Highsmith
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,490
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Post by Highsmith on Mar 10, 2006 21:25:50 GMT -5
That was a complete and total choke job. Choked on free throws, choked on defending McNamara, choked on not calling a TO to set up a play to win the game instead of just driving mindlessly into nowhere, choked on not fouling immediately after the SU steal and the list goes on.
I am sure some people will disagree, but I think one of the biggest chokes goes to Coach. How do you not call a TO when you have about 10 seconds left and are down by one to set up a play to get a game-winner?? Maybe he tried and wasn't heard, maybe a player should have, but.......I don't know- I am SO frustrated and angry right now I could put a hole in the wall!!!!!!!!
I guess in the end, free throws were really a major downfall of this game......5-13 in the 2nd half (or worse) and 47% for the game. Some will blame it on tired legs and that whole lack of depth issue.....maybe it is, but I still don't buy that excuse. If McNamara can play 84 of 85 minutes with a bad groin coming into this game and make those 3's, then our guys ought to be able to make some %$@#ing free throws.
One more example of us not having that clutch go-to player.......after great 1st halves, Brandon and DJ disappeared in the 2nd half. Cook never really got things going. Jeff couldn't shoot straight the whole game and Roy was accurate from the floor, but only got 5 shots and then went 1-4 on FT.
How many random observations will I make in this posting?? I have no idea- this is what happens when we lose to SU......did I mention how frustrated and angry I am??
HOW DO YOU LET A 15 POINT LEAD GET AWAY THAT EASILY?!?!?!?!?
Well, now it is on to the NCAAs where we will likely get a 6-7 seed (I would guess?) and maybe win 1-2 games depending on matchups. As I said somewhere else on this board, this game was the season for me. The first SU win was great, but now I could care less. The Duke win put us firmly into the NCAAs, which is incredibly great, but right this minute I could care less (I will on Selection Sunday and after, though........). Villanova needs to crush Pitt tonight and then beat SU by 40 tomorrow. I won't be able to stand going to work for a week as it is. If they win the BET, I might as well just quit my job and move away. This game could have, for the first time in I don't know how many years, shut up all the SU fans around here once and for all and let us few GU fans around here remember what it was like "back in the day". I still feel that time is coming, but it should have come tonight and it didn't and I can't stand it.
Just when I think I can't hate Syracuse any more, this happens. "If hate were people, I'd be China."
OK, I am now entering that "mind numbing" stage, so I am done for now. Thanks for putting up with my rant-I am sure you will all have many rants of your own. Let it out and don't hold back. If some people are overly negative, they have a right- this is a game where you've got to let out all your frustrations. We know we have good, hard-working kids on this team. But we also have a right to be %$#@ing Editeded when things like this happen- I know I am and you should be too!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 10, 2006 21:29:19 GMT -5
that is if syracuse gets more money under the table to the refs for that game... Honestly. The refs weren't as bad as yesterday vs. Marquette, but 3 plays in my mind stick out that absolutely cost us: 1) 1st half: Brandon not getting to the FT line on an obvious shot attempt under the rim. 2) 1st half: Jeff not getting to the FT line on an obvious shot attempt close to the goal. 3) 2nd half: Nichols getting two FTs after Sapp strips him clean while still dribbling in the paint. Make no mistake about it. We lost the game tonight, and have no one but ourselves to blame. But I can't help but think about what would have happened had those calls (which are far easier to call than a charge/block) weren't 100% blown by the stripes.
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Highsmith
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,490
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Post by Highsmith on Mar 10, 2006 21:33:58 GMT -5
Refs don't cost ANY team a 15 POINT LEAD!!!! This game should not have been decided by 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 points. We should have been in control. We lost all sense of what we were doing at both ends of the floor in the 2nd half and could not make a free throw- that's why we lost. Don't stoop to the level of fans who always go to the refs when their team loses a close game. This game was lost by the Hoyas........they'll survive to fight another day, but this one stunk.
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Post by Pedro92 on Mar 10, 2006 21:41:48 GMT -5
I just got back from the Garden. What a total collapse. Our players checked out at halftime and spent the second half waiting to go to the after party or something. The number of times Green and Hibbie had post position and our guards either waited for Cuse to collapse or just ignored the post entirely absolutely killed me. If I yelled "In to Hibbie!" one more time I'd have no voice left.
If we don't shoot unconscious in the first half, Cuse wins by 20. And they deserved to.
It's this simple: We were out coached. We were out hustled. We were out classed. We played with zero urgency. We were out played. We lost to a better team with significantly less talent. And until we decide that every half is our last, we're out in the second round of the Dance.
It sure must be fun to be from Syracuse tonight. I hope our boys take the time to realize that they deserve nothing just because they shoot well for 20 minutes. What a shame. We just gave it away.
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Highsmith
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,490
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Post by Highsmith on Mar 10, 2006 21:44:17 GMT -5
I'm about an hour from Syracuse.....trust me, I'm not having any fun.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 10, 2006 21:45:01 GMT -5
Refs don't cost ANY team a 15 POINT LEAD!!!! This game should not have been decided by 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 points. We should have been in control. We lost all sense of what we were doing at both ends of the floor in the 2nd half and could not make a free throw- that's why we lost. Don't stoop to the level of fans who always go to the refs when their team loses a close game. This game was lost by the Hoyas........they'll survive to fight another day, but this one stunk. You probably missed the part about how I said "we have nobody but ourselves to blame." Despite getting no calls in the 1st half, we STILL managed to build a 15 point lead. And somehow, STILL managed to blow it due to our own mistakes. There are some games (like Duke) where you'd say "if we had to play that team 10 times, we'd win maybe 1 or 2 times." That is how Syracuse should feel about us. It shouldn't have even been close tonight.
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Highsmith
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,490
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Post by Highsmith on Mar 10, 2006 21:54:10 GMT -5
Refs don't cost ANY team a 15 POINT LEAD!!!! This game should not have been decided by 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 points. We should have been in control. We lost all sense of what we were doing at both ends of the floor in the 2nd half and could not make a free throw- that's why we lost. Don't stoop to the level of fans who always go to the refs when their team loses a close game. This game was lost by the Hoyas........they'll survive to fight another day, but this one stunk. You probably missed the part about how I said "we have nobody but ourselves to blame." Despite getting no calls in the 1st half, we STILL managed to build a 15 point lead. And somehow, STILL managed to blow it due to our own mistakes. There are some games (like Duke) where you'd say "if we had to play that team 10 times, we'd win maybe 1 or 2 times." That is how Syracuse should feel about us. It shouldn't have even been close tonight. My comment, although it was right after yours, wasn't really referring to your post. There were others that solely mentioned the refs and that was where my post was directed. I do agree that those 3 plays you mentioned were baffling.....I don't specifically remember the Green one, but the Bowman and Nichols ones blew me away. But, as we both said, they really shouldn't have mattered in the first place.
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Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 10, 2006 22:02:14 GMT -5
Agreed, Highsmith. I believe it was Green, but it may have been Roy (both myself and Buffalo commented about it a ton in HoyaChat earlier, he may be able to give you better details once he cools off a bit). But a potential 6 point swing (and 4 point swing if we just go 2-4 from the line)... in a game like tonight, it would've made a difference. Still doesn't excuse our FT shooting in the 2nd half, though.
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Post by Frank Black on Mar 10, 2006 22:06:43 GMT -5
It's this simple: We were out coached. We were out hustled. We were out classed. We played with zero urgency. We were out played. We lost to a better team with significantly less talent. You don't mean that. We are obviously superior to Syracuse, they just caught us with the deer in the headlights thing. But the first game is much more indicative than this one of the quality of the two teams. Syracuse will certainly not win a game in the NCAAs, I would bet my life on that. Its a bad team that has gotten extremely lucky 3 straight games. And Villanova will beat them by somewhere around 30 or 40 points. And it will be beautiful.
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Post by Pedro92 on Mar 10, 2006 22:20:42 GMT -5
What I meant was that we have more talent but lost to a better "team" tonight. And I believe it.
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Post by zdz on Mar 10, 2006 22:22:05 GMT -5
Forget the refs.Syracuse played 2 tough games including an overtime win. Fatigue had to have some effect on the players of both teams.I'm old enough to remember the Hoyas and their smothering full court trapping defense that just simply wore the opposition down. Instead of that.the Hoyas let Syacuse walk the ball down the floor all night giving them time to rest their weary legs. Then as another poster mentioned, they only had to play defense for 10 seconds when the Hoyas had the ball. Maybe fresh legs off the bench would put some needed spark in our defense and force a few needed turnovers. Did we have any fast break layups tonight off turnovers? Name one. Time to rethink not only our offense but time to rethink our defensive strategy. Hope it's not too late. Good luck the rest of the way.
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SFHoya99
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 17,791
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Post by SFHoya99 on Mar 10, 2006 22:22:07 GMT -5
Mapei, we run screens all the time. We generally don't curl as actively as most teams, but there are near constant screens.
Highsmith, great post.
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Post by jook97 on Mar 10, 2006 22:23:28 GMT -5
It is tough pill to swallow because of how we lost the game and what was at stake, but I agree with Frank. We just lost to a team that was on a roll and had that extra emotional edge. None of our players have been in this position before, the program will grow and learn. We played poorly down the stretch, but i dont think we played that differently from the way we usually play. We just missed a lot of free throws, which very clearly could be a fatigue thing.
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Post by theEDGEfactor on Mar 10, 2006 22:32:52 GMT -5
if we can can we talk as little as possible about this game... this game stings me to the core which i bet it does to the rest of us... lets move on and just await sunday at 5pm
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Post by jook97 on Mar 10, 2006 22:37:07 GMT -5
Agreed.
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McBricks
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
What Rocks.
Posts: 1,173
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Post by McBricks on Mar 10, 2006 22:46:51 GMT -5
It's been a long while since I felt this depressed after a game. Maybe 8 years or so. For a while during that period, any win was a good win as losses were pretty much expected. At halftime, I was already starting to think about the promise of this team and how nice it would be to finally win the BE. Obviously the team was doing the same thing in the lockeroom. Just once. Just once...
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Post by theEDGEfactor on Mar 10, 2006 22:52:51 GMT -5
McBricks u did the same thing... daydreamed in the game thinking about the BE champ game... wow atleast im not the only one in which it kills me even more that we wasted this trip somewhat to lose like we did
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YB
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,494
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Post by YB on Mar 10, 2006 23:02:27 GMT -5
I have 2 reactions to this game, so please indulge me. Heart: "HOW COULD YOU? ?? You're on national TV, SU is on the ropes with a 15 point deficit, And you come out with no focus, no fire, they have ONE DAMN PLAYER and we can't get a hand in his face? ? You don't deserve to be in the Dance. Blew this game, no excuses." Head: "We looked really tired and did lots of things we don't normally do- miss lots of FTs, TOs, etc. In a precision offense we need to be sharp and second half we were not. Not playing tomorrow when we would certainly lose might be a blessing in disguise. Take away the shame of losing to this crappy SU team, and maybe this fires them up in the dance, where they will almost certainly have a 6 seed". Whew. Got that off my chest. Thanks. I HATE SU- but we blew this one, gave it away for whatever reasons, and were clearly outc oached in the end.
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Just Cos
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Eat 'em up Hoyas
Posts: 1,507
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Post by Just Cos on Mar 10, 2006 23:41:02 GMT -5
This loss was tough. The only thing keeping me from a deep state of depression that will last until Sunday is this thought:
"This team has already outperformed your expectations."
Shut up brain! At least we have probably seen the last of the Rat.
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SaxaCD
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,402
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Post by SaxaCD on Mar 10, 2006 23:55:56 GMT -5
What I meant was that we have more talent but lost to a better "team" tonight. And I believe it. I don't. We assisted on lots of baskets. We played good team defense for large stretches of the game (until the team decided they didn't have to check out McNamara anymore, for some bizarre reason). We lost to a team that was handed gifts again and again that they usually squandered, but then ended up winning when our gift-giving became even too much for Syracuse to overcome with shoddy play. Lots of bad stuff in the second half, but the game was clearly lost on the foul line. That's the only place the other team doesn't matter, and can't do anything about. Hoyas TCB from there, and it's a 5 or 6 point win.
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