Saturday, February 14, 2009
Quick Scouting report on Duke
Recent losses to Wake Forest and Clemson have made BC's game against Duke a must win. The team needs another resume/RPI win and needs to stop their losing streak. It will be a tough task because, and I hate to admit this, Duke is good. As always they have strong defense and will probably put a lot of pressure on Rice and in his absence, Paris. But hope is not lost. The teams that have beat Duke have been more physical and pushed the tempo. BC can do both. Outside of slowing Henderson and BC's defensive rebounding, I think the key to the game will be Southern and Trapani. Duke's big men are not that talented. If we can put pressure on them and get some easy baskets inside, they will have to adjust in a variety of ways. Let's just hope Al and Rice make an effort to go inside early. If BC cannot pull out the upset this season will start feeling NITish.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
19 comments:
BC absolutely does not have to win this game to be tourney bound. If they do, it will basically lock up a bid assuming they hold serve against GT and NCSU down the stretch.
BC could just as easily lose this game and beat FSU/Miami and GT, NCSU and then win one tourney game and they'd be dancing. The most important aspect of today's game is their psyche--b/c even tho they could lose today and still make the tourney, 3 losses could devastate their confidence and prevent such a final four game run down the stretch.
Bill,
I respectfully disagree that this is a must win.
If we win any three of our 5remaining games, we're automatically in. 21 wins, 9-7 in the ACC, and a win over #1 seed UNC in North Carolina puts us in the dance easily.
We probably won't win this game today, but we have a shot. But the next four games after this are all easier to win.
I'd like to see a little progress on successfully in-bounding the ball against the press. That would be nice.
3 out of the next 5 and we're in, and in pretty easily....I'd guess a 9 seed.
That said, let's get a win today.
It would be good just to see BC display 4 consistent quarters of focused, deliberate ACC basketball--that would mean a low number of turnovers, some solid execution inside, Rice playing both halves like they matter, Trapani playing tough inside, everybody fighting for loose balls and contesting every rebound-- and, as Big Jack said, inbounding the ball like a championship calibre, well-coached team. When our BC Eagles play full tilt and control the ball they look good.
When we lose, there's always a sustained 3rd quarter collapse of defensive focus and lack of offensive poise that speaks to the Eagles' abandoning the game plan and going "playground ball" on the court. It's like we revert to high school B-ball desperation for 5 minutes and it's over.
If we lose today, we'll look bad early while we're doing it.
Offensive rebounds and put-backs will say alot. Beating the press will be huge. ATL's right, our RPI needs some juice right now.
Let's Go Eagles! This is a big game that the program needs--that BC needs. It will take the hurt out of that Harvard loss after UNC,too.
Not to nitpick too much mmason, but there's no quarters in college basketball.
Ryan--yeah, it's not a nitpick,my miscue, but there's the clock in my head that feels like the pace of the game still has a quarter feel--especially when we often blow a good lead early in the second half and then late in the half, like the last 8 minutes, we get in trouble with our D, don't contain, foul badly, pass blindly and then lose some games with bad finishes.
i think that breaking a 40 minute college basketball game into four quarters is an excellent way to think about our bc eagles. generally speaking, the third quarter is where we struggle-- giving up that 10-0 run that puts the opposition into a sizable lead that we cannot surmount.
if duke plays that tough man-to-man D that prevents us from running our Tight Flex O; if raji/southern/trapani do not rebound; if we dont get back in transition to prevent easy baskets or wide open 3s, we will not win. duke is the anti-bc. i hate duke.
BlockP,
Definitely Duke is the antiBC. We beat these guys with some style and we get some Heaven. Are y'all watching this on HD on NESN? Again, we need no dumb thrown elbows from Southern and some putbacks on the O-boards. Duke has 9 points on turnovers w/ 13:30 left--that sucks.
Hey, look at that, a home-court advantage.
Only took a game against Duke at a 5:30 start on Sunday.
We should remember that for scheduling purposes.
Back in front, less than 8 left. Attack attack and get to the line.
It's all about poise and passing, right now. No dumb passes or fouls.
Just Sweet Execution...
YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!BC WINS!!!!
Nice win. Very un-Duke like defense from Duke.
Got that monkey off our backs!
I refrained from making any comments because I really enjoyed just watching these guys give it their all as a team. We were either going to win as a team or lose as a team. People my age who grew up watching the Celtics know about the team game - Bill Russell himself taught us that.
I'm very proud of our TEAM tonight. Great job - Go BC. Congratulations men!!!!
Excellent!!! Our boys played with poise (for the most part) and took advantage of the home court advantage. And props to Roche. His trey started our comeback!!!
I have waited four years to storm that court. Totally worth it.
what a great win. 19-8 right now, need two more wins for a definite NCAA draw.
trapani was a beast on the boards. we hit free throws and several important shots (big ups to roche). how fun is it watching jackson? he reminded me of j-duds out there, screaming, pumping up the crowd, talking trash, playing his game. rice had a nice game too, stayed in control for the most part, and hit 2,000 career points.
you gotta love the halftime adjustments. we were a different team in the second half.
i loved skinner's call out of that timeout around 16 minutes left in the second half. the alley-oop to trapani was huge. a great call by al. reminded me of "big time" sean williams and the BlockParty. brought me back.
Lets use this momentum and get a few more wins before the acc tourney starts. we have several winnable games as long as we keep the intensity, rebound the ball, and play a team game. lets go baby.
Great win guys! The last 22 minutes of the game were great. They played with a ton of energy and Rice really took over. I really enjoyed this huge win.
On the other hand, am I the only one who thinks that this elbowing thing is getting out of hand? We got called for at least two elbows (maybe three or four) after rebounds in this game. I'm not saying the calls themselves are bad, but the emphasis on calling it has really changed how you play after a rebound. Now the defender has license to crowd the rebounder because the officials are so concerned with elbows that they won't call a reach or a shove or a hip check. It just happened in the Miami-UNC game and the guy didn't even touched. In fact he was almost certainly pushing with his hips. Call it both ways, refs!
Post a Comment