SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 34,525
- Like
- 67,279
- Every team we play seems to be way better than they were last year- or we are making them look that way? My experience is that SU teams that struggle early often go on to have disappointing seasons, by our standards. Our good teams are blowing people out early. This one isn’t.
- Our defense at the top of the zone continues to be a major worry. In past games, they gave up too many open threes. In this game they failed to deny the ball to the post, allowing St. Francis to score 22 points in the paint. The top of the zone in basketball is kind of like the line of scrimmage in football: if you don’t win the battle there, you are going to lose it beyond that as well.
- CJ Fair had his all-time worst shooting game, going 2 for 13. He continues to try to create his own shot off the dribble. That’s a good thing to do in preparing for the NBA and I wish him well with it. But it’s not the way he’s played his first three years here and the St. Francis defenders ate him up. He had three more turnovers. And essentially had a fourth when a St. Francis inbounds pass bounced off his hands and out of bounds. He seems to have a weak handle and I wonder if he might have an injury that is bothering him.
- Teams are doing to Tyler Ennis what they did to MCW last year: cut off all the passing lanes and make him beat you by himself. He couldn’t do it tonight: 1 for 8, 2 points, 3 assists, 2 turnovers in 33 minutes. One play stands out: a fast break. He has Rakeem Christmas trialing and Trevor Cooney in the corner. Tyler tries to go up by himself against the defender, misses and the ball goes the other way. That got him a seat next to JB. But much of it was not entirely his fault. A lot of people criticized MCW for “trying to do too much”. Much of the time he was given little choice. Ennis was supposed to be the anti-MCW: a guy who would play within himself and be a distributor. Prepare to criticize Ennis for trying to do too much- and not always doing it. He didn’t do it tonight.
- St. Francis played really well and their defense was like barbed wire. But a Top Ten team should be able to impose their will on a team like St. Francis. Finally, we did. Matt Park said it best: We won this game by playing the last 5 minutes the way St. Francis played the whole game.
- JB pointed out that, while St. Francis played excellent man for man defense, we’ll see other teams that do as well with better talent and we need to know how to respond to that. We won’t have to wait until Duke: Richard Pitino’s Minnesota team is our next opponent. We’ve done well in Maui before, winning it twice. Don’t be surprised if we wind up in the consolation bracket this time out. This team has a long way to do.
- Our defense at the top of the zone continues to be a major worry. In past games, they gave up too many open threes. In this game they failed to deny the ball to the post, allowing St. Francis to score 22 points in the paint. The top of the zone in basketball is kind of like the line of scrimmage in football: if you don’t win the battle there, you are going to lose it beyond that as well.
- CJ Fair had his all-time worst shooting game, going 2 for 13. He continues to try to create his own shot off the dribble. That’s a good thing to do in preparing for the NBA and I wish him well with it. But it’s not the way he’s played his first three years here and the St. Francis defenders ate him up. He had three more turnovers. And essentially had a fourth when a St. Francis inbounds pass bounced off his hands and out of bounds. He seems to have a weak handle and I wonder if he might have an injury that is bothering him.
- Teams are doing to Tyler Ennis what they did to MCW last year: cut off all the passing lanes and make him beat you by himself. He couldn’t do it tonight: 1 for 8, 2 points, 3 assists, 2 turnovers in 33 minutes. One play stands out: a fast break. He has Rakeem Christmas trialing and Trevor Cooney in the corner. Tyler tries to go up by himself against the defender, misses and the ball goes the other way. That got him a seat next to JB. But much of it was not entirely his fault. A lot of people criticized MCW for “trying to do too much”. Much of the time he was given little choice. Ennis was supposed to be the anti-MCW: a guy who would play within himself and be a distributor. Prepare to criticize Ennis for trying to do too much- and not always doing it. He didn’t do it tonight.
- St. Francis played really well and their defense was like barbed wire. But a Top Ten team should be able to impose their will on a team like St. Francis. Finally, we did. Matt Park said it best: We won this game by playing the last 5 minutes the way St. Francis played the whole game.
- JB pointed out that, while St. Francis played excellent man for man defense, we’ll see other teams that do as well with better talent and we need to know how to respond to that. We won’t have to wait until Duke: Richard Pitino’s Minnesota team is our next opponent. We’ve done well in Maui before, winning it twice. Don’t be surprised if we wind up in the consolation bracket this time out. This team has a long way to do.
