Likes
-- Reggie's penetration. We know Reggie is well rounded. We know he can make big shots. But watching him beat his man off the dribble and drive to the basket is reassuring. If we need a basket in a tough spot, it is nice to know we can clear out and let him drive.
-- Raji off the bench. Great night from Corey. He was very good on the boards. He took advantage of NC State losing track of him near the basket and his last 3 swung the momentum.
-- Defensive adjustments. After allowing too many baskets from their bigs, we adjusted and used more zone and collapsed the lane more in the second half. It left NC State with more wide open 3s, but in the long run taking away their inside game was the right move.
Dislikes
-- Trapani's perimeter shooting. Joe's off night was a topic on Twitter. My simple solution is that he should be playing closer to the basket. He's never been a consistent shooter but he's got good touch and instincts in the paint.
-- Danny Rubin taking up space. Rubin was and is one of the nice surprises of the season. Yet the luster on his fairytale is fading a bit as he becomes a non factor. He's only going to get a few shots a game and we need him to make them. Otherwise we need more productivity and defense out of him considering his minutes.
-- Dunn's defense. I know he is just getting back into the rotation but he needs to be quicker and smarter on defense. Asking Trapani and Southern to do all the work with the other team's bigs will wear us down eventually.
Early conference starts can be misleading. Al had good starts that turned and slow starts during great seasons. Let's hope we keep rolling this Saturday against Miami.
Posts
19 comments:
I actually think Trapani's outside shooting may be better than his inside shooting at this point. No one misses a bunny like Trapani.
On Rubin... I don't disagree he was quiet offensively last night, but he did have 5 boards in 20 minutes last night, and he plays better D than I thought he would.
Rubin had 9 points against South Carolina and 6 against GTech. He also had at least 9 against each of Cal, Indiana, and Maryland. I think it is too early to say he can't contribute in the ACC.
Rubin has a beautiful stroke from beyond the arc, but I fear that the rest of his game is not at the D1 level, at least not yet. He was getting open looks early in the season when opponents didn't know any better. I mean, he looks like a 15 year-old gym rat who won a raffle to get playing time. Anyone's first instinct would be not to cover him much. But that's changed. In the last several games he's covered pretty closely; whoever is assigned to him is instructed not to leave him to help out others. Unfortunately, Rubin hasn't yet shown the speed or the instincts to get open on his own and neither is the team setting screens to free him. Picture Ray Allen sprinting through traffic to scrap his guy off. Ever seen Rubin do that? No. I assume it's because he's not supposed to in Donahue's scheme, but apparently no one is supposed to set a pick for him either. So, without access to his one natural asset, he's quickly becoming irrelevant. I really hope he or Donahue find a way to fix that, because he can easily put a dozen points on the board very quickly; all he needs is five open looks.
I know this is not on topic, but wouldn't it be interesting if Gene took the same approach Elway is taking in Denver? Check this out: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/New-Broncos-organization-reaching-out-in-differe?urn=nfl-306025
(I have no idea how to embed a link. sorry)
Trapani was not only bad from behind the arc last night, he was a disaster inside the paint as well. He is way more out of control down low than he is playing behind the arc. He forced way too many shots in the paint last night against double teams.
Gene should have the phone numbers of every whale pants BC'er who has season tickets behind the benches (the empty red things you see for 40 minutes on the television). He should call them each game and ask them if they're coming. If no, ask Why? Also if no, don't "Hope" that someone from their office shows up, just give those seats to someone in crappy seats. I didn't go last night so I have no right to complain, but it continues to be hugely embarassing when our games are on tv.
Erik, I had the same thought last night as I sat in my yellow-seats. They yellow seats actually fill decently well...it's a shame we can't shift our mass forward. It would make for a better game for everyone.
Also, Mod10 you are spot-on about Rubin. He can't create his own shot and it doesn't seem that the offense prioritizes getting him an open look. Hopefully they can scheme that soon or else there is no point starting him. Fact is, Raji has more 3s in the past few games than Rubin...so why start him?
I moved down from my upper deck seats to about 7 rows behind the NC State bench. Great seats and none of the secruity people said a thing. The mid court, red seat section right across from me, the very best seats in the house, had less than 20 people (out of about 12-140 seats) filled until people started moving down in the second half. Its pathetic.
Gene needs to come up with a combination donation/loyalty/attendance reward program for seats. I donate a small sum, not enough for DBS, but haven't missed a game in years. That should somehow help me when it comes to getting upgraded seats.
It's far from fair to criticize Trapani on the offensive end without acknowledging how big of a role he plays on the defensive end, particularly grabbing defensive rebounds. We would be absolutely lost without him there. Unfortunately, he has been very, very streaky on offense --- and the quality of his offensive performance is tied almost entirely to the quality of shots that he takes. That's very fixable but it hasn't been fixed.
Quietly, Josh Southern has become a dependable presence in the paint. He played some decent D, and was servicable offensively. He now looks like an ACC starter; congrats to him on that massive improvement.
Finally, Reggie is unbelievable. 27 points on 13 shots?!?! That's unheard-of.
I know we have attendance issues, but I think we can give our fans a break for last night. Students were on Christmas break, it's 9:00 on weeknight, and there was a blizzard coming. Not exactly a recipe for strong attendance.
Patrick--you are correct. Trapani does deserve a lot of credit for being a presence on the boards. He should be commended for being able to have a bad night offensively but still not allow it to affect his defensive and rebounding game. As for Southern, he needs to learn to keep the ball high and not put it on the ground in the key. He also needs to go up stronger with his shot. He got blocked a few times last night when he went up with his pathetically weak shots.
Southern's difficulty is in the "up" part of that, as in "he can't get up". It's remarkable how productive he can be given his utter lack of athleticism, quickness, and leaping ability.
Trapani is an absolute mess. yes he rebounds, and should be commended for it, but he can't shoot. I was surprised to look at his season stats and see he has never been better than 44% and never better than 36% from 3. Those are NOT good numbers. And he is not a good defender. If you go back and watch that game, when he was defending their big man, the kid scored on 3 straight possessions until they pulled him in the first half. We don't have the depth not to play him, but ATL is right. He should not be playing outside. He should be looking for putbacks and backdoor cuts to get layups. His reputation as a perimeter player is completely based on shot attempts not makes.
Trapani's first year starting I think many of us (I was) pleasantly surprised at how much we got out of him. Last year, he was one of our few semi-decent players, so I think he looked better to all of us because of that. This year, he is playing worse PLUS Reggie, Biko, Cory, etc. are all playing MUCH better.
For whatever reason I am not ready to count him out yet though. He definitely seems like a fighter, and he is one of our few legitimate rebounders. Don't be too hard on him for his interior defense - he is a 6'8" relatively unathletic guy who often has to go up a very good and taller player.
If we keep winning (as we are now) in spite of Trapani, here's hoping he can recover and put in a good (not asking for great) season
But granted, as you have all mentioned, his shot selection is definitely not good. You think he sees everyone else thriving in this system and is getting anxious and trying to force his shots instead of being patient? Here's hoping The Don can talk to him, calm him down, and convince him the system will come to him if he lets it
The thing I noticed with Trapani is not only is some of his shot selection bad, but they seem so rushed for no good reason. Not fluid at all.
Hope he turns his offense around
Joe played a real strong game against South Carolina in Columbia - scoring, defending, rebounding and playing within the team structure.
We know he's capable. The Gamecock fans were happy when he sat down in the second half. Let's hope he finds his rhythm in ACC play.
Why can't BC utilize an attendance system wherby a certain amount of lower level seats right on the court are for students. The only games we will lose money on those are Duke and UNC, but will create a much better experience and with limited good seats available for students only, it entices students to show up and be more fired up, than way up top. If Michigan State can do it, BC can certainly do it.
TeddyE, it would take more than that to motivate our students. I just graduated and only freshman year (Jared Dudley's last year) was the student section consistently sold out.
The student section is pretty good where it is, I don't know if cooler seats would bring them in.
He forced way too many shots in
labatterie the paint last night against ordinateur pc portable double teams.
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