sleepy
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Post by sleepy on Jan 28, 2012 18:31:54 GMT -5
Couldn't matchup with Robinson and Patterson they killed us all game long. they completely abused Otto, Greg and Nate from the start. They may have size but quickness to matchup to 6-4 and 6-5 clearly wasn't there. same goes for Hollis, willing to give him a pass if he is still injured, but why then is he out in the las t60 secs.
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NCHoya
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Post by NCHoya on Jan 28, 2012 18:32:56 GMT -5
I don't think we can afford to keep starting both Markel and Nate. One of them needs to sit in place of Otto. Agree, they are both liabilities overall right now. I think Markel can provide an offensive punch off the bench. Just give him a role as offensive playmaker and keep it simple. As for Lubick, I am not sure what to say anymore. He needs to just give us consistent hustle minutes and not get in the way.
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Post by wahoohoya on Jan 28, 2012 18:33:27 GMT -5
I don't think we can afford to keep starting both Markel and Nate. One of them needs to sit in place of Otto. Would prefer if those guys simply started playing at a level they are capable of playing. I still think Otto is a nice change of pace off the bench and he gets starter minutes anyway.
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sleepy
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Post by sleepy on Jan 28, 2012 18:38:22 GMT -5
really don't know about Markel can't say for sure that him going out early with 2 quick fouls was the cause of the offense going to hell, but with him in to start the second half it sure looked better.
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Hoyaholic
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Post by Hoyaholic on Jan 28, 2012 18:46:28 GMT -5
As for Lubick, I am not sure what to say anymore. He needs to just give us consistent hustle minutes and not get in the way. It would also be helpful if he paid some attention to his defensive assignment.
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KirbyKeger
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Post by KirbyKeger on Jan 28, 2012 18:49:06 GMT -5
I think excuses made for Hollis because of his health are extremely weak to be honest. Maybe that's harsh. I am getting tired of our most talented player (not best, he hasn't untapped the potential yet) disappearing when we need him to create his own shot. We saw him do it in the last 2 minutes when we were already down double digits, so I don't think the health excuse cuts it. He looked plenty healthy to me. Maybe the injury excuses the difficulty he had on defense, but it doesn't excuse the disappearing act. We simply need way more from him. We've seen III have to sit him for long stretches several times this season when he wasn't producing or attacking. When is the message going to get across? This is a very young team. We're going to flounder if our co-captains can't produce. Clark has been able to shoulder the burden most of the time, taking the Marquette game as an example. He kept us in the game until Hollis finally decided he wanted to shoot at the end. Well today, Jason didn't have it, and as a result, neither did the team as a whole.
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Air Jordan
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As the Hoyas continue their full court press the Kentucky Wildcats have went scoreless
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Post by Air Jordan on Jan 28, 2012 19:09:27 GMT -5
I dont know but I think JTIII needs to go ahead and start Otto, and bring Lubick off the bench. We cannot consistently play 4 on 5 on the offensive end, right now we have a starter who averages about 25 minutes a game and today he scored 0 points, we cant have that.
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Post by wahoohoya on Jan 28, 2012 19:25:04 GMT -5
I think excuses made for Hollis because of his health are extremely weak to be honest. Maybe that's harsh. I am getting tired of our most talented player (not best, he hasn't untapped the potential yet) disappearing when we need him to create his own shot. We saw him do it in the last 2 minutes when we were already down double digits, so I don't think the health excuse cuts it. He looked plenty healthy to me. Maybe the injury excuses the difficulty he had on defense, but it doesn't excuse the disappearing act. We simply need way more from him. We've seen III have to sit him for long stretches several times this season when he wasn't producing or attacking. When is the message going to get across? This is a very young team. We're going to flounder if our co-captains can't produce. Clark has been able to shoulder the burden most of the time, taking the Marquette game as an example. He kept us in the game until Hollis finally decided he wanted to shoot at the end. Well today, Jason didn't have it, and as a result, neither did the team as a whole. Hollis often starts games looking for his shot (as he did today) - he just needs to stick with it and do a better job using his size against smaller payers. Too often he fades away and puts up weak, awkward looking shots. When he commits to going up stronger and more deliberate, he becomes deadly. No reason he can't be the player we need him to be for the remainder of the season - just needs to commit to being that player. And for the record, I think Otto is our most talented player.
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mapei
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Post by mapei on Jan 28, 2012 19:44:53 GMT -5
Hmmmm. I think Jason is our most talented player, but I suppose that depends on how one defines "talented." Hollis is the best pure shooter and an underrated defender; Otto does some of everything and is fundamentally very sound for a freshman; but Jason IMO is best-all-round at this point, and a leader, too. He's really had a very good year. He's also underrated defensively, getting steals and disrupting play.
I'll grant that Otto is very good already and may have the most upside.
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adlai
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Post by adlai on Jan 28, 2012 19:54:28 GMT -5
A wasted opportunity and a lot of blame to go around for this one. The most disturbing elements though:
1) The offense will continue to be rough as long as the upperclassmen don't figure out how to step up more consistently. Having the Freshmen out there seems to often be the best lineup, but they really don't yet comprehend the offense. The most telling play was at one point in the second half Jabril passed the ball to Jason and the movement had Pitt completely out of position with no one defending the basket. The play was for Jabril to cut to the basket to get a backdoor. After hesitating Jason finally points at him to cut and he does. Pass to Otto in the corner and despite that Jabril is still open, but he ended up under the basket. The pass came and he was wide open but catching it standing still made the shot much tougher. He missed but scored on the put back. Point is though that the Freshmen just don't fully get the spacing and movement yet. There is normally a huge jump in this system between the first and second year in the system, so I don't worry about that in the long-term. For this year, I do worry that it will be all to common to get completely bogged down when we have all three on the court at the same time. The advantage has recently been rebounds with the big lineup and without the offensive boards that lineup is not particularly good on the offensive end.
2) Playing the bigger lineup also means that we are not quite as quick with movement or as precise with passes on back cuts. That is really tough when the refs are not calling fouls away from the ball as they did in the Rutgers game. Numerous times they didn't call anything when Zanna and Hank were locked up underneath. They called a couple of holds early and after the crowded booed they largely quit. Seems teams like a lot of BE teams are going to simply hold all day and prevent the entry pass unless the refs do what they did against Rutgers. That's rarely going to happen, particularly on the road, and I don't see this strategy stopping by our opponents. It's going to be rough on that end for a while.
3) JTIII has to have a better defensive strategy or the team has to have better recognition. The number of times we got caught with all our defenders beyond the foul line extended was ridiculous leading to so many layups. After one such play JTIII turned to Greg on the bench yelling instructions before sending him in, but nothing seemed to work. We got exposed being overly aggressive in double teams a number of times as well. Have to realize that they were killing us with a quick pass before the double team came over and we were slow rotating. The extended 2-3 zone also let them get the ball to the foul line way too easily and killed that strategy. Except for Gibbs no one shooting the three on that team is particularly worrisome, so what was the point?
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Post by RockawayHoya on Jan 28, 2012 20:00:04 GMT -5
I've praised our guys/staff in the past when they've done well. People who frequent this board know this. Today, I'm gonna go off on them. So if you don't like the negativity, do yourself a favor and skip to the next post.
Aside from a short offensive spurt by Henry midway in the 2nd half and Otto's shooting from the perimeter/mid-range, there was no redeemable quality to today's game whatsoever. Someone asked me if this was the worst game we've played all year and I said I thought it was simply because we had a week to prepare and it looked like we accomplished nothing all week. At least during the home loss against Cinci, it was on a short turnaround during a rough stretch following the WVU game. Absolutely no excuse for the guys to come out as flat as they did and failing to even attempt to match Pitt's physical play. It was obvious whatever we worked on in the way of FTs this week didn't work either (how many times did we shoot ourselves in the foot by missing front ends on 1-on-1s). Staff gets an F for today's performance. If that was going to be the effort they were going to give today, they should've saved themselves the trip.
Hollis was a complete non-factor today. Whether you attribute that to our inability to put him in positions to score or his own inability to get open, be aggressive and knock down shots (especially in close), it doesn't really matter. Shouldn't be deciding to turn it on 38 minutes into the game when the outcome is already decided.
Honestly, if I see Nate shade over to the sideline to guard an invisible shooter and leave the middle wide open one more time when he's on the wing of the 2-3 zone, I'm going to break something. I can't count on my fingers the number of times Pitt got an easy layup or dunk simply because Nate had no idea where he was supposed to be. And both Nate and Henry were extremely lazy today fighting around picks. Pitt destroyed us all night by finding open space along the baseline because we were too lethargic to bother playing help D or to notice that there was even a Pitt player there. Ball, Me, My Man. They teach you that in grade school.
Honestly, if I see Nate shoot one more three when there's more than 2 seconds left on the shot clock, I'm going to break something.
I originally feared a Cahill-officiated game. Didn't see him at any of the early games I saw today, and so the likelihood of him being at our game only increased. We played so awful today that he wasn't even a factor. The crew today actually called a pretty consistent game. They let a lot of physical play go (minus the obvious muggings), and we simply didn't respond. Finishing in close has been an extreme problem of ours in recent games. Guys just have to start going to the basket with the mentality that they are going to go strong to the bucket or get fouled. Enough about being worried about being blocked or having your shot altered. The whole team could really stand to learn from Jabril in this regard.
Wed's game becomes huge now. Not surprisingly, UConn found a way to get Boatright eligible in the nick of time. Our guys are going to have a to take a huge step forward if they want to get themselves back on the right track. I can't recall a game since Providence where we started a game well, and we cannot continue to rely on making comebacks to pull out games. Whatever needs to be done to get out to a good start, if it means personnel changes in the starting lineup, focusing on getting someone with a favorable matchup shots early, etc. need to be done. It's time.
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Jan 28, 2012 20:30:04 GMT -5
I would like to start by saying that III has really done a lot with the new freshmen and they are far exceeding any pre-season expectations.
The PITT loss was very disappointing. We had a full week to prepare for this game and team acted like they never saw anything PITT did before. The PITT coaching staff out coached us. They found our weaknesses and capitalized them. Doesn’t our staff watch game tape and then share it with the team and break down what the opposition does?
Didn’t you get tired of PITT finding an open space, unguarded under the basket? I did. That’s III’s fault, he constantly rotates the players one at a time into the lineup. Each time we substituted, they ran that same set. After five minutes into the game, every two minutes we had a different line-up that doesn’t talk to each other on the floor. He needs to rotate the bigs in pairs, not one at a time. I know we don’t have four bigs due to injury, but that’s a recruiting problem. He has only Hollis left from the 2009 recruiting class and didn’t recruit a big.
III needs to re-think how to play this team. All 3 Big East losses were by being out-coached, and we have another seasoned coach to face on Wednesday.
Slow starts- perhaps we should script five plays to start each half and start with some consistency. Vanilla, was a top fifty recruit- goes to show you what ESPN knows- 20 ppg in HS didn’t translate into 10 ppg at this level. Markel- makes the offense run, but gets the cheap fouls early and sits, Then, we are effectively without a point guard when this happens. We have now moved down to an eight man rotation. III needs to get rid of all his cronies at the end of the season and bring in some new coaching blood, none of which he should have coached or played with, perhaps from another coaching tree. He also has to get some enthusiasm into the players, they all played with no emotion, looked like robots.I think Jason was sick with the flu and Hollis is still struggling with the muscle pull.
I know all you homers think that III is the greatest thing since sliced bread; He is just an average coach, who is stubborn, slow to react and slow to change. He does have job security as long as II is around. We live with that.
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EasyEd
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Post by EasyEd on Jan 28, 2012 20:49:01 GMT -5
The one predictable thing about this game was the sky is falling comments on this board. We had a bad game. It happens. Wasn't fun to watch but did anyone expect we would go through the season without a few of these? Let's move on to the UCONN game.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Jan 28, 2012 20:52:27 GMT -5
My greatest fear, when Pitt started the BE losing all those games, was that when we played them they would have gotten their act together. Guess what? If they have lived up to their initial billing and we ours, then this loss would not have felt so bad.
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OldHoyafan
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Post by OldHoyafan on Jan 28, 2012 21:12:11 GMT -5
Cutting to do the basket at less than full speed is an utter waste of time in the Princeton offense. And that's what this team did for almost the entire the first half. The player with the ball makes no effort to beat his man off the dribble and those without the ball jog around the court. It wasn't Pitt's defense, it was putrid offensive sets. Again. Amen, Amen, Amen. JT3 reverted back to the JT3 of last year today, not many adjustments on offense or defense. I knew, all on this board knew and I am sure JT3 knew that Pitt would hold the cutters, bump the cutters, hold Henry and yet the players looked surprised and frustrated when it happened all game. The strategy was to stick to Gibbs with the man guarding the screener to hedge to keep Gibbs from having an open 3pt shot. Dixon anticipated this and had the screener run to the basket which resulted in Robinson and Taylor having career days. Yet Hoyas did not adjust. It would have been better to play straight up zone and let Gibbs have his shots and shut everyone else down. JT3 should have cleared his bench when players kept playing soft. have to say it Dixon knows the Hoyas have played soft in the past and he prepared his team for that today. The Pitt players drive to the hoop and make the refs call a foul. The Hoyas drive(if they drive at all) to the hoop and try to avoid contact with fade away shot or whirley-derby, under the basket, off the back of board circus shot. At the 11:00 minute mark in 2nd half the Hoyas had pit in the one-and one, yet they did not score for 7 minutes because they did not make refs call the foul by driving all the way to the basket. That sums it up. On a side note, give me four more guy like Jabril. I love this kids toughness. Does anyone know if DSR has that toughness or is he like Starks and Hollis try to avoid all contact when driving to the basket.
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Jan 28, 2012 21:17:23 GMT -5
DSR is better at taking hits than Hollis and Markel.
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guru
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Post by guru on Jan 28, 2012 22:16:55 GMT -5
My greatest fear, when Pitt started the BE losing all those games, was that when we played them they would have gotten their act together. Guess what? If they have lived up to their initial billing and we ours, then this loss would not have felt so bad. I'm not sure Pitt has gotten its act together. That was still a pretty bad team we lost to today. Of course, in my opinion we've been an average (at best) team since the Marquette game. And even in that one we sucked for about 3/4 of the game. We are looking at 9-9 in conference unless we turn things around.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Jan 28, 2012 22:22:28 GMT -5
I was as frustrated watching this game as anybody, but I think the "JT3 is an average coach" comments are a little bit ridiculous. I think it's totally fair to criticize our coach and today was certainly not one of our better days. However, it's important to remember that our March failures notwithstanding, Georgetown has a MUCH better than average team since JTIII became our coach. In fact, as far as the regular season goes, we have probably had one of the best 15-20 teams in the nation.
Would Georgetown seriously be able to get a coach that would do any better? I really don't think so.
We're still 6-3 and in a MUCH better position than we thought we'd be in at this point. We do have a difficult stretch of games coming up, but we're still excellently positioned for the post-season. Remember, Connecticut was 9-9 last year and won the championship.
That said, the team has to play better. Where was Hollis Thompson all game? At one point, I almost forgot he was on the floor because he hadn't made an impact. The offensive needs to get it together. Despite our defensive lapses, we could have still won this game with some offense. Henry Sims showed some flashes today, but nothing consistent.
Clearly, the team hasn't been kicking on all cylinders for a few games and they need to turn it around if they want to hang with Connecticut or beat Syracuse.
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Jan 28, 2012 22:26:36 GMT -5
seriously, opther than Memphis, who has III out- coached this season?
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Jan 28, 2012 22:31:29 GMT -5
We have won several tough games this season, and I think JTIII should get credit for them. Not many teams with so many young players would be in the position we're in today, and I think we can thank JTIII and the staff for that. I would also credit JTIII for the comeback against Marquette. If he didn't bench our starters (except Jason Clark) and roll the dice with the freshman, we may have lost that one too.
Everybody's instinct is to blame our coach, which is totally understandable, but our players need to perform too and they didn't do well enough today. Our defense was shaky at best and our offense was lethargic and involved a lot of rushed shots. JTIII can coach all he wants, if the guys don't perform, we're going to lose.
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