Wow, hard to type, having to wipe the puke off my keyboard. Double suck, for the second year in a row I had to watch this game on a layover at the MEMPHIS airport! Sweet irony. The do have great BBQ there, even in the airport. I had some time to mull over it on my flight to Nashville and I think we have some real problems. Winning would have masked them but they are there.
First, this staff is stubborn, period, endstop. You can slow the game with a ZONE, not by running 30 seconds off your own shot clock. Memphis was 4-9 on 3s which is good but we needed them to shoot 18, I suspect they would have been no better than 6-18. Whatever the case, it is better than giving up a fast break layup or dribble drive. Do we even HAVE inbounds plays? I see one a game...maybe.
Run some offense! Man we are horrible, for all the talk about defense, I say, maybe it is just because we hold the ball so long on offense. I would say on 75% of our possessions, we look inept. Uzoh played well but NOT as a PG. He was forced to bring the ball down because we literally had nobody else that could. I mean, seriously, how is that possible? Could the Heirman kid be worse? Put in him, Woj has destroyed everyone elses confidence. The freshman from Memphis looked incredible.
Man this sucks, we are at our strongest at any point in the last several years and they are at their weakest. We get them at home. They play like CRAP, lots of fouls, bad rebounding, poor shooting and terrible FT shooting.... AND THEY BEAT US! Some may look at the narrow loss and be encouraged, not me. I look at it and realize that we cant beat them, even when they are at their very worst. What this says to me, is prepare for a 20 point beatdown in Memphis.
Lets play a little game of WTFWWT of WHAT THE FUDGE WAS WOJ THINKING?
1. Game prepping for the press?? We certainly didnt look like a team that has practiced much against it, but maybe we were too busy implementing a new zone D
2. ZONE??? NO??????? WTFWWT? Slow the temp, save some fouls, force them to work for long jumpshots, neutralizing some of their athleticism while keeping out stud in the middle. NO FREAKING BRAINER. Stubborn or stupid, you decide.
3. Technical FTs??? WTFWWT? Stupid, stubborn you pick either, Ill say both in this case, Ray is a senior but he is not THE man.
4: Offense?? WTFWWT? Really, no PG, no plays, no tempo, no chemistry, FREAKING BARF!
We can rebound great and Jordon had a monster night but when we play teams like Memphis we really get exposed. We just DO NOT POSSESS enough guys that are fundanentally capable of playing at this level. You should be able to dribble and pass agasint any team.
Beat Marshall, take off the sting, smoke and mirrors is fine, just make it look like we are good again.
That's all folks, my ambien is kicking in and I dont want to start writing sloppy stories about Buzz Petersons wife.
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First off, I realize this is purely a postgame rant, but I'd like to at least respond to a couple points.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that the only reason our defense looks good is the "30-second shot clock offense". Even when normalized for number of possessions, we're 26th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency on Pomeroy's site. This team has it's warts, but they play some tough man-to-man defense.
Now the fast break defense isn't nearly as dominant and it shows against a team like Memphis when you turn the ball over like we did. Still, I think it's interesting that you spend so much time talking about a defense that held Memphis to their lowest scoring output of the year for the 2nd straight season. Did I want to see some zone? Sure, but they actually hit some 3s last night so I'm not surprised we never used it.
The ballhandling is bad, but I'm not sure it's non-D1 players bad. Memphis is a top 5 defensive team in the country and they'll give everyone fits on that end of the floor. I think it's amazingly frustrating for everyone that we still don't have a point guard who just demands the ball and beats the press.
All things considered, I think we have to look at this game within the context of the entire season. Here is what you said on December 14:
"We just are not a very good team right now. I think we will roll the next two opponents by 20+ then lose to BYU by 15. We pound the next pansy but follow that with 3 straight losses to be 9-8 on 1/14. We'll see but that is what I am thinking right now."
Instead we're 11-6 heading into full-time conference play with no clear cut favorite for #2 in the conference. As the eternal realist I was hoping for a positive spin from you to dampen the chaos at ITS right now, but I can understand your negativity.
At least we can agree on one thing: Beat Marshall and take away the sting.
Fair enough, we do play good defense, for sure. If you see my posts since the 9-8 one, I thought we had a chance to beat BYU and even Memphis.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, we can still finish second. I think we are all just anxious and Coach has done a less than terrific job with the fan base. The fire Woj people are over the top IMHO but so are the people who try to defend everything.
I think the best bet is to support the team and the coach and see how this season pans out.
I expect when the season is over, we're definitely NIT worthy... I guess that's progress. The following year we will probably be on the bubble for the NCAA if JJ returns. ...And even if he does, what shape will we be in when Ben and Jerome graduate?
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why I'm on both sides of the fence. There's definitely some over-reaction going on ITS, but one thing a coach shouldn't do is call out the fan base, in consecutive years. ...Especially with this style of play given our tradition.
Canester
Ash, now that you have your own blog I tend to agree with you, WTF.. Anyway, our defense is excellent especially now that Woj has stopped the Jordan hedge. Jordan stays in the lane as I have suggested since CBI last year. Just goes to show you, Woj is not totally stubborn.
ReplyDeleteAs for our offense, teams like Memphis really do exploit us. The sad thing is this is the year we had our chance to win the conference. Next year with the Memphis recruits we will not even be close.