Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Oh yeah, we just lost to Harvard
Strange day at the Heights. A few days after beating North Carolina the basketball team got stomped by Harvard. Now this is the best Harvard team in years, but still, this shouldn't happen. Skinner's teams are notorious for these types of games and it is especially a problem with a young team. Rice supposedly dogged it and the defense allowed Harvard to get easy baskets. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for the guys. It is a wake up call for me. This team has potential, but hasn't turned the corner yet.
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I was at the game tonight. Very
reminiscent of the Robert Morris game from last year. Very disheartening after such a great
win on Sunday night. Only player
who showed up tonight was Corey Raji.
Tyrese is an exceptional player but
to often in nonleague games he
doesn't play 100%. I hope the
team can rebound from this loss
and take out Miami. Think 9 wins
is what is needed for a berth.
I was also there. I swear Rice did not take a shot until the final two minutes of the first half. It was so puzzling that I started to think he was under orders from Al not to shoot and just work on his passing. Lin picked his pocket three times.
Raji showed up, and I thought Reggie played hard although he did not shoot well. Dunn had a really bad five minutes.
Oh, and the UNC win amounted to squat as far as attendance goes. I had hoped the UNC win coupled with the bad press regarding Gene and Jags would result in a showing of solidarity by the fans, but I guess they can't be bothered on a weeknight. Was American Idol on?
I have to credit the kid from Harvard who shot the lights out. Tonight, instead of using our size to our advantage, we allowed Harvard to exploit it with quick cuts and good passes. They had so many open layups it was just unbelievable. Their D was quick to switch and it was incredibly difficult for us to get many good 3 point looks. We have taken, as a team, a ton of 3 pointers this year. Sometimes it pays off to rely on them or such a large part of our offense (UNC) sometimes it doesn't (tonight).
We don't have a credible scoring threat down low...most of our scoring comes from the wings and on second-chances usually by Trapani or Raji. Tonight there was no dribble penetration by Rice and there was no ability for us to free up shooters from the wings. It was a flat effort on defense for us and a very well-executed plan for them.
Rice did look to be dogging it at times and it resulted in a few stupid turnovers...there was a legitimate lack of concentration, but there were plenty of times where he looked to create and just couldn't. Strange? Yes. But I don't think his lack of offense can be attributed solely to coming out flat, they had a good plan to stop him.
We have always had the problem of playing to the level of our competition with Al at the helm. I think we will see a far better team against Miami on Saturday and hopefully this game serves as a lesson.
Just caps off official "WTF" week as has been said before.
Not too much effort all around from BC tonight. Although this game may have been a so called "letdown game" that does not excuse theyre lacksadaisacal performance from almost everyone tonight. I have no idea what the issue with Tyrese was but lets hope to God its settled by the Miama game. Not only was he a virtual nonfactor on offense for the first 35 minutes, but he was getting absolutely DESTROYED off the dribble by Jeremy Lin from Harvard. Any time he wanted to get into the lane, he could, resulting in a ton of open 3s for the Harvard guys because the rest of the team had to collapse into the key to help out. The worst part was that when Skinner put Sanders or Jackson on him later, he was still getting whereever he wanted to with the ball. This team needs to work on its defense before they hit league play: they forced virutally no turnovers tonight, and allowing massive dribble penetration is going to kill them against 3 point shooting teams like Duke, Clemson, etc.
As much as this was about the tradition BC WTF game it was also about the play of Jeremy Lin who lit up Rice all game long and was getting in the lane at will. We were also getting beat on the boards tremendously. Also, gotta question why skinner didn't run more plays for Rice when he was struggling offensively or change defenses (until the game was out of doubt) to impact the flow of the game. Not enough can be said about Lin who got a standing ovation when he fouled out with about a minute remaining.
I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't shocked when we lost this game, and anyone else who wasn't might have been kidding themselves.
God knows I love this team and support them to death, but they are the exact same team as last year + Joe Trapani and minus two people who never really did too too much. I think we all have to remember how the second half of last season went, just so that we don't let our expectations run too high.
That said, this, far more recently, is the same team that beat the number one team in the country. I do believe they're capable of anything, but it is so in this team's style to go out in force for UNC and then falter against Harvard. If they can rebound against Miami, I think it will be a nice start to a run that will end who knows where.
I thought to myself a week ago, "if BC beats UNC, there is absolutely no way they beat harvard."
Don't know why, just knew it wasn't possible to follow up a great win with another solid outing. I guess that reflects directly upon Skinner's inability to motivate the team for EVERY game.
Given all our talk of the importance of academics in our athletics programs, maybe the basketball team was overawed by the prestige of Harvard's program.
I agree with Walter that this was a predictable loss, but disagree about the makeup of the team. I mean, yes, the personnel is all basically the same, but each of them are vastly improved over a year ago. Raji, Sanders, Southern...even guys like Paris have stepped up their game. I don't think we're a lock for the tournament or anything, but this team should be far more competitive in ACC play than last year's.
It may be close to the exact same team as last year, but these guys ARE another year older--more experienced and more mature. I don't know that the comparison to last year's Robert Morris game is a good one. That game followed us getting absolutely stomped by a top five team at Conte.
Last year really was nothing like this one so far. We've played a harder early schedule and have beaten the likes of UMass and Providence. I hope the differences continue and that these guys focus on ACC tournament bye contention, which isn't an unrealistic goal when you start out league play by beating the best team on your schedule on their home court. Let's revisit the topic in two weeks. If they're 4-1 or better in the ACC, we're in for a fun season. If not... uh-oh.
The academic performance for the football team doesn't translate to the basketball team. I wonder how the administration rationalizes two standards.
This performance falls on the seniors. Rice will have this game film passed around when he goes to enter the draft. Trouble defending quick guards? Uh-oh. I hear the NBA has a few of those. Ask Troy Bell.
UNC scores 78 at home against us and Harvard gets 82 on the road against us. There's something wrong with that. It seems pretty clear that we lost interest. Not the most reassuring quality to possess in a long season.
Hey, nice showing, BC fans! It must've been "Red Seat" night at Conte. Come as your favorite red seat and get up close and personal with your favorite Chinese-American basketball player with a 4.0 GPA and the cure for cancer!
I mean, he was 2nd Team All-Ivy League last year so this isn't that unexpected, is it? He did have 19 points against Yale last year.
Embarrassing.
And now Smoltz to the Red Sox. The stomach-punch to end all stomach-punches. As an Atlanta fan and BC grad, yesterday stunk.
Well, if Harvard wins the Ivy League and gets in the tournament this won't look so bad in March.
Doug Miller for Harvard is a good big man who is a local guy from Winchester, and I think he and the rest of the Harvard team came out fired up for this one.
Also, I think that Roy Williams wishes he could do the BC game over, just like Al wishes he could do this Harvard game over.
Coaches can be insistent too. Let's give credit to Al for the UNC win (even though he got help from bad late decisions from UNC) and give credit to Harvard for a great effort.
Still, this team needs consistency. It's gonna be hard with our lack of big men, but if Southern, Trapani, and Raji can play big and play better inside, things are looking better.
Tyrese -- I just don't know what to say. Love the guy, but he can be a little frustrating.
Let's go Eagles! Beat the Hurricanes!
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