SirSaxa
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
Posts: 747
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Post by SirSaxa on Mar 11, 2007 18:39:17 GMT -5
I won't argue the exact details of the Pitt game from a year + ago because I don't have a tape to which to refer. But if you are getting beat so badly they have to substitute for you to defend your man, I'd say that makes the point pretty strongly. Besides, your quote above confirms the real point. And the way he was beating him was by stepping outside and hitting little to mid-range jumpers -- which is the strength of his game. The point I was making was not whether "destroy" was the absolute optimal description of what happened to Roy in that game 13/14 months ago. The point I was making -- and I guess I have to do it again -- is that Gray was very effective at something that is a strength of his game. For some reason, he chose NOT to play to his strength and instead went against Roy in Roy's own area of strength. That, to me, didn't make any sense. Gray and PITT paid the price. Otherwise, comparing the Roy of early last season, with the Roy of today -- wow! What a huge difference in his game. We have seen this kid grow from his Freshman year to know it an almost straight trajectory up. That's a testament to two things: 1. Roy's own work ethic and determination. 2. The staff (and Hoya alumni) working with him to give him the tools, to challenge him, and to ensure his enormous progress.
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MCIGuy
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Anyone here? What am I supposed to update?
Posts: 9,427
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Post by MCIGuy on Mar 11, 2007 19:18:40 GMT -5
I won't argue the exact details of the Pitt game from a year + ago because I don't have a tape to which to refer. But if you are getting beat so badly they have to substitute for you to defend your man, I'd say that makes the point pretty strongly. Besides, your quote above confirms the real point. And the way he was beating him was by stepping outside and hitting little to mid-range jumpers -- which is the strength of his game. The point I was making -- and I guess I have to do it again -- is that Gray was very effective at something that is a strength of his game. For some reason, he chose NOT to play to his strength and instead went against Roy in Roy's own area of strength. That, to me, didn't make any sense. Gray and PITT paid the price. Otherwise, comparing the Roy of early last season, with the Roy of today -- wow! What a huge difference in his game. We have seen this kid grow from his Freshman year to know it an almost straight trajectory up. That's a testament to two things: 1. Roy's own work ethic and determination. 2. The staff (and Hoya alumni) working with him to give him the tools, to challenge him, and to ensure his enormous progress. Roy got substituted all the time his soph season. III was far more willing to remove him when he's struggling more than he was to remove a Jon Wallace or Jeff Green. III, especially at that time, was very comfortable of going with his quicker lineup just like he did with Duke. It did not mean Hibbert was being manhandled or getting eaten up. That is the strange revisionism of Hoya fans at work, something I will never understand. Gray hit a jumper right in Green's mug. Gray blew right by Green on the baseline for a bucket when being guarded by Jeff. Gray scored as many if not more points on Jeff in that first half than he did on Roy. But III trusts Jeff more and was very comfortable at that time with Jeff playing the five. Roy scored the first six points of the game over Gray and Pitt had no answer for him. But the Hoyas stop feeding Roy the ball and pretty soon he became stagnant out there and was taken out. And when he was taken out the game the Panthers went on their biggest run and got their biggest lead. But Hoya fans, for whatever reason, believe that Pitt went on its run when Roy was in the game and Gray kept abusing him. That didn't happen but it instantly became the new reality (more like revisionism). Roy played the first six or more minutes in the second half and Gary didn't score against him, but Hoya fans seem to think that Gray was going off on Roy again during that stretch and that the only way the bleeding was stopped was by Roy being sat and the team going to a smaller lineup. Again....that's not what happened. The smaller lineup may indeed given the Hoyas more of an offensive lift, but Gray's scoring was mostly limited to the first half. By the way people act as if Gray had 30 points in that game when in reality he had around 16 points. Alonzo was outplayed by Laettner in '89. It did not mean, as revisionist in the media claim, that Laettner abused Alonzo. Heck, only a few of the baskets Laettner scored came with Alonzo guarding him. But Laettner did have a much more effective game in the contest. That's my whole point when I say Gray outplayed Hibbert. Doesn't mean Hibbs was a liability or even the victim of most of Gray's baskets. The fact is Gray could not score inside against Roy. He hit a few outside shots against Roy twelve feet from the basket even with a hand in his face. He deserves credit for making those shots. But wouldn't you prefer him to take his shots there than two feet from the hoop? Of course. You'll give him those shots all day. Last night Gray took at least one of those shots but this time he missed. Roy's "improvement' had nothing to do with that. Just the law of averages. In last year’s game under most other coaching systems in the country Roy would have not been pulled from the Pitt game after scoring three quick baskets. Other coaches would have kept him in and ran plays for him to get the ball inside against Gray to continue doing such damage. Pound it in. But just as is the case this season, the Hoyas will often and inexplicably go away from Roy instead of riding him. If folks want to think Roy made some quantum leap all of a sudden that he got that much better than Gray after being “destroyed” by him then that’s their prerogative. But to me the truth is that Roy was as good if not a better player than Gray was last season. He could certainly do more things with the ball and was a superior shooter (fg%). Gray was the better rebounder. Even more important his true advantage was that his team ran its offense through hi and the main point of the panthers’ attack was getting the ball into him. That has yet to be the main option of the GU offense and likely never will be. Now that I think about even though in the first game of this season when Roy and Aaron cancelled each other out by scoring 11 points each, Hoya fans on this very board claimed that Gray outplayed Roy again and that the sitting of Roy in favor of Pat Ewing was proof of such. Just shows how little faith or respect people had for Roy’s game.
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