Saturday, February 02, 2013

A "Yes, yes, yes, NO, yes" win over Clemson

Immediately after the game I felt numb and went to Twitter to gripe. A couple of hours later I feel better, but still think this was a frustrating win. The headline of this post may be clumsy but for those who didn't see the game, I think it captured the spirit of the day. We played really well for long stretches, shots were falling and then the wheels came off. Fortunately we closed it out. Here are my detailed thoughts:

Likes
-- Defensive effort. Clemson is not a good offensive team but we still played good defense for most of the game. There was an energy and an aggressiveness that has been missing. We also did a good job helping and doubling without getting burned. Odio seemed to provide the spark and often that sort of thing is contagious.
-- The backdoor and driving to the basket. Rahon was the key for most of this. Unlike Hanlon, who drives with a shot in mind, Rahon seems to drive to open something else. We also converted on guys cutting to the basket more.
-- Anderson's late basket when the lead was cut to 1. Getting a good shot to our best player is the best way to turn the tide.

Dislikes
-- The collapse. There were a myriad of things that went wrong. Part of it was Roper just getting hot for them, but we still made some stupid turnovers and lost our edge offensively.
-- Donahue over substituting down the stretch. When a team is pressing you need to put your best, and most poised lineup out there and let them play. All the substituting has guys overthinking and pressing.
-- Free throws. How much better would our record be if we converted more free throws? How can we be so hot from 3 and clank so many gimmes?

7 comments:

mod10aeagle said...

I may be wrong about this, but it seemed to me that with about 10 minutes left to play and BC holding about a 17 point lead, the offense started playing the clock rather than playing to score. They basically held the ball in the backcourt and ran off ten seconds of shot clock before getting into the offense. And they just lost their rhythm and started turning the ball over. As much as Clemson increased their intensity and urgency, BC decreased theirs.

Still, they pulled it together just enough in the closing 90 seconds to pull it off. Very clutch 12 footer from Andersen just when it looked like BC was cooked, and Jackson going 4-4 from the stripe was huge.

Great games from Rahon and Odio. Nice to finally win one of these.

Knucklehead said...

Jackson 4-4 from the line late was key.

The team was 8-20 from the line before Jackson closed the game.

Anderson is 76-123 from the line this season. The medical staff needs check his eye sight, number one and then he needs study Lonnie Jacksons technique . . . look at the rim and shhot the ball just over the front end of it.

He needs to focus on that and understand his importance with regards to the success of the team.

Good win.

Miami will be tough and then Duke.

dixieagle said...

I'm always thrilled with a win, and there certainly has been progress. However, I was watching the IU-MIchigan game last night (daughter and SIL are IU grads) and saw them make 16 straight free throws.

I would have our guys practicing free throws for hours every day. Making FTs would have made the difference in several close games this year. This seems a no-brainer to me.

Joseph said...

so right. The only way to get good at the line is practice, practice, practice. Larry Bird was about 90% form the line, because he shot so much in practice. For this team a rate of 75% might have meant three or more additional wins.

mod10aeagle said...

Given how much this team has needed to learn just to be competitive, it's probably unrealistic to think they wouldn't have to short-change some aspect(s) of the game. Looks like free-throws are it.

John said...

From other thread - At the old Roberts Center, BC had a couple of baskets that were just large enough for the ball.

Each player should shoot 100 free throws at those small baskets everyday - especially when they are tired.

Such practice would have to help - we haven't been this bad from the line since Jim O'Brien's terrible teams cornered the market on brick-laying.

John said...

From other thread - At the old Roberts Center, BC had a couple of baskets that were just large enough for the ball.

Each player should shoot 100 free throws at those small baskets everyday - especially when they are tired.

Such practice would have to help - we haven't been this bad from the line since Jim O'Brien's terrible teams cornered the market on brick-laying.