We can change it all Saturday

[coloradohoya]

Let's just get this one win against Duke and then we'll worry about the next one. Big East season hasn't even started yet. An 11 seed can make it to the Final Four.

Really this post is me talking myself down from the snow-covered ledge.

Feel free to repeat after me: "All is not lost..."

[Filo]

I'll try...

All is not lost...

All is not lost...

[not feeling better yet]

[coloradohoya]

filo said:

[not feeling better yet]

Me neither.

[bostonhoya05]

If anyone said pre-season that we'd be 5-2, but beat Duke, I think I would have taken it... so why not?

[Nevada Hoya]

We expected a bit too much from this team, I guess. As people have noted, we miss the senior leadership, like AC getting 25 points against the Ducks last year. Maybe they do better in adversity. Losing at McD and at Verizon, when all should have been going our way, is disappointing. Now for the test at Duke. Will Jeff and Roy step up? I sure hope so.

[1984alloveragain]

Besides Ball St., we have NOT looked good at home this year at all....Glad we're playing Duke on the road this year. Also, I guess it's good in one sense to play a game two days after another one in the non-conference since we'll do it during the conference season, but...

[dreamhoya]

I understand, but LOSING AT HOME TO TEAMS YOU SHOULD BEAT??? GETTING OUT HUSTLED. I just realized, we have no quickness at guard - maybe Sapp, but his shooting is suspect...who on this team has a feathery jumpshot besides Wallace?

[RockawayHoya]

We shouldn't be getting outhustled at home. Granted they were quicker than us, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have done a better job boxing out.

Our two best player shouldn't have a 6 point night. Combined. They can forget about hearing their name on June if they don't wake up.

If Oregon hadn't absolutely bricked everything for the entire game, we would have lost by at least 20.

As I said in HoyaChat, this is easily the worst I've seen this team play in the last year and a half.

[dreamhoya]

looked like an Esherick-coached team.

[Filo]

Thinking about this a bit...

Yeah, sure, we match up better with Dook than the Ducks, and Dook is not nearly as fast the Ducks. But - unless a far different Hoya team shows up on Saturday, I think we are kidding ourselves if we think we can pull one out in Cameron.

I am going to try not to think about this team and game until Saturday.

[tal1286]

bostonhoya05 said:

If anyone said pre-season that we'd be 5-2, but beat Duke, I think I would have taken it... so why not?

You're kidding yourself.

I might have taken 6-1 if the loss was to Duke but with the hype surrounding this team during the preseason we should have been 7-0 after the Duke game.

This team is absolutely nowhere near as good as advertised and it's frustrating and embarassing.

[HoyaInsomniac]

All is not lost... or maybe this is my undying optimism for the capabilities of this team... Maybe Crawford can gain those 15 pounds back and get back into it in the next 3 days? Please?

[YB]

We cannot change it all Saturday. That's the problem. You guys are not getting what I said at the start- young teams REALLY suck in III's offense at the start. This team may not be good at all this year,especially if Jeff and Roy don't wake up. The Juniors must LEAD this team. Right now they are deferring, and that will not do. We would be overrated at ranking #150 right now. The freshmen and sophs are just terrible, and the juniors are not picking up the slack.

[kghoya]

nobody seemed to realize that the hoyas rode the cook train to the sweet 16...i just didnt realize how much cook, owens, and bowman effected the team defense...man this might be one of the worst defensive sides ever to put on the blue and grey

[shansington]

i absolutely agree. ashanti, darrell, and brandon meant so much more to our team than most people realize. we need leaders on this team. jeff is not a leader. jon? tyler? who knows? but we need to find one quick.

[hoyaboy1]

yb said:

We cannot change it all Saturday. That's the problem. You guys are not getting what I said at the start- young teams REALLY suck in III's offense at the start. This team may not be good at all this year,especially if Jeff and Roy don't wake up. The Juniors must LEAD this team. Right now they are deferring, and that will not do. We would be overrated at ranking #150 right now. The freshmen and sophs are just terrible, and the juniors are not picking up the slack.

Ridiculous post. The offense has been much better than the defense and rebounding, and I think pointing at the freshman and sophs as problems on offense is way out there. Sapp has been iffy, but Egerson has been fine. The freshman have been mediocre.

Youth is far from the problem.

[YB]

hoyaboy- you're looking at the wrong stats.

Last year, we averaged around 10 TOs again, but most games we had more like 7 or 8- very good for a college team.

This year we're in the mid-teens in TOs/game.

Anyone who looks at the Hoyas can see what's happeneing. At any given time you have 3 players on the floor who don't know what they're doing. So Summers and Egerson chuck it up, because they clearly can't do anything else. Roy tries to post up- except tonight, when he spent most of the night 20 feet from the bucket. And green keeps throwing the ball into the defenders' legs trying to squeeze off backdoor passes that aren;t there. The freshmen are not yet ready for prime time- they are simply not.

We had 41 points with 3 minutes to go in the game. You tell me the offense is not a problem? Please. We get picked apart by any competent defense. If the juniors do not step up and lead, this team looks lost and has flat nothing. The freshmen are giving us squat, nothing. The sophs are giving us erratic play. Youth is exactly the problem, except the experienced players are not doing their part to mitigate it.

[hoyaboy1]

I don't have the new efficiency numbers yet, but coming into this game our offense was 23rd and defense was 256. We were also 170 in offensive rebounding percentage. Today the offense struggled moreso than the defense, sure. But you were talking about the whole season, and were simply wrong.

[YB]

The name of the game in this offense is playmaking. Only 3 players on this team can currently do it; they are not doing it well tho. The rest need to figure it out, quick. The TO numbers bear it out more than anything.

Their defense also sucks rocks, true. Again tho, they play that matchup zone D that requires knowing when to switch, etc. The new guys are just not getting it right now either.

[GIGAFAN99]

I tell you what, I'm the happiest guy in the world we have an extra two games this year. It can only help this team develop. I didn't think they'd need all 13 OOC games to get going, but they will, that's for sure.