With the late start and the snow, I worried that the building would be empty. Fortunately the students are back and showed up. The lower bowl did seem to fill in as the game wore on. As the team gets better, the crowds will get better.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Miami pics
Thanks to Steve N. for capturing some of the action and sharing them with this blog.
With the late start and the snow, I worried that the building would be empty. Fortunately the students are back and showed up. The lower bowl did seem to fill in as the game wore on. As the team gets better, the crowds will get better.
With the late start and the snow, I worried that the building would be empty. Fortunately the students are back and showed up. The lower bowl did seem to fill in as the game wore on. As the team gets better, the crowds will get better.
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5 comments:
I continue (with one obvious exception) to be impressed by this team and the potential that it has. Nobody is going to want to play us in late Feb and early March. I also think Sanders came into his own against Kansas, and will be a force from here on out.
On an unrelated note, the crowd last night was horrendous and the place was less than half full. The reason why the lower bowl "filled up" is that people left the upper bleachers and moved down. The last 15 or twenty rows of the upper sidelines on both sides were almost totally empty. The game was (supposedly) sold out. How does that happen?
flutie22,
Given that we don't have a rabid fan base to begin with, my guess is that the 9:00 start on a Tuesday night is a deterrent. Without the students back on campus there was a pretty decent crowd for the Wake game on Saturday afternoon (during NFL playoff games). Not that this should be an excuse -- my dad and I split a pair of season tickets and he drove up from CT to attend last night's game with a friend.
My gut tells me that some of the ticket sales inflation comes from the agencies that are scooping up tickets. While there's almost no walk up interest for BC basketball (I have seen many a scalper on campus and have yet to see one of them sell a ticket), the agencies break even or make money by puchasing season tickets and selling only the Kansas and UNC games. Even some of the other season ticket holders in my section do the same thing, giving them no financial incentive (i.e., guilt for wasting money by not going to a game) for attending. That said, our tickets are in the lower bowl and I have yet to see more than 5 of us sitting in our row at any game this season.
I am also starting to be impressed. They seem to be forming an identity as a team, as most of Skinner's teams do in January. I still worry that they might be nervous for a big game like they were for Kansas, but we will see with UNC and Duke still on our schedule.
Against Miami, the team played with passion on the defensive end. We made their offense look non-existent, and I was impressed with our rebounding more so that in previous games. I seem to remember King cleaning up against us in the past, but not yesterday. I also like the small glitches in the offensive sets, and the fast break points we created a couple of times - we have the legs for it when paris/rice/sanders/raji are out there (at least 2/3 of them at a time). We still need to work on our transition defense, as I feel like UNC will blow us away with their speed (we wouldn't be the first team though).
Sanders seems to be making strides... he looks more comfortable with his role, and seems to know where to find points in the offense (I know he free lances and creates some of his own shots, but he opened the game with 2 layups because of screens underneath). That being said, it is interesting to see that Spears still has not found his niche in the offense, after having a whole year under his belt. He sometimes has a nice touch, but he relies on his jumper way too much.
Lastly, I am among the biggest Skinner fans out there. However, I will never understand his press break. The players seem lost on it. Even when we are able to get the ball into a ball handler's hands, he gets double teamed in the corner. He adjusted to having Paris inbound it so that he can step in and get the pass back from Rice instead of Oates, but we still had way too many turnovers. We need to get the ball and inbound it quickly after a basket... not let it sit there while the other team sets up their press, and puts three defenders at the foul line on the two men that we want to get the ball to.
All things considered, so far so good. I guess we should stop underestimating Al and the staff's recruiting. They were able to find good players for the system before, so it only makes sense that they would find better players for the system now that we are in the ACC. Let's keep this up, and finish in the top 4 of the league.
Besides our weak press break (and probably contributing to it), we must be the only team in the country to wait a good 3-5 seconds before picking up the ball after our opponents' score. Not only do the players stare at the ball as if it were a live grenade, they then proceed to check it to the referee.
Now I'm not much of a basketball strategist, but it seems to me that this gives the other team ample time to set up their press. Can anyone explain why our guys do this?
Paul, we were up by 22 when we started that. It helps kill time without the 35 second clock running.
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