Udaman
12-21-2007, 08:12 AM
Before I comment on what DBR said about the game...let me state that I truly like this team. I said before the season began that I thought we would be much better than last year, and we are. We have depth, we have scorers, we will be fine.
But I didn't get the comments from DBR. They made it sound like Pittsburgh simply took us out of our game, and dominated with great defense and toughness. I'm not sure if they watched the same game. I kept saying, "Man, Pitt isn't even playing that great of defense. We just can't shoot." But it was more than that. Our 2nd half consisted of A TON OF ONE AND ONE GARBAGE. One guy come down, dribble, everyone else kind of stand there, then take your man one on one and put up a shot.
We certainly did act intimidated down the stretch - but I don't buy the theory of "we're young." You can only play that card for so long, and we played it all last year. We have a Senior in Nelson, a Junior in Paulus and three Sophs. Yes, we have a few freshmen, but we are not a young team, not in this day and age. I would call us average if not even a little old.
What bothered me the most was our timeout at the end of regulation when we were pushing down the ball (we NEVER do that, and Coach K and Wojo were livid at Paulus). Also, there were at least two other times we called timeouts with the shot clock running down, only to then inbound the ball and turn it over immediately.
Finally, in the 2nd half we shot 9 for 28. That's 32%, but the story is much worse. We started the half 2 for 3, but then from the 16:31 stretch to the 2:57 mark (a period of nearly 14 minutes), we went 3 for 18 which is a stunning 18%. For one ten minute stretch of that, we had a total of one basket. Then, for the 5 minute OT, we had a total of one basket.
Toss onto that our awful free throw shooting, and it is quite frankly a testament to this team's talent that we still should have won. Watching that game, Pitt was not the more talented team. Give them credit, they did what they had to do, but we played a horrible 2nd half, and again should have won.
I don't think we'll shoot that poorly again, but the two things that really worry me are our free throw shooting, and our complete lack of a half court game. Standing around and making a drive, or one pass to a guy who shoots a three pointer works some of the time, but when it goes cold and you start getting tight, you lose.
And please, stop calling this team young. Please.
But I didn't get the comments from DBR. They made it sound like Pittsburgh simply took us out of our game, and dominated with great defense and toughness. I'm not sure if they watched the same game. I kept saying, "Man, Pitt isn't even playing that great of defense. We just can't shoot." But it was more than that. Our 2nd half consisted of A TON OF ONE AND ONE GARBAGE. One guy come down, dribble, everyone else kind of stand there, then take your man one on one and put up a shot.
We certainly did act intimidated down the stretch - but I don't buy the theory of "we're young." You can only play that card for so long, and we played it all last year. We have a Senior in Nelson, a Junior in Paulus and three Sophs. Yes, we have a few freshmen, but we are not a young team, not in this day and age. I would call us average if not even a little old.
What bothered me the most was our timeout at the end of regulation when we were pushing down the ball (we NEVER do that, and Coach K and Wojo were livid at Paulus). Also, there were at least two other times we called timeouts with the shot clock running down, only to then inbound the ball and turn it over immediately.
Finally, in the 2nd half we shot 9 for 28. That's 32%, but the story is much worse. We started the half 2 for 3, but then from the 16:31 stretch to the 2:57 mark (a period of nearly 14 minutes), we went 3 for 18 which is a stunning 18%. For one ten minute stretch of that, we had a total of one basket. Then, for the 5 minute OT, we had a total of one basket.
Toss onto that our awful free throw shooting, and it is quite frankly a testament to this team's talent that we still should have won. Watching that game, Pitt was not the more talented team. Give them credit, they did what they had to do, but we played a horrible 2nd half, and again should have won.
I don't think we'll shoot that poorly again, but the two things that really worry me are our free throw shooting, and our complete lack of a half court game. Standing around and making a drive, or one pass to a guy who shoots a three pointer works some of the time, but when it goes cold and you start getting tight, you lose.
And please, stop calling this team young. Please.