Although I think the next few weeks will be decent, I've severely lowered my expectations for the basketball team. Therefore I didn't expect BC to beat Duke today. Yet going up with 10 minutes to play had me on the edge of my seat. Too many mistakes allowed the game to slip away. Here are a few thoughts.
-- This is the type of game Rice needs to have. Sure he made his shots, but he also made some great passes and found guys cutting to the basket. I think he works better at the 2 position and with Paris doing most of the ball handling.
-- Southern needs to play more. He still has a long way to go, but he is our only big man who can rebound. Blair is embarrassingly bad on the boards.
-- You can't win turning the ball over. Paris, Sanders, and Spears were all too careless.
I usually don't care for Billy Packer but his optimism should be noted. I think BC will be much better next season. Before then, let's hope we win a few more ACC games.
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5 comments:
I didn't expect BC to win, but it shows they could contend next year.Team Rebounding is what AL should focus on.
Two quick things:
1) I was very impressed with how the team played today, maybe their best effort of the season. It's encouraging to see Southern playing so well in what is really his third game with significant playing time. I do wonder, though, why Skinner chose the middle of the ACC season to get Southern playing time, rather than choosing to do so at the beginning of the year. If the big guy can learn at UNC and Duke, he probably could have learned against, say, Northeastern too right?
2) It's nearly impossible to beat Duke 8 on 5, which is why so few teams do it in the ACC. Some of the calls today were unbelievable.
I agree there were a lot of positives including mental toughness that hasn't been there before. There are some real weaknesses though. Rebounding is atrocious. Not catching passes off of good cuts. Roche and Blair on defense.
I agree with the ridiculousness of the calls that Dike gets. They body up and slap on defense yet the other team always seems to get the bump fouls called. The only thing worse is when Dickie V is calling the game and calling it great team D baby. Dukies can't play D in the pros because they don't get all the calls. No flopping allowed.
I agree that Billy was ok on this game. He made some good points. The most interesting being that BC has never had a McDonald's All American and Duke has 8 - EIGHT - on this team!
The Gerald Henderson dunk that really ignited the crowd epitomizes the way our interior defense has been all year. Roche was super late providing help and then didn't care to salvage even the tiniest amount of dignity and take the foul. A play like that should bury a player on the bench for weeks. Another example was Singer slowly driving past Oates starting 25 feet out and still no one gives help on the drive. Pathetic. Even on a day like today when the effort was generally there we still have inexcusable breakdowns like this.
For anyone who follows the Celtics, you can see the impact of a purely defensive-minded assistant coach in Tom Thibodeau this year. If players know there is one coach on the bench who will hold them accountable for every single time they don't give help, they do it, and its contageous. I'm not sure any of our assistants play that role, at least not with any effectiveness.
Blair also just does not seem to give a crap anymore. Oates may be one of the most physically limited players we've ever had, but at least he cares. Spears and especially Southern give us some reason for optomism.
I missed the first half. Did Billy say BC's never had a Mickey's All-American? That's incorrect, as Billy Curley was in the game. But his point is definitely well-taken.
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