A few thoughts after a bad night of sleep:
1) Cooper: It was clear immediately that Cooper was not himself. He looks pretty sick. I know he was reportedly under the weather at the unc game, but the illness seems to have progressed for the worse. There’s a lot of really bad upper respiratory stuff going around this year. I have had it as well as a few of my friends here in Atlanta. It can stick with you for a few weeks. It's viral, so antibiotics won's treat it and you have to ride it out.
Props to Coop for trying to play through it. It looks like some adrenaline kicked in at the end, as he rose up like a Phoenix mid-second half. It was the first 3/4 of the game when we really missed regular Cooper and it was a lot to make up. Would have been nice to have a 10-12 point lead going into the close, but instead it was a battle on the road against a hostile crowd, a physical team, and questionable lighting motifs.
2) Mason: Speaking of illness, our three headed frontcourt offers incredible versatility and this was a game where Mason was missed. ManMan is essential in games against opponents with multiple quick guards, like unc, and like the teams we will see in the first weekend of the tournament, with his ability to switch onto and stay in front of quick perimeter players.
Mason is great to have against teams with multiple bigs... teams with a large, traditional center, plus a power forward with size.
FWIW, I thought Cooper would have his way with Schieffelin, and I would love to see a rematch in the ACCT with healthy Cooper and healthy Mason. I'd like to see the rebounding margin on a neutral court against Clemson with those two available.
3) 20-0: It is very hard for a team to not lose a game in late January or early February and concurrently it is hard to avoid one or all freshman hitting a “freshman wall”. The season is a slog and the closer you get to March, the more the slog compounds on itself. March is refreshing but until it gets there, the slog is real. The freshman wall is a thing because freshman are just not used to playing two games a week against this level of physicality, with travel, for several months. But I thought when we won that NC State game after the 36 hour turnaround, that we might be able to skate the odds and finish 20-0. So this outcome is especially disappointing.
4) Kon: The F1 on Kon was nonsense. Refs must be charged up to call a tripping violation on any white wings from Duke at this point, but the call was egregiously bad. As a man, I can tell you that if another man's foot is in between your legs, your instinct is to slide your thighs/knees together, for obvious reasons. Just like you would put your hand over your face, like you would wince, like you would turn to the side... all manners of instinctual self-protection. The Clemson kid could have gotten up easily, but I am sure they are coached to fall down and look at the ref with a self-pitying gaze. There were so many scrums that the refs let go, including a shot to Cooper's neck.
5) Caleb: The last thing I thought I would read on the forum was that Caleb needed more PT in that game. Nah, I don't see it. Evans needs those minutes. He can really shoot and even better, other teams know that he can really shoot. He's a floor spreader. Evans plays loose. Caleb plays tight. There's too much at stake to try to get Caleb right at this point. Jon and the staff have been trying for weeks, but it is getting very late in the season.
