I almost went for the "When your game review is almost 24 hours late, it's GOOD that it's a win but BAD or UGLY for your blog." This is going to be relatively quick tonight because we had some great comments on the blog, especially here, today. But, we'll still give it a go because that's what we do. So awaaaay we go.
THE GOOD
VLAD "THE IMPALER" MOLDOVEANU - *worships* We're not worthy. We're not worthy. 37 points total, 21 at the half, on 10-17 shooting, 3-6 from 3, and 14-15 from the line. He had good hustle diving for loose balls, and almost picked up a double-double with 9 rebounds. Awesome game, Vlad. I think this cements him for 1st team all-PL.
Stephen Lumpkins - 14 points and 6 rebounds, which are good numbers for Lumpy. The thing I'm happiest about is the fire he's got lit under his ass. When Lumpkins goes up for a dunk or a block or when he finishes a tough shot, he gets fired up in a way we didn't see before PL play. He look like a rage filled animal when he finishes that slam. That kind of fire, that passion, that drive, has been lacking from this team. Bring out your inner beast, Lumpkins.
Riley Grafft - I've got issues with Riley's reluctance to take it to the hoop and his lack of physicality recently on defense, but I'll be damned if he didn't bail us out with his play last night. He only had 8 points, but it was on 4-4 shooting, and those buckets came when the rest of the offense was starting to lull. Still, as one of our commenters pointed out, how are you 6'11" and you get NO rebounds? I dunno, Riley, if your buckets hadn't come at such a critical juncture, you can bet your sweet bippy you'd be in the bad column tonight, not the good.
The combined defense of McCormack, Luptak, Hill and Hendra - Jordan Sugars and Chris Harris have been averaging a combined 35 points. We held them to 32 points, which is below average, but they shot only 10-24 and committed 5 turnovers. I think our defenders did a pretty good job on one of the most dynamic scoring duos in the PL.
Rebounds - outrebounding Navy 35-23 certainly helped us out a lot. Very nice!
Assists - second game in a row with 20+ assists. Great ball movement and teamwork there. I hope we can keep that up.
THE BAD
Daniel Fisher - I shouldn't knock Daniel too much because he did get 2 assists in 6 minutes, but then I think about how I gave myself a headache last night screaming about his lack of physical play inside. At one point, our 6'9" friend here tried rebounding by standing, not boxing out, and reaching out a hand. You're a big dude, Fish. Get in there and fight for those rebounds!
Offense from players not surnamed Lumpkins, Moldoveanu, or Grafft - As one of our anonymous commenters pointed out today: Luptak: 22 minutes 3 pts. McCormack: 26 minutes 4 pts. Munoz: 25 minutes 1 pt. Nick: 27 minutes 2 pts. Wilson/Fisher 9 minutes 0 pts. Hill: 20 minutes 0 pts. Total 129 10 pts. The equivalent of almost three people and 10 pts. Stop Vlad and the rest can't score. Two shooting guards (Joe Hill/Nick) take 4 shots in 47 minutes? - I have to agree. Yes we didn't need scoring diversity because Vlad was an absolute beast last night, but what about on nights when he's merely good and not great? It wasn't a very encouraging performance from the rest of our shooters.
Hendra - Aside from his defensive efforts on Sugars and Harris last night, Hendra was completely absent. 1-3, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 turnovers in 27 minutes. He just...disappeared on the offensive end. I don't know what happened, but I didn't like it. Please don't disappear on us again like you did earlier this season, Nick, we need you too much for that to happen, especially as we're starting to pick up some momentum now.
THE UGLY
THE REFS - The officiating was so miserable last night that I actually found myself wishing they'd stop calling fouls on Navy. 42 fouls total called last night, 21 a piece. That is unbelievably terrible, and I hope that officiating crew never works another game again. JUST LET THEM PLAY, not every brush of a jersey is a foul you clowns.
Alright, woo. That's that, glad I got that all off my chest. No open letter this week, but we'll get one in next week!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
We did more screening in this game than I've ever seen from an AU team. Ever. I think this eventually led to more movement, assists. The team right now is searchng, searching for the right balance of discipline and inhibition. Discipline to follow the program and know when to just keep passing the ball (the Navy game was a good example of this)and knowing when to take advantage of a situation (the Navy game was mostly a bad example). We did take a small but important baby step forward in this game. Riley picked up his head twice when he was open from the foul line and buried his shots. he also moved off a screen to get open underneath and receive a pass from Danny to can an easy two.
ReplyDeleteRight now all our guards are erring on the side of caution. That made for an imbalance of scoring. But I'd rather see this and move forward incrementally than lose control and not have a structure. This team needs structure desperately.
Derrick Mercer his freshmman year did little to advance the ball in the halfcourt. He played within his limits, didn't do too much right, but did nothing wrong. His sophomore year was pretty much the same with some advancement. Only in his junior year did he break out, and of course he had a phenomenal senior year. We can't expect more from Danny Munoz.
I've actually been very impressed with Danny since Blake got benched. I think knowing he's not clawing for his starting job has made him more relaxed on the floor. He's making less turnovers, and the overall quality of play has risen
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