The Upside

[SWC75]

- Ho hum. Another game against a good opponent. Another 80-61 win. It was replay of the Bucknell game, including the run at the end of the half to give us the big lead so we could coast safely through the second half, leading to a climatic three pointer from Matt Tomaszewski, who is now 7 for 7 in his career. As Matt Park pointed out, it’s one thing to hit several in a row in a game. But Matt, (why do I want to call him Zach?), takes one every couple of weeks and doesn’t miss.

- How many teams in the country have 20+ to 0 runs? We held NC State scoreless for 6 minutes and 49 seconds and turned a 23-29 game into a 46-29 game. We held Tulane scoreless for 8 minutes and 56 seconds and turned a 22-19 game into a 42-19 game.

- It was a game of spectacular plays- and one spectacular fail. Dion Waiters made a swooping-twisting lay-up and wound up on the seat of his pants. Michael Carter-Williams grabbed an offensive rebound, dribbled out front and immediately headed back down the lane for a successful floater. Waiters hit Williams with a no-look, behind the back pass on the break. MCW caught the pass and went up for the dunk. I have a habit of closing my eyes when I jump up in celebration of a great play. When I opened my eyes, I was amazed to see that the scoreboard still had us at 59 points. Michael had blown the shot after a great pass!. I loved his poised reaction in the post game interview: “I’ll get the next one.” Then there was James Southerland’s bend-over-backwards rebound and follow shot.

- We continue to shoot the lights out: 29 for 63 from three, (46.0%). We are also 34 for 43 from the line in the last two games, (79.1%).

- We are 13 games in and James Southerland hasn’t turned into a pumpkin yet. He was 4 for 5 from the field, again played a role in the big run, and had 10 points, 5 rebounds and four blocks.

- Rakeem Christmas (15 minutes) and Michael Carter-Williams, (18 minutes) both again had substantial minutes and made them productive. They aren’t going to disappear from the rotation next week when the real season begins.

- I’ve always said that if 1-2 players play well, we’ll lose. If 3-4 players play well, we probably win. If 5-6 players play well, your door are coming off. If we have 6-7 guys who can play, figure the odds of each result. Now figure it out with 10 guys.

- Dion Waiters looked pretty happy, especially in the post game interviews on Orange All-Access. You want chemistry? Look at Mookie smiling and laughing in the background, even though he didn’t play. Then look at Kris Joseph coming over to shake Matt Tomaszewski while he’s being interviewed. The kids are having a Merry Christmas, indeed.

 

[bballbeadle]

- Dion Waiters looked pretty happy, especially in the post game interviews on Orange All-Access. You want chemistry? Look at Mookie smiling and laughing in the background, even though he didn’t play. Then look at Kris Joseph coming over to shake Matt Tomaszewski while he’s being interviewed. The kids are having a Merry Christmas, indeed.

I posted this before but can't stop thinking about it. Dion's enthusiasm on the bench last night was absolutely contagious. For every single player to be joyful about their teammates' great plays is such a lift. When one or two mope, it brings down the energy level for everyone. I believe this all started with Scoop in MSG. What an example for our team! And did Boeheim notice? Oh, yes, indeed!

 

[arbitragegls]

...and yes it was good Dion...dont forget the moping the Tuesday before...Dion needs to be the way he was tonight thru all games...as does all our other top 10 players and the walk-ons

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Fwiw I was told that Dion took it upon himself this summer to get some assistance in helping change his attitude. If true, even more kudos to him.

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk

 

[pfister1]

...and yes it was good Dion...dont forget the moping the Tuesday before...Dion needs to be the way he was tonight thru all games...as does all our other top 10 players and the walk-ons

I hate when the board over analyzes one interchange between coach and player or one evening of apparent moping; who knows what was going on maybe he failed one of his mid terms earlier in the day, his girlfriend broke up with him, his pick up broke down or his dog died......we really have no idea what is going on with these kids and to over analyze what we think we see going on on the sidelines is oftentimes foolhardy. Most people here don't even do a decent job of analyzing the in game action, much less the off court psychology of the players and coaches.

 

[OttoMets]

After all the talk about Dion after Bucknell (of which I witnessed very little) I focused on his bench behavior last night. Dion looked to be having a better time than anyone else in the building. Great to see. He's got ten great examples in his teammates (more or less), so I'm glad he's having a good time and hope he keeps it up - even when he's committing one-on-three turnovers and missing shots.

I also enjoyed Kris's brief sprint down the scorer's table as the walk-ons were checking in, pretending to sub in for one last time, then jogging back to the bench.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Dion's "moping" on Tuesday was extremely overblown by posters here. The entire team was tired on Tuesday, JB even said so. I studied the bench on every possession after Dion was taken out, nobody cheers. Even on nice or exciting plays, nobody on the bench moves a muscle. They got excited for two events; MCW's dunk and MT's 3. For the dunk, Dion was moving seats on the bench because 4-5 walk ons were heading to the scorers table. Thus he had his back turned and did not see any of the play. On MT's 3, Dion stays seated but gives a strong two armed fist pump.

He was fine. Don't invent drama.