The Upside- Georgia Tech

[SWC75]

- It’s another win. I heard a discussion on the radio of what wins were ‘must’ wins. They concluded that we need to beat the teams ranked ahead of us to impress the NCAA committee and that we need to beat the teams ranked behind us to avoid damaging our reputation with the committee. In other words, they are all must wins. I doubt JB has ever addressed his team and told them they don’t need to win a game because it doesn’t matter. Oh, and four more regular season wins and we’ve started a new ‘streak’.

- Once again the press turned around a game that was going against us. We’ve played the best basketball we’ve played all year when we press. You can’t just measure it by turnovers. It energizes our team on both ends and speeds the other team up so they make mistakes and miss shots. That press could get us to the NCAA tournament if we used it proactively rather reactively, when we are way behind. Why wait until then?

- The other thing that turned the game around was that we replaced unproductive players with productive players. Benny Williams was 0 for 3 and scored 1 points. Malik Brown was 8 for 9 and scored 18 points. It wasn’t complicated. Big men score when they stay around the basket and go an get the ball, not when they float around and jack up three pointers.

- Chris Bell scored 2 points in 18 minutes and Quadir Copeland scored 2 points in 17 minutes. But Quadir got 6 rebounds and Chris got his number: 0.

- Joe Girard is playing like an All-American. The key is that he’s not just setting himself up as a catch-and-shoot three point guy. He’s learned to drive to the basket, back guys down, pull up and fade away for jumpers. He scored 28 pints on 6 treys and 5 deuxs. He also had 5 rebounds, (two more than our starting forwards) and 7 assists.

- Jesse Edwards was taken out for the press because JB is afraid he’ll foul out. He put Hima in and he proved to be the perfect anchor of the press. Jesse them came back and committed 3 fouls in 27 minutes but made 6 of 9 shots, scored 14 points with 7 rebs and 3 blocks.

- Judah Mintz continued to struggle for much of the game, missing 4 free throws. But he looked more like his old self at the end, winding up with 13 points, 6 assists 3 rebs, 2 steals and a block.

- From the cheers there seemed to be more SU fans there than Tech fans.

13-7 with 11+ to go

LET’S GO ORANGE!!!

 

[orangenauburn]

Not sure how much longer Jim can go keeping Brown on bench to start games, unless he wants to use him like Dion moving forward, as he did today.

 

[85SUAlum]

Brown impresses me with his court awareness - always seems to be in a great position for an offensive rebound and put back, and gets himself in the right locations underneath for a dish and basket. It's a big reason why he had 18 points today.

 

[LoveShack]

Welcome back. I have missed your upside/downside takes the past few games and appreciate you taking the time to write up those posts.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

Not sure how much longer Jim can go keeping Brown on bench to start games, unless he wants to use him like Dion moving forward, as he did today.

Believe Maliq coming off the bench will be the norm going forward because it allows JAB the look see how the game is flowing and allows Benny and Chris Bell the opportunity to get hot (which they have rarely done)

 

[br801]

Believe Maliq coming off the bench will be the norm going forward because it allows JAB the look see how the game is flowing and allows Benny and Chris Bell the opportunity to get hot (which they have rarely done)

Benny and Chris have each had many games where they've been productive and warranted extended minutes, but they've also had a lot of games where they've made little impact.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Benny and Chris have each had many games where they've been productive and warranted extended minutes, but they've also had a lot of games where they've made little impact.

That goes for all the freshman and Benny. I don’t think who starts is a big deal. Brown is showing he plays well coming off the bench.

 

[SBU72]

Just asking but why did Copeland get an extended run and Taylor didn't. Taylor has been getting the minutes.

 

[721Comstock]

Just asking but why did Copeland get an extended run and Taylor didn't. Taylor has been getting the minutes.

Rebounding. He had 6.

JT isn’t much better than Bell at rebounding.

And Brown was a straight up replacement for Benny, who was having an off game.
Don’t think you can play Brown AND Benny together, especially when Benny’s shot isn’t falling.

Copeland brought a TON of energy.
And again - had SIX boards and 2 dimes in his 17 minutes.

Bell had 2 pts and ZERO boards in 18 mins.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Rebounding. He had 6.

JT isn’t much better than Bell at rebounding.

And Brown was a straight up replacement for Benny, who was having an off game.
Don’t think you can play Brown AND Benny together, especially when Benny’s shot isn’t falling.

Copeland brought a TON of energy.
And again - had SIX boards and 2 dimes in his 17 minutes.

Bell had 2 pts and ZERO boards in 18 mins.

Love JT but don’t think he’ll ever be an effective rebounder at the 3. He battles well, but rarely seems to come away with the ball. I do think he can be effective rebounding from the guard position though.

 

[br801]

Rebounding. He had 6.

JT isn’t much better than Bell at rebounding.

And Brown was a straight up replacement for Benny, who was having an off game.
Don’t think you can play Brown AND Benny together, especially when Benny’s shot isn’t falling.

Copeland brought a TON of energy.
And again - had SIX boards and 2 dimes in his 17 minutes.

Bell had 2 pts and ZERO boards in 18 mins.

I think Copeland was on the floor for much of that first half 17-0 run when they were pressing and erased the early deficit.

 

[JustPherU]

- It’s another win. I heard a discussion on the radio of what wins were ‘must’ wins. They concluded that we need to beat the teams ranked ahead of us to impress the NCAA committee and that we need to beat the teams ranked behind us to avoid damaging our reputation with the committee. In other words, they are all must wins. I doubt JB has ever addressed his team and told them they don’t need to win a game because it doesn’t matter. Oh, and four more regular season wins and we’ve started a new ‘streak’.

- Once again the press turned around a game that was going against us. We’ve played the best basketball we’ve played all year when we press. You can’t just measure it by turnovers. It energizes our team on both ends and speeds the other team up so they make mistakes and miss shots. That press could get us to the NCAA tournament if we used it proactively rather reactively, when we are way behind. Why wait until then?

- The other thing that turned the game around was that we replaced unproductive players with productive players. Benny Williams was 0 for 3 and scored 1 points. Malik Brown was 8 for 9 and scored 18 points. It wasn’t complicated. Big men score when they stay around the basket and go an get the ball, not when they float around and jack up three pointers.

- Chris Bell scored 2 points in 18 minutes and Quadir Copeland scored 2 points in 17 minutes. But Quadir got 6 rebounds and Chris got his number: 0.

- Joe Girard is playing like an All-American. The key is that he’s not just setting himself up as a catch-and-shoot three point guy. He’s learned to drive to the basket, back guys down, pull up and fade away for jumpers. He scored 28 pints on 6 treys and 5 deuxs. He also had 5 rebounds, (two more than our starting forwards) and 7 assists.

- Jesse Edwards was taken out for the press because JB is afraid he’ll foul out. He put Hima in and he proved to be the perfect anchor of the press. Jesse them came back and committed 3 fouls in 27 minutes but made 6 of 9 shots, scored 14 points with 7 rebs and 3 blocks.

- Judah Mintz continued to struggle for much of the game, missing 4 free throws. But he looked more like his old self at the end, winding up with 13 points, 6 assists 3 rebs, 2 steals and a block.

- From the cheers there seemed to be more SU fans there than Tech fans.

13-7 with 11+ to go

LET’S GO ORANGE!!!

Jesse was taken out of the press because he was standing at half court while a GT player was all alone scoring a basket. JB immediately looked at Hima and sent him to the scorers table.

 

[DCUNITED13]

Jesse was taken out of the press because he was standing at half court while a GT player was all alone scoring a basket. JB immediately looked at Hima and sent him to the scorers table.

It was a classic JB "hook". Jesse for some reason sneaked to mid court and GT Player sliped through the backdoor for an uncontested layup. However, I thought it was made for TV as IMMEDIATLY the camera panned to JB who was pissed walking down the bench yelling for Hima to get back in there. LOL

 

[Eric15]

Our NET ranking moved from 110 to 100 after that win. A win over UNC could potentially move us up into the 80s.

 

[malpearl31]

I think Copeland was on the floor for much of that first half 17-0 run when they were pressing and erased the early deficit.

Quadir checked into the game right before the 17-0 run started. SU trailed 23-16 when Quadir subbed in for Taylor at the 3 (the 5 guys on the floor were Sy, Joe, Quadir, Maliq and Jesse), and we immediately gave up a fast-break dunk against the press to fall behind by 9 points, at which point our run began. That fast-break dunk also prompted JB to insert Hima for Jesse, but that substitution didn’t happen until the next whistle (a goaltending call on a Symir layup to begin the run), so Hima entered the game with SU trailing 25-18.

Then we got a Girard steal and coast-to-coast layup, followed by back-to-back Girard 3s to give us our first lead of the game at 26-25. Next, we got a Joe iso/backdown/turnaround J to push the lead to 28-25 (a personal 10-0 run for Joe!).

Maliq kept the run going by dunking an offensive rebound after a missed Quadir layup, and the final basket of the run was a beautiful sequence: a Maliq steal, which led to a Quadir drive-and-kick to Joe for a 3-pt FG to complete the 17-0 run.

So Quadir, Sy, Maliq and Joe were on the floor for the entirety of the 17-0 run, and Hima was on the floor for 15 of those points. That lineup deserves a ton of credit for changing the game and putting us in a position to win.

 

[br801]

Quadir checked into the game right before the 17-0 run started. SU trailed 23-16 when Quadir subbed in for Taylor at the 3 (the 5 guys on the floor were Sy, Joe, Quadir, Maliq and Jesse), and we immediately gave up a fast-break dunk against the press to fall behind by 9 points, at which point our run began. That fast-break dunk also prompted JB to insert Hima for Jesse, but that substitution didn’t happen until the next whistle (a goaltending call on a Symir layup to begin the run), so Hima entered the game with SU trailing 25-18.

Then we got a Girard steal and coast-to-coast layup, followed by back-to-back Girard 3s to give us our first lead of the game at 26-25. Next, we got a Joe iso/backdown/turnaround J to push the lead to 28-25 (a personal 10-0 run for Joe!).

Maliq kept the run going by dunking an offensive rebound after a missed Quadir layup, and the final basket of the run was a beautiful sequence: a Maliq steal, which led to a Quadir drive-and-kick to Joe for a 3-pt FG to complete the 17-0 run.

So Quadir, Sy, Maliq and Joe were on the floor for the entirety of the 17-0 run, and Hima was on the floor for 15 of those points. That lineup deserves a ton of credit for changing the game and putting us in a position to win.

Wow, thanks. So it was essentially Joe with four reserves for the entire run.

 

[malpearl31]

Wow, thanks. So it was essentially Joe with four reserves for the entire run.

Yep, that’s how it happened.

Here’s something interesting about that lineup, stats-wise: Quadir (-2.2), Symir (-13.7) and Hima (-2.6) all ended up with negative BPM scores for the game… whereas Taylor - who played 5 mostly invisible minutes just prior to the big run - somehow ended up with a BPM of +11.4!