Likes
-- Sanders' decision making. He is making leaps and bounds in his development. He seems much more comfortable in the set plays and is making good passes. I also like Sanders' versatility along the baseline.
-- Half-court defense. We are still not rebounding particularly well, but our switches and discipline have been much better.
-- The different line-ups. Al never goes deep into his bench but this mix of guys gives us more flexibility than he has ever had. We can go big or little. We can load up on wing players. He's used Blair and Oates on the court at the same time. The different looks will pay dividends later in the season.
Dislikes
-- Struggling against the press. We have multiple guys who can handle the ball, yet we had Oates dribbling against pressure. Why? Al doesn't micromanage the game, so the small guys need to come up and help out.
-- Rice's shooting. He played well and made his free throws late...but I am concerned about another rough night from the field. He's having the worse shooting year of his BC career. I hope he gets on track soon.
There is still a lot of basketball to play but the ACC season is starting to look a little more manageable. This team is certainly making progress.
Posts
12 comments:
Hard to believe this team lost to RM. We really aren't a threat to win the ACC but you get the feeling no one is really going to be too excited to have to play us. That's a very nice win with Rice shooting as poorly as he did.
Give Rice a break. He is clearly the MVP of the ACC. Without him, BC is nowhere. UNC is still great w/o Hansborough. Great to see another phenomenal undersized BC guard in the John Austin, Bagley, Adams, Barrows tradition.
I'm going to the UNC and Clemson games without as much dread as I was feeling a week ago.
9-7 in the ACC seems like a reasonable expectation at this point, and that should get us into the tournament. Considering Robert Morris, we might want to get to 10-6 just to be safe.
I think the committee will put less emphasis on robert morris if the team can show it can beat a big team. At the top I imagine consistency is important, but near the bottom it would make sense to just put in a team that has a chance to beat a much "better" team with the right showing, rather then a team that would consistently lose.
We should benefit from a definite down year in the ACC. Outside of NC and Duke (and maybe Clemson, but I'm not entirely sold on them), BC has a legitimate shot to win against every other team. The final score does not indicate how much we dominated this game, particularly with VERY aggressive defense. Were it not for the strange inability to get the ball into Rice or Paris's hands against the press, and a few minutes of some unconscious shooting by McClinton, this was a 20-point game all night. What about Blair? The past few games he's looked like he doesn't even care, and then last night he was everywhere -- on the boards, blocked shots, clutch free throws at the end. If he can bring that level of play consistently, I like our chances because we have solid talent at every other position. I like the trend of Roache getting less and less minutes.
I'm probably alone in thinking this, but I'd rather the team make the NIT than the NCAA this year. My thinking is that they're almost certainly not going anywhere in the NCAAs anyway. Maybe they win a game. But this is a very young team, losing only Oates and Blair after the season. The loss of Blair doesn't help, but losing Oates actually might. Anyway, I'd rather see them make a nice long run in the NIT and continue to mature as a team throughout that run. Build to next year, with a chip on their shoulder in the form of wanting to prove themselves as serious ACC and March Madness contenders. And then come out gangbusters from opening day in November.
I noticed that the attendance was low - in the 5,000 range. What's up with that? as they say.
I think you might be alone Darius. Nothing speeds up the maturation process more than big game experience. You get that in the NCAA tournament, not in the NIT.
Also, as a fan, how could anyone not want them to get to the NCAA's? With so many freshman playing such important roles that would be a tremendous accomplishment. Much more so than winning a couple of games NIT.
Just ask Troy Bell, I imagine he would have preferred to end his college hoops career in the tourney and not the NIT.
12 boards and 7 blocks for Blair- love seeing that.
Also Darius, I understand what you're saying, but NCAA appearances help recruiting. The good HS prospects don't dream about playing in the NIT, just as the top football prospects don't dream about playing in the champs sports bowl.
I agree with gordonsleftfoot. Unless you get to the NIT semis at MSG, the games are just like any other game during the season, maybe even less meaningful since attendnace can be very low for these games. I say there's no experience like the big dance for young players, even if you lose you've got that experience under your belt.
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