November 29, 2006
4-2 ACC
Last night's games weren't terribly pretty and they didn't all work out the ACC's way, but I'll take it. The Good Guys went 3-2 to push the overall "Challenge" lead to 4-2. With five more games tonight, the ACC just needs to win two to make it eight for eight in "Challenges" against the Big Ten.
Maryland had the best win last night, knocking off Illinois in Champagne, where they hadn't lost to a non-conference team in 51 games. Even with the win, the Terps found a lot of things to work on. They blew a large early lead by getting sloppy with the ball and failing to ever block out even once. Fortunately, one of those point guards I've talked about, Greivis Vasquez, put the team on his wiry shoulders in the second half and personally secured the win. I'd like to see one of the seniors step up in those situations, but a freshman is better than nobody.
Duke and Georgia Tech both won home games a bit too snuggly. Neither game should have been as close as it was, but a win's a win, right? I couldn't watch the Tech game, but Duke looked particularly lost on offense. If Greg Paulus doesn't get his game together, the Blue Devils are going to struggle at times this year.
FSU got spanked as expected by Wisconsin and Miami blew a golden chance to steal a win from Northwestern. The Hurricanes got the ball down two with almost 13 seconds left. Jack McClinton, who scored 30 jogged up the court, giving the defense time to get set, and then launched a contested 25-footer. He didn't even think about passing. Stupid. The smart, easy play is to just put your head down and drive to the hoop. They don't want to foul, so they'll probably give you an easy layup and possibly a three-point play. If they collapse, kick it out for an open three. Oh well.
The big game tonight is obviously Ohio State at UNC, but I'm pretty excited to see my Cavs visit Purdue. I watched Georgia Tech take apart the Boilermakers with their guard play, so I'm hoping the Cavs can do the same. The other game of interest is Michigan State at Boston College. This is a good chance for the Eagles to get their stuff together.
-Maryland v. Illinois: Great win for Maryland. I hate to be a part of the echo chamber, but this is a Gary Williams team. Even battling back from blowing that 15 point lead, I thought that they displayed solid defense. I think not having Ibekwe hurt Maryland more than I thought it would, but they're a gritty team. I wouldn't like to play at College Park at all this season.
-Duke v. Indiana: Wow. If D.J. White plays to his preseason All-American honor, Indiana wins this. If I was a Duke fan, I don't know what I'd be more concerned about: McRoberts not demanding the ball at all or Greg Paulus. The silver lining in this game was DeMarcus Nelson taking responsibility and shouldering this team, but I was expecting a blowout and got nearly OT.
-The snippets I saw from the FSU game confirmed that while Thorton is special, FSU needs to steal a couple of away games in the ACC (@ UNC, GT, BC, Duke, Virginia, Maryland, Miami) to even think about making the NCAAs. They were just abused by Wisconsin's big men. Miami confirmed that they'll be the cellar team in the ACC and I'll chalk G.Tech's struggles to not having Thad. Young play.
-Predictions:
-MSU < BC (BC needs this game more than Michigan State, but I don't think that Izzo and Neitzle are going down easy. However, experience prevails over youth in this one.)
-UVA > Purdue (Singletary is the second best player in the ACC...)
-Iowa ? VTech, Clemson > Minn. (I could care less about these games, honestly.)
-tOSU <UNC> disadvantage in backcourt. However, if UNC plays their defense like they played in NYC, then tOSU could shoot us out of the building.)
On the bright side, I was very encouraged by the unselfish play and hustle. Some outside shots rimmed out, but I'm more concerned with the lack of an inside threat.
| Lee J. Cockrell wrote: |
| I'm more concerned with the lack of an inside threat. |
Lack of an inside threat?!? Jason Cain is clearly the best collegiate big man since Ralph Sampson.
We didn't look too bad -- Singletary, Diane, Reynolds, and Joseph all had their moments. We just didn't finish (no FG in last 5+ minutes). I'm a Leitao guy, but isn't that somewhat attributable to coaching? We need to learn to finish.
1. Very sloppy with the ball for most of the first half and at times in the second. This was definitely better in the second half though.
2. Poor game by Reynolds. He made a ton of mistakes tonight on both ends of the court and missed several wide open shots.
3. No inside game at all. Cain missed a couple of bunnies and no one else really tried. Last year Miklauskas developed some post moves, but he has barely played in the games I've seen.
Still, they were a play or two away from winning. If Purdue misses either one of those two late threes, and they'd been missing them to that point, UVA wins. Tough loss, but not really that significant in the long run hopefully.
That OSU-UNC game was fun though. For a while it looked like both teams would get the three digits. Now that Lawson is finding his game, Carolina is really going to get good fast.
Ohio State is as good as advertised. They'll be a Final Four team, unless if they run into any more injuries. Apparently, ESPN wants us to believe that Greg Oden is the result when you clone Bill Russell, Lew Alcindor, and Wilt Chamberlin together, but Ohio State has some really, really good guards.
It was also nice that our defense showed up in the 2nd half, especially after letting tOSU shoot 61.5% from the 3. If we play defense like that consistantly, then we'll have a very good shot at running through the ACC and making the Final Four, but we're a young team.
Tubby Smith had to have been terrified when he saw us run up and down the floor like that. It'll be interesting to see what Kentucky does in order to slow the pace down a lil' bit.
Where were Virginia's guards in the first half? I didn't much like what I saw in this game from UVA.
In the first half of the UNC/OSU game I kept wondering why Hansborough was continually standing out at the top of the key. I guess Roy wondered the same thing. Excellent adjusting at the half to completely turn the game around. OSU with a healthy Oden will be a scary animal.
Clemson looked pretty good. Not great but certainly not ugly, either.
| Martin wrote: |
| I only caught the second half of the UNC-OSU game, but I was not impressed with the Heels defense. I think Hansbrough was the only guy actually trying to defend the opponent. |
You really would have liked the first half then. The Heels played much better D in the second. Or maybe OSU just cooled off.
| devilbythesea wrote: |
| Where were Virginia's guards in the first half? I didn't much like what I saw in this game from UVA. |
Singletary was pretty clearly not looking for his shot in the first half, trying to get his teammates involved. I'm sure that's intentional, like what Jordan used to do. The problem was in this game, no one stepped up. Reynolds had a terrible game. Ironically, in the second half when Singletary started being aggressive, it opened up gaps for the other players and they - Diane particularly - got better looks.
Hopefully Singletary will learn from that. He can still push the pace and be aggressive while simultaneously involving and helping his teammates. If he's standing around and not being a threat, it hurts everyone.
| Ed-Hoo wrote: |
| I was struck by the way the Cavs came to the bench when Purdue called the time out to set up their last shot. They looked calm and confident. Did Len Elmore call Purdue's last play or what? Must have been the "Court Analysis" class he took at Harvard Law... Actually, he is incisive and I enjoy listening to his commentary--far better than "Dickieee Baybeee's" unhinged screeching. |
I like Len Elmore too. There are times when he talks too much, but he usually has good things to say. He's probably my second favorite analyst behind the retired Brad Daugherty. Daugherty was great. I wish they'd bring him back from his car racing fantasy.
Amen.
BrightCar Car Maintenance Software - Software To Manage Your Car Maintenance Schedule
