mapei
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,088
|
Post by mapei on Mar 7, 2012 17:25:30 GMT -5
Henry was a beast today, freaking dominant, absolutely refusing to lose. Surprised not to see more love for him here.
|
|
prhoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 23,291
|
Post by prhoya on Mar 7, 2012 17:25:38 GMT -5
I had to record the game to watch it later, but the boxscore is amazing. Henry and Otto were monsters!!!!!! Great job by Greg too! Hollis is coming back. The scouts will not ignore so many of these performances. JT3 used a six-man rotation.
|
|
|
Post by unclebeets on Mar 7, 2012 17:55:04 GMT -5
Might be the best all around performance of Henry's career. Otto's mid-range game is a rare animal these days -- he and Whitt were very solid. Which is fortunate because Hollis and Jason were off-kilter. They absolutely have to show up against Cinn. -- they shouldn't count on Henry getting that many looks against that defense.
I thought Pitt gradually lost their legs after about the first 10 minutes of the game -- they were fouling all over the place in the second half. Hopefully we have better luck with that tomorrow.
|
|
Eurostar
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,094
|
Post by Eurostar on Mar 7, 2012 18:23:58 GMT -5
This was a very encouraging game. For me, there has been a noticeable difference in the games we win and those we lose. If we are making tons of simultaneous cuts on the offensive end it really throws the defense off and someone gets open. When we do the more mechanical one cut at a time offense, we lose. Today I thought for the last 3/4 of the game we were VERY active on offense as far as cutting. Although we got very few backdoors, when we are more active and less station to station we can put points on the board.
|
|
skyhoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,496
|
Post by skyhoya on Mar 7, 2012 18:37:05 GMT -5
first win on the revenge tour
|
|
DoctorHoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,544
|
Post by DoctorHoya on Mar 7, 2012 18:54:12 GMT -5
I didn't get a chance to watch the game yet but saw an earlier post about Whit.. was he hurt?
|
|
GPHoya
Bulldog (over 250 posts)
Posts: 466
|
Post by GPHoya on Mar 7, 2012 18:55:06 GMT -5
JT III is criticized fairly for not making adjustments to other teams and simply coaching his team to execute. Of course, the same criticism could have been levied fairly against John Wooden, but he had a different talent level to coach.
Today, we were ready with a solid game plan designed for Pitt and made excellent adjustments. The commitment to the 2-3 zone as the primary defense was sound and our defensive rebounding out of the 2-3 was outstanding.
On offense, the adjustment near the end of the first half to go to a 1-4 set and let our wings isolate smaller defenders down low was brilliant and changed the entire dynamic of the game. Starting Whittington to begin the second half signalled that we were playing to win this game and not just develop the team and players for the season (a defensible approach to the regular season).
A very encouraging game for which our Coach deserves a lot of the credit.
Keep it going.
|
|
EasyEd
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 7,272
|
Post by EasyEd on Mar 7, 2012 19:29:38 GMT -5
Echo GP. III did an excellent coaching job today. And Henry was determined we were not going to lose this game. He was a man possessed. Another really sub-par game for Jason; it looked like he was just pressing too much on offense and put up too many bad shots. Otto: what can I say that has not already been said? Same for Whitt.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 7, 2012 19:45:22 GMT -5
When Henry is a force on both ends of the floor like he was today, we are going to be a really tough out. On offense, once he scored a few buckets, Pitt had to respect his post moves and it really opened up the lanes for cutters as well as the perimeter for some open 3's. On defense, Henry's D allowed our zone to push out, which made getting open looks a living hell for Gibbs and Woodall. Great game by him.
Otto Porter. Looks like the guy was Editeded at not making the All-BE rookie team, huh? Also played great on both ends. He played the game we expected from Hollis Thompson. It's a good thing, because Hollis played the game we would've expected from a scared freshman. If Otto can continue to figure out a way to draw fouls using shot fakes to draw contact from defenders, he's going to be near unstoppable... now.
Hope Greg is OK. Looks like he turned an ankle late in the game. Turned in a solid performance. Between Henry, Greg and Otto, we really hit the boards hard today, and it was the difference in the game (difference in second chance points).
I thought the much maligned Markel Starks had a much better 2nd half after making a few bad mistakes in the 1st. Made a couple hustle plays/steals that kept Pitt at bay. Hope he can continue to turn it around.
Thing that need to be cleaned up by tomorrow: FT shooting, obviously, is still a huge weakness. Leaving way too many points at the line, and it will come back to bite us in a closer game. Also, STOP FOULING JUMP SHOOTERS! We did this at least 3-4 times today. We win by 20 today just by making proper close-outs instead of committing stupid fouls by recklessly flying by and jumping at pump fakes.
Good start, boys. Let's keep this ball rolling tomorrow. The revenge tour is underway.
|
|
richfame
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,266
|
Post by richfame on Mar 7, 2012 19:45:58 GMT -5
Henry was a beast today, freaking dominant, absolutely refusing to lose. Surprised not to see more love for him here. In Henrys first three years I think I was very very critical of him even sometimes mean. That being said, before this season started I thought he was the x factor, as henry went so did the hoyas. I have to say Henry was the key to todays win. Come 2nd half, we made such an effort to go inside and run the offense more thru Henry. Henry was sharp today, mean today, finished well, he was absolutely a beast!! Yes Porter has gotten even better he now is more comfortable with his 3 point shot, but that beign said it was Herny that had the best game. My hat off to you Sir.
|
|
guru
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 6,600
|
Post by guru on Mar 7, 2012 19:49:04 GMT -5
Yes!!!!
|
|
swhoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,137
|
Post by swhoya on Mar 7, 2012 19:59:49 GMT -5
This was a very encouraging game. For me, there has been a noticeable difference in the games we win and those we lose. If we are making tons of simultaneous cuts on the offensive end it really throws the defense off and someone gets open. When we do the more mechanical one cut at a time offense, we lose. Today I thought for the last 3/4 of the game we were VERY active on offense as far as cutting. Although we got very few backdoors, when we are more active and less station to station we can put points on the board. Also a noticeable difference has been, you know, the score. Someone else commented on Otto's 3 point shot. Good grief he's gonna be a monster if he develops a decent 3 point shot to compliment his inside game and mid-range jumper. Doesn't have to be as good as Hollis' (or as good as GW's is going to be...) but if he has just that one more way to hurt you... Just a passing thought and WAAAAY ahead of ourselves, but wouldn't it be great to have Otto win MVP honors after the snub?
|
|
chep3
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,314
|
Post by chep3 on Mar 7, 2012 20:06:42 GMT -5
JT III is criticized fairly for not making adjustments to other teams and simply coaching his team to execute. Of course, the same criticism could have been levied fairly against John Wooden, but he had a different talent level to coach. Today, we were ready with a solid game plan designed for Pitt and made excellent adjustments. The commitment to the 2-3 zone as the primary defense was sound and our defensive rebounding out of the 2-3 was outstanding. On offense, the adjustment near the end of the first half to go to a 1-4 set and let our wings isolate smaller defenders down low was brilliant and changed the entire dynamic of the game. Starting Whittington to begin the second half signalled that we were playing to win this game and not just develop the team and players for the season (a defensible approach to the regular season). A very encouraging game for which our Coach deserves a lot of the credit. Keep it going. I particularly liked adjustments to our 2-3. Pitt carved up our 2-3 earlier this year, and they had a lot of success against Cuse's too. Robinson's a good player for flashing at the FT line, and the Pitt squad can pass the ball. By having the weakside wing track him into the paint, we cut off that easy entry pass without sacrificing a lot because no one wants to throw that skip pass across Greg, Henry, and Otto. That was a really interesting quirk that worked well. The other thing that I thought worked well was having the strongside wing in the zone move up to the elbow extended to show against the shooter before passing him back off once the guard recovered. That cut down on the looks from outside Pitt was getting and really stymied their offense. Pitt was a little stagnant on this (and probably could have hurt us on the baseline more), but this was another nice adjustment. Our zone is already very good, and if we're able to tweak it this effectively based on the opponent, it may become ludicrously good.
|
|
EasyEd
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 7,272
|
Post by EasyEd on Mar 7, 2012 20:12:50 GMT -5
Loved we contained Nasir today.
|
|
|
Post by NoBoumtjeInTheYaYaRoom on Mar 7, 2012 20:13:52 GMT -5
Hollis had a statistically poor game today, but the attraction he receives defensively directly leads to Greg and Otto's open shots. There were numerous times against the Pitt zone that they closed out on Hollis before he even got the ball. This led to Otto and Greg having wide open looks because the defense's key on Hollis led to slow rotation of the zone. I love that Hollis didn't force anything and allowed the ball to find the open man. On a negative note, Hollis must polish his back to the basket game. When he has a much shorter defender on him a fade away jumper should never be the result as it was 3 times today.
Pitt did not take many risks at the top of the zone which limited Jason's penetration. Tomorrow against Cinci, a team that gambles a lot up top, he must make them pay by taking the ball strong to the tin and finish or kick.
|
|
|
Post by BubbleVisionBiff on Mar 7, 2012 21:07:52 GMT -5
Henry was a beast today, freaking dominant, absolutely refusing to lose. Surprised not to see more love for him here. Especially given how he played in his last BET game. Ferocious today. Loved to see the quick moves on the block after backing his man down.
|
|
|
Post by BubbleVisionBiff on Mar 7, 2012 21:09:25 GMT -5
The other thing that I thought worked well was having the strongside wing in the zone move up to the elbow extended to show against the shooter before passing him back off once the guard recovered. That cut down on the looks from outside Pitt was getting and really stymied their offense. Pitt was a little stagnant on this (and probably could have hurt us on the baseline more), but this was another nice adjustment. Our zone is already very good, and if we're able to tweak it this effectively based on the opponent, it may become ludicrously good. I haven't always been a fan of that this year, but it sure worked today. It almost looked like we could have trapped out of it a few times if we wanted.
|
|
Filo
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,908
|
Post by Filo on Mar 7, 2012 21:10:23 GMT -5
Great job, Hoyas.
Nothing sweeter than making sure Pitt doesn't get into post-season play. Let's see Dixon try the negative recruiting thing after this season.
Let's take care of the Bearcats!
|
|
MCIGuy
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Anyone here? What am I supposed to update?
Posts: 9,425
|
Post by MCIGuy on Mar 7, 2012 21:44:13 GMT -5
To win that game rather comfortably when basically only three players contribute in a very positive manner is impressive. Stunning actually. The good of that is to indicate how versatile and deep the team is to for them to win in the BET despite Jason and Hollis having such subpar games. The bad to take away is that the team is still not firing on all cylinders and it can't afford such disappointing performances from so many key players the rest of the way. If the team ever put it together in that they key six to seven guys were playing well (not great, just well) at the same time the Hoyas could go very deep in March. Still waiting for this.
|
|
Highsmith
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,490
|
Post by Highsmith on Mar 7, 2012 21:54:55 GMT -5
Great win and fantastic game by Henry/Otto/Greg--need everyone to show up the rest of the way and hope Greg's ankle is OK. Beat those Bearcats!!!
|
|