SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- With our 17th win, we have clinched our 46th consecutive winning season, something that was in doubt when we were 10-7 and had opened the conference season with 4 straight losses. It’s the longest active streak in the country and something that unites generations of SU players, coaches and fans. Hopefully we will not be flirting with disaster again in the near future. We are currently tied with Louisville, (1945-90), for the second best streak of all time. I think we will go back to having the sort of teams we had early in this decade next year and have a very good chance to matching or exceeding UCLA’s national record of 54 consecutive winning seasons, (1949-2002).
- Now we can concentrate on what we have to do to make the NCAA tournament and, more specifically, to get off the bubble so we don’t have to sweat out Selection Sunday. Once we’d done that, the next goal is to get a good seed. The committee members have said that they will look only at the games that JB coached. If so, our record is actually 13-3 with competitive losses to Wisconsin, North Carolina and Virginia, (last year’s national runner up and two top ten teams), and wins over Connecticut, Texas A&M, Duke, (at Cameron), Notre Dame and now Florida State. If we can just keep playing well, I think we’ll be fine.
- Frankly reading about Florida State, I thought they might have the better team with their height and all their hot shooters. They gave us a lot of trouble on the offensive boards the first half but we got that turned around, especially when they had to go to a small line-up to press us when they fell way behind in the second half. WE wound up winning the boards 35-28.
- The dangerous triumvirate of Beasley, Bacon and Rathan-Hayes scored 35 points but they were only 11 for 37 from the field.
- One reason we didn’t have as many offensive rebounds as they did is that we weren’t missing. We were the only power 5 conference team to not shoot 50% in a game this year but in this game we shot 62%. We hit 47% form the three point line and 70% inside of it. We even hit 71% of our foul shots. That lay-off didn’t seem to hurt us. In fact, it’s probably something we needed, (perhaps not 8 days).
- Michael Gbinije was brilliant, hitting 7 of 8 shots, including 4 of 5 threes for 22 points. He also had 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Is there a better player in the conference?
- Malachi Richardson is nearly as good as a freshman, which is scary. He scored 17 on 5 for 7 inside the arc, with 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.
- Tyler Lydon had possibly his best game with 15 points on 5 for 7 shooting, 10 rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal in only 21 minutes. Unless his best game is yet to come.
- DaJuan Coleman showed us a glimpse of what could be awaiting next year when the started the second half with a dunk, a rebound, a lay-up, a steal, another lay-up on a drive from out front, an assist and a block in the first 2 ½ minutes to give us an 8-0 run that gave us control of the game after FSU had closed from 31-17 to 42-39 at the end of the first half. Don’t pencil in Chukwu as the starter next year just yet.
- I like 85-72 games. They remind me of the old days.
17-8 (7-5) with 6+ to go…
LET’S GO ORANGE!
