Saturday, January 22, 2011

Defense wins championships or something like that...

BC entered the game with one of college basketball's best offenses. Florida State entered with one of the game's best defenses. The 'Noles and their defensive approach won out, with a comfortable 67-51 victory. I don't think the loss is a wake up call for BC. But it is a sign that this next stretch of games will be very difficult if BC can't hit their shots.


Other thoughts...

-- I know FSU is long and closed out on the perimeter well, but did anyone else think BC became too passive? It seemed like the guys were willing to make another pass when they had a decent look.
-- Aside from the the offense-defense approach, this was just a bad matchup on many levels. Florida State has a bunch of shotblockers who just waited on Reggie. Without any penetration, the flow of the offense seemed lost.
-- I actually was a little frustrated with the tempo. When we started to fall behind, I think we should have forced more shots and shot earlier in the shot clock.
-- Our defense is not good, but I liked when we went big with a lineup of Reggie-Dallas-Trapani-Dunn-Southern. We didn't stick with it very long, but I think it could give some teams trouble when we are not shooting well.
-- I think this shows how valuable Biko has become. Moton was okay, but is not a scorer yet. Although Florida State is good, I think one of the reason's Reggie struggled is that he had most of the ball handling duties.

This is one loss, but as I said, we are about to hit our toughest stretch. Let's hope we adjust or this feel good season could end with a lot of ugly basketball.

7 comments:

mmason said...

Bill--I absolutely agree with you that BC needed to get shots off more quickly, and that the offense was far too passive. Reggie held up, often tentative to score on the dribble drive and passed off several times when he had a clear lane & a shot at the hoop--and Trapani was the only shooter who wasn't afraid to take the quick open shot. Our love affair w/ the 3 needs to be adjusted to making the pull-up 2.

We also passed ourselves into fatigue and lacked confidence to keep taking the ball to the basket. Missed free throws (a real surprise and clinically turnovers) and some lazy defense that allowed FSU's Kitchens to score in the paint with ease were a problem, too. Our guys really missed Biko...and he looked very sick w/ flu on the sideline.

FSU was good. Super-D. The play-by play guys--especially Valvano, drove me nuts with the FSU homie-love, but w/o Paris hitting threes, and w/ our lack of penetration from the guards, we looked like we were "Clueless on the Road" in this one. It was an uncharacteristic BC performance in many ways.

We'll get 'em at home. Go Eagles! Great breakdown, ATL. This team has some big moments ahead, and it'll be fun to watch em down the stretch.

Unknown said...

FSU's defense was just too good for us, especially since we just tried to shot over it - and we went cold in the second half. Leaning on Trapani to win games is not going to get us in the win column.

Erik said...

We can't really put pressure or blame on freshmen, but if Rubin and Moton were playing better we'd be more successful. Right now we only have 4 guys that can consistently score.

No one could get open looks last night, but hopefully against other opponents Danny Rubin can start knocking down open 3s from the corners again.

I kinda assume the S&C staff pushes the freshman hard in the weight room, and that kills your shooting touch. Will pay off eventually but is a sacrifice right now. It's my theory anyway.

apbc12 said...

My understanding is that they actually don't go that hard in the weight room during the season. I'd guess he's wearing down a little bit (rookie wall) and just not mature enough to handle the difference in physicality between mid-level high school ball and top-level college ball. No shame in it; Rubin's still skinny for a high school kid, let alone an ACC regular. Hopefully he starts to fill out over the next year.

Big Jack Krack said...

B J RAJI!!!!!!!!!!!!

Season in Review Part II ?

EL MIZ said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kOy1zANcL8

the BJ RAJI!

Erik said...

Wrong, its Raja. Right, Ron Brice?