Ugly Start to the JTIII Era

[Deleted]

ALthough it sounds like Hibbert was pretty solid. Reports from the chat room sound like Green and Hibbs showed up, but that's it.

FOR ALL CURRENT GU STUDENTS: Please keep an eye on GUHoya2007... I don't want him harming himself in anyway.

Let's remember one thing, people: PATIENCE. Let's judge this team at the END of the season, not now.

Can someone who was there post on the student section AND overall attendance?

GO HOYAS!!!

[aussiehoya]

call me a giant loser, but i'm kinda excited to see our freshmen rebound totals...
i'm actually serious btw.

[1803]

I was in the chat room, and I did not have the radio, so I am going on the info I got from those who were listening.

It seems to me that our only success was inside to Hibbert, and that Bowman had a tough night from the field. I grew up outside of Philadelphia, and I have watched a lot of Temple basketball over the years. They make everyone look bad, even in the games they lose. When they make some shots the way they did tonight you are not going to beat them.

I am not saying that we played well, the score obviously says otherwise, but the matchup zone is unlike anything we are going to see for the rest of the year, and hopefully our results will be much better. I am expecting big things out of Bowman, and a bad offensive night against Temple is certainly not going to change that.

[HoyaLawya]

Would like a report from somebody who was at the game about how the passing and cutting and general offensive scheme looked. As well as D.

sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200411220229

[nodak89]

I was definitely very excited to hear about Big Roy coming up huge!!! He just solidified his spot as my favorite Hoya.

It was very frustrating to hear three after three after three being rained on us and our missing three after three after three.

I kinda wish we had the Citadel first before facing a legit opponent with a new coach and new system.

GO HOYAS!!! GO BIG ROY!!!

[Big Dog]

Second hand info from somebody who was there describes a tightly packed Temple zone and a frustrating inability to hit outside shots. They'll see a lot of this.

Growing pains.

The nice thing about this is that in a rebuilding season like this, the only things that really matter are the conference games. Hence, this is an excellent tune up. Its refreshing to really have a sense of where we stand after just one game rather than some false optimism based on walloping some peon school.

Now, if we were preseason number 5, it might be nice to play a cupcake off the bat.

[DFW HOYA]

AP story:
sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/recap?gid=200411220229&prov=ap

[FLHoya]

HoyaLawya said:

Would like a report from somebody who was at the game about how the passing and cutting and general offensive scheme looked. As well as D.

I'm going to try...a brief scan of what's been written here appears to confirm many of the same things I saw.

Thanks for the box score link, I use those things to remember stuff when I recap.

[Nevada Hoya]

Interested to see that the Hoyas' last opening game home loss was at the hands of Temple by 16 in JT's last season. There is a certain symmetry in this, so expect JTIII to win a lot of games from now on.

[jerseyhoya34]

FLHoya said:

I'm going to try...a brief scan of what's been written here appears to confirm many of the same things I saw.

Thanks for the box score link, I use those things to remember stuff when I recap.

I'll try my best to fill in any cracks in the recap.

[JimmyHoya]

The Good:

- Jeff Green - Wow, what atheleticism! All we gotta do is get him to dunk the ball when he's in close instead of trying to finese it like he was tonight and we've got 8 more on the board. He could be very, very good one day if he keeps at it

- Hibbs - I'll admit, I went to the open practice and spent more time laughing at him then actually watching Thompson coach. But y'know what? If the guy bulks up a bit, there is no stopping him in tonight's ball game. That, and he needs to work on where he sets up...sometimes he'd back down from the top of the key, other times from behind the backboard. But overall a really stellar effort considering the situation. And goddamn, those are some long arms.

- The offense - yeah, it wasn't perfect, but that was more of an offensive flow than I've seen in 2 years combined.

The Bad:

- Shot clock awareness - half dozen times they essentially gave possesions away because they were unaware of the shot clock

- Ray Reed - STOP DRIBBLING AND PASS THE BALL

- WHere were Guibunda? Diaw? Kenny Izzo!?! We desperately needed big men and htey wer eno where to be found. What gives? The last 10 minutes could have been a perfect teaching opportunity for them! Tyler Crawford's development is important--but so is the other's!

Overall, I was pretty pleased. Can't really complain, it was more than a valiant effort for the first time against a wacky defense like Temple's.

[Rockycat]

Just returned from the game. I'll leave the stat analysis to others. There seems to be good chemistry on this team among players and with the coaching staff. Hibbert and Green are aggressive and play with intensity. Who knows what combination will work for the others. JTIII played almost everyone and each got a good look. Bowman was off, forcing shots. Wallace, Cook and Reed seemed to be playing hard, as were the others. Temple was HUGE and was hitting shots. There is no need for discouragement at this point. Quite the contrary, if our guys can keep working and get more games under their belt, they will scare some teams. The buzz on the Metro was positive, especially as it relates to Hibbert. KUDOS to Hoya2007 for the shirts. A sea of blue and grey. Let's stay positive.

[Joe Hoya]

About the "passing and cutting" that was expected, I didn't see any cutting for the first 17 minutes of the first half. Just four guys standing around the perimeter and Roy Hibbert or Jeff Green running back and forth across the paint. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

The highlight, for me (aside from Jeff Green's ferocious block that knocked a Temple player to the floor), was when a Temple player stole the ball with about 15 seconds left and passed to a teammate headed to the hoop instead of running out the clock. As the player wnet up for a layup, Roy Hibbert fouled him relatively hard (he's no Ron Artest, but still, a solid foul). Then, he just looked at the Temple guy like, "I'm not having that". When a team does something like that instead of running the clock out, you have to make them regret it. Kudos to Roy. I wish somebody else would have stepped up and showed some emotion tonight.

[Joe Hoya]

rockycat said:

Bowman was off, forcing shots.

In that respect, he's in mid-season form.

[jerseyhoya34]

Joe said:

About the "passing and cutting" that was expected, I didn't see any cutting for the first 17 minutes of the first half. Just four guys standing around the perimeter and Roy Hibbert or Jeff Green running back and forth across the paint. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

The highlight, for me (aside from Jeff Green's ferocious block that knocked a Temple player to the floor), was when a Temple player stole the ball with about 15 seconds left and passed to a teammate headed to the hoop instead of running out the clock. As the player wnet up for a layup, Roy Hibbert fouled him relatively hard (he's no Ron Artest, but still, a solid foul). Then, he just looked at the Temple guy like, "I'm not having that". When a team does something like that instead of running the clock out, you have to make them regret it. Kudos to Roy. I wish somebody else would have stepped up and showed some emotion tonight.

One problem is that cuts generally aren't there against a match-up zone. You need to pass it around to open it up.

[jerseyhoya34]

Full box score: sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200411220229

Hibbert picks up a respectable double-double, and Green was a foul shot away from one of his own. I was surprised to see that we outrebounded Temple. That's a bright spot in this one.

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

The whereabouts of Guibunda is a big question mark in my mind. Also, how does owens get just 13 minutes and 3 shots? Ouch, that definitely hurts.

[HoyaNyr320]

I just got back from the game and even though I don't post much, I definitely want to get some stuff off my chest following tonight's game.

First of all, before anyone starts scrutinizing JTIII, I think we all need to snap back to reality here and admit one thing: Temple is a better team than we are right now. I'm not saying that we could not have won this game or that we can't beat Temple. I'm just saying that tonight it should have been clear to anyone that was at the game that Temple was by far the better team.

Alright... now let's get to the positives first.

Hibbert- I was really impressed with the play of this kid. I don't really follow recruits too much, so all I had to go by concerning this guy's talent was reading this message board. From what I had heard, I was expecting him to look kinda clumsy and not have a shot at all. While he did look clumsy at times, I was impressed by the fact that he made his free throws and did not really make more than one bad foul. He also was the sole presence on the boards tonight... although that aspect of his game could be better. Considering he is only a freshman, he has a lot of room to improve and I think he will be an impact player for us down the line.

Wallace- This kid provides a good amount of energy... kinda like Ray Reed but a little more controlled. He made his first shot attempt as a freshman- a 3-pointer. The problem was that he didn't have the confidence to take that shot again when he was open. I'd like to see him get more attempts.

Things that had me scratching my head...

Bowman- I'm confident that he'll have some pretty good games for us this year.. However, this wasn't one of them. He had 12 points... Bowman didn't seem 100% tonight. What struck me the most was he was missing his free throw attempts. He had his up and downs last year, but he at least made his free throws. He also was overmatched on the boards... it's tough considering what he was up against.

One refreshing thing to see was at one point in the first half, Thompson subbed Bowman out and gave him a little pep talk. Thompson kinda patted him on the back and encouraged him a little bit. It's something that you RARELY would see during the Esherick era. I think Brandon will play a lot better as the season progresses.

Owens- He had that first three pointer and then it seemed like he wasn't getting any more looks at all. In fact, Thompson sat him on the bench for what seemed like an eternity. We need Owens to score about 10-12 points to win games like these. I think Thompson might have been upset that he was passing up the few open looks he got. Owens also was getting beat defensively, so it made things difficult for JTIII. I still think he should've gotten more PT, but that's just me...

Green- Two words- He's young. I have no doubt that he'll help us 1-2 years down the road. However, I always felt he was kinda hyped up on this board. He had that awesome block in the first half, but he looked kinda tentative on the offensive side. I think it might've been a case of the first game jitters for him. However, I think the comparisons of him to Sweetney need to end.

Cook- He played fairly well. He had a really tough defensive assigment... and it showed. Multiple guys were shooting over Cook at will. Not Cook's fault... just gonna be hard for us when we're up against taller guards that can shoot.


Finally... One thing that struck me the most was watching the team attempt back door cuts against he zone defense. The problem with trying to apply the Princeton offense to our team occurs when we hit a zone. Back door cuts realy only work against man-to-man defense. Against a zone, JTIII would just have his Princeton team shoot 3's like crazy. Hell, Auburn had what, like 18 3's against this team. However, it's pretty clear right now that we don't have solid 3 point shooting or the guys that can shoot the three (aka Wallace and Cook) don't have the confidence to take the shot when they have that open look. I have a lot of confidence in our program. However, it's going to be a LONG year if we can't make our shots against zone defenses.


*SIGH* I feel better now. After writing two papers this weekend I didn't know I had this kinda post in me. I apologize for rambling on and I hope I have made some sort of sense!

HOYA SAXA!

[GUHoya07]

BuffaloHoya said:

Can someone who was there post on the student section AND overall attendance?

GO HOYAS!!!

Dissapointing loss, but we have to expect some growing pains this season.

The major success tonight though was the unity of the student section and student attendance. The student section was completely packed, almost as much as at the Duke game last year. Not only that but pretty much everyone was wearing their WE ARE GEORGETOWN t-shirt and it truly was a sea of gray. I was extremely happy about that, it was impressive.

Thanks again to everyone who helped get this accomplished. CAHoya took some photos and hopefully a few came out good and got the whole student section. Im also hoping that the video highlights will be on guhoyas.com so that everyone can see the "sea of gray."

[DFW HOYA]

Post story--hey, the t-shirts got some press!

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5760-2004Nov22.html