SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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-We were flying high at 45-29, dreaming of the post-game interviews, the awards ceremony and maybe a #2 seed. The rest of the game was like this:
-Not only did Rick Pitino win another BET, (his third in 5 years), but in a bizarro touch, Peyton Siva who missed 18 of his 29 shots in the tournament and 10 of 15 three pointers, was named MVP for the second year in a row. In three games against the Orange, he was 4 for 27 from the field, including 1 for 20 from three point range.
-I totaled up what happened in that last 15:34. Syracuse was 2 for 11 from the field, (1 for 6 from the arc), and 11 for 22 from the free throw line. We had 13 rebounds but 11 turnovers and committed 14 fouls. Louisville was 13 for 23 from the field, (3 for 8 from the arc), 20 for 26 from free throw line with 17 rebounds, only 4 turnovers and 10 fouls. Rebounding wasn’t bad but -7 in turnovers killed us. We got off 12 fewer shots and only made 18% vs. 57%. We were being fouled constantly on every possession but got called for 4 more fouls than they did. It really hurt to clang 11 free throws while the game was slipping away. If we could at least have shot Louisville’s percentages from 2,3 and the free throw line, we would have scored 29 points and Louisville would have scored 25 in the same stretch and won the game 74-54.
-Brandon Triche, who had been emerging from his long slump, picked the wrong day to give us one more stinker: 3 for 12 from the field with 1 assist and 7 turnovers.
-Trevor Cooney, after his big game(half) vs. Georgetown, was 0 for 2 from the field and also from the line, where he is 82% on the year.
- We don't have a type of player this year we've had in the past: the ball-handling forward. The tall guy with some guard skills who can position himself in the center of the court vs. the press, get a pass, make a few dribbles, shoot, drive to the basket or make a pass to burn the press or at least get our half-court offense going. It showed last night.
- We didn't have a great tournament. A great tournament is four great games. We had four great halfs. And four lousy ones.
-The moment: 51-58 with 7:37 left. Brandon steals the ball and gets it to James Southerland, who has just come back in the game, for a three and….around and out. Montrez Harrell gets the rebound and Baye Keita fouls him. Game, (basically), over.
-The image: multiple times, SU players seemed to have the ball in their hands only to have a Louisville player just grab it and rip it away. Taking candy from a baby.
-The problem: when teams constantly foul as a normal part of their defense, the refs, who tend to call what is unusual, stop calling all the fouls and just call the worst ones. But our team doesn’t constantly foul, so on us they call everything. To look at the box score, the game was called evenly with each team being whistled for 21 fouls. But Louisville committed about 50 fouls. The refs also missed several obvious travels and wouldn’t give us the charging call.
-But you always have to ask yourself: which team deserved to win? If that’s the team who wound up with the most points, you can’t blame the refs for the outcome. We fell apart down the stretch while Louisville played aggressively and brilliantly. If there was a robbery, we committed it on ourselves.
-Our zone defense serves us well. We are one of the best defensive teams in the country but what is measured in the stats. It keeps us in games, most of the time. But it doesn’t allow us to impose our will on the other team the way more aggressive defenses do. If the other team wants to play a game in the 50’s, we let them. We don’t’ wear teams down as the game goes along. And, although we love to run, we don’t create enough opportunities to do so. These last three games we had a total of 8 fast break points. The other teams had twice as many. We don’t run off of made baskets like Roy Williams team’s do. We don’t switch to man-to-man or use the press proactively. We complain about other team’s tactics but do not emulate them. Whose fault is that?
-Not only did Rick Pitino win another BET, (his third in 5 years), but in a bizarro touch, Peyton Siva who missed 18 of his 29 shots in the tournament and 10 of 15 three pointers, was named MVP for the second year in a row. In three games against the Orange, he was 4 for 27 from the field, including 1 for 20 from three point range.
-I totaled up what happened in that last 15:34. Syracuse was 2 for 11 from the field, (1 for 6 from the arc), and 11 for 22 from the free throw line. We had 13 rebounds but 11 turnovers and committed 14 fouls. Louisville was 13 for 23 from the field, (3 for 8 from the arc), 20 for 26 from free throw line with 17 rebounds, only 4 turnovers and 10 fouls. Rebounding wasn’t bad but -7 in turnovers killed us. We got off 12 fewer shots and only made 18% vs. 57%. We were being fouled constantly on every possession but got called for 4 more fouls than they did. It really hurt to clang 11 free throws while the game was slipping away. If we could at least have shot Louisville’s percentages from 2,3 and the free throw line, we would have scored 29 points and Louisville would have scored 25 in the same stretch and won the game 74-54.
-Brandon Triche, who had been emerging from his long slump, picked the wrong day to give us one more stinker: 3 for 12 from the field with 1 assist and 7 turnovers.
-Trevor Cooney, after his big game(half) vs. Georgetown, was 0 for 2 from the field and also from the line, where he is 82% on the year.
- We don't have a type of player this year we've had in the past: the ball-handling forward. The tall guy with some guard skills who can position himself in the center of the court vs. the press, get a pass, make a few dribbles, shoot, drive to the basket or make a pass to burn the press or at least get our half-court offense going. It showed last night.
- We didn't have a great tournament. A great tournament is four great games. We had four great halfs. And four lousy ones.
-The moment: 51-58 with 7:37 left. Brandon steals the ball and gets it to James Southerland, who has just come back in the game, for a three and….around and out. Montrez Harrell gets the rebound and Baye Keita fouls him. Game, (basically), over.
-The image: multiple times, SU players seemed to have the ball in their hands only to have a Louisville player just grab it and rip it away. Taking candy from a baby.
-The problem: when teams constantly foul as a normal part of their defense, the refs, who tend to call what is unusual, stop calling all the fouls and just call the worst ones. But our team doesn’t constantly foul, so on us they call everything. To look at the box score, the game was called evenly with each team being whistled for 21 fouls. But Louisville committed about 50 fouls. The refs also missed several obvious travels and wouldn’t give us the charging call.
-But you always have to ask yourself: which team deserved to win? If that’s the team who wound up with the most points, you can’t blame the refs for the outcome. We fell apart down the stretch while Louisville played aggressively and brilliantly. If there was a robbery, we committed it on ourselves.
-Our zone defense serves us well. We are one of the best defensive teams in the country but what is measured in the stats. It keeps us in games, most of the time. But it doesn’t allow us to impose our will on the other team the way more aggressive defenses do. If the other team wants to play a game in the 50’s, we let them. We don’t’ wear teams down as the game goes along. And, although we love to run, we don’t create enough opportunities to do so. These last three games we had a total of 8 fast break points. The other teams had twice as many. We don’t run off of made baskets like Roy Williams team’s do. We don’t switch to man-to-man or use the press proactively. We complain about other team’s tactics but do not emulate them. Whose fault is that?
