Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Another ugly road loss

Is it too late to ask the ACC to move its 2013 basketball tournament out of the state of North Carolina? Tobacco Road has not been kind to our fledgling Eagles as NC State trounced us 82-64 Tuesday night. NC State is a talented team, but they are underachievers and there was no reason the score had to be so lopsided. Once again we dug ourselves in a hole early and never really climbed out. Even our comeback in the first half was undone by letting NC State make a buzzer-beating 3. Other thoughts:

Likes
-- Shooting 3s when down in the first half. Odio missed some and so did Rahon, but the intent is good.
-- Hanlan creating his own shot. If our offense is stagnant at any time, Donahue needs to give him the green light to penetrate. He's the only guy we have who can create his own shot.
-- Clifford finishing. He's not back, but at least he got off the ground to throw a few down.

Dislikes
-- Tentative offense. Just like Duke, NC State played very tight man early. What did BC do? Pass around the perimeter over and over. There is not enough motion in our motion offense at times. Someone needs to be aggressive!
-- Odio coming back down to Earth. The loss wasn't his fault by any means, but it did confirm that Odio is not Superman. He is going to have off nights. Tonight he was sloppy with the basketball and couldn't convert on his open looks.
-- Van Nest's decision making. I tweeted that he and Heckmann share the same basketball brain. Half hearted shots and passes that leave you wondering if he is playing in a fog or pressing or what?
-- Anderson's frustration. He got T'd up and didn't get involved in the offense until the second half. He is our best player and is often asked to do it all down low, bu the needs to keep his poise. And he needs to be an offensive factor even when he is not getting the ball in the post (rebounds, pick and rolls, etc.).

12 comments:

EL MIZ said...

agree on Hanlan needing to have the green light - good things happen when he penetrates. when the passing doesn't lead to open looks, we need to convert to attack mode and encourage him to initiate. otherwise the offense stagnates and we cannot score.

Anderson needs to put on muscle, there's really no other way around it. the guy is simply not built up in the upper body, and he routinely gets overpowered down low. he is his own worst enemy right now. he averaged 11/7 on 43% shooting as a freshman, and 15/8 on 48% shooting this year. he should be a 20/10 guy and at least 50% from the field next year without a doubt. if odio can go from 190 to 220, anderson can get himself into a position where he can be a power player on the block.

we are overmatched talent-wise every game.

also, Christ the King won NYC CHSAA championship last week behind Jon Severe's game high 26 points. BC's coach Waheed had been to a game earlier this month to recruit Severe -- this is a guy we need to get. he is a Hanlan-esque talent, a guard who isn't afraid of the moment and can create his own shot, but plays with toughness and confidence, two things this team SORELY lacks. BC desperately needs more talent as is.

while i think the maturation of these guys + dragicevich + garland will push us to the bubble (and hopefully into the tournament next year), getting a top flight guy like Severe would be a huge coup. Donahue should make it a staff priority to land this kid.

Anonymous said...

Anderson is called the best player on this team out of seniority and his numbers may look decent, but he is too psychologically fragile and can disappear way too easily.

This is Hanlan's team and Anderson just simply should not be more than a third option on the offense that should capitalize on offensive rebounds and loose balls.

His turnovers under the basket tonight were a huge reason for the terrible start. He lost his composure a lot earlier than the point of his T.

eagle1331 said...

I used to be a huge Don fan. Now I would say I'm probably losing faith the most rapidly of anyone...

ModA36 said...

As I have said many times, the problem isn't the game coaching or the players being ready. The talent level is not up to ACC standards. We all know that recruiting is by far the most important issue in basketball, and the players, with the exception of Hanlan and Anderson, would not start on any other team. Some nice 7-9 players? Sure, but simply not good enough to be starters on a good ACC team (talking Rahon, Clifford, Jackson, Heckmann and Odio).

EL MIZ said...

it is worth pointing out scholarship minutes breakdown from last night, by class:

Seniors:
NC State 69 (Wood, Howell, Lewis), BC 8 (van Nest)

Juniors:
NC State 62 (Brown, Leslie, Vandenberg), BC 7 (Rubin)

Sophomores:
BC 113, NC State 2 (Robinson)

Freshman:
BC 69, NC State 49

Tim said...

How long is the leash on Donahue? We're looking at two straight awful years, and next year isn't likely to be much better. Bates did not hire Donahue and may want to bring in his own guy. Thoughts?

Hario said...

I have to think Stevie D has one year left. This team is improved from last year in many ways but we seem to lose every 50/50 game thats tight at the end which is concerning. Plus at the end of the day almost means nothing.

This team has to be a the very least a bubble team next year (really I think tourney) for Donahue to be considered a success.

Recruiting is going to be big. Our biggest issue is that we just dont have enough depth or talent. What is concerning about that is that even a new coach will take a couple years to restock our talent if we were to replace Donahue setting us back to square 0 again. He has got to get some talent here fast.

John said...

I have really lost interest in college basketball because of our current situation.

Tired of being last in so many sports - unbelievable how this happened.

Let's go BC

nceaglefan said...

Hire Bruce Pearl and send Donahue back to the minor leagues!

Joseph said...

Pearl is toxic until 2014.

nceaglefan said...

Joseph, you may be right, I still think he deserves a second chance, he screwed up no question. He would do awesome things for our hoops program though and he is a BC guy!

nceaglefan said...
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