Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Confusion in loss to 'Cuse

The worst thing that could happen to BC was making some early 3s against Syracuse. When they stopped falling the offense became stagnant for the rest of the first half. Christian adjusted in the second half and they made it interesting late, but it wasn't enough to beat Syracuse. The Orange won 69-61. There was a lot of moments or trends of note. Here are a few:

-- Batten was all over the place. Overall he played well. He's aggressive and high energy -- which we need. But he also made some mistakes from being a little too reckless.
-- The bench let BC down. Odio made plenty of mistakes. Magarity couldn't provide much defensive help. Dragicevich finally got on the court -- presumably to make some 3s -- and didn't even attempt a shot.
-- This team still seems to lack chemistry. It was only one moment -- but as BC is making its comeback, Brown drove to the basket to potentially cut the lead to 5. He also could have passed to Hanlan. He took the shot himself and missed and Hanlan didn't even attempt a rebound. I don't know if it was one bad moment between two key players or a glimpse into a bigger problem. Either way it was a horrible possession late in a game. Neither guy looked good. Both looked selfish. These sorts of chemistry issues are why I am giving Christian a lot of leeway this season.

It wasn't a great game, but it wasn't terrible. Even though we keep losing, I am actually growing to appreciate some of Christian's adjustments. We are playing better basketball. We just don't have the right pieces right now.

8 comments:

NEDofSavinHill said...

Could BC's schedule look like this? 9-5 Maine 9-11 Wake 9-19 at Clemson 9-26 NIU 10-3 at Duke 10-10 NC ST. 10-17 VT 10-24 NMST.10-31 Bye 11-7 FSU 11-14 at Louisville 11-21 ND( Fenway) 11-28 at Syracuse. 2. Matt Ryan is an excellent QB working in one of the worst run NFL operations. The Falcons were last in defense the prior two years and have had a terrible o-line since he's been there. The owner Blank doesn't know anything about football otherwise he would never have Dimitroff and Peoli calling the shots. Dolly Parton could do a better job than those two.

WI_Eagle said...

Why did Owens only get 4 minutes? He brings athleticism and defense off the bench -- although not much of a shooter so that would hurt against the zone -- but he is only averaging ~14 minutes per game and we have a very short bench.

Napolean Bonaparte said...

I feel sorry for these kids - it has to be demoralizing. They are probably giving it their best but they just do not have the requisite talent to compete in a conference like the ACC. So all you can do is sit back and root for them to pull an upset. I think they are beyond criticism at this point. You can't beat a dead horse and Christian is also doing about as much as he can with what he has.

Its just going to be a long road back to respectability. It will all depend on the recruiting. And then it will take 2-3 years for the recruits to have any significant impact. All we can do is hold the AD's feet to the fire to be on top of the recruiting progress and insure that we never repeat the mistakes that got us to this hideous position.

We are about in the same position in women's hoops. The head coach is a terrific guy - but he is not getting it done by any stretch. I will lose faith in Bates' legitimacy as an AD with serious expectations if this coach is not gone at the end of the season - barring a miraculous turn around. I already have serious doubts based on his retention of a baseball coach whose lengthy track record at BC is nearly laughable.

The problems with BC sports have more to do with the management at the top than anything else. Its about setting expectations, demanding results and managing the consequences.

BCMike said...

I wish I saw the good things you do with Jim Christian. This team is easily has hard to watch as last year's pile of dog poop.

The non-effort at halftime buzzer allowing the 5'9" guard to get the rebound and layup was this team in a nutshell.

Wake me up when it's all over.

Flexman said...

I agree with BCMike....this team is not very good. At most might win 2 or 3 conference games but than again might not win any.

Lenny Sienko said...

I think Coach Christian has used his time to emphasize defense, thinking wrongly that offense was more natural to this group of players.

That may be the case; but, when faced with a zone defense, our team looks like a deer in the headlights.

Last night it was clear to all that they would not be using the Christian "weave" setup; but passing around the perimeter, which works fine, until you start missing.

It was only when Christmas could out,clearing out the center of the zone a bit, that BC was able to slash in from the sides.

I know it sounds strange; but sometimes I think I would like to see how our guys would do in a "run & shoot" scheme. I think their talents lend themselves more to transition offense than to a more structured approach.

Hoib said...

I too wondered why Owens got so few minutes. It seemed to be the case last year as well. He is one of our better players physically but gets sporadic minutes. Two very different coaching styles same result. Mu guess is he doesn't practice hard.

Len Elmore is one of the more candid color commentators, unlike the sugary stuff you usually hear. He pointed out over and over how weak BC's inside play was. Any game that Clifford gets in foul trouble we really have no shot in the ACC.

At one point there was a reference to prior games against the Cuse, and one where Craig had 15 rebounds. Christian has no one like that to bring in, and we can't blame him for that. If he is to succeed he must get big strong guys who can compete in the ACC, otherwise we are dead meat.

Beesee said...

Could BC's schedule look like this? 9-5 Maine 9-11 Wake 9-19 at Clemson 9-26 NIU 10-3 at Duke 10-10 NC ST. 10-17 VT 10-24 NMST.10-31 Bye 11-7 FSU 11-14 at Louisville 11-21 ND( Fenway) 11-28 at Syracuse.
Ned, the schedule looks like better then sverage guesses! Where did yiu get that!?