I feel for ya’, Leonard. Dudley makes a lot of coaches feel this way.
You’re down four with less than three minutes to play. A four point play would be nice, but obviously not necessary. Well don’t tell that to Jared Dudley. The smartest player to ever walk the Heights made another Basketball IQ play and a clutch shot. Thorton is a great player, but Dudley is the ACC Player of the Year. With his team down, Dudley made the clutch shot. When Thorton had a chance to answer, he let the pass float out of his hands. No contest.
Great win and one step closer to the Big Dance. This starts a huge week for BC. Duke and UNC at home on ESPN. I’ll try to produce a few extras in advance. BC doesn’t need to win either to stay in the tournament hunt, however a split would be nice. A sweep is not out of the question. But before we get there, here are my quick thoughts on the FSU win.
Likes:
-- Dudley the sportsman. Yeah, he shouts. Yes, the works the refs. But as BC-Hoopla pointed out, he also shows respect to his opponents. Thorton went down in the second half and instead of running with his teammates, Dudley waited and ensured that Thorton was okay.
-- Tyrelle Blair’s stunning progress. Is this guy even the same player? Yeah, he only made one basket (a clutch one) but his defensive contributions are really carrying this team. Amazing. Williams who?
-- Al Skinner’s eye for talent. Why mention this now? It has been said enough. But in his ten years at BC, Al has taken an Ann Arbor kid that Michigan didn’t want and beaten the Wolverines. He took three ignored Southern Californians into LA and beat UCLA. And Sunday, Tyrelle Blair, who played his high school ball minutes from FSU, became the latest guy to have the other fans wondering “why didn’t we know how good this kid could be?”
Dislikes
-- The 3 attempts. What is going on? Some of them were open looks that should have been taken (Roche’s attempts), but Oates' shots were really bad. Rice had to rush a few. The team needs to be patient and continue to work the ball down low.
-- Point guard depth. This is nothing new, but we got lucky Sunday. Rice got in foul trouble, but we have no other answer at Point. Al won’t have time to groom anyone else this season, so it is really all on Rice. Let’s hope he plays smart.
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9 comments:
Again, great win by BC. I'm sure that the team had a nice flight home up to Boston and will be brimming with confidence as we face both Duke and UNC this week at the Heights.
Quick question - does anyone know why Al was wearing white shoes? Was that another Skinner fashion statement (a la his v-neck against Va. Tech) or was this representative of something else. In Duke's game against Maryland, I could've sworn that I saw Coach K patrolling the sidelines in white shoes, as well. I was just curious and had to ask.
ESPN just had a piece on coach of the year candidates and mentioned Skinner. He deserves all the praise... it would be awesome for him to pick up this award for the 2nd time.
I could not agree any more with you or any of the other bloggers who think John Oates is playing absolutly horrible. Everyone keeps asking why Al doesn't start Blair, but I was thinking about the same situation with Williams last year and never changing the starting lineup. Its just Al's style. The only logical reason I can think of is too keep Blair out of foul trouble in those opening 5 to 10 minutes. We need Blair more at the end of games for the real important defensive stops than in the opening moments of the game. Do you think that is the only logical explanation of why Blair doesn't start atleagle?
the white sneakers are part of the "coaches vs. cancer" thing they do every year, where they try to raise cancer awareness.
great win tonight, hopefully we can continue Duke's downward spiral.
And a quick sidenote on dudley... he is exactly 80 points away from 2000... I guess we should have known that he would save this for senior day against Clemson, which is 4 games away....
It has gotten to the point where having John Oates on the floor is an absolute detriment to the team. He is a liability on both ends of the court. On offense, the team is pretty much playing 4 on 5 while Oates sits on the three point line. When he gets the ball he looks to shoot before passing, and lets face it, he can't shoot to save his life. On defense, he picks up fouls at the most inopprtune times. He can't move his feet which causes all his fouls and because he can't move his feet, his man blows by him and get fouled by others trying to help him. This gets other players into foul trouble (like Spears today). He can't even rebound so I have no clue how he even plays. Al Skinner should NOT win coach of the year just because he continues to start John Oates. It seems BC gets absolutely dominated when hes in and absolutely dominates its opponents when he's out (like today). With Oates in, BC was down 22-9. Without Oates, BC catches FSU and eventually wins. And one other point: Does anyone know why Al Skinner does not believe in calling timeouts? Opponents go on huge runs like a 9-0 run today and he refuses to call a timeout to regroup. I don't know if this is through patience or just pure idiocy. There is no reason why BC should have 4 timeouts left in the final minute of play.
I've been crying about Oates all season ... 4 shots, all 3's, no makes. He consistently gets out-rebounded and brings very little to either end. Not even much hustle. I've been thinking that Al is saving the minutes/fouls for Blair, which could be a problem, but the sideline reporter yesterday said that Duquette told him they liked Oates' passing ability. That could be BS, because I see no noticeable difference. In any case, with the game he had yesterday, Blair should get the bulk of the minutes going forward.
As for Al's reluctance to call timeouts, I don't complain too much about that because it gives the team a chance to sort things out on their own, which instills a confidence for a lot of situations when a TO won't work. His teams never rattle and I think the implied confidence he has in them is part of that. That being said, he should use them more, no question.
Almost all the coaches in the country were wearing sneakers as part of the "Coaches v. Cancer" thing they do every year.
Oates has regressed this season. No doubt. He was good against Miami. But I don't really fault Al too much here. Oates only got 9 minutes and uses his fouls. Would I love to see him do more? Sure. But he is not crippling the team by any means.
I was talking Sidney. His offcourt decisions ruined him, but he was one of the best reboudning little men of all time. I wasn't trying to put him in the same league as Smith or Dudley. The point was that Blair is just the most recent example of a guy beating his hometown team.
With Williams and McClain, at this point in the season, we would not be talking about why Oates gets so many minutes. Obviously, Skinner is making up time for two other bigs that are gone. He's not a good player D1 player at all. Making a couple of 3's on the road doesn't make him one. Clearly, however, the team can and does win with him out there - i.e., he's not crippling anyone.
It's almost like the fewer minutes Oates gets, the worse he plays. He seems to live for those 2 or 3 3-pt attempts from the top of the key, and he knows he's not going to be in for more than 10 minutes...so if he gets the ball up there, up goes the shot.
One of the problems with that is pretty obvious. He always misses, and with the awkward positioning of having him on the key, it results in a breakaway layup. That alone is bothersome. BUT the only reason why he gets time in this system is because he can make a pass from the top of the key. He CAN do it well, and that's an important part of the offense when he does. Now, though, he's just hoisting shots and not making passes. I can't imagine how that has been allowed t continue.
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