After letting a similar lead slip away against Providence, this team held it together for a tough ACC road win. I am starting to feel better about the season. Here are my quick thoughts on the game.
Likes
-- Raji off the bench. If he keeps playing like this, he'll be starting soon. For now, his versatility and spark are proving to be a great asset in the second half.
-- Al's juggling of the lineup. We don't have a good rotation yet, but Al did a good job going big when Maryland kept getting easy baskets. Blair responded in with his blocks and Oates even gave us some solid minutes.
-- Two guards against the press. Paris had trouble on the inbounds (I'll get to that in a minute), but we will not be pressed too often this year. Rice and Paris did a good job getting up court.
-- Mike Gminski. This is unrelated to BC, but I really do think the Gman is one of the better colormen in college hoops. Smart analysis throughout.
Dislikes
-- Paris inbounding. I am glad we have his presence to handle the ball but he made some bad decisions on the inbounds play. He'll learn...and he also needs to learn not to force shots in against shot blockers.
-- Running the flex against aggressive man D. The team struggled in the first half establishing the offense and getting good shots. There were numerous possessions towards the end of the first half when the shot clock became an issue. The team also needs to be more careful with the bounce passes.
-- The defense when Maryland was climbing back. It felt a bit like the Providence game. We need to be a little more disciplined. Maryland got off too many open 3s from their best perimeter players when the game was on the line. We'll get burned in ACC play if that keeps happening.
I am sure the Terp fans will say the refs handed us the game. That would be a disservice to this team. Vasquez was mouthing off the entire game and deserved the T. Also, many of the fouls came when the Terps resorted to sending us to line late in the game.
No rest for the weary as they face a tough UMass team this week.
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10 comments:
i felt like a duke fan watching that game - those refs gave us a ton of calls
Definitely will take the W.
Tough win. Tough venue. Nice to notch a Conference W.
Really optimistic about the young guys (Raji, Sanders, etc.) as well as the season, even with it being a proverbial "rebuilding year."
What are the chances of Tyrese returning for his Senior season?
Rice + Trapani + some experience for the young guys could be a dangerous squad come 2008...
bill- i agree that raji SHOULD be starting if he continues to play like this but Skinner is hesitant his lineups even when it's painfully obvious he should (sean williams vs. oates)- i hope you are right though, raji is a great complimentary player
also, few complaints about the offense- we did score 56 points in the second half
i totally agree about paris and inbounding the ball today... is it just me or are we pretty much the worst team in the nation with inbounding plays in general. We never create shots from our inbounds plays and always end up lobbing it up back towards the center of the court. inbounding the ball is a free chance to get into a threating position and you never see that with skinner
unrelated, but nice to Will Blackmon score 2 tds for the packers today
I love what I see from Raji. He reminds me a little of Donta Bright and Dana Dingle on those great Umass teams. Not especially explosive, but has great hands, always in the right spot, finishes well around the basket, just totally gets it.
Watching Paris get blocked constantly makes you truly appreciate how good Rice is at doing the same thing and scoring.
I'm with you on the Gman. he's top notch.
I'd like to see Roche move a little better without the ball. He showed last night that he can drop a couple of timely 3's if he has LOTS of space. He should dust off some old Mark Molinsky tapes and see how a similarly suited player made the most of his college career.
I'm back blogging after no time for it with a tough professional stretch if anyone wants to see my comments. More to come.
It is games like this that make me so thankful for Al Skinner. His cool and calm demeanor carries over so well to the players, even the young ones, and any game management mistakes Al makes are more than made up for by the great job he does keeping the young men focused and relaxed.
With what I've seen in this young team so far in the season, this looks like it could be Al's best job at BC as of yet.
I like Raji coming off the bench, great energy, he lifts the team, and can stroke the 3
I don't understand why skinner doesn't have an inbound play, its embarrasing, 4 guys run to the ball with defenders all over them, someone set a pick please, not all biko's fault
offense did not move well in the first half, better in the second
we need blair to be productive in league games just like last night
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