Stats and stuff (Syracuse game - NACCT)...

[gary-7]

...and the theme of this one is: We shoulda scored 100. Stay tuned...

Bad Stuff:
- And yeah --- like it or not, I'm gonna start right here: How in the living hell is Mike F***ing Eades allowed to officiate ANY game, much less ours --- and in a damned Final Four???. Roy came out with a sour look on his face and that was probably why. (Sorry Mods), but that little c**ks***er did everything in his power to screw us --- the bad calls were 90% from him. Absolutely scandalous. So there's one of the reasons we didn't score 100...

- Geez --- 0/10 from 3 in the first half, 4/17 for the game (another reason we didn't score 100) --- yeah, while it's cool and all that we can win handily with that kind of poor deep shooting, we're gonna need to do better Monday.

- We came out tight, and didn't finish thru contact well in the first half. We had 13 Blown Assists w/out fouls called in the first half --- unacceptable. The GOOD news is the message was received. In the second half we only had 3 Blown. That's more like it.

- Finally, FTs. Speaking of Eades (and BTW, unlike some on here, I don't have a real problem with Roger Ayers), we only shot 11 FTs. Seriously? The nekkid eye and the HD replays showed over and over our guys getting hacked inside, but again, only 11 FTs??? Wow. Yet another reason we didn't score 100...

Better stuff:
- The good news on FTs is that after bricking the first two, we made the rest. 9/11 for the game.

- 64.6% on 2-pt FGs is pretty doggone good.

- Eades called 2 boners on Brice that kept him out a good part of the first half. That made Brice angry. Well, as we have seen over and over, you other teams won't like Brice when he's angry. Speaking of Angry Brice, he only got credit for 1 Block. Maybe so, but how many shots did he alter? Yeah, just keep bringing that weak sh** into his house.

- Speaking of Brice sitting, how bout Big Joel? Yeah, big fella had his usual hands issues, but he converted a couple of key JB dimes. 4 pts and 3 boards in 6 minutes.

- And how bout Kennedy Meeks? That's what I'm talking about! Finished strong, elevated, kept balls alive, dove for loose balls --- the KM we've been looking for. 15 pts, 8 Boards, 2 Blocks, 2 Steals in 24 minutes. Just hope this doesn't make him re-re-think his decision to stay .

- Theo was once again what we need from Theo. Bundle of energy and played some key defense.

- 16 points and good defensive game from Jackson (after a slow start) in his home town. Buckets really hit his stride once we got out in transition.

- Other than some uncharacteristic TOs, Marcus had a big second half.

- We scored 12 Fast Break and 12 Secondary Break points. Press Offense helped that (see below)

- My player of the game though was Joel Berry. The Nasty Dog was, well, a Nasty Dog. Now, I don't know who was keeping official stats, but I had JB for 12 Assists (they gave him 10) --- but then I only had him for 6 Rebounds (they credited him with 7) , to go with his 8 points --- and his only TO was, shall we say, Zebra-aided. That's one badd-ass PG, but maybe even more impressive was his decision-making (see below)...

X-and-O stuff:
- After Brice picked up his second foul in the first half, right before the Under-8 Roy went "Small" and we immediately surged to our first working lead of the game. And it's not like we were hitting from outside. There was some sweet interior passing during that stretch.

- Please throw us in that briar patch! After their success vs UVA, I HOPED Boeheim would be tempted to try to press us. He did. Well, the Dean Smith Carolina Press Offense is a thing of beauty --- especially with 2 PGs on the floor --- and other than the time Marcus tried to get cute on a FB pass to Brice, we ate their press for lunch.

- A few words on the Cuse Zone: Boeheim's Match-up Zone is not really a match-up in the traditional sense, that is, it doesn't try to match YOU as much as it tries to force or take something away from you. Thus, their base 2-3 actually morphs from a 2-3 to a 3-2 look, and sometimes even a 4-1. In the first Cuse game they tried to deny High-Post entries so we made hay in the "short corners". In the second game they collapsed to the blocks and short corners and left the High Post to shoot jumpers or drive. We did well enough there to prevail. Tonight they did what I call a high "flood" approach, i.e. overloading to the ball to make entries difficult --- at times a 4-1 look. The short corners were available but the entries were gonna be hotly contested. They often managed to push us late into the shot clock, so here's why Joel Berry's decision-making was so vital. Several key times with the clock running down JB powered into the paint to get past the "flood" and broke down the Zone for a chippy. Absolutely broke their backs.

- I want to throw a big shout-out to Trevor Cooney. Dude is tough as nails and a helluva basketball player and tried to will Cuse to stay in the game. Made some damned tough shots against damned tough defense.

- Finally, speaking of defense --- I hope y'all appreciate the Team Defense we saw tonight. It took us a few minutes to get going, but once we did?... Other than a couple minute stretch in the second half (when we not coincidentally had an odd lineup on the floor) Carolina played some absolutely hellacious defense. With our starters on the floor (or Theo) our Help-D was cookin' and everyone was on point.

Bottom line: Another double-digit NCAAT win... but one more big piece of work to do. Let's finish this thing....

 

[soap - new and improved]

Refs were the only thing that kept our margin of victory under 25. The run where Cuse cut our lead to 7 was one series of screw calls after another on both ends of the floor. Fortunately our guys are tough enough to play thru that crap and win anyway!

 

[Ozheelfan]

Thanks for the post as always Gary.
I have one thing to add. It's 6-11, 280 lb and dropped 4pts, 3rb and no fouls in 6min while Brice was on the bench in foul trouble........ Way to go Joel James.

 

[mikeirbyusa]

- Speaking of Brice sitting, how bout Big Joel? Yeah, big fella had his usual hands issues, but he converted a couple of key JB dimes. 4 pts and 3 boards in 6 minutes.

You must have missed this? But sure am glad Roy played Big Joel all season long and didn't listen to keyboard coaches.

 

[Ozheelfan]

I did miss it mike.... I could also argue it was so important it needed another mention!

 

[mikeirbyusa]

I did miss it mike.... I could also argue it was so important it needed another mention!

Indeed!

 

[HeelFan58]

How in the F#$K Mike Eades gets a F4 game is just head scratching. The guy shouldn't be calling church league games. The NCAA again proves just how clueless and incompetent they are. The ACC also , if they recommended him.

 

[DSouthr]

This was a tuff game, I am not going to fuss about the refs other than saying Hicks was whistled a couple times for breathing and Brice gets hacked to death but he is the guy that gets 2 first half fouls? Anyway...

We were told the only way we were going to beat that Syracuse zone was to shoot over it, that we had to put up a bunch of treys to beat it, I think by now the one that said that now feels treys need to actually go in to help and just putting them up isn't exactly helpful if they don't go in?

I mean you guys saw it, we did what we have done against that zone, we attacked the middle of it and feasted. Bohiem tweeked it again, ya knew he would, as gary shares, he swarmed up and spread out, trying to stop the pass to the middle. We beat that with bounce passes thru the defenders and dribble penetration, not with a bunch of launched treys. You don't do exactly what Syracuse wants you to do, you don't do exactly what that defense is designed to make you do, in other words you do not fall for the same thing Oky fell for in the game before. We disected the most difficult zone in the country with precision and focus and we beat that team for the 3rd time this season, without jump shooting being a major factor at all in our favor.

I was full of nerves before that game and some of what scared me happened, was really concerned that we may not shoot the ball well, we didn't get what we have been getting in this tourney but we did get some well timed jump shots to fall outside of the paint.

The big difference maker was our defense and yet again, when we went to our version of small ball, Jackson & Theo out there together, our defense seemed to shift in to that next gear. There was one stretch, where we finally pulled away, I think I am right but I think it was 3 straight trips on defense yielded 3 straight steals that yielded us 3 straight transition baskets. Our guards were so active out front, Cooney got red hot and hit a few well contested shots, I don't mind a well contested shot dropping because they are lower % shots and will stop as quickly as they start.

Notice the difference between the 2 games, nova got wide open looks from Oky and Oky could not drop the ball in the Ocean from Johnny Mercer's pier and had nothing else to counter with. While Cooney hit some well contested shots, the cuse did not get those wide open, take my time & square up dead straight center looks. Oly did not have great ball handlers at their guard positions and their guards basically did not defend, really lazy getting around screens ect..

But even when our guards are not hitting those treys they still defend extremely hard, they do not jog around screens, they work hard to get around or thru them. Nova is not going to have the time to get solid square like they did vs Oky and you have to wonder if those shots will not fall differently in that huge dome when the shot is well contested.

And you do have to wonder how Nova will defend with a under sized 4 and a 5 with a balky ankle? I mean they are looking at having to defend what many consider the best front court in college basketball with an under sized 4 and a center that could barely run the court at the end of that game yesterday? Don't forget, only 1 day between the games, will that ankle reduce what their center can get done, how much emotional energy did nova spend yesterday? I get a little bit of a Whisky vs Ky vibe feeling, whisky was done after that game, duke just picked the bones of the carcass.

Villinova reminds me so much of INdiana except they do not have the quickster PG like Yogi and Thomas Bryant may have been a more talented guy than Uche, Bryant was not gimpy on a bad wheel. IMO, had IU found a way to beat us they would have matched up really well with the 2 teams we have beaten since and IMO would have matched up even better vs Nova. Yeah, IMO, had IU beat us I honestly think they would not only be playing tomorrow night but I think they would have won it.

 

[gary-7]

This was a tuff game, I am not going to fuss about the refs other than saying Hicks was whistled a couple times for breathing and Brice gets hacked to death but he is the guy that gets 2 first half fouls? Anyway...

We were told the only way we were going to beat that Syracuse zone was to shoot over it, that we had to put up a bunch of treys to beat it, I think by now the one that said that now feels treys need to actually go in to help and just putting them up isn't exactly helpful if they don't go in?

I mean you guys saw it, we did what we have done against that zone, we attacked the middle of it and feasted. Bohiem tweeked it again, ya knew he would, as gary shares, he swarmed up and spread out, trying to stop the pass to the middle. We beat that with bounce passes thru the defenders and dribble penetration, not with a bunch of launched treys. You don't do exactly what Syracuse wants you to do, you don't do exactly what that defense is designed to make you do, in other words you do not fall for the same thing Oky fell for in the game before. We disected the most difficult zone in the country with precision and focus and we beat that team for the 3rd time this season, without jump shooting being a major factor at all in our favor.

I was full of nerves before that game and some of what scared me happened, was really concerned that we may not shoot the ball well, we didn't get what we have been getting in this tourney but we did get some well timed jump shots to fall outside of the paint.

The big difference maker was our defense and yet again, when we went to our version of small ball, Jackson & Theo out there together, our defense seemed to shift in to that next gear. There was one stretch, where we finally pulled away, I think I am right but I think it was 3 straight trips on defense yielded 3 straight steals that yielded us 3 straight transition baskets. Our guards were so active out front, Cooney got red hot and hit a few well contested shots, I don't mind a well contested shot dropping because they are lower % shots and will stop as quickly as they start.

Notice the difference between the 2 games, nova got wide open looks from Oky and Oky could not drop the ball in the Ocean from Johnny Mercer's pier and had nothing else to counter with. While Cooney hit some well contested shots, the cuse did not get those wide open, take my time & square up dead straight center looks. Oly did not have great ball handlers at their guard positions and their guards basically did not defend, really lazy getting around screens ect..

But even when our guards are not hitting those treys they still defend extremely hard, they do not jog around screens, they work hard to get around or thru them. Nova is not going to have the time to get solid square like they did vs Oky and you have to wonder if those shots will not fall differently in that huge dome when the shot is well contested.

And you do have to wonder how Nova will defend with a under sized 4 and a 5 with a balky ankle? I mean they are looking at having to defend what many consider the best front court in college basketball with an under sized 4 and a center that could barely run the court at the end of that game yesterday? Don't forget, only 1 day between the games, will that ankle reduce what their center can get done, how much emotional energy did nova spend yesterday? I get a little bit of a Whisky vs Ky vibe feeling, whisky was done after that game, duke just picked the bones of the carcass.

Villinova reminds me so much of INdiana except they do not have the quickster PG like Yogi and Thomas Bryant may have been a more talented guy than Uche, Bryant was not gimpy on a bad wheel. IMO, had IU found a way to beat us they would have matched up really well with the 2 teams we have beaten since and IMO would have matched up even better vs Nova. Yeah, IMO, had IU beat us I honestly think they would not only be playing tomorrow night but I think they would have won it.

Dave, as to your point on OU, midway thru the first half of that game I told my buddy "these guys are front-runners --- lessee how they react when things aren't going well." Well, we saw that answer.. and I'll tell ya something else: They absolutely quit on defense and Nova guys were driving the lane with almost no resistance. Don't think that's likely to be the case Monday.

On the 3s, we absolutely needed to shoot them. That threat allowed our drives to succeed, and the ones we hit were crucial. We'll need more success Monday,

Finally I'll disagree on Wisconsin. Zebras absolutely stole that game for dook in the second half (at the behest of the dark lord of course). Wisky beat UK because they were a better team --- it wasn't a herculean labor. They were a better team than dook --- they just weren't better than dook + 3 zebras.

 

[DSouthr]

Dave, as to your point on OU, midway thru the first half of that game I told my buddy "these guys are front-runners --- lessee how they react when things aren't going well." Well, we saw that answer.. and I'll tell ya something else: They absolutely quit on defense and Nova guys were driving the lane with almost no resistance. Don't think that's likely to be the case Monday.

On the 3s, we absolutely needed to shoot them. That threat allowed our drives to succeed, and the ones we hit were crucial. We'll need more success Monday,

Finally I'll disagree on Wisconsin. Zebras absolutely stole that game for dook in the second half (at the behest of the dark lord of course). Wisky beat UK because they were a better team --- it wasn't a herculean labor. They were a better team than dook --- they just weren't better than dook + 3 zebras.

Open look treys, of course you have good shooters take them but a trey that does not go in isn't really threatening to syracuse, that is what they want to happen, they bait you in to jump shooting over long guards and wings. I recall once, I think maybe off a long rebound that swung out to Marcus he was all alone and 4 Syracuse players were deep in the paint, no one was around Marcus for maybe 15ft, of course Marcus takes that shot, you don't give a shooter like Marcus time to square up and not have a hand in his face, he is going to make that shot 8 out of 10 times easy.

At the half I believe we were something like 0-11 from three? 0 for 11 IMO is not going to cause a defense to change what they are already doing, now killing them with well lover 50% shooting over all because we were drilling them so bad in the paint does force adjustment. what did we hit for the game, 4 treys and yeah, they were important, you take good looks and get timely shots to drop but we needed to do exactly what we did do, pound it time & time again in to the middle of that zone until they find a way to stop it or the final buzzer sounds and they final buzzer sounded on them.

My point was you do not throw up junk that is contested by long guards when long guards tend to be easier to penetrate the lane on. They want you to do that, you don't do what they want you to do, you do what you want to do.

On whisky vs duke, even if the refs gave duke a few assists, whisky was not the same as the one that beat both us and Ky to get to that game, at least IMO. I felt they spent so much emotional energy beating Ky that their tanks were to low when they faced duke. While I agree whisky was the better team, pretty much the reason they beat us to, they were better than we were in addition to maybe we wilted a little bit at the end, I didn't like our 3 guard look honestly and feel that may have cost us that one. Ky was MUCH more the talented team, whisky IMO was showing the value of senior leadership and experience. I doubt there was many that would have placed $1,000 on whisky to win that game before it was played, I would not have touched that with anything less than 20pts (of course I do not bet but just making my point). But I do believe there were many that would have gladly given you 4 or 5 pts for a $1,000 on Ky to have won that game. I have considered it to be a MEGA upset just because the talent differential was so huge.

As for OU and honestly Kansas was not much different, those teams rely way to much on jump shooting the long ball, they do not defend well and especially OU, Hield is a heck of a shooter but he don't do defense, KU guards did defend much more but were more slasher type scorers rather than great jump shooters. Nova did a really good job of taking the ball out of his hands (Hield) but he struck me as being a little out of sorts with his shot, could not guage his shot in that huge dome. Kinda felt like he wilted when his shot was not dropping, didn't work as hard to get his looks as if he was not confident they would drop if he got them. I felt like the dome was a factor in that but the pressure of the moment, being in the final 4 can lift you up or it can crush ya, we saw what it did to Okey yesterday.

 

[gary-7]

Open look treys, of course you have good shooters take them but a trey that does not go in isn't really threatening to syracuse, that is what they want to happen, they bait you in to jump shooting over long guards and wings. I recall once, I think maybe off a long rebound that swung out to Marcus he was all alone and 4 Syracuse players were deep in the paint, no one was around Marcus for maybe 15ft, of course Marcus takes that shot, you don't give a shooter like Marcus time to square up and not have a hand in his face, he is going to make that shot 8 out of 10 times easy.

At the half I believe we were something like 0-11 from three? 0 for 11 IMO is not going to cause a defense to change what they are already doing, now killing them with well lover 50% shooting over all because we were drilling them so bad in the paint does force adjustment. what did we hit for the game, 4 treys and yeah, they were important, you take good looks and get timely shots to drop but we needed to do exactly what we did do, pound it time & time again in to the middle of that zone until they find a way to stop it or the final buzzer sounds and they final buzzer sounded on them.

My point was you do not throw up junk that is contested by long guards when long guards tend to be easier to penetrate the lane on. They want you to do that, you don't do what they want you to do, you do what you want to do.

On whisky vs duke, even if the refs gave duke a few assists, whisky was not the same as the one that beat both us and Ky to get to that game, at least IMO. I felt they spent so much emotional energy beating Ky that their tanks were to low when they faced duke. While I agree whisky was the better team, pretty much the reason they beat us to, they were better than we were in addition to maybe we wilted a little bit at the end, I didn't like our 3 guard look honestly and feel that may have cost us that one. Ky was MUCH more the talented team, whisky IMO was showing the value of senior leadership and experience. I doubt there was many that would have placed $1,000 on whisky to win that game before it was played, I would not have touched that with anything less than 20pts (of course I do not bet but just making my point). But I do believe there were many that would have gladly given you 4 or 5 pts for a $1,000 on Ky to have won that game. I have considered it to be a MEGA upset just because the talent differential was so huge.

As for OU and honestly Kansas was not much different, those teams rely way to much on jump shooting the long ball, they do not defend well and especially OU, Hield is a heck of a shooter but he don't do defense, KU guards did defend much more but were more slasher type scorers rather than great jump shooters. Nova did a really good job of taking the ball out of his hands (Hield) but he struck me as being a little out of sorts with his shot, could not guage his shot in that huge dome. Kinda felt like he wilted when his shot was not dropping, didn't work as hard to get his looks as if he was not confident they would drop if he got them. I felt like the dome was a factor in that but the pressure of the moment, being in the final 4 can lift you up or it can crush ya, we saw what it did to Okey yesterday.

Dave, I took one of those bets. Gladly took it,. and of course won. For all the raw talent, UK was never gonna win it all with that bunch and the egos. And the refs gave dook a LOT more than few assists --- in the financial world they would call those "bail-outs"... and they literally turned the game.