Maryland played poorly and didn't fully capitalize on their size advantage and still won by five. This is getting old fast. Normally I would point to the closeness of the game as an indicator that BC is about to breakthrough, but I am starting to have doubts. What's most frustrating is that we were terrible down the stretch again.
Likes
-- Anderson avoiding foul trouble. It is a sign of a smart basketball player when he can guard bigger men all night and still score in the post without picking up too many fouls.
-- Lonnie Jackson sparking the run. In an ideal world this is how we would use him. When he hit those 3s in the first half the team had new life.
-- Hanlan making his FTs. It was nice that there wasn't a hangover from his last game.
Dislikes
-- The offensive decision making in the final two minutes. Our pace was slow. We waited too long. We couldn't find good shots.
-- Second half turnovers. It wasn't Maryland playing better. It was our carelessness.
-- Shooting. Do we need to go over this again?
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I'm beginning to lose hope. I like the kids and I like Donahue, but I'm really starting to miss the days of Skinner when our kids would out muscle anybody. Those teams had swag and attitude about them. These guys seem like good guys, good students, can play with finesse and can shoot the ball (sometimes) but the lack of mental toughness and cojones on defense is really starting to wear on me. I wish just once we could play 40 minutes of tough, in your face, man-to-man defense and hold an ACC opponent to under 40% shooting. People call Big 10 basketball boring, but teams like Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State ALWAYS play tough defense and they advance in the tourney every year. I'm not saying our kids don't play hard, but its things like lack of lateral quickness, not hedging fast enough on high ball screens, not staying on the line up the line when guarding off the ball, etc. It just doesn't seem to me that the Don emphasizes defense. In the press conferences he always mentions free throw shooting and other offensive aspects as the reasons for losses. I would love to just be able to go out there and shut a team down defensively...out hustle them, out physical them, be in the spot they're going to be before they get there...ok, my rant is done.
When you play 4 guards in your lineup you have to avoid turnovers and have to hit free throws. Not sure why that isn't happening past few games.
Anyway it's hard to lose hope knowing Dennis can be much different player when he gets healthy.
Just keep improving.
Think WI_Eagle has something regarding Don not emphasizing D, there probably is some truth to that; but I think more generally it is hard to play 40 minutes of tough D with no bench and freshmen/sophmores. This team is not only young as shit, but thin (and lacking an adequate big with Cliff injured). This team is going to be real good, just not quite yet.
The Globe write-up cited the same issues starvs just offered, that the team was completely out of gas down the stretch due to the fact that only six guys played, basically. MD had one guy with over 30 minutes; BC had four guys who averaged 36.5 minutes.
That's just not sustainable.
I really think that Don can be a great coach. I think he is a great fit at BC. But I don't think he will have the opportunity to achieve greatness at BC. He simply is not recruiting ACC caliber players consistently. Hanlan and Anderson are probably the only guys that truly fit in the ACC. His offensive strategy is akin to Chip Kelly... have a great offense that can run up the score and disregard defense... except he doesn't have the players capable of executing it. He is in his 3rd year. At this point, that is at least 2 full recruiting cycles he should have gotten the players to fit his system. He is really starting to disappoint me and I think he'll be lucky to get a 4th.
Hanlan missed a clear layup and clutch freethrow. Yes, he needs to go 5/5. He take anyone in the conference to the hoop. He needs to look for contact and drive with the intent of scoring.
Rahon and Clifford are injured and it has a major impact.
Anderson is my concern. He needs to finish strong and hit his free throws. At one point in 2nd half he BRICKED two free throws.
They are competitive though.
Donohue is letting the players determine who the go Closer is going to be. The losses are on the players right now. They need to finish plays.
Their rebounding and defense has been Great.
Hanlan leads freshmen in scoring and has been the Freshman PoW 2x i believe. he is a stud, as is Rahon. Anderson was made freshman all ACC team last year, and both Jackson and Clifford are strong players. i think people forget we had two players transfer off of last year's team (Humphries and Daniels) and their absence is really killing our depth.
the lack of execution to finish games is, as others have stated, likely because these guys are playing so many minutes. Hanlan played 38 minutes, Rahon 37. those guys are the primary creators, and each took basically 1 breather the entire game. totally unsustainable, but also explains why we have such difficulty finishing. ppl who didn't bemoan losing Daniels confused me -- yes he wasn't that great, but if he were still around he'd be playing 15 minutes a night and Hanlan and Rahon could each be fresh to close out games. with Daniels on his team and both of those guys able to rest more, I think we are more like 4-1 than 1-4.
eagle 1331, saying you're not sure Donahue is going to get a 4th year is silly -- we are 1-4 in ACC play but each game was close and we are far and away the youngest team in the conference. that said, if you're watching these games, we have an identity, we compete, and we have good players. we need to add another guard recruit so that we don't have this same problem next year, but we are adding some needed athleticism on the perimeter with Owens, more shooting with Dragicevic, and hopefully Clifford will be healthier. even if he isn't, this team will be in the Tourny next year.
Couple of thoughts, following up on WI Eagle.
This is the weakest (in terms of body strength) team I have ever seen. Not a discernible muscle on one player. They fight hard, but they really get pushed around. Harvard's team was much more jacked and athletic. Agree that Anderson and Hanlan are the only two players who are clearly ACC players. Heckmann struggles against physical teams, and Jackson is a good shooter but not much more. Rahon is tough and would be a olid back-up on a good team, not a 37 minute player.
The problem continues to be recruiting, and may I add that Garland Owens does not even start for his high school team? That is troubling.
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