OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Feb 15, 2010 10:37:33 GMT -5
To be honest yes if you mean a strong physical front line. None of the Hoya big men are naturally physical. Vaughn through hard work has made his game be more physical this year but he is not a naturally physical player. Monroe and Sims are to thin to be and Benimon is too short to be consistantly effective down low. The good thing is there is no team, other than Syracuse, that has a physically dominant frontline in BE. That is why I think many thought the BE would be down this year. The BE was a tough league in prior years because the teams in the league were tough throughout each teams roster not just at frontline position and played tough defense. That is still true today, other than the elite teams this year like Kentucky, Kansas, Syracuse who have strong frontlines and guard play most top BE teams would match up favorably with any team in NCAA.,
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Feb 15, 2010 9:58:57 GMT -5
I am not making excuses for the young man, but Doris Burke called it last week when she said that the Hoyas simply do not have a backup for Chris at the PG position. He is the only true PG on this team. The system may facillitate forwards getting a lot of assists comparable to a point guard, but there are other things a true point guard does that can't be duplicated from the forward position. The ability to break the press with a strong dribble, the ability to drive to the basket with a strong dribble without getting ball stripped and finish or pass to open man and ability to hit the open 3 from deep. Chris has to bring it every night or this team could lose to anyone. The teams that win the NCAA usually have two things (1) a dominant big man and (2) a dominant PG. Both don't have to be dominant each game of the schedule but they must have the potential to be if necessary in a close game. There is no other guard on this team that can do all three of the things mentioned earlier. Freeman is a very good 2 guard and Clark is a good combo guard with some but not all PG abillities. Have not seen enough of Vee but he looks like a combo guard also. Wrights game is high energy, pushing the ball up court probbing the defense for a drive to the basket. That takes a lot of energy every night and some nights when playing a lesser opponent the human response may be to try to rest a little bit that night and let Monroe be the facillatator and Freeman and Clark be the scorers. Oh, did I mention that Wright gets the most back door layups from passes from big men than anyone else. This requires constant movement to set up your man for hard backdoor cut and finish. In the perfect world Markel would have been here this year to play with Monroe and Wright and could give Chris some rest in games like Rutgers, ODU, and SFU but we don't live in a perfect world so when this kid is not having his normal high energy PG game this team will suffer.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Feb 14, 2010 19:45:46 GMT -5
As much as JT3 would like for this team to be a 3 headed monster(Monroe,Freeman & Wright), this team will only go as far as Chris Wright will take them. Its nice to think of Monroe as a point forward and that the system could make him assist leader for this team, but the truth is that since the invention of the 3pt shot the college game is a guard dominated game. In blowout games against good and bad teams Monroe will have major points/assists in Hoya win, but in the nail biters the point guards of the elite teams take over and make things happen for their team to insure the victory. This year in the Hoya losses to ODU,SFU and Rutgers Wright could not lift his game to get his team the win. Monroe could be having a great game but in the end with teams double teaming him it will take a point guard to break the defense down and make the defense have to make a decision, continue doubling Monroe or stop him from getting to the basket. Wright is the best point guard Georgetown has had since Iverson but for whatever reason has bad games against lower echelon teams.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 31, 2010 19:57:42 GMT -5
Game will be shown on CBS C on Dish network channel 152 at 8:30 eastern time.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 31, 2010 19:32:52 GMT -5
JT2 alluded to this very same thing at JT3's post game news conference. His question to JT3 was when did he think the media would stop asking him and the team about last year?
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 31, 2010 15:24:26 GMT -5
You know aside from the Hoyas trying to finish above Pitt in the Big East standings why in the world should we root for USF? If they beat Pitt they simply gain more confidence going into their game against GU and the Hoyas' victory over Pitt looks increasingly less impressive. With that said this game between Pitt and USF is an ugly slugfest with penalties galore. It will take 3 hours for this game to play out it seems. This is true but it lessens the possibility of this being a trap game(taking opponent lightly) for the team. They know now that this is a dangerous team at home and can not be taken lightly even for one half. Hoyas must come with same intensity as they did with Duke.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 29, 2010 11:00:53 GMT -5
Sorry its too late in the game for this. Look I too wanted Hollis in the starting lineup somewhat for reasons you brought up. But what's done is done and frankly Jason has been a very key player for this team and may even set the tone on the defensive end. We're too deep in the season to even be discussing how he could help the team coming off the bench. Also Villanova gets away with playing four guards and one dude in the middle who I wouldn't even take over Julian, let alone Greg. And the Wildcats do just fine. That means the key problem, which you brought up, is the lack of a bench (Nova definitely has a bench for example). I agree with your take on it and weeks back I pointed out that the lack of bench production would be the difference between playing ultimately for first in the Big East or ultimately playing for third or fourth place. And, yes, III has to get away with his obsession of only using guys who have come as close as possible to perfecting what he wants to see on the court. He recruited those other guys so he should play them. And he should let them learn by giving them baptisms of fire. I feel at least one of those guys as well can't relax because he is afraid of being yanked after any bad play on his part. Guys can't learn or grow like that. Not at any level of basketball. I agree the starting lineup should stay the same at this point, partly because of Clark's defense, and partly because Clark is not a scoring spark off the bench. I think JT3 gives players on the bench playing time based upon their proficiency in executing his defense more than their proficiency in his offense. To this point Thompson and Benimon have been more proficient in JT3's defensive scheme. Henry has not in his designated position of playing the 4 spot. He is a little slow on recognizing when help defense is needed. For those who say Henry did not bulk up enough over the summer, you can say the same about Monroe, both were slated to play the 4 spot this year. Maybe it was the coaches decision for them to stay lean in order to be more agile on defense and offense. Hollis's lack of offensive production is still puzzling given all the reports of his offensive skills in high school, but I like you, think JT3 should have taken one of the earlier games and told Hollis he wanted him to be more aggressive offensively even if his initial shots were not falling and don't worry about being taken out of game.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 26, 2010 9:33:19 GMT -5
“To go into halftime ahead was unbelievable [given] the way we started the game,” Boeheim said. “To dominate a top-10 team in the country after giving them 14 points is quite an effort.” The above quote is why we all "love" Boehim so much. Now how many coaches would give this backhanded compliment to a team and their coach by saying that they are a top 10 team then go on to say that his team coached by him had just "dominated" that team. Most coaches don't use that language when they are talking about their own team after a win except our good buddy Boehim.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 26, 2010 8:50:29 GMT -5
6. It must be tough to practice against the 2-3 zone when your bench is our bench trying to play the 2-3 zone. Our bench is good enough to play the 2-3 zone so our guys don't really get any insight as to how to attack it. Do you really think that our starting 5 has any problem playing against the bench in practice. I am sure they break the zone always, but when we play SUcks, we are playing THEIR starters who practice the 2-3 zone everyday. [/quote I don't think this gets enough appreciation. I was about to copy this post until I read your post. Raferty often says that the Cuse zone is hard to similate because of the length of Cuse players Rautins(6'6") & Triche(6'3") out front, with Onuaku(6'10"),Jackson(6'9") & Johnson(6'7") in front court. Add to this that they are all good athletes. There have been years when it was not so great when they did not have the length out front i.e., McNamara and "Dufus"dorf, but this year with the addition of Johnson, Bauhim can move Routinns from frontcourt to back court. Contrast this to the Hoya reserves who don't practice this very much and you see where the starters may develope a false sense of security in practice. Having said this I believe this game will prepare the players and the coaching staff for the rematch at home later on.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 26, 2010 0:58:12 GMT -5
The silver lining in this game is that Onuaku, Johnson, and Jackson have the size of a frontcourt Monroe would see day in and day out in the NBA. Its obvious that he is not ready yet for that. He looks like a tall small forward against Onuaku and Johnson. He got pushed around in the lane and got his shot blocked a couple of times. He is not comfortable shooting the 12-15 foot jump shot yet either. I thought he would take a lot of those tonight but he looked to pass first then it was too late. Go work on the weights, practice the 12-15 footer, and work on that right hand this summer Big Man and come back next year and be the next Hoya Big Man to lead Hoyas to the Final Four.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 24, 2010 17:40:35 GMT -5
Turnovers will be the key to this game. The Hoyas have cut down greatly on their turnovers since Marquette. The Cuse zone causes a lot of turnovers by the guards when they get stripped trying to drive the lane or make lazy passes at the top . This leads to breakouts the other way. I agree matchup zone is the best way to go. I could live with losing this game because Johnson and Triche killed us on 3pt shots rather than drives to the basket. Got to keep in touch with Routins on the perimeter though.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 23, 2010 10:07:59 GMT -5
The fans on this board who became Hoya fans during JT2's tenure like me, really appreciate this kids tenacity on the boards. This kid would fit well on JT2's teams. Rebounding is a "want to " skill. He wants to get the missed shot more than the next guy. I think it can be a skill that can be acquired and improved on with hard work, i.e. Vaughn this year as compared to last, but it helps if it is an innate skill and I think it is with this kid. Any offense would be gravy at this point, but no more 3pt shots, 10-12 footers yes but nix the long jumper please. If they leave you wide open in the corner, then dribble towards basket until they stop you then take shot. I think Henry's niche is shot blocking and should be incerted in lineup with the command "Thou shall not allow a layup or dunk". Let him stand under or near basket and try to slap everything that comes in the way of a layup or dunk even if he fouls. I had originally thought that McGhee's 2 dunks at end of 1st half of Pitt's game were Henry's fault but after watching it again, it was actually Monroe who was out of position both times and allowed the dunks because he alrerady had 2 fouls. Henry tried to get there for the block both times so he was the nearest to McGhee when he dunked. Give Henry Dikembe's role for JT2, block everything in your range and don't worry about jump shots for him either at this point. Let blocking shots be your niche for now Henry and take pride in the fact that through the use of this skill you can really help this team.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 20, 2010 23:23:27 GMT -5
Read article today that said Gibbs was interested in coming to Georgetown until Hoyas signed Chris, then he sighned with Pitt so that he could play the point. He made the right choice. he would never have beat Chris out here as starter.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 20, 2010 22:03:42 GMT -5
agreed harwood. benimon doesn't look as tentative as either hollis or sims. we really don't get anything other than hustle from hollis at this point. sims watching mcghee's 2 dunks was tough to see. I felt the same about Benimon. Of the 3 he looked more like he belonged on the court. You have to feel for Hollis and Sims, they realy look tentative on the court. Hollis doesn't even pretend like he is going to make a move to the basket. Come on young man you have the game, just trust it, and stop thinking so much! I think the experiment of trying to make Henry a 4 should end. Just let him be the backup for Julian at the 5 spot. Just put him in the middle and let him do what he is good at doing blocking shots. Any points off put backs would be a bonus.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 20, 2010 21:32:00 GMT -5
I think we learned some lessons from the Nova game (although I didn't see either game; I am just guessing). Yep, team made a concerted effort to be more aggresive on defense at the start of the game. It did cause Freeman to have to sit on bench for most of 1st half with 2 overly aggresive fouls, but I loved the intensity. Hoyas did not have to dig themselves out of a deep hole starting the 2nd half.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 20, 2010 8:36:18 GMT -5
I think the article on the front page out of New York also gives a very good assessment of where the Hoyas are at this point. The author thinks that the Hoyas are very good despite a short bench and wonders what they will be like at the end of the year when and if the bench developes. I guess because we follow the team everyday, we lose sight of what others who don't follow the team as close, see. The Hoyas bench averages 1.34 yrs in experience. The national average is 1.70. Now this includes the 1.3 yrs of experience of Sims, who at this time probably is the 3rd person of 4 bench players used by the Hoyas. In other words 3/4 of Hoya bench are freshmen with 1/3 year experience in a complicated system, yet the Hoyas are 4-2 in BE and !#-3 overall. I am more excited about this teams chances of doing well at tounament time when these young Hoyas grow into their own. They will lose some more games when the starters get in foul trouble or fatigued, but I agree with the New York author that this team can be special. Then how does the bench average 1.34 years of experiance... isnt henry the most experianced on our bench? I assume this includes the walkons also, even though they don't play except at garbage time, they are counted as members of the bench.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 19, 2010 23:48:22 GMT -5
I think the article on the front page out of New York also gives a very good assessment of where the Hoyas are at this point. The author thinks that the Hoyas are very good despite a short bench and wonders what they will be like at the end of the year when and if the bench developes. I guess because we follow the team everyday, we lose sight of what others who don't follow the team as close, see. The Hoyas bench averages 1.34 yrs in experience. The national average is 1.70. Now this includes the 1.3 yrs of experience of Sims, who at this time probably is the 3rd person of 4 bench players used by the Hoyas. In other words 3/4 of Hoya bench are freshmen with 1/3 year experience in a complicated system, yet the Hoyas are 4-2 in BE and !#-3 overall. I am more excited about this teams chances of doing well at tounament time when these young Hoyas grow into their own. They will lose some more games when the starters get in foul trouble or fatigued, but I agree with the New York author that this team can be special.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 17, 2010 22:01:11 GMT -5
Did not see game but it seems as though it mirrored the UConn game except the win. I have said that I believe the rebound from last year is mostly due to a return of the stiffling defense the 2007-8 Hoyas had in their run to the Final Four. It takes more energy to play defense especially the switching, hedging defense the Hoyas play. In the UConn game the announcers opined that the Hoyas made some early shots in 2nd half, then their defense picked up. I believe the opposite happend. They picked up the defensive intensity, caused some early missed shots and turnovers and got some run out baskets and the shots started to fall. Could it be that the starters on this team, knowing that they will have to play major minutes each game, are subconciously pacing themseves on the defensive end until the 2nd half? The 2007-8 team played great defense but they had a bench that did not require starters to play the minutes these starters have to play.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 16, 2010 14:35:51 GMT -5
You have to give Dixon credit as a good coach in the BE. His teams remind me of JT2 teams in that they are built for the rugged play of the BE. They play hard defense, rebound the ball, and play enough offense to win., The problem is when they get to the NCAA tournament the refs will not let them play like that and most of his starters will be in foul trouble throughout game, but as long as he is coach there ,his teams will annually be in the mix for the BE title.,
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 12, 2010 9:42:20 GMT -5
Long-time lurker, figured I'd throw my hat in the ring here, so to speak. There is a list of things that Greg Monroe can do very well, including but not limited to pretty excellent post defense and stretching the other guys' defense from the high post. Opposing teams will usually play off him at the elbow and make him put it on the deck against a guard to get the rim, where there's a big waiting for him. This would normally leave a cutter or a shooter open for a quick pass, and when the other guys on the team play their roles in the offense, he's pretty good about swinging the rock around to them. He does some other things well for his size: he's very quick on his feet and it helps him get good position for offensive rebounds, and he's got a decent handle for someone nearly seven feet tall. This is where he runs into problems, however, because he's missing a couple things: 1) Muscle Mass. The kid's flat-out not strong enough to bang in the blocks in this league, let alone the NBA. He should get Austin's workout regimen from the summer of 2008 and follow it like holy writ: 10-15 pounds of muscle and Greg would be an absolute beast. Graceful and elegant in the basketball sense, with Harangody's stats. That's a top-5 draft pick, folks, but it's going to take a lot of work that frankly should've been well underway by this point. It's not like it was beyond anyone's capacity for prognostication that he'd need to get bigger to play down low in the Big East. Thus, when he gets into position with an offensive rebound, or good position off some post moves, he's just not strong enough to finish, hence all the missed bunnies. It's fixable, but it's frustrating that he's let it become such a noticeable problem. 2) His handle's good, but relative to his size. He's not the kind of guy who can dribble through two guards/SFs and then hit a pull-up J instead of bowling over the waiting big and committing a killer offensive foul. The handle part is most useful to him if he's pulling Roy's favorite move, drawing a big (and slower) defender out to the line, then blowing past him into an empty lane for a high-percentage lay-in or dunk. Obviously the ability to finish strong comes into play here, but if he was constantly blowing by bigs at the line, with his court vision and the inevitable collapsing defenses, he could dish the rock and have a field-day in the assist column. Alas. 3) The easiest solution to the above problems, and thus the least defensible weakness -- a reliable mid-range shot like Ewing used to straight-up murder centers when he was with the Knicks in the early-mid 90s. Just a reliable 10-15 footer is all he'd need. Jeff had one and it used to drive opposing defenses crazy, and we all spent 2 years cheering Roy for developing one -- it's one of the many reasons he was able to abuse guys like Thabeet who had to anchor an interior defense. Stretch the D like that (gotta put a big guy on him or he'll just rain jumpers on some long-armed converted guard) and you (a) bring the defender close enough to him that he can use his handle to blow by and create a drive, and (b) allow Julian some isolation in the post where he can use those moves he's been developing. The sad part of this weakness is that it's entirely correctable -- you can't teach "court vision" or leadership, but developing a 10-15 foot jumper is just hours in the gym. By all accounts he's an excellent kid who is a great Hoya, so it's surprising and frustrating that this rather obvious gap in his game wasn't addressed already. As a side note, the fact that opponents seem to get O-rebounds "off" Greg in late-game situations appears, at least to me, to be a result more of team-wide unwillingness to box out (Benimon excepted) than of some singular defect in Greg's game. He should be boxing out, but so should everyone else, and he's not conspicuous in this failing, as it were. I realize this is overlong, so I'll close with one request: I've been reading these boards for several years now, and I think it's somewhat disturbing that criticism and the like about particular players -- whether general critiques or reactions to in-game performance -- are treated like smears of that player's character (or worse, a full abjuration of true Hoya fandom). I think that's actually very seldom the case, and if anything is a nice thing to see (in controlled doses). We care enough about the program to demand perfection and excellence: while we can be consoled in defeat by promising moral victories, and in the exultation of victory we can still find areas that need improvement, the point is that we want the team to achieve to the maximum extent possible. Other posters might disagree with statements made, but imputing malign motives seems a bit harsh and unwarranted. I think the reason some are sensitive to the so called attempts at "constructive criticism" is that the players do read this board and some on the board do tend to qverexagerrate after a loss myself included. I did not find your critique overly harsh but there is a difference between a "deficiency" in skill in an area of a players game and an "underuse" of a skill in a players game. You speak as if Monroe is deficient in having a 10-12 foot junp shot and needs to develope one. From watching you-tube clips of this kid in high school, its apparant he already has this shot in his arsenal, but is not using it as regularly as you or I would like. You also speak of his inability to get the ball at the foul line drive and draw defenders and dish assists to teammates on the wing. I think that is more of the position (4) that he is playing more this year than last year when he played mostly the 5. The system doesn't put him there as much as you or I might like. I do aggree with your assessment, not criticism, that he could use another 10-15 pounds of hearth like Vaughn and Bennimon to wage battle underneath basket with the bigs of the BE., Now why that did not occur over the summer as is evident with Vaughn is a fair question. It may be as simple as the coaches did not want him to put too much weight on because they intended him to play the 4 position the majority of the time this year instead of the 5, and they did not want to slow his ability to play defense in this switching man-to-man defense. I would note that Sims who was slated to play the 4 this year also did not put on any noticeable bulk. As another poster said we can assess a players deficiencies as our limited abilities as fans would allow, but inferrring a negative conotation to what a players motivations are is a different matter.
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