...and ALWAYS be watching.
Y'all saw the epitome of my opening statement in the 1st half, when Cadeau dropped (what should've been) a highlight dime to JWash off a tight roll, but alas, the big fella had turned his back and arrgh!... oh, well... the good news was, well, pretty much everything else
- this was a potential "trap" game, and the best antidote for those is EFFORT and INTENSITY. It took a couple of minutes (and some reminders from the bench), but once it kicked in, well, Cuse got nothing easy on offense.
- a lot of solid 21.5 (that has become the norm in ACC play) mixed with 24, and threw a possession of 44 that produced a TO and before long Cuse was a frustrated team
- REALLY nice bench contibutions from early on: Withers impacted immediately (especially on the boards) and finished with 10 and 6, Seth was a dog on D, and our man JWash more than held the fort when Mando picked up a second foul. Couple of caveats here moving forward: Seth --- stop with so much of the air-hanging and throw it down, son... and Withers --- don't drive thru traffic from 15 ft.
- RJ with another RJ game and threw in some sneaky interceptions and Cormac was solid across the board on an off shooting night.
- Gotta say, I felt Autry's pain --- they couldn't guard us in Man so they went to the ol' Cuse Zone, and welp... we all know how that goes vs Dean's magic Zone Offense... especially when an elite PG is triggering. Hell, with some crisper interior passing it would've been even uglier for 'em
- Board work, baby! Outrebounded them by 23 and got 19 offensive!... with Ingram jumping in again to join Mando with double-doubles.
- make no mistake, we essentially won this one in the first half, specifically beginning at the 11:35 mark. EC had been subbed out at 14:36 just as we were hitting an early rhythm (please stop that), and we proceeded to bog down with only 4 points in the ensuing 3 minutes. But then EC re-enters at 11:35 igniting a 17-pt eruption in the next 4-and-a-half minutes, culminating with a 26-13 thrashing over the 7:48 until he subbed back out at 3:47 in the half with a 22-pt lead --- game essentially over.
- Finally, here's the point I'm making (pun fully intended): This was a sweet TEAM effort and Eliot didn't put up big numbers, BUT (as my coach buds and I always talk about) he makes everything EASIER for everyone, which is what a great PG does --- the floor is spaced, the ball moves and the passing becomes contagious, and Lordy, the TRANSITION game comes alive. Before Cuse tried to slow tempo, we had 27 transition pts in the first half alone (!), ALL of them with EC at the helm.
Anyway, again, this was set up to be a classic trap game and snapped that bad boy back onto the guys in orange, and we did that by playing defense and (a good bit of) Carolina basketball... and guys, we're still just scraping at the ceiling in that regard. Biscuits...
Y'all saw the epitome of my opening statement in the 1st half, when Cadeau dropped (what should've been) a highlight dime to JWash off a tight roll, but alas, the big fella had turned his back and arrgh!... oh, well... the good news was, well, pretty much everything else
- this was a potential "trap" game, and the best antidote for those is EFFORT and INTENSITY. It took a couple of minutes (and some reminders from the bench), but once it kicked in, well, Cuse got nothing easy on offense.
- a lot of solid 21.5 (that has become the norm in ACC play) mixed with 24, and threw a possession of 44 that produced a TO and before long Cuse was a frustrated team
- REALLY nice bench contibutions from early on: Withers impacted immediately (especially on the boards) and finished with 10 and 6, Seth was a dog on D, and our man JWash more than held the fort when Mando picked up a second foul. Couple of caveats here moving forward: Seth --- stop with so much of the air-hanging and throw it down, son... and Withers --- don't drive thru traffic from 15 ft.
- RJ with another RJ game and threw in some sneaky interceptions and Cormac was solid across the board on an off shooting night.
- Gotta say, I felt Autry's pain --- they couldn't guard us in Man so they went to the ol' Cuse Zone, and welp... we all know how that goes vs Dean's magic Zone Offense... especially when an elite PG is triggering. Hell, with some crisper interior passing it would've been even uglier for 'em
- Board work, baby! Outrebounded them by 23 and got 19 offensive!... with Ingram jumping in again to join Mando with double-doubles.
- make no mistake, we essentially won this one in the first half, specifically beginning at the 11:35 mark. EC had been subbed out at 14:36 just as we were hitting an early rhythm (please stop that), and we proceeded to bog down with only 4 points in the ensuing 3 minutes. But then EC re-enters at 11:35 igniting a 17-pt eruption in the next 4-and-a-half minutes, culminating with a 26-13 thrashing over the 7:48 until he subbed back out at 3:47 in the half with a 22-pt lead --- game essentially over.
- Finally, here's the point I'm making (pun fully intended): This was a sweet TEAM effort and Eliot didn't put up big numbers, BUT (as my coach buds and I always talk about) he makes everything EASIER for everyone, which is what a great PG does --- the floor is spaced, the ball moves and the passing becomes contagious, and Lordy, the TRANSITION game comes alive. Before Cuse tried to slow tempo, we had 27 transition pts in the first half alone (!), ALL of them with EC at the helm.
Anyway, again, this was set up to be a classic trap game and snapped that bad boy back onto the guys in orange, and we did that by playing defense and (a good bit of) Carolina basketball... and guys, we're still just scraping at the ceiling in that regard. Biscuits...
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