If this team has one weakness...

[trent]

I believe it's lack of depth. I think our starting 5 can handle just about anyone in the country, but when we go to the bench, it seems to throw us out of rhythm a bit. We've been doing a great job of avoiding foul trouble lately but sooner or later a team is going to force us to go to the bench early and often and I lose some confidence when we do.

I kept seeing it last night... when our starting 5 was on the court together it was an absolute mismatch- we were smoking WVU in every respect. However, Rivers and Macklin's lack of experience with the offense seems to throw us out of wack a bit and could become a serious issue in a closer game. I don't want to be harsh on these 2 because they are both playing hard and well, but the bottom line is they are freshman and don't know the offense very well yet- a fact other teams will exploit when they are on the floor.

My point here is as much a praise of the cohesiveness of the starting 5 as it is an indictment of our bench. Just pointing out a potential weakness.

On the flip side, it seems like when we lost Egerson, the rest of the team settled very nicely into their roles, doesn't it? I just wish Rivers and Macklin understood the offense as well as they understood their roles.

[kchoya]

I think we do OK when the backups come in, it's just that the starting five is so efficient, that it seems like the bench players aren't doing that well.

[Filo]

I am not as concerned as I was just a month ago. I think we definitely miss Roy when he goes out, esp. on the defensive end. But I thought the team did a decent job without him for some stretches last night. I posted this last night -- I remember noting that the 3 freshmen, Sapp and Green were in there for a stretch and held their own.

[williambraskyiii]

I think Rivers understands the offense quite well...he has been extremely impressive when facing press, pushing the ball up etc...when he attempts dribble penetration he is shaky and obviously his jumpshot needs work. but i think it would be a mischaracterization to say he looks even remotely lost out on the court...if i remember correctly, he played a type of motion O in hs

mack is picking it up quite nicely - he made a great backdoor pass to pat late in the game. he just needs to get more aggressive down on the blocks and work on his positioning.

i think our biggest problem outside of our starting 5 is that when roy or jeff or jon gets saddled with foul trouble, then our lack of a confident scorer is magnified. but um, i think that applies to just about every team in the country. so i am not going to worry about it. i have the utmost confidence in the 3 juniors that they will pick it up if one of them goes down...

[Loyal Hoya]

I agree with both mj AND kc. Our bench may be stronger than those of other teams, but relative to our own team, our bench is not one of our strengths. To put it like an SFS'er, we may have the absolute advantage in bench play, but we don't have the comparitive advantage ion bench play.

[Loyal Hoya]

Here's what I said on this subject last night in the post-game discussion:

I like our bench, and I am happy that they have been getting some PT (and that our starters are getting some rest). Still, I think we play significantly better when we have four or five of our starters on the floor. All five of our starters are scoring threats. When they are on the floor together they are really hard to defend.

We lose something when two or more of our bench players are on the floor. Tyler and PE, Jr. can both score, but they have not done so consistently or reliably. They are energy players who offer defense, rebounding, and hard cuts. Rivers is a good ball handler, but he can't shoot. Macklin gets some offensive put backs and has a lot of potential. They are all good role players, and any one of them is great when we have four starters on the floor, but I don't really see them as a key to our success and wouldn't say that we can claim to have a "deep, deep" bench at this point.

Don't get me wrong I think the Hoyas are playing beautiful basketball, and JTIII has done a great job getting the bench time without disrupting the offensive flow.

[JimmyHoya]

I think another "weakness" would be we havent had any close hard fought wins. Few games, both wins and losses, have come down the final possession. I hope for a game that comes down to the wire whether we win or lose just to show the team and the leaders what must be done before the BET/NCAA's

[TBird41]

jimmyhoya said:

I think another "weakness" would be we havent had any close hard fought wins. Few games, both wins and losses, have come down the final possession. I hope for a game that comes down to the wire whether we win or lose just to show the team and the leaders what must be done before the BET/NCAA's

Final possession, no, but Nova was pretty darn close.

[aggypryd]

Jeremiah needs to get in the gym and work on that 'J'...

He's going to be very hard to guard if he starts poppin' from the outside.

I like his game.

[DoubleOhHoya]

Turnovers, people, turnovers! They've done better, but not good enough. I want TOs down to single digits in every game.

[kchoya]

aggypryd said:

Jeremiah needs to get in the gym and work on that 'J'...

He's going to be very hard to guard if he starts poppin' from the outside.

I like his game.

I've always liked that he's a big guard, but I've noticed, especially last night, he's pretty fast too. There were several instances where he sped up court only to have to slow down and wait for the offense to set up.

[aggypryd]

kchoya said:

aggypryd said:

Jeremiah needs to get in the gym and work on that 'J'...

He's going to be very hard to guard if he starts poppin' from the outside.

I like his game.

I've always liked that he's a big guard, but I've noticed, especially last night, he's pretty fast too. There were several instances where he sped up court only to have to slow down and wait for the offense to set up.

He has a very solid game...nothing flashy...

Gotta take care of the ball better, but I like our backcourt over the next few years.

[HoyaFanNY]

imo, we still give up too many offensive boards, mostly when we play zone, and still show signs of being the sloppy team with the ball that we were earlier in the season, although we have improved greatly.

[RockawayHoya]

Depth is no way our weakness (or weakest area). This is a team that played predominantly 6 guys last year. Now we play 8-9 routinely, and everyone in the regular rotation has the potential to contribute.

I agree with HoyaFanNY that our weakness is defensive rebounding. It was basically the only way Marquette scored at all in the 1st half last Saturday. Turnovers still could be improved, but our ability to take care of the ball has come a long way since early January when we were giving it up over 20 times to Nova.

[HoyaDestroya]

giving up second chance points...

[mapei]

defensive rebounding and turnovers. I'm OK with our bench - they aren't as good as the starters, but whose bench is (OK, UNC maybe)? But even last night when we had a decisive advantage in just about every category, there were too many times when we gave up a steal, or some WV player would tip a rebound out to a teammate.

Minor complaints in context - I didn't think we could be this good.

[DrumsGoBang]

The teams weekness is radiation.

[lichoya68]

AGREe depth a problem but i think its mainly guard depth love tyler but he aint a quard.. jesse jon and jerimiah and he aint the greatest shotter so far from out side or the foul line sooooooooooooo wish we had eggie our trouble will be if quards get in early foul trouble depth up front aint such a problem go hoyas beat nova ;D ;D

[HoyaSinceBirth]

If this team has one weakness it's bullets.

[Boz]

The color yellow?

Nah, we smoked Marquette and West Virginia.

(And it's definitely not the color orange.)

I believe Rivers has a nice game and a good future as a Hoya. A lot to ask of any freshman to come in and manage this offense, but I think he's been getting better & will continue o do so. We are lucky to have a PG like Wallace starting.

But the Hoyas'll need Rivers to have a good game against 'Nova. I see no reason why they won't try to play the same game they played against us last time. Wallace will need some help, so I hope Jeremiah can step up. We'll need it.