Hoyas vs. Vandy Regional Semis Pre-Game Discussion

[AustinHoya03]

jpm32 said:

Hoyas -7.5 vs. Commodres


Again...the respect from Vegas....

Pomeroy predicts a similar result -- Hoyas win by eight, 69-61.

[HoyaDestroya]

three things happen and we walk away with this one... if any of these don't happen, it will be closer than the 8 pomeroy is giving us...

1. Already said 100 times - establish the inside presence early
2. Get a hand in the face of anyone taking a 3-ball
3. Switch back quicker on D when a pick results in a mismatch (I don't know how many times this happened in the BC game and it meant Sapp was guarding Dudley - but it resulted in too many BC shots or fouls from the big men coming over to help).

- Captain Casual Friday

[lichoya68]

NEED TO DEFEND THE THREE DEFEND THE THREE AND WILL NEED 75 OR MORE POINTS IN THIS ONE IE NEED TO SCORE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE SHOOTERS COME ON BACK COME ON BACK GO HOAYS 75ORMORE

[FrazierFanatic]

That automatic switch bugs me often, especially when we are left with Roy on a little on the perimeter - begs for a foul, with Roy's aggressiveness.

[Oh My!]

Fair enough, but I was thinking of your pure "Bigs". You said in the other thread that Cage & Byars guard bigger players well, but you said nothing of Skuchas. I was purely talking about Skuchas, Neltner, & Metcalfe. They had a combined 21 & 15 here in November.

Yes, I realize both teams are different "teams" than 4 months ago, but I still like our advantage inside.

[hoyaLS05]

bupride said:

vegasrain said:

VU has noone who can hang with any of our post players, so smart, aggressive play at both ends of the floor should lead to big games for Jeff, Roy, Pat, and Vernon.

that's the same thing florida said with noah and horford. and alabama said with davidson and hendrix. and lsu said with big baby and kentucky with randolph morris.

i'm not saying your bigs aren't incredible, they definately are, i'm just saying it's not going to be as easy as you may thing form to dominate offensively. in fact, vu has been pretty succesful at shutting down some great big men offensively this year, it's the offensive rebounds that have killed us. i'm afraid hibberts and green may combing for 15 offensive boards, if that happens we are toast.

by the way "all we have to do is shut down the three point line" is the mantra we've heard before every one of our 22 wins. surprisingly, we are a good 3 point shooting team, but a great one. percentage wise, we can't hold a candle to nd, but we can move the ball very well (15 assists on 15 baskets in the first half against gw) and are more athletic than we are given credit for. it should be an incredble game to watch and i'm sure both coaches are going to have there teams very well prepared.

Here is my question: is Kevin Stallings going to insist on playing man-to-man for the entire game like he did in November?

[HarbinHoya]

Couple things. How do you think the vandy fan base travels? I expect us to have an edge in fans as every hoya i have talked to from the New York area thus far says they will be at that game, but just wondering. Also, do you think that having big support always helps, sometimes I feel that we play better when people are down on us sometimes.
Also, we have got to keep Jeff and Roy out of early foul trouble. Having the post presence is going to be key in terms of controlling the tempo of the game. I think we shoot the 3 well but dont want to get it into a rythm where they are jacking up shots from outside all the time.
Finally, any rooting interest in the second game. If we advance do we match up better against usc or carolina?

[bupride]

there is no doubt about your advantage inside. your bigs are going to see a lot of double-downs, which i'm sure they have all year. the way i saw hibbert pass against belmont, he could kill us when we double down.

[lichoya68]

WE SWITCH JUST FINE FOLKS JUST FINE GO HOYAS ;D ;D ;D

[lichoya68]

PS IVE SAID ITS THE BEST D ALTHOUGH DIFFERRENT SINCE THE EIGHTIES YUP ENOUGH SAID GOOD SWITCHING YUP GO HOYAS

[bupride]

CKS isn't married to the man-to-man anymore, although it is definately our base defense. you will see a lot of 2-3 as well. what we have done in the past against guys like joakim noah is play behind, sag way back and make hime hit a 15 foot shot, we have also emplyed a lot of double-downs trying to force the opposing bigs to find the open man. like i said before, hibbert showed me against belmont he can do that with ease, so i'm sure how effective that wil be.

as far as how our fans travel, we bring a pretty good number for the size of our fan base. but keep in mind we just had a a bunch of folks fly to sacramento california and bakc, so it's hard to ask them to turn right around and head up to the big city. fortunately we have a pretty decent alumni base in nyc, so those folks should be there.

i'm sure gu will have a sizable crowd advatage with the proximity of dc to nyc and the availability of easy travel, but vandy's fans will make their presence known.

[FOTP]

Couple of keys:

1) Roy and Green need to play 35 minutes out of foul trouble.
2) Defend the 3. Teams shot more 3's against us than any team in the Big East this year. very interesting stat. Teams jack up against us because going inside is suicide.

We get in trouble if a team gets very hot from the outside against us. BC was on fire for the first 28 minutes and led. The hope is teams revert to teh mean and we take advantage late.

This game will be the same way. Vandy will shoot a lot of 3's and if they maintain a high percentage for the whole game we'll be in trouble. If we defend it well and they shoot in the 30's we have them easily.

[Oh My!]

Bruin---You are, again, a class act. Welcome aboard.

[Big Dog]

Seriously, can we have an NCAA game without Hibbert or Green picking up two fouls in the first 10 minutes?

[mapei]

I'm with you on that one, Dog.

[VictorSkyPage]

hoyadestroya2 said:

three things happen and we walk away with this one... if any of these don't happen, it will be closer than the 8 pomeroy is giving us...

1. Already said 100 times - establish the inside presence early
2. Get a hand in the face of anyone taking a 3-ball
3. Switch back quicker on D when a pick results in a mismatch (I don't know how many times this happened in the BC game and it meant Sapp was guarding Dudley - but it resulted in too many BC shots or fouls from the big men coming over to help).

- Captain Casual Friday

I totally agree...

As a somewhat obvious sidenote: I think that Byars is the key. Jeff has to slow him down. He could be the most IMPORTANT player to his team (aside from Acie Law) left in this tourney. When he is on, Vandy is very tough. IF we can prevent Byars from putting on a Russell Carter B.E. Semis show against us, we will not have a problem taking out the 'Dores (that seems to be a big if at this point, since Byars has been stepping up against the best comp. all season long). We shall see, I'm sure JT III will have something in store.

[FOTP]

We can get away with them picking up two fouls against certain teams...as we move on that will be more difficult.

It drives me bananas though because most of the time they're silly fouls.

They need to play 35 minutes per game to compete at the very highest level. We're almost there now and can't afford them sitting on the bench for 10 minutes.

[hoyatmf]

Sky Page! Where can I find that PEJr. Quote about dunkign on Dudley. There must be a link!

[HoyaChris]

The other problem is that Jeff becomes extremely tentative offensively when he picks up 2 early fouls.

[mapei]

If we get past Vandy and face UNC, it could be a particular concern. Hansbrough is very effective at drawing fouls.