Jamari came out at halftime and immediately drew fouls on them in consecutive plays. Traylor was not the problem this game.
The real problems were the 3 and 5 positions as usual. Selden simply hasn’t developed. His ball skills are exactly the same as when he came in.
The Spartans have established a blueprint on how to beat us, in my opinion. Helps that Valentine had a career night and Mason looked injured/tired. It’s a loss; we move on. And yes, we need Diallo badly.
Ugh. Debating about whether to renew my cable package. Some questionable calls all night, particularly with the Winslow tip that completely shifted the momentum of the game.
I will never say that Duke didn’t earn it, but it will stay in my memory as a tainted tournament this year. There were some really atrociously-called games in this year’s tourney, and it really sours the final product. Furthermore, the benefits of using my time this poorly (for enjoying sports) are diminishing in a critical period of my life (early fatherhood).
Sometimes, you just have to smile and walk away.
I specifically disagree with you, jaybate, on the Selden versus Graham point for the last game.
I also disagree with the guys on 610 sports regarding the overreaction of some fans. The overreaction is explainable in that we’ve seen this before. It’s the same as last season with no rim protection and no offensive development or creativity. It’s like watching the Chiefs throw screen passes over and over and over again. With the exception of the Trent Green era, we’d been throwing screen passes in most years going back to the Montana era.
Some of us, like me, are beginning to wonder if at least SOME of it is the coaching. After all, there’s very little jerky jerky or creativity. Everyone’s just going through the motions thinking that this will work, just like in practice. This is why Wayne and Perry always get stuffed. Ever watch our guards pass it around the perimeter? Like there’s absolutely no threat to shoot or dribble. We telegraph everything we do and it makes you wonder if they feel the pressure from the coach to execute the play at all costs regardless of the situation.
This is going to be an interesting year because we have an elite scorer in Dawson and and an elite defender in Garrett. Probably would need some advanced stats to back that up, but that is my observation for now. This is the first elite defender I can remember us having in a while.
The thing about Garrett versus Grimes is that I often see Garrett make secondary assists or secondary steals, much more than I’ve seen from Grimes. If Grimes isn’t shooting well, which seems to be common, then Garrett is far and away better statistically.
Yes, we need Grimes to shoot well and yes we need shooters. But would I take a shooter over Garrett’s play right now? Probably not. Too many intangibles like the assist at 5 minutes left to go against Nova, numerous forced turnovers, and good box outs. It’s hard to take out a guy who directly or indirectly leads to 5-7 turnovers for the other team.
Best part of tonight’s game for me was Lagerald Vick’s steals. Real legitimate steals, one being a run-out. Do we finally have a full set of perimeter players who can create steals?
Graham is no Mason when it comes to end of clock creation.
My position is that Garrett is the better defender, passer and dribbler. Garrett deserves more trust come tourney time. Still, we need Vick, obviously.
I just want to say, Malik’s ascension was inevitable if you look at the intangibles of the past couple of months or so. Vick though really came through and we can’t thank him enough. Well we could thank him more if we win a championship. How do we do that, by the way?
I didn’t think this was a bad loss at all. WVU played pretty good defense. They defended the point well, especially at the end, and we had no answer. What gives me hope is our defensive play, which is keeping us in nearly every game. The defense is consistently good, and defense can get you far in March. I hope the team hurts. No pain, no gain. But I’m ok.
This team always had problems at the 5 position. We knew it going into the year. I took a look at Cliff Alexander and thought “Ok, he’s 6’9”. Decent wingspan. No dribble. Clunky feet." Not sure why anybody expected much different from year 1. We were always going to be better defensively playing small and quick.
Thought there were some awful calls/non-calls that led to the Villanova run.
We all knew that this was a year we could lose bad like this. Also, USC seems majorly under seeded…
Pretty sure they can just run out the clock at this point. Not enough steals or defensive pressure in this game. Perhaps we aren’t athletic enough to do that to USC.
Fosters feet move too much in his shot
We have to double teams everyone. They don’t have to double team anybody. Length
Win or lose, just want these guys to enjoy themselves and play as hard as they can. I realize we aren’t getting many fouls called our way and that it’s discouraging. Just play hard regardless and enjoy.
Just joined. They are smelling blood. Also, they’re taller and more athletic. Love y’all
Too many charges in college basketball. Hard to watch
Yikes. We look like we got 3 hours of sleep