OldHoyafan
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
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Post by OldHoyafan on Feb 1, 2019 1:43:33 GMT -5
The most enjoyable part of this game was the grit and perseverance of this team. Xavier is a poor 3pt shooting team and yet tonight they hit 3pt shot after 3pt shot including two back to back banked 3pt shots. Earlier in year not so sure this team would have, could have kept fighting to overcome that. Freshman scored two thirds of total points. Freshman guards turn ball over only once in second half and that was on a shot clock violation. Only bad result of this game was the DNP for Carter. I know Mourning is a senior but his lack of defense gave Xavier easy baskets on the inside too many times while Govan was on the bench. I think Carter’s mobility would have prevented some of that.
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Post by HometownHoya on Feb 1, 2019 5:27:11 GMT -5
We used the Zone early which was ok, let up a lot of rebounds as expected, I liked that we're using it since changing up Ds always helps. Definitely needs work though and I hope we don't show it too often. The 3 guard sets with Mac, James, and Jagan looked great...imagine how we'll look when we get more depth at the G/F position. Too many O-rebs but that's to be expected against a team like Xavier, kept TOs low which helped us get back after the slow start. James had a huge game and finished in all the ways we were looking for, plus got a couple of layups at the hoop too. Josh is going to be a star, tbh he may be the most likely of this Freshman class to leave early due to his physical attributes ontop of his skills that keep showing.
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Post by Ranch Dressing on Feb 1, 2019 6:11:03 GMT -5
Josh LeBlanc is a true throwback to Coach Thompson's players from the late 70's and 80's, love that dude. Not sure you have go back that far. With that jumper starting to fall, he looks an awful lot like Otto Porter. At least he exhibits a lot of the same attributes, especially his nose for the ball and having a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
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lda05816
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Post by lda05816 on Feb 1, 2019 6:45:14 GMT -5
After the sloppy start (4 TOs in 4 mins) only 3 TOs the last 36 mins. I could have never imagined that happening just a few games ago. Winning that battle allowed us to withstand losing on the boards and an uncharacteristic 3 point shooting performance from Xavier.
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GIGAFAN99
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Post by GIGAFAN99 on Feb 1, 2019 7:02:23 GMT -5
After the sloppy start (4 TOs in 4 mins) only 3 TOs the last 36 mins. I could have never imagined that happening just a few games ago. Winning that battle allowed us to withstand losing on the boards and an uncharacteristic 3 point shooting performance from Xavier. If you can get Xavier to shoot 25 of 58 shots from deep, you've done your job executing the gameplan defensively. Of course, they had to bank in two key threes and hit one from Bethesda with 10 seconds left because its the Hoyas but they stuck to the plan and limited Xavier in the post and didn't let them get to the line.
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SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by SSHoya on Feb 1, 2019 7:10:14 GMT -5
Three freshmen combine for 51 of the Hoyas's 80 points. Add Yurt7 and Wahab and that future looks very bright, especially if Pickett develops.
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daveg023
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by daveg023 on Feb 1, 2019 7:23:55 GMT -5
Three freshmen combine for 51 of the Hoyas's 80 points. Add Yurt7 and Wahab and that future looks very bright, especially if Pickett develops. I was worried about James’ psyche in the 2.5 games since the Marquette ending. While he was playing under much more control, he seemingly stopped looking for his shot and when he did shoot, he was shooting pretty poorly (though some of this was prior to Marquette). Then last nights second half eruption happened. Wow if we get that James with the control and cut down on turnovers?! Ceiling is quite high! As far as Pickett, huge put back last night. I wish he tried a few more of those back to the basket moves he looked good with against SJ. That being said, I think through 1.75 seasons we kinda know what we are going to get with him. He may have his games here and there, but I think he’ll become more like a Kaleb for this team by time he’s a senior. I’d love to be wrong, but I just don’t think we should assume some leap is going to be made after a +50 game sample size.
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vv83
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Post by vv83 on Feb 1, 2019 7:28:21 GMT -5
After the sloppy start (4 TOs in 4 mins) only 3 TOs the last 36 mins. I could have never imagined that happening just a few games ago. Winning that battle allowed us to withstand losing on the boards and an uncharacteristic 3 point shooting performance from Xavier. If you can get Xavier to shoot 25 of 58 shots from deep, you've done your job executing the gameplan defensively. Of course, they had to bank in two key threes and hit one from Bethesda with 10 seconds left because its the Hoyas but they stuck to the plan and limited Xavier in the post and didn't let them get to the line. Govan, LeBlanc, and Mourning all worked hard to front the Xavier post men throughout the game. There were some breakdowns (like Jessie allowing an easy post entry to Hankins in the 2-3 zone D at one point), but for the most part we did a good job limiting their post touches. It takes hard, grinding work on every possession by the post defenders to do this - and that kind of D has not been our strong suit in recent years. Very encouraging to see all the post defenders working hard to deny Hankins and Jones the ball throughout the game. Especially Jones - that guy has killed us in recent games. He really is not anything special as an offensive player, but he has pushed our big guys around and scored way too easily against us. Until last night - we really did a good job limiting him. This was the second straight strong defensive game plan from the coaching staff. Against St. John's, we had Simon's defender clog the lane to prevent Ponds from killing us at the rim (thanks to Allenexis for his fine video breakdown on this point, posted at Casual Hoya). We took our chances with Simon hitting open 3's, and it worked because he struggled. Against Xavier, we fronted the post and again tried to clog the lane. This gave a bad 3 point shooting team some open looks. Xavier converted these shots much more effectively than usual - Marshall (21% from 3) shot well, and Goodin lucked into the 2 banked-in 3's. But even with Xavier shooting uncharacteristically well, it was still better than letting them us kill us in the low post and with drives to the rim. Even our less than mediocre zone D was somewhat effective, because we kept them from scoring inside. Good work by the coaches to design game plans tailored to the opponent strengths/weaknesses, and good work by the players in executing the game plans. The execution was far from perfect, but it was good enough. Best of all, the team worked hard on D throughout both games. That is the most important thing this year. Our defensive talent has some real limitations, but if we have good game plans and work hard for 40 minutes, we can at least have a chance to compete.
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MCIGuy
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by MCIGuy on Feb 1, 2019 7:54:40 GMT -5
Being down eight points at half on your own home floor to a team that was challenging you on the court with toughness and punching you in the mouth a bit, would have been a seal of doom for a Georgetown team for most of the past 15 years, even during the salad days. But that soft mentality and perception of the Hoyas is beginning to slip away. This team is showing it can get mentally and physically tough itself and STILL play its brand of basketball, even if that means having to reset after a bad first half performance. If its not exactly a new day yet with this program at the very least we can see the early approach of a the sunrise.
I know the points very kind of skewed towards the end but scoring 52 points in a second half of a Big East game against a team not named Creighton is pretty impressive.
With more than half of the Big East season left to be played the Hoyas have one less conference win than they did all of last season.
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Post by hoyalove4ever on Feb 1, 2019 8:03:57 GMT -5
Totally unimpaired rewatch notes: Josh missed his first two shots, then went 8 of 9. Missed his fourth too, went 7 for 7 from there. Only thing slowing him down tonight was weak whistles Akinjo turned it over twice in early minutes, Jesse three 9-0... time to grow a pair Freshmen scored 50 of 80 Trey’s dish to Josh was primo, hockey assist to Mac Defense on the floor was better tonight, but rebounding wasn’t Seven TOs Who sees Rodman in LeBlanc? 17:05 in 2nd half, Akinjo scoreless, finishes w 23 Are any of the fouls on LeBlanc legit? Mac’s foul on Hankins was worthy. Akinjo can run my offense anytime, anytime. Our backcourt is ridiculous. James’ tie up of mArshall at 11:42 is strong First chance to take the lead, 16something. First lead? .... still waiting... 9:36, Josh from GMal’s great takeawa 7 turns, 10 fouls. For once, those are not good half totals “He know how to go down in the ring.” We somehow make teams burn TOs. Where are the advanced analytics on that? “This kid’s legitimate. They haven’t had a point guard like him in....” Out-snot, our -rebounded, but they turned it over twice an much as us. Block stats are light. Agree that LeBlanc is Rodman without the crazy. He has the capacity to grown into a monster and already is very good.
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Post by augustusfinknottle on Feb 1, 2019 8:55:39 GMT -5
Seeing those two inadvertent straightaway bank shots, it occurred to me that the advertent bank shot has become a lost art. John Wooden required that his players employ it when shooting from the wing.Big John's Celtics teammate Sam Jones was its most notable exponent.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Feb 1, 2019 10:12:43 GMT -5
Someone had asked about number of possessions per half. By my count, there were actually 34 possessions first half, and 32 second half. So the pace was basically the same in both halves.
That said, our second half was outstanding offensively. We scored 52 points in 32 possesions, for 1.63 points per possession, which is phenomenal. We allowed 1.16 points per possession on defense, which is actually not all that good at all, but the offense was so good it didn't matter. Of course, the lack of turnovers and great three point shooting really juiced those numbers.
For contrast, in the first half we had 34 possessions and scored 28 points: an abymsal 0.82 ppp. On defense, we allowed 1.06 ppp.
So interestingly, we scored almost 100% times more points per possession in the second half compared to the first, but our defense was actually better in the first half.
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OldHoyafan
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
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Post by OldHoyafan on Feb 1, 2019 10:18:30 GMT -5
Seeing those two inadvertent straightaway bank shots, it occurred to me that the advertent bank shot has become a lost art. John Wooden required that his players employ it when shooting from the wing.Big John's Celtics teammate Sam Jones was its most notable exponent. Ahh, a fellow ancient one who remembers the little tidbits about the game. Sam Jones? Wow that’s going way back, but you are so right the jumper from the wing using the backboard, if perfected, can make an average jump shooter a good jump shooter. Unlike the straight rim shot, you can be off on your touch(hard or soft) and still bank the shot off the board. Wish we had more coaches who would teach this art.
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SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by SSHoya on Feb 1, 2019 10:24:57 GMT -5
Seeing those two inadvertent straightaway bank shots, it occurred to me that the advertent bank shot has become a lost art. John Wooden required that his players employ it when shooting from the wing.Big John's Celtics teammate Sam Jones was its most notable exponent. Ahh, a fellow ancient one who remembers the little tidbits about the game. Sam Jones? Wow that’s going way back, but you are so right the jumper from the wing using the backboard, if perfected, can make an average jump shooter a good jump shooter. Unlike the straight rim shot, you can be off on your touch(hard or soft) and still bank the shot off the board. Wish we had more coaches who would teach this art. I remember my junior high school coach telling us to use the backboard a la UCLA and John Wooden's instructions.
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drquigley
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Post by drquigley on Feb 1, 2019 10:58:59 GMT -5
The most enjoyable part of this game was the grit and perseverance of this team. Xavier is a poor 3pt shooting team and yet tonight they hit 3pt shot after 3pt shot including two back to back banked 3pt shots. Earlier in year not so sure this team would have, could have kept fighting to overcome that. Freshman scored two thirds of total points. Freshman guards turn ball over only once in second half and that was on a shot clock violation. Only bad result of this game was the DNP for Carter. I know Mourning is a senior but his lack of defense gave Xavier easy baskets on the inside too many times while Govan was on the bench. I think Carter’s mobility would have prevented some of that. My feelings exactly. At halftime I thought we were done because Xavier's game plan was taking away our up tempo offense and had us totally out of sync. But this team is so much more resilient than past Hoya teams. A real testament to the players and the coach who recruited them. I also would like to see more of Carter.
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SirSaxa
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Post by SirSaxa on Feb 1, 2019 11:48:01 GMT -5
Seeing those two inadvertent straightaway bank shots, it occurred to me that the advertent bank shot has become a lost art. John Wooden required that his players employ it when shooting from the wing.Big John's Celtics teammate Sam Jones was its most notable exponent. OK, this will take you back - and confirm your comments about John Wooden and UCLA's bank shots. As a freshman at GU, I attended a UCLA practice at McDonough Field House prior to their Final Four appearance at UMD. John Wooden ran his practice like a drill sargeant. They had all the usual drills, layup lines, weaves downcourt, etc. But they also had a drill shooting bank shots from the wing - with a kiss! And not a miss as I recall. The entire team participated. It was impressive. I believe this team was post Alcindor/Jabbar and pre-Walton. And yes, I also recall Sam Jones and his bank shots. The Jones boys in the backcourt - Sam and KC. What impressive teams those Celtics were -- for like... forever!
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NCHoya
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Post by NCHoya on Feb 1, 2019 11:56:45 GMT -5
Most encouraging game of the season for me. Not only did the Hoyas, fight back against a BE opponent by making their own plays on offense and defense in the 2nd half, but this occured after the team's best win of the season against SJU. The ability for a young team to avoid losing the letdown game was an important moment in their continued evolution.
I thought Ewing's gameplan was very good. He does not get enough credit for always having a distinct plan of attack against his opponents. For years, we watched JT3 teams approach each game the same way regardless of opponent, believing opponents needed to adjust to us. Well, the change to this mentality has been refreshing. Regardless of the ability to execute, I never worry that the team has not received specific instructions on how to attack or guard each opponent. Last night was no different, we used a rare zone because X can't shoot and they abused us last time on the interior. The correct adjustments were made.
Interesting that this game was won in the opposite of the last. The Hoyas forced turnovers (especially late) and limited their own to negate the unusally good outside shooting by Xavier. Impressive to see a young team win in multiple ways. With this win behind them, I am hoping to see a loose team against Nova that hopefully can use its offensive firepower to keep the game close and try to steal it.
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EasyEd
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by EasyEd on Feb 1, 2019 13:04:45 GMT -5
Seeing those two inadvertent straightaway bank shots, it occurred to me that the advertent bank shot has become a lost art. John Wooden required that his players employ it when shooting from the wing.Big John's Celtics teammate Sam Jones was its most notable exponent. David Wingate says hello.
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Post by augustusfinknottle on Feb 1, 2019 14:38:20 GMT -5
Seeing those two inadvertent straightaway bank shots, it occurred to me that the advertent bank shot has become a lost art. John Wooden required that his players employ it when shooting from the wing.Big John's Celtics teammate Sam Jones was its most notable exponent. OK, this will take you back - and confirm your comments about John Wooden and UCLA's bank shots. As a freshman at GU, I attended a UCLA practice at McDonough Field House prior to their Final Four appearance at UMD. John Wooden ran his practice like a drill sargeant. They had all the usual drills, layup lines, weaves downcourt, etc. But they also had a drill shooting bank shots from the wing - with a kiss! And not a miss as I recall. The entire team participated. It was impressive. I believe this team was post Alcindor/Jabbar and pre-Walton. And yes, I also recall Sam Jones and his bank shots. The Jones boys in the backcourt - Sam and KC. What impressive teams those Celtics were -- for like... forever! I was there too. Final Four was at Cole Field House. Some of their players were Henry Bibby, Curtis Rowe, Sidney Wicks, Steve Patterson (Center), and, I believe, John Vallely. Everyone was rightfully so in awe of UCLA at that time that the onlookers applauded even their most basic drills. You could see the Bruins chuckling at this.
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zxhoya
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Post by zxhoya on Feb 1, 2019 14:45:45 GMT -5
Josh LeBlanc is a true throwback to Coach Thompson's players from the late 70's and 80's, love that dude. Not sure you have go back that far. With that jumper starting to fall, he looks an awful lot like Otto Porter. At least he exhibits a lot of the same attributes, especially his nose for the ball and having a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Because of my age I can only speak to the late 80's to present. The late 80's and the Ewing era teams seemingly had all LeBlanc type players no matter the size. Tough, energetic, athletic and defensively never quit. There was never a loose ball that they weren't willing to dive onto the floor or into the stands for, never a breakaway that they didn’t run down and either block it or make them earn it from the line, never a fight they weren't willing to finish (literally). Not all were gifted offensively but you knew they were going to compete. Perry McDonald is probably my favorite player of all time in any sport and Gene Smith maybe my 2nd. Coach Ewing knows the kind of players and people he wants and I believe it's more the LeBlanc types and agree with that 100%.
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