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And Buckets was 1-7 from deep and got the line once. He was putting stick backs in for his points, just like last year. He is not a ” put the ball in my hands and I’ll take care of the rest” type player.
Transition points and opportunistic points. That’s what he is really good at-end of it right there.
This team really rests on Cat’s shoulders and tonight drives that point home. If he’s not completely on then we aren’t we will finish right with the Hokies in the ACC dungeon.
Tough loss. Offensive rebounds bounced their way all night. We shoot poorly from deep. We miss FTs down the stretch – they make stupid 3s.
Not the worst game of season (see Central & Cincy) but refs favored MZ and cost us a few points. That’s fine so long as we get the reverse and win a few close games. Don’t hold your breath.
What a shame for this team to likely be NIT.
I was at the game and said if it comes down to free throw we will lose. We did, of course with the one sided officiating, but still had our chances with a pretty much freshmen team. We will grow from this and learn. Better now than later. Guys have got to get the FTs% up, it can cost us games, and the Tyler of last year, has got to come back, he was great last year shooting 3s, but they beat us in that catergory, and get the ball into Vandenburg. Again we will be better for this, even though we all hate to lose, but we hung right in there with a ranked team of veterans.
Every minute you can you play Cat you better do that as a HC. Tyler Lewis could earn back a minute at a time if he could hit a three or, God foresake, deflect a basketball. His whole game has turned into hide my weakness while Cat is like a basketball psychopath out there who will do whatever it takes.
^ if warren wants to continue shooting 7 treys a game he better shoot more in practice. I’d rather see Des or Cat shoot 3s they have slightly better mechanics and shot.
Just got back from the game
It’s tough after a game like this for me to remember that this is a very young team that is still learning, because I can see all the potential there, and I feel like the better team lost tonight. Still, if you’d told me before the season that we would lead a top 25 team all game and then barely give it away in the end with this team at this point in the season, I would have absolutely taken it. This squad is much further along than I expected them to be.
The normally solid Freeman had a really hard time on the glass tonight. He still played some solid positional defense, but when he isn’t rebounding, he doesn’t bring a lot else to the table at this point.
I know Missouri started shifting their defense to shut down TJ in the second half, but we have to get him more touches down the stretch, and not just gunning 3s.
Kyle Washington continues to grow and get more confident, and he has the makings of a special player. He still takes a lot of ill-advised long jumpers, particularly when they come early in the shot clock. I like having him as an option to attack the middle of a zone though, he’s excellent there.
I’m not going to blame the loss on officiating, since lord knows there were things we could have done much better (defensive rebounding, free throws, shot selection, free throws). That said, I have no idea what a block or a charge is anymore. If that fourth foul on Cat is a block, then I’m honestly not sure how you’re supposed to play defense. The officials were really terrible all around, they were needlessly confused several times, and calls around the basket were awfully inconsistent.
Watching Ralston Turner play is infuriating. We desperately need him because of his shooting, but his shot selection is deplorable. He just doesn’t know what a good shot is, and that’s a serious problem. He’s also probably the worst defender on the team (and when I say “probably”, I mean “definitely”). He stays upright in his stance, and so he gets absolutely leveled by screens, both on and off the ball.
I was at the game. Same old story, too many empty ‘high end’ seats.
I suspect MZ did what every ACC team will do, shut down TJ. That and the zone will be our Achilles heel this year.VTpackfan, I don’t disagree that Cat is the superior talent, but Tyler would not make himself option #1 when a score is needed. Cat did that on a few occasions, and if getting to the line was his mentality, then he has to make those FTs. Corch had Monroe his whole career as the main scoring option. Cat needs to find Warren in those clutch situations. Tyler’s offensive skills are regressing, but his mindset isn’t.
Comments….from the second level. The Camera Side of the high rollers was decidedly empty. Probably on 75% ( HATE THE NUMBERS IN THIS FONT). The side (bench) that the camera shot was better. I suspect that we let some folks into this normally sacred land to fill the empty seats. AD says it is getting better. I am not convinced until I see the hard data from the ticket scanners.
Vandy was a NO SHOW tonight. He was out of sync. He was never in position for a rebound. Even with Lewis in there, he was not ready for a run and an Alley Opp. Maybe he has the flu?
Cat was interesting. He has so many great skills, but passing the ball to a team mate is not one of them…I started to capitalize that and try for bold. He is quick and he can, like his namesake, sprinkle a little litter and quickly cover his Uh-Oh’s. He had a few of them tonight. He was the victim of some inconsistent whistle.
TJ was like a man on a mission. Only problem was that he ran out of gas about mid 2nd quarter; Coach Haith also put more defenses on him than the Secret Service does on His Majesty. During the post game, Coach Gott commented on that.
The HULK was so-so. He was obviously tired from the subbing for Vandy ad it showed. He was not able to score on his monster blocks. But when he did block and got a little aggressive, the shooter picked himself up and said, “Did anyone get the number of that truck?”.
Turner for all the less-than-glowing comments was really the only thing that kept it a game. His poor form ad poor shot selection treys, that went in, saved us from a bigger margin.
We (the team) was out of sync at the end. Reminded me of a few games last year. However, we did show some flashes of brilliance. Vandy had one rebound and decided to make a monster throw….right into the hands of a player year MO garb.
The officiating was inconsistent. No question about that. However, the fouls were way under the average this season. I did not look up the ref’s to see what their averages were, but most are in the high 30′ or low 40’s. I kept a mental count and suspect that there were less than 30 whistles and that is between 25 and 33 % less that the norm. We can NOT control the zebras.
It was an exciting game. What you did not hear at home due to the way the mikes are shielded was the very loud and vocal and well organized MO fans. They were much fewer in number than ECU, but almost as noisy. I was visiting the men’s facility and listening to the radio speakers in there. MO made a great play and Gary and Tony called it out. I knew it was a good play as I could hear the roar in there and they were not chanting GO PACK.
Finally, Tyler did play a little tentative tonight. He seems in a funk. However, Cat also gets that way and makes poor decisions. This is a Catch 22. If Cat matures and is brilliant down the stretch and the $$ marks are glowing in his eyes, then who will we have next year? If Tyler gets discouraged and decides to sit out a year and ply his trade elsewhere and Cat goes out early, then we will really be up feces tributary without our manual propulsion device (s). Coach G has a fine line. Barber needs to mature. Tyler needs some PT to spell Barber and also to play PG when Barber has to sit and get some love from the coaches for his misdeeds on the court. So, we should be thankful that we have depth.
Depth was one of the plus’ for us. It was also one of the negatives for Coach Haith and they won.
UNCG knocked off VT on the road….Monday night is no guaranteed bench clearing rout…
I had a really good feeling when KW hit a J to go up 2 after Mizz had crawled back to tie at 54. It felt like State had weathered the storm and was up for the fight. Cat then had that in ‘n out 3 followed by an old-fashioned 3 point play by Mizz, putting them up 1. After trading 2 threes each, it became a game of execution with a minute to go. Mizz hit 5 FTs along with 4 rebounds inside 1:23 to seal the deal, while State had that awful possession ending with the forced 3, and Cat’s missed FT. And NO rebounds inside 1:23.
TJ actually did get his hands on the ball and was credited with the assists on both of Turner’s 3’s, so he was involved.
I think that this game was winnable, but at the same time I fully realize that this is not the most experienced of teams and in places it is lacking talent as well.
While we lick our wounds, we should at least get a little solace from the fact that Kyle Washington came up big at times. Yes, he made some mistakes late in the ball game, but hey, the kid is barely getting used to wearing his college uniform.
Cat Barber made some mistakes too, but you would have to overlook his defense to say he had a “bad game.” Again, freshman in the first semester of his career.
Even though he is a senior, Vandenberg wasn’t quite all there tonight, but keep in mind that he doesn’t have the most experience and that he’s going to have to climb up a learning curve.
Not sure what to say about free throws except that it seems that all college athletes are allergic to practicing them in AAU or prep ball. The number of clanks I saw in the UK-Louisville game today mirrored pretty much what we had in our game, and we all know that UNC is having trouble with their trips to the charity stripe too. Had we made our free throws, likely we’re celebrating and not bemoaning mistakes that cost us the game.
Take it for what it is and don’t make too much of it: this is a young team that faced up to a ranked team and damn near beat them. They did some stuff wrong and will learn from it. If that’s the case, sometimes when you lose you win. Let’s hope so.
Regarding Cat, I have seen speculation that he might go pro after this year. I seriously doubt that will happen, unless he gets some bad advice.
I don’t see Cat going pro, but you never know what goes through the mind of young guys.
He’s got the physical skills to make it in the NBA but he needs to develop his game for at least two years in college, IMO. If he does — get that outside jumper down, become death with the midranger, physically mature a bit, then he’s got every chance to be an Iverson-style player who does quite well for himself.
If he goes to the Association at the end of this year, he will be in the NBADL riding a bus in between games at places like Des Moines.
What Alpha said.
I do have one question. What’s up with the damn (almost) carolina blue powerade water coolers we’ve had all year? Who’s the moron allowing that to go on? If it’s Power are insisting on it, F’ em.
Oops. Oh no, no edit function.
What I meant to type is: If it’s Powerade that’s insisting on it, F’ em.
I fixed your image link, Foose. Use URL in the comments.
Here’s an example of an image link for those that don’t know how to do it:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/Img#Example_1
Tough loss to a good team. We played well. Still can’t seem to get over the hump against the Top 25. We can be a good team but not quite there yet.
“I mean, always blow my mind, and at the first inclination removes themselves from knowledge…”
If you are going to criticize someone’s intelligence you should really write a sentence that at least makes sense.
I have an idea, how about we all quit ripping on other posters and talk about the facets of the game. I am going to start deleting posts that criticize other people because I am sick of it.
As to the game, no doubt we had our chances and blew it. I am starting to believe Buckets is the type of player that is just not going to be able to get a good shot at the end of a game. He seems to have to get his points through ways other than one on one. I think Cat is going to have to be our end of game guy. That is tough for a freshman.
Vandy and Le’Nard went AWOL. Not sure why as they should have been able to score of their bigs. We need them to play better.Lastly the refs had a lot to do with the outcome of that game. In typical NCAA fashion they have swung the pendulum too far. There is almost no way to play defense on a player that is driving. The play when their player drove to the basket like rhino, elbowed Cat in the face, took three steps and gets a foul call was absurd. And I am all for the rule changes but that is ridiculous. They did that every time. Someone said we need to adjust, how do you adjust to that? Just let them score? The better team lost.
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