Hoyas 70 Louisville 60 Game Discussion

[wrestlemania]

Great night. I think the bench was on notice that they needed to step it up, and they came through. Key on D was Monroe forcing Samuels to go left and straight up, where he had no advantage. But I have never seen a Pitino team play with so little energy in a big game, especially in the second half. I wonder if there is still some hangover from the Nets thing.

On my ride home from work I listened to Kansas (a band I never really liked) for the first time in 25 years. I will continue to do so on game days until they lose (now THAT's taking one for the team).

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Things I want to add having read this thread now.
1) SMH at some of the posts while things weren't going our way. We had that game the whole time.
2) That pass by Greg to Julian was the siiickest pass i've ever seen.
3) Austin is a God.
4) Great bench play today.
5) great job against the press. I especially liked the long outlet to austin and attacking the basket.
6) I'm glad they did it, but why the heck did Louisville stop fouling with 30 seconds to go down 10? I'd have been Editeded.

[DanMcQ]

Feb 23, 2010 22:24:39 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

2) That pass by Greg to Julian was the siiickest pass i've ever seen.

Good thing Julian made the bucket or he'd have never lived it down.

[SFHoya99]

Carry on, my wayward son!

[GUJook97]

Pitino telling them not to foul with 30 seconds was the best coaching decision of the night Honestly, what is really the point of fouling there? I wish more teams would do that. I think most of the time coaches dont want the foul, but the players just do it anyway.

[757hoyafan]

Where is this fella?

Feb 18, 2010 23:23:46 GMT -5 bronxhoya87 said:

Let me save you the trouble of watching the game. We lose by 8-13.

[momzer]

Not looking ahead, BUT, beat ND first. That makes WV game a must. Need ND to keep 2 day bye alive. Observations from today:
1. Greg is awesome. Still has trouble going up with right hand, but that left hand is outrageous. Cleared every possible board. The behind the back pass to JV should make top 10 tonight.

2. Awesome is AWESOME. He single handedly put us on top and chilled the crowd. When he is on, he is unstoppable. Once he determined to go to the rim, it opened up everything else for his 3s.

3. CW played a great game at PG and excelled with JC in breaking the press. Made some key FTs at the end.

4. HT hit some necessary 3s when necessary and was very active on defense and the boards.

5. JB's swoop around Samuels was picturesque. should give him confidence around the hoop. Played great D, but still does some silly fouls.

6. Vee-busy bee. Should play press at end of half. Causes commotion and bad decisions by other team. Also very cool customer with the ball.

MUST BEAT ND. Cannot let them make a game of it. Get 15-20 pt lead and allow bench minutes so that starters can be fresh for WV next week. One game at a time.

[Hoya50]

Feb 23, 2010 21:34:33 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

If your barometer on Chris Wright is how many points he scores, he had a lousy game.

If your barometer is him doing what needs to be done to WIN, he had a very good game. He was solid breaking the press all night, he moved the ball well on offense, and he hit free throws down the stretch. His defense was much better than some are giving him credit for as he was not primarily guarding Sosa for most of the night - that was Clark.

At least one of his turnovers was when Monroe dumped a bounce pass to him on the baseline when he was in the middle of all 3 Louisville front court defenders and had nowhere to go.

preach. chris did a great job handing the press and it didn't matter who was checking him up the court. his offense will come back. great win.

[hoyaheaven]

Great show for Chris!!

[CTHoya08]

Chris struggled to score. But he realized that it was not going to be a big scoring night for him, and he did not struggle overall. He was great in attacking the press, and he calmly made his foul shots at the end. No complaints here.

[JohnnyJones]

Feb 23, 2010 21:06:41 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

A BIG win on the road for Georgetown, a 7th win against a team in the RPI top 50 and gets that losing streak off the page. Take care of business with ND and then take a run at WVU for a #4 seed.

A BIG loss for Louisville with three really tough games remaining: at UConn, at Marquette, and Syracuse. They could easily drop all three and be playing on Tuesday.

Yes on all fronts. 7-4 v. the Top 50 RPI looks VERY good. And Seton Hall is about 52 right now, so we could get to 8-4 if the Hall can get another win or two. Notwithstanding the 9-6 / 5th place, our resume is very strong. I keep seeing the stats on all of these bubble teams and they all seem to be 2-6 or thereabout v. the Top 50 RPI. Really need to keep it going with a W v. ND.

[HoyaSC]

I thought that CW was great not just in breaking the press, but in getting us in the right spots in our halfcourt sets. Clark and JV looked lost a few times out there and several times I could see CW pointing to them and telling them where to be.

He showed a lot of maturity in his game tonight. He made sure the big dogs ate.

[kghoya]

Louisville fans near me were complaining that Austin didn't commit any fouls. I sorta felt from my seat that Louisville was given lots of bailout calls in the first half

[sleepy]

Also, I think we could be playing in the national championship game and announcers would STILL say "this is about the time of the year last year that the wheels started to fall off for Gtown, so thats something to watch for." I mean really, its almost watch, the wheels were long gone and we were pushing the car up a hill at this point last season. Give it a rest already.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Great post from their rivals site: "it's a sad state of affairs (no pun intended) when Denny Crum walks out at the under 4 min timeout...on F'ing Denny Crum night. "

[OldHoyafan]

"We got outphysical-ed in the first half and went into half down. In the second half, we were by far the more aggressive team, and the rebounding advantage we had is a testament to that. Whatever JTIII said to the guys at halftime worked in terms of firing them up."

Great point. This game reminded me of the St John's game in New York. They tried to muscle the Hoyas around in the first half but the Hoyas came back in 2nd half and out toughed them.

[damnhoya]

Story of the game:

First half: contribution from the bench (i.e., the three freshmen)

Second half: AUSTIN!!!! (he's incredible and should be in serious consideration for all-Big East 1st team )

Oh, and that Monroe guy was alrite.

[sleepy]

Didn't we ruin the Denny Crum court signing too?

[OldHoyafan]

Feb 23, 2010 21:28:16 GMT -5 sleepy said:

Feb 23, 2010 21:22:15 GMT -5 Buckets said:

Uhh... 0/4 FG, 4 A, 4 TO is struggling. I think he'll turn it around, but saying that he didn't struggle tonight is some heavy, heavy spin.

Yes, but I actually watched the game, and the stats far from tell the whole story. He created a lot of baskets that didn't count as assists and he was a one man press break for God's sake. Tonight he didn't struggle, he had a very good game.

I have to agree here, Chris did not have a good 1st half with the TO's but he handled the team beautifully the 2nd half. he did not force any shots and setup the rest of the team

[Dhall]

The Hoyas played smart and with maturity the entire game, not just the second half. In the first half, a lot of good shots just didn't drop but there was no panic even after going down double digits. They only took maybe 3 or 4 bad shots all game, and very few bad turnovers. Kudos.