Hoyas @ Notre Dame Post-Game Discussion

[DanMcQ]

Free throws.

[SirSaxa]

Jan 5, 2009 20:58:54 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

Free throws.

and 4/18 from deep

But at least we won the rebound battle

[saxamaphone]

Jan 5, 2009 20:58:54 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

Free throws.

No legs tonight. Poor shooting all around. Ugh.

Also, Greg may not be an ambiturner.

[The Stig]

We left our shooting in Hartford.

[HoyasAreHungry]

insert 800 curse words here.

[moe09]

At least we know Henry can play.

[AltoSaxa]

Flat like day old diet coke .... without the cap

[tal1286]

I really just don't think we played that well.

another day...

[hoyarooter]

This is a game we should have won, pure and simple. Poor shooting from outside, countless missed easy layups (I'm not talking hotly contested layups, but open layups) and nine missed free throws (while Notre Dame missed one, from an unlikely source, no less). Perhaps the fear we expressed about the Saturday/Monday turnaround into a road game did us in. This hurts far more than Pitt, as we really should have won tonight.

[Just Cos]

looked tired today

1-2 to start...what I was expecting so not going to get too upset

[tashoya]

Awful. Freethrows=horrible. All over the place on D... great defensive stand followed by something completely different. And what the heck got into Summers? Would rather have had Sims in all game. DS was a flat-out liability on both ends all night.

And a question for the board: with Greg's inside passing ability (specifically, that one wrap-around pass under the basket to DS), why don't we do more of that? Pass it in low and shovel it?

ND shouldn't be able to hold our jocks. McAlarney is ridiculous. What other guys would have commentators going on ad infinitum about "poor shot selection," that kid drains. And I'd rather have had DS on Harangody. Also, why didn't Greg drive more than he did? I get that Gody was giving him space because he was afraid of getting blown by but I think that's still available to Greg even with the space. Even if it's not, it leaves an open shooter. In other words, have Greg drive, not Chris.

Anyway... disappointing showing all around.

[tashoya]

Thank goodness we found a worse rebounding team in the Big East. Silver lining and all.

[RockawayHoya]

9 for 27 (3 of 13 from 3) from Wright, Sapp and Freeman. Same 3 guys went 4 for 22 against Pitt. Can't win too many games when you have a collective no-show from your backcourt. 13 for 49 (26.5%) over the course of 2 games is atrocious. System, strategy, whatever. As Bilas said, at some point, you just got to knock down shots.

4 of 19 as a team from 3. 13 of 22 (59%) from the line. Yes, ND shot out of control from the line (freakishly good), but we shoot our percentage for the year and we're talking about some possessions late to tie the game. 59% is unacceptable.

Encouraging performances tonight from both Vaughn and Sims. Vaughn grabbed several rebounds clean in the second half, and Sims gave us strong minutes while Dajuan was in foul trouble in the 1st half. If there was anything positive to take from tonight's game (aside from Monroe's competitive fire even as we faced big deficits late), it was the performance from these 2 guys.

Losing to Pitt was not disappointing. They were clearly better than us and beat us fair and square. But seeing that game tonight: we played about as poorly as we have played all year on both sides of the ball, got jobbed on countless calls in the last 10 minutes of the game, were on the road, and STILL only lost by 6. Normal circumstances with a normal level of execution, we beat that team easy by 15. That's what makes this loss so devastating.

[gojeffgoroyunder7]

To me, this loss is sad because the whole time I was thinking--come on guys, you ARE the better team. I still believe we are a better team. It's funny... this board worried/discussed the possibility of Greg Monroe not having the fire that great players have. Well, I think it's pretty obvious that Greg Monroe has more fire than almost all of our players (Summers, Wright). He played so hard and tried to will our team to victory.

We can discuss free throws forever. Whatever. We had a bad night at the line. What I really cant live with is the complete absence of Austin Freeman. I love Austin's game. He is smart, tough, and he is a winner. But he is playing really poorly as of late (well, the last 2 games). With no real potent scoring option off the bench, we cant have many nights where austin scores so few points and chris is cold. I am going to cut chris some slack...he did take a lot of tough shots, and like greg, tried to will us to victory. I love his edge. With Chris as our PG, the hoyas are in good hands. He is a winner.

We need Austin to wake up and find his shot again. Our offense relies on hitting these wide open shots. I will take 1-2, although I truly believe we should have been 2-1. We are a much better team than ND. Let's learn from this. I know we will likely not go undefeated the rest of the way in the BE, but we can all agree that each game we have left is extremely winnable. Austin....we need you.

[SirSaxa]

Positives
Rebounds
24 minutes for Clark
14 minutes for Sims
For a few, brief minutes, we had Monroe, Summers and Sims in together... need to see that more.
the 2007 Final Four Team? Also lost 2 of first 3 BE games

This team is going to build and improve.
Monroe looked GREAT tonigh 21 pts and 10 boards, 3 dimes, 2 seals
Jessie was 2-5 from Three
Bench... 10 pts and 8 boards

LET'S GO HOYAS!

THIS SEASON is just getting started, team is improving.

[geedell]

We just didn't play well. Missed free throws, missed open shots, a lot of wide-open Notre Dame shooters. Five days will do us some good.

[sleepy]

Unfortunatly this was exactly what I expected. Chris and Austin let the Pitt game affect the way the played this game and their confidence was obviously down. We had yet to face Notre Dame without Hibbert, who was the main reason we have played so well against them the last couple years. Add to the fact they were home and everything was falling for them and I didn't see us winning this game.
On the bright side, the team kept running their stuff down 13 with 4 minutes and was almost able to turn it around, still need time though. Even though this was against a much inferior opponent, I feel much better about this loss than the Pitt loss. Just the way reacted as a whole was much better, and we kept our heads up. Sapp seemed to start breaking out of his slump. The bench looked much improved, though the the starters outside of Monroe played poorly.
In the end this game was lossed on the freethrow line.
I now fully expect a total board meltdown and people wanting JTIII fired.

[HoyasAreHungry]

we missed shots...they were lights out...simple as that.....hard to beat a team not missing from three when you can't even make a free throw. rest up come out hard against Providence and blow them out

[hoyaboy1]

Losing at ND is OK - they aren't a great team but they are still tough to be at home. What isn't OK is playing like total crap and losing to ND when they aren't playing well. Gotta take advantage of situations like that.

[757hoyafan]

pretty much

Jan 5, 2009 20:58:54 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

Free throws.