a trey. Anderson got a dunk. Southerland got the most wide-open trey he’ll ever see but short-armed it. Triche fouled on the rebound. It was the 6th foul, so anything after that was a one-and-one. They missed a trey but Triche again fouled on the rebound, fouling out and making himself unavailable for the remainder of the game. They got two free throws. MCW tried another trey that missed and CJ Fair fouled on the rebound. They got two more free throws. Michael then had a turnover and James Southerland fouled trying to get it back. They made one of two to make it 67-64 with 29 seconds left. Then Mike made 3 of 4 free throws to allow SU to hang on and the celebration to begin.

- Ray McCallum didn’t shoot well, (1 for 4 from the arc and 9 points, 10 points under his average). But he sure can defend. He and Mike were so close together they could have shared the same jockstrap. MCW had 6 turnovers to go with those 10 assists and the team had 18.

- Doug Anderson just dunked again.

- With about 8 ½ minutes to go they distributed pictures of JB with a big smile on his face attached what looked like a tongue depressor. It was way to early. Looking at him down the stretch, Jim didn’t look like that at all. I wondered if it was picture of somebody else.

- That filmed tribute to 900 wins was nice but it would have looked pretty silly if we had lost. Since our next game is in the Garden, I wonder when they would have showed it.

 

[SoBristol]

Thanks, I guess, for that play-by-play. It was painful to watch live; painful to read.

Detroit, after bricking a lot of shots in the first half, was playing SU even in the second half. Then, they stepped up the pressure. They had our guards bottled up.

Is McCallum that special as a defender? Or will several Big East teams be able to do the same to our guards? Can one of our forwards take some of the pressure off the guards? This was a real good wake up call.

 

[Melancer46]

I was at the game, so maybe I just saw it from a different angle, but it seemed to me that MCW was able to beat McCallum pretty easily. It was the help defense that did a fantastic job. He seemed to be able to cross over and get past McCallum whenever he wanted, but once he got into the lane, McCallum closed up from behind and two help defenders converged. It seemed like that happened a ton.

And MCW didn't seem to have the elevation on his runner that he usually does.

Edit: I think those last 5 or so minutes really showed what can happen when MCW isn't making things happen though. He's literally the only guy on the team that can handle the ball against solid defense. Nobody else can really create.

That Southerland airball (was it an airball? It looked like it from section 303 where I was sitting) was really the last good look I remember our team having. I thought that totally crushed what little confidence they had left. The crowd finally got loud and MCW made a nice drive, and Southerland was literally as open as I've ever seen. The crowd was ready to explode if he hit that, and then he missed so badly and Detroit continued their run.

 

[Madbiker]

The last 5 minutes revealed a major weakness. We have no frontcourt player that can take the ball on the block and score or get fouled and then step to the line and make a high percentage of free throws. Where the hell was CJ? Ever since San Diego he has just disappeared. This team needs him to be that guy. Without that aspect, all we have is MCW trying to force his way to the rim which is going to result in a lot of turnover situations. This needs to get a lot better and fast or BE teams will take advantage.