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Credit to St. Louis’s staff. They were prepared. They identified the poor foul shooters around the 3 minute mark, Gottfried waited to get them out, meanwhile we missed a bundle. Obviously, some of the better shooters missed as well. But credit to the St. Louis staff. They made some gutsy moves and calls with that much time.
Right before the meltdown began, I said to my wife, barring a total loss of composure, they’ve got this one in the bag. The loss of composure then began, with a free throw miss and stupid foul. It continued with turnovers, missed free throws, leaving shooters wide open from three. Hell, the coaching staff even got involved. Some really interesting combinations out there late. I’m proud as heck of those kids, so I won’t throw anyone under the bus. They’re young, but I expect better in late game situations from the coaching staff.
Gott has a tendency to ride ponies too long. Gott to be a little quicker to the bullpen if everyone’s available.
ACC looking damn good so far.
When Miller opted to go to Xavier and work as an assistant with Motta, that pretty much should’ve told you all you needed to know about Sendek, if you didn’t already know it.
Since Big V has gone to the fauxhawk, he plays a little meaner. I’ve loved seeing a little toughness from the bigs recently. Thought Dez brought that attitude early in the season, but it helps to have some guys out there who play with some tude’
^I know nothing, hoping someone here had news. Think we’ll need da Cat tonight, so I hope he’s got a few more lives left. Somebody put a bug in Buckets’ ear: NO REACHING AND SLAPPING AT THE BALL! NO FRIGGIN SILLY FOULS, NOT WORTH THE RISK..
They played Wisconsin and Wichita State tough. That’s impressive. Doesn’t matter how early in the season.
One thing I’ve noticed, and it’s not surprising with a young team, and a coach that focuses on offense, our tendency has been to let up on defense when our offense isn’t firing on all cylinders. If we hit a stretch where the shots aren’t falling, or we’re not getting good looks, we absolutely must defend.
I haven’t seen St. Louis play but they’re supposedly comparable to UVA and Clemson in terms of their man-to-man defense. Unfortunately, these are the teams that give us fits. Do they have anybody, like Clemson and UVA, who can guard Buckets?
As always, shot selection, turnovers, and contributions from others will be key tonight. I think you have to try to speed them up. If we get into a slugfest, halfcourt kind of game, I think we’re asking for it. Very important to defend, rebound, and push after misses.
^I agree, this makes Turner potentially more valuable. From 3, Turner is deadly when his feet are set, shoulders square, and he’s open. Wood had better range but lacked the ability to get his own shot or use a fake and step inside the line. When he drifted coming off screens, he wasn’t nearly as good either. Turner’s problem is still shot selection. Even last night, he took some ill advised shots. You can always get a shot from 3 with somebody in your face, why do it wit 20-25 seconds on the shot clock?
And Jigs, when you have time to crunch some more numbers, I’d be interested in knowing what our offensive FG%, turnovers, PPG are against top-50 competition. OUr offensive efficiency has skyrocketed late in the year.
^Paki…that’s a wash. We may get a few easy buckets in transition but we’ll give up Offensive boards and easy looks. We are who we are.
Gottfried will always base PT on the player’s offensive ability and the fit in the high post. Defense and rebounding are afterthoughts. Come tourney time, we’ll always play on the margins. Because we depend on shooting a high percentage and scoring it efficiently, we can’t have off nights on O because we don’t defend and rebound well consistently. When you get to 64, you face pretty balanced teams, as a rule. Xavier isn’t knock-your-socks off great on either end, but they’re solid on both. This one is a coin flip. Could win, could lose, could be ugly, could be a blowout.
Agree, watch out for the Chanticleers. I think UVA is the first #1 to go down, if not round 1, 2nd round. I still like Wichita State even with that bear of a bracket.
Not to gripe, I’m ecstatic we’re in. But I was curious, checked Kenpom, and we’re the 9th worst defensive team in the tourney. Top third on offense.
Defense, defense, defense. This game will come down to how well we defend and rebound, period. We’ll score it. Since Buckets has rightfully gotten 20-30 shots per game, we’ve cut down on the turnovers, and Turner was inserted in the lineup, our offensive efficiency has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, as BJD95 has pointed out, 3-4 of our starters are also among our poorest defenders, and they’re not strong rebounders either. We still stink on that end, whether we’re in zone or man. Gott’s team have typically hit brickwalls in the Dance because you face teams, like Xavier, who can score and defend well. Unless we’re absolutely on fire, I think we’ll be in for a struggle. But getting to the Dance this year as a pleasant surprise, so I hope the players enjoy it.
I don’t like the ACC’s chances in the big dance. UVA plays defense good enough to stay in games, but they’ll go 4-5 minutes without scoring. In the dance, somebody gets hot and you’re done when you can’t score. Sadly, I think UNC problably has the most success depending on matchups.
Really enjoyed watching these guys play together. Much more pleasurable year of watching when compared with last season. I still think Gottfried has loads of work to do the defensive side of the ball. Don’t have to be great but need major improvement. Testament to how good Warren is, this year, and the improvement of the bigs, that we achieved what we did.
^Exactly, but look at the personnel..Had to match Duke defensively because there was no way we’d continue to shoot at the same clip. Our response late in the first and in the second, for long stretches, was to go to really bad zone with the wrong personnel, or man with a similarly bad personnel. Thought all year long our best lineup was with Warren at the four. Against Duke, the only chance we had was Hipster Cat playing at the same level he did in the first half, and Warren playing at the four. Only chance.
Matchup nightmare for us. Don’t take this as criticism of players and coaches, it’s not. But because the margin for error was so slim, we needed to counter punch Coach K and crew in the second, and we didn’t. I’m just surprised we didn’t at least see a little more Warren on Parker, particularly in the second when we weren’t in foul trouble. Zoning Duke with the 2-3, with Warren and two bigs on the back line who move slowly and don’t rebound particularly well was a recipe for disaster, and it was. There was simply no way we could win that game once we stopped shooting 65% when we went to that defense. That was searching in the wrong place.
Very proud of the effort…But very surprised by some of the schemes and rotations out there given our defensive limitations and matchup problems with Duke.
