SaxaCD
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,402
|
Post by SaxaCD on Feb 26, 2007 22:22:41 GMT -5
No, they were only tight for the team that was rushing all their shots. ;D They were tight for the Hoyas way before they started rushing shots. I haven't seen so many misses on wide open looks in a long time, and we got a bunch of the rebounds and missed the chippie putbacks, too. ugh. I'm forgetting this one and focusing on Saturday already. Time to have our own "senior day" party.
|
|
Madgesdiq
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,434
|
Post by Madgesdiq on Feb 26, 2007 22:23:13 GMT -5
To win the Big East tournament, this team will have to win 3 games in 3 days.
To advance to the Final Four, this team will have to win 2 games in 48 hours twice.
I would rather place blame on coach, players, team managers, students, alumni, Governor Spitzer, Syracuse Mayor Driscoll (i had to look that one up), over confidence, lack of confidence......anything, except, we were tired. These guys who have played 3-4 AAU games a day from the time they were 11-12 years old, are now too tired to play 2 games in three days against our number 1 rival who had also played a must game on Saturday. Mentally fatigued after the Pitt win, perhaps, but tired.... Bullocks.
|
|
Highsmith
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,490
|
Post by Highsmith on Feb 26, 2007 22:24:09 GMT -5
mapei - when TC was in the game tonight he looked lost. Rivers was strong on defense and I don't think he played poorly on offense - he just did not do much, other than the one 3, to distinguish himself tonight. In that, he fit in nicely with the other guards. The front line, aside from Ewing, had a miserable night shooting. The rims seemed awfully tight, but Summers, Green, and Hibbert all looked like they were rushing their shots. In some ways, it looked a lot like the first 10 minutes of the last Pitt game when they were too fired up. I agree Dan- this whole game was very similar to that beginning of the Pitt game. The team was nervous, tight and that put them way out of sync......then things just snowballed when SU got hot. If this had been any other team, I think i would be over it by now.....not happy about it but over it. Being Syracuse, I won't be over it until we win some sort of tournament or next year......which ever comes first. Another thing.....I turned the channel to avoid seeing the very end- I can't believe they seriously rushed the court.
|
|
|
Post by swflahoya on Feb 26, 2007 22:25:27 GMT -5
I love all these guys, and everything they've done to get back where we belong. Hell, Bilas was practically begging for us to be a #1 seed in the pre-game talk. That being said, we didn't show up tonight, and let's hope that's part of the maturation process; not just for the players but the whole program. Summers and Green were horrible tonight and nobody could hit a big shot, inside or outside, so let's learn from it. After the USF loss last year (entirely my fault, it was the first game I saw in person since the NIT win over Florida in 98, what's up Shennard!) we got to the semi's in the BET and pushed the eventual National Champs to the brink. So let's learn from it, vent, and move on
SAXA HOYA!!!!
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Feb 26, 2007 22:28:33 GMT -5
Tired or not, this is the reality: SU made us play a lot faster than we wanted to tonight, both with turnovers (our own fault) and their ability to play uptempo and succeed in transition. We also played a lot faster at the offensive end at the beginning of the game than I'm sure III would have preferred, and the added tempo early in the game no doubt had an effect on us by the last 10 minutes of the game. I'm not sure what the possession numbers were (CO will take care of that on his website by tomorrow, I assume), but they have to be considerably higher than what we have averaged this year, and it could not have helped us (both with our preference to play at a slower pace as well as fatigue).
|
|
mapei
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,088
|
Post by mapei on Feb 26, 2007 22:29:55 GMT -5
I'm not going to get on them for rushing the court. We would have done the same thing after the Pitt game if there hadn't been such good security.
|
|
DanMcQ
Moderator
Posts: 30,913
|
Post by DanMcQ on Feb 26, 2007 22:30:06 GMT -5
The front line, aside from Ewing, had a miserable night shooting. The rims seemed awfully tight, but Summers, Green, and Hibbert all looked like they were rushing their shots. In some ways, it looked a lot like the first 10 minutes of the last Pitt game when they were too fired up. I agree that Summers and Green had an awful night shooting, infact Summers has been in a slump for the last 2-3 games that we need him to come out of. But Roy did not have a miserable night shooting...infact he shot 75%, unfortunately that 75% was only 3 out of 4. We need the gaurds to get him the ball. The only thing we can blame Roy on tonight was his foul trouble and even a little of that can be blamed on the refs. My bad - I included Roy in that comment before I looked at the box score. SU did a good job of denying Roy the ball and everyone else forced it. That said, this is another teaching experience for the coaching staff, who have already demonstrated an excellent ability to get this team to learn from their mistakes. I do not expect anything different as a result of tonight.
|
|
|
Post by HometownHoya on Feb 26, 2007 22:33:43 GMT -5
I'm not going to get on them for rushing the court. We would have done the same thing after the Pitt game if there hadn't been such good security. Not to nitpick, but no we weren't. Even before the security came out, Hoya Blue members we spreading the word not to rush. Why? Because we were better then that, we are a good team, and beating Pitt was understandable. But now back to the 'Cuse game...lets hope that coach works on fast breaks, shooting, and feeding the post in practice this week
|
|
Highsmith
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,490
|
Post by Highsmith on Feb 26, 2007 22:33:49 GMT -5
The thing that really has me down is how I am going to have to listen to all the SU fans around here talk about how great they played........they did what they had to and shot very well in the second half, but very few, if any, of their fans will realize how much of this loss was us beating ourselves. I guess it is one more time I just have to take it.......but I am sick of it- year after year after year. This is the one team I wanted us to beat and despite being a clearly better team every other night of the year, we still can't do it.
OK, I've got to let this go for tonight.......I'll hear enough about it tomorrow to make me puke. Good night all and stop blaming Coach or any players- this was a complete team meltdown that no coach could do much about. Also, please stop blaming fatigue!!! SU's starters played more minutes than any of our guys did on Saturday, they have a shorter bench and they had one guy playing on one leg. Screw fatigue!!!! It, along with blaming the refs is an embarrassing excuse in any game....especially one like this. A better team had a horrible game against a decent team on an emotional night. Most teams have games like this along the way- we just happened to be so fortunate as to have it against the team that a HUGE portion of our fans hates more than any other team in the universe.
|
|
town05
Century (over 100 posts)
Posts: 201
|
Post by town05 on Feb 26, 2007 22:36:14 GMT -5
I'm not going to get on them for rushing the court. We would have done the same thing after the Pitt game if there hadn't been such good security. And you all would have looked like idiots. The whole time at the game I was HOPING hoya blue had enough sense to not let that happen. Glad security was there this time... Think Syracuse does that for their visiting teams? nope
|
|
DonkDonk
Bulldog (over 250 posts)
Posts: 428
|
Post by DonkDonk on Feb 26, 2007 22:41:23 GMT -5
Tired or not, this is the reality: SU made us play a lot faster than we wanted to tonight, both with turnovers (our own fault) and their ability to play uptempo and succeed in transition. We also played a lot faster at the offensive end at the beginning of the game than I'm sure III would have preferred, and the added tempo early in the game no doubt had an effect on us by the last 10 minutes of the game. I'm not sure what the possession numbers were (CO will take care of that on his website by tomorrow, I assume), but they have to be considerably higher than what we have averaged this year, and it could not have helped us (both with our preference to play at a slower pace as well as fatigue). agreed...playing at a faster/frenzied pace scares me - i would not want to draw an ACC team in the 2nd round. we HAVE to be much quicker on the entry passes - we need to be at the point where as soon as it comes to the wing, we almost 'one-time it' into Roy. any hesitation allows time for the defender to come around Roy's side. the 2-3 zone was pushed out so far that we could have worked some more baseline passes as well. i don't like the 'tired' argument either - syracuse had the same deal. still like our chances but continue to feel that we have been off-track for the last 4 games. I think I hate Devendorf more than Syracuse.
|
|
bmartin
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,459
|
Post by bmartin on Feb 26, 2007 22:43:29 GMT -5
This was like Florida's game vs. LSU. The team is ready for the tournament. Mailed this one in. It happens.
|
|
Omega
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
Posts: 565
|
Post by Omega on Feb 26, 2007 22:52:06 GMT -5
Give it a rest. The bottom line is that thia team played poorly. It wasn't any particular player, it was simply a bad performance. The Hoyas lack of depth really showed tonite. That Pitt game took a lot out of the team. It was a very physically and emotionally draining game. Then in 48 hours the team had to travel from snowy DC to Syracuse. Leaving the DC area was misserable on Sunday, so we have no way of knowing what time they actually got to Syracuse. Additionally, shooting in the Dome is very tough. Basically, this game was lost before the Hoyas took the court.
Some of you who have had a bone to pick with JT want to point to poise. Poise had nothing to do with it. It was obvious that the team was fatigued. They bounced passes off each other heads-- they played like the bad news bears tonite. JT getting that tech was an attempt to fire his team up. If you've followed the man since he's been here, you'd know that he is very calculating. As such, he's not going to get a tech unless he saw a benefit in it. Had Bobby Knight or Roy Wiliams received that tech, some of you would be the first to praise them for trying to fire up the team. The bottom line is that the Hoyas were due for a poor game. IT HAPPENNED, MOVE ON!
Welcome back to one of the board's original posters. --Admin
|
|
OldHoyafan
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 1,387
|
Post by OldHoyafan on Feb 26, 2007 22:54:08 GMT -5
Wow! I watched the 1st half then had to leave home so I taped the 2nd half. I could tell at end of the half though, the the Hoyas were in trouble tonight. Look, as much as evryone on this board hates to lose to the Cuse, this was (1) a road game in BE on their senior night;(2) played before 26 thousand screaming fans(3) against a team with a 53 RPI, needing a signature win to try to get to the NCAA's., (4) against a team that plays nothing but zone(which requires at least one sharpshooter to beat it) and has perfected the art, and (5) the last game of the 2nd three games in six day stretch in 3 weeks. Guys, the team just did not have their legs tonight. They played like they were not only physically tired but mentally tired also, evidence the many turnovers on lackadasical passes by everyone of the starters. Even our superman, Green was tired and could not save them. How many of us would have gladly taken holding serve on all our conference home games except Nova, at the beginning of the year. If these Hoyas beat UConn on Saturday ,they will have done just that and avenged their only home loss by returning the favor on Nova in Philly. I hope the team can put UConn away early Saturday so Roy, Jeff and Wallace can get some much deserved rest. Roy especially, seems to have hit the perverbial wall. Beat UConn on our Senior Day and rest the starters for the BE championship. This team has brought too much joy to me this year for one game, albeit the hated Cuse, to ruin that.
|
|
RDF
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 8,835
|
Post by RDF on Feb 26, 2007 23:01:24 GMT -5
Give it a rest. The bottom line is that thia team played poorly. It wasn't any particular player, it was simply a bad performance. The Hoyas lack of depth really showed tonite. That Pitt game took a lot out of the team. It was a very physically and emotionally draining game. Then in 48 hours the team had to travel from snowy DC to Syracuse. Leaving the DC area was misserable on Sunday, so we have no way of knowing what time they actually got to Syracuse. Additionally, shooting in the Dome is very tough. Basically, this game was lost before the Hoyas took the court. Some of you who have had a bone to pick with JT want to point to poise. Poise had nothing to do with it. It was obvious that the team was fatigued. They bounced passes off each other heads-- they played like the bad news bears tonite. JT getting that tech was an attempt to fire his team up. If you've followed the man since he's been here, you'd know that he is very calculating. As such, he's not going to get a tech unless he saw a benefit in it. Had Bobby Knight or Roy Wiliams received that tech, some of you would be the first to praise them for trying to fire up the team. The bottom line is that the Hoyas were due for a poor game. IT HAPPENNED, MOVE ON! Welcome back to one of the board's original posters. --AdminI watched the damn game--Jeff Green lost his poise and disappeared after he and Devendork got into it--if you would like to see this debacle again--I'd be glad to get something out to you off my TIVO of the game--he went AWOL and lost his poise. III was as jittery as I've seen him due to being excited and really seems like Cuse is only team he really gets that way about for same reason many of us hate them. Team played tight and couldn't overcome it--it happens but to say it didn't happen and that a snowstorm caused the poor play--come on Omega-that is manure. Best thing about tonight is that it's over--but by many on this site's logic--there should be no repeat of tonight due to having an entire week to prepare for UConn, correct? There are 10 possible games left for the Hoyas and they need to approach it as 1 Tournament game at a time starting with UConn--now is the time to play your BEST BASKETBALL and whatever happens, make teams beat you -don't play down to a level that makes it easy for them. We all have faith in the team and support but I refuse to hear excuses about a loss to friggin Syracuse on February 26th with Big East Title at stake. If you can't find your game for that or keep your intensity and control your emotions/channel it through your play--then it's on you--not the weather, not the quick turnaround, and certainly not on some silly logic you can't win more then 11 games in a row. You need to win 3 in a row to win a Conference Title and you need 6 in a row to win National Title--it's NEVER easy--but it's never going to be doable if you allow excuses for poor play/lost focus by your best player to creep in--it was a crap game from Jeff and majority of team--it's over--but don't act like it didn't happen--if you do, you'll be wondering why we're home watching the BET and NCAA's after 2 games total.
|
|
DanMcQ
Moderator
Posts: 30,913
|
Post by DanMcQ on Feb 26, 2007 23:04:25 GMT -5
RDF: I happen to agree with most of your assessment of the game tonight, but I have no idea what you are talking about when you say the coach was "jittery". He looked the same to me as he always does. Frankly, to expect any coach not to get a technical in a Karl Hess-reffed game is asking a bit much.
|
|
bubbrubbhoya
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
We are the intuitive minds that plot the course. Woo-WOOO!
Posts: 1,369
|
Post by bubbrubbhoya on Feb 26, 2007 23:06:54 GMT -5
Anyone else notice that the best we played all night was during the few minutes after III's T? One of the few enjoyable parts of the game, for me.
|
|
burghoya
Century (over 100 posts)
Posts: 243
|
Post by burghoya on Feb 26, 2007 23:07:16 GMT -5
all I have to say is this; the team has been hyped up too much. Are we good, yeah. Are we the best, no way... and I think the media (especially ESPN) has done their part in making this team to be way more than it is 1) I'm glad we lost... good! maybe it's humility, maybe it's the away court, blah blah blah...
it's an experience needed. I think the team (especially) has been feeding into the belief that the team is better than it is (which worries me).
2) better we lose now than in the tourney.
this kinda goes along with point1, but whatever.
when we go to MSG or to any other away point during MM, how are we going to deal with "away" situations? it's better we get the learning experience in now than later
3) We needed more fast-paced/tenacious defenses this past season, and good for 'cuse for figuring it out... because if not now, then when? two weeks, or even worse, a month from now?!
the bottom line is, thank goodness we made the mistakes now so we can learn from them NOW!
|
|
|
Post by wildhoya on Feb 26, 2007 23:16:07 GMT -5
Couple of positives from the loss:
1. this board emerges from the doldrums for a bit.
2. Green's lottery stock down a couple of points.
Hoya Saxa
|
|
Big Dog
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,912
|
Post by Big Dog on Feb 26, 2007 23:17:53 GMT -5
To win the Big East tournament, this team will have to win 3 games in 3 days. To advance to the Final Four, this team will have to win 2 games in 48 hours twice. I would rather place blame on coach, players, team managers, students, alumni, Governor Spitzer, Syracuse Mayor Driscoll (i had to look that one up), over confidence, lack of confidence......anything, except, we were tired. These guys who have played 3-4 AAU games a day from the time they were 11-12 years old, are now too tired to play 2 games in three days against our number 1 rival who had also played a must game on Saturday. Mentally fatigued after the Pitt win, perhaps, but tired.... Bullocks. You do understand the difference between riding the bus back to the hotel and coming back two days later (to play on a neutral floor again) versus hopping on a plane to fly across three states, right? But it was probably more about mental fatigue. Tonight was 'Cuse's season. We had that game on Saturday. Hard for us to match it, especially in front of their fans. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It can be a disappointment, but it shouldn't be a surprise.
|
|