Post by RockawayHoya on Dec 3, 2006 18:26:16 GMT -5
And as I offer my 2 cents, I'll promise you all more than just ANOTHER not so subtle jab at our guard play.
18 hours of driving gives you a lot of time to think about the game. Here are just some points (in no specific order of importance):
1) I was thoroughly impressed by both Cameron (the facility itself) as well as their fans. Their students often get a bad rap for being posers and TV whores, but this much is for certain: a) they never take a play off, b) they never take a timeout off, and c) they stay away from the negative cheering (bs chants, heckling the opposing team, etc.). I thought I was going to catch a lot of flak from their fans for standing, but guess what: they (as in the general audience) were standing up for a good portion of the game, including all key moments, and any time the student section asked for their help for noise. As a fan of college basketball, I couldn't ask for a better environment to watch the game, and the Duke fans were both knowledgeable as well as classy. I have a lot more respect for their fans (and by their fans, I mean the locals as well as the alums, not the posers living across the country who root for them just because they happen to be a frontrunner) after this weekend. Interesting sidenote: the student section has their own entrance into the arena. And note to self, don't try to enter through that entrance in future visits to Cameron.
1b (since I'm too lazy to renumber my points and I didn't want this to be the last one): Vitale revving up the crowd and bringing his grandchildren into the student section an hour before tip-off was just sickening. I will just leave it at that.
2) I was a lot happier with our overall effort last night. I was especially critical of them after the Oregon game last Wed., and they really came out and showed me more intensity and a desire to compete. The crowd was loud, but I don't believe we were intimidated at all by the environment. I admit I was extremely worried that we would be run out of the building, given that we have so many inexperienced players playing big minutes. They more than held their own.
3) One point that was brought up several times over the off season was whether or not we could find somebody who could assume Ashanti's role of getting a tough basket when our offense would break down and the shot clock would be winding down. We did that often in the 1st half, with Sapp, Wallace, and Rivers all making clutch shots and creating something out of nothing. At least in the 1st half, those plays masked the fact that we were still getting nothing from our post players. I had a feeling it would be wishful thinking hoping that it would last all game, and obviously it didn't. Guard play continues to be amazingly our strength this year (collectively, they had a very strong game as a unit against Duke), but if that's the case, we are in for a long year.
4) Not every guard gets my stamp of approval. Marc Egerson was our only G/F that looked like he was in over his head on the floor last night. Bunch of open looks (can't argue with many, if any of the shots that he took), but he really needs to hit a few of those uncontested jumpers. He was also more often than not a primary culprit on defense.
5) Speaking of our defense: much better effort last night. Guys were fighting around picks much better, and aside from two early uncontested threes by Nelson and a bad break where a loose ball caromed directly to Pocius, our guys did what I thought was a solid job closing out on the perimeter. What killed us on defense was not getting back in transition defense late in the game (during that late flurry when Duke began to build their lead off of turnovers and layups). I don't know if that could be attributed to fatigue or a lack of concentration, but it cost us dearly.
6) Roy and Jeff have got to understand this: rebounds are great, assists are great, and being team players are always better than not being them. But, if they do not offer enough in the way of putting the ball in the basket, we are not going to beat any team worth their salt this year. When Jeff Green has a random scrub like McClure pinned in the paint 5 feet from the bucket, he cannot come away with a turnover/badly missed shot. Plain and simple. When Roy Hibbert has McRoberts pinned in a similar position, he cannot settle for a 8 foot hook shot/air ball. Make a strong move, and force the defender to hack or allow a basket. This isn't rocket science, and I'm just not sure how the message hasn't gotten across to them that they need to be far more assertive on the offensive end of the floor. Having said all that, they definitely played better last night than they did earlier in the week. But they still need to improve. By a lot.
7) One crucial mistake many of our players made repeatedly over and over again were 5 second calls 30-40 feet from the basketThis happened at least 3-4 times, if not more. Those turnovers effectively killed whatever chance we had to build a double digit lead in the first half and possibly put the game out of reach when Duke was floundering on the offensive end. Players have to be more cognizant of the refs being extremely willing to call that (as well as point #6), and those are points that go against the coaching staff.
8) Since I mentioned the refs, I'll say this: I thought it was a very well officiated game. I was worried that they would get a lot of home cooking in Durham, but that was never the case. Only one call really puzzled me all night (when we were down 5 with 2 minutes to go, and it looked like Sapp and Green collided for a loose ball and they called a loose ball foul on Green which sent Duke to the line). But other than that, I couldn't complain at all.
9) The Rivers injury looked bad. He couldn't even put weight on his good foot as he was coming off the court. Let's pray it's just a bad sprain and he'll be back in time for the meat of the BE schedule. With him and Crawford now out (TC obviously is still not 100%, even though he saw token action), there is a significant amount of pressure on Wallace and Sapp to stay out of foul trouble now. Any smart team will go after them early and often, and I'm extremely worried about our backcourt depth.
10) This looks like the rotation that JTIII trusts to be out on the floor in big games. No sign of Macklin or Ewing Jr. (never expected to see Ewing on the floor anyways). It appears Summers and Rivers have earned III's trust to play big minutes, and I can't say I disagree. Summers is still way out of control on the defensive end, but I am very pleased with Rivers' poise and headiness in a pressure-packed environment. Again, his loss is a big one.
11) Now, perhaps my most critical statement of this team: we have absolutely no clue how to play from behind. Granted, we kept our composure and held the lead a lot longer than I thought we would have considering how poorly we executed on the offensive end in the 2nd half (Wallace's 3 to put us up 4 and a big bucket and foul by Roy to maintain our lead momentarily with about 5 minutes to go). But once we lost the lead, we freaked out again like usual. The team has to understand that when you are down 5, 7, 8 points under a minute to go, you can't swing the ball around and run 15-20 seconds trying to find the perfect shot. And, to top it off, it doesn't look like anyone understands that we need to take a 3 or dribble drive IMMEDIATELY to the basket in those situations. We made the same mistake against Oregon, and it wasn't corrected last night either. Coaching staff needs to address this ASAP.
12) Another criticism of our team. Can we please get on the floor to dive for a loose ball once in awhile? Duke wanted the loose balls way more than we did, and there were several plays where the ball was on the ground and our guy would try to pick it up and a Duke player would sacrifice his body to get to the ball first. That should not happen.
12) Don't mistake this as an outright JTIII bash or a call for the return of Esh (if you know me, you know damn well THAT will NEVER happen), but the coaching staff didn't do a good job lat all ast night. Adjustments needed to be made (such as some of the points I previously wrote about) since the last game as well as during the game, and many of them were not. It's OK to screw up once. But it's not OK to continuously commit the same mistakes. Let's hope the coaching staff gets on the ball before the next couple of games
13) Overall, a better effort from the Hoyas, and I'm not entirely distraught that we lost the game, but extremely disappointing that we let a very winnable game (and marquee road win) slip through our hands. It's by no means a crippling loss, but it does mean we have to run the table as far as our OOC is concerned. There's no more margin of error for us.
18 hours of driving gives you a lot of time to think about the game. Here are just some points (in no specific order of importance):
1) I was thoroughly impressed by both Cameron (the facility itself) as well as their fans. Their students often get a bad rap for being posers and TV whores, but this much is for certain: a) they never take a play off, b) they never take a timeout off, and c) they stay away from the negative cheering (bs chants, heckling the opposing team, etc.). I thought I was going to catch a lot of flak from their fans for standing, but guess what: they (as in the general audience) were standing up for a good portion of the game, including all key moments, and any time the student section asked for their help for noise. As a fan of college basketball, I couldn't ask for a better environment to watch the game, and the Duke fans were both knowledgeable as well as classy. I have a lot more respect for their fans (and by their fans, I mean the locals as well as the alums, not the posers living across the country who root for them just because they happen to be a frontrunner) after this weekend. Interesting sidenote: the student section has their own entrance into the arena. And note to self, don't try to enter through that entrance in future visits to Cameron.
1b (since I'm too lazy to renumber my points and I didn't want this to be the last one): Vitale revving up the crowd and bringing his grandchildren into the student section an hour before tip-off was just sickening. I will just leave it at that.
2) I was a lot happier with our overall effort last night. I was especially critical of them after the Oregon game last Wed., and they really came out and showed me more intensity and a desire to compete. The crowd was loud, but I don't believe we were intimidated at all by the environment. I admit I was extremely worried that we would be run out of the building, given that we have so many inexperienced players playing big minutes. They more than held their own.
3) One point that was brought up several times over the off season was whether or not we could find somebody who could assume Ashanti's role of getting a tough basket when our offense would break down and the shot clock would be winding down. We did that often in the 1st half, with Sapp, Wallace, and Rivers all making clutch shots and creating something out of nothing. At least in the 1st half, those plays masked the fact that we were still getting nothing from our post players. I had a feeling it would be wishful thinking hoping that it would last all game, and obviously it didn't. Guard play continues to be amazingly our strength this year (collectively, they had a very strong game as a unit against Duke), but if that's the case, we are in for a long year.
4) Not every guard gets my stamp of approval. Marc Egerson was our only G/F that looked like he was in over his head on the floor last night. Bunch of open looks (can't argue with many, if any of the shots that he took), but he really needs to hit a few of those uncontested jumpers. He was also more often than not a primary culprit on defense.
5) Speaking of our defense: much better effort last night. Guys were fighting around picks much better, and aside from two early uncontested threes by Nelson and a bad break where a loose ball caromed directly to Pocius, our guys did what I thought was a solid job closing out on the perimeter. What killed us on defense was not getting back in transition defense late in the game (during that late flurry when Duke began to build their lead off of turnovers and layups). I don't know if that could be attributed to fatigue or a lack of concentration, but it cost us dearly.
6) Roy and Jeff have got to understand this: rebounds are great, assists are great, and being team players are always better than not being them. But, if they do not offer enough in the way of putting the ball in the basket, we are not going to beat any team worth their salt this year. When Jeff Green has a random scrub like McClure pinned in the paint 5 feet from the bucket, he cannot come away with a turnover/badly missed shot. Plain and simple. When Roy Hibbert has McRoberts pinned in a similar position, he cannot settle for a 8 foot hook shot/air ball. Make a strong move, and force the defender to hack or allow a basket. This isn't rocket science, and I'm just not sure how the message hasn't gotten across to them that they need to be far more assertive on the offensive end of the floor. Having said all that, they definitely played better last night than they did earlier in the week. But they still need to improve. By a lot.
7) One crucial mistake many of our players made repeatedly over and over again were 5 second calls 30-40 feet from the basketThis happened at least 3-4 times, if not more. Those turnovers effectively killed whatever chance we had to build a double digit lead in the first half and possibly put the game out of reach when Duke was floundering on the offensive end. Players have to be more cognizant of the refs being extremely willing to call that (as well as point #6), and those are points that go against the coaching staff.
8) Since I mentioned the refs, I'll say this: I thought it was a very well officiated game. I was worried that they would get a lot of home cooking in Durham, but that was never the case. Only one call really puzzled me all night (when we were down 5 with 2 minutes to go, and it looked like Sapp and Green collided for a loose ball and they called a loose ball foul on Green which sent Duke to the line). But other than that, I couldn't complain at all.
9) The Rivers injury looked bad. He couldn't even put weight on his good foot as he was coming off the court. Let's pray it's just a bad sprain and he'll be back in time for the meat of the BE schedule. With him and Crawford now out (TC obviously is still not 100%, even though he saw token action), there is a significant amount of pressure on Wallace and Sapp to stay out of foul trouble now. Any smart team will go after them early and often, and I'm extremely worried about our backcourt depth.
10) This looks like the rotation that JTIII trusts to be out on the floor in big games. No sign of Macklin or Ewing Jr. (never expected to see Ewing on the floor anyways). It appears Summers and Rivers have earned III's trust to play big minutes, and I can't say I disagree. Summers is still way out of control on the defensive end, but I am very pleased with Rivers' poise and headiness in a pressure-packed environment. Again, his loss is a big one.
11) Now, perhaps my most critical statement of this team: we have absolutely no clue how to play from behind. Granted, we kept our composure and held the lead a lot longer than I thought we would have considering how poorly we executed on the offensive end in the 2nd half (Wallace's 3 to put us up 4 and a big bucket and foul by Roy to maintain our lead momentarily with about 5 minutes to go). But once we lost the lead, we freaked out again like usual. The team has to understand that when you are down 5, 7, 8 points under a minute to go, you can't swing the ball around and run 15-20 seconds trying to find the perfect shot. And, to top it off, it doesn't look like anyone understands that we need to take a 3 or dribble drive IMMEDIATELY to the basket in those situations. We made the same mistake against Oregon, and it wasn't corrected last night either. Coaching staff needs to address this ASAP.
12) Another criticism of our team. Can we please get on the floor to dive for a loose ball once in awhile? Duke wanted the loose balls way more than we did, and there were several plays where the ball was on the ground and our guy would try to pick it up and a Duke player would sacrifice his body to get to the ball first. That should not happen.
12) Don't mistake this as an outright JTIII bash or a call for the return of Esh (if you know me, you know damn well THAT will NEVER happen), but the coaching staff didn't do a good job lat all ast night. Adjustments needed to be made (such as some of the points I previously wrote about) since the last game as well as during the game, and many of them were not. It's OK to screw up once. But it's not OK to continuously commit the same mistakes. Let's hope the coaching staff gets on the ball before the next couple of games
13) Overall, a better effort from the Hoyas, and I'm not entirely distraught that we lost the game, but extremely disappointing that we let a very winnable game (and marquee road win) slip through our hands. It's by no means a crippling loss, but it does mean we have to run the table as far as our OOC is concerned. There's no more margin of error for us.