RichZ
Fort the ead!
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 5,205
- Reaction Score
- 22,168
- The announcers. The color man actually had a few interesting and pertinent observations. Unfortunately, he suffered from Doris Burke syndrome, and absolutely refused to go more than a second or two without running his mouth, even when he had nothing at all to contribute, and he had the most annoying, nasal voice in the history of television. If he had anything important to say after the half, I don't know, because I never took it off mute after half time.
- The officiating. Semi-decent in the 1st half. Horrible in the 2nd half. Only 17 fouls called on Cinci compared to 28 called on us, and 2 of theirs were intentional fouls trying to burn up the clock on our last possession in regulation, so they were really only whistled for 15 in normal play. Funny thing is, I didn't really notice just how bad the refs were in real time. But when I spent nearly 4 hours this morning watching the replay and rewatching critical parts several times, it really started to stick out. It wasn't as much a matter of them calling excessive fouls on us, as their reluctance to blow the whistle on the same fouls by Cinci.
- Vitale had a double double and took more rebounds off Cinci's boards than their entire team.
- CV played 39 minutes and never got to the line. Until after Jalen fouled out, Cumberland or Jennifer ended up on him when he had the ball. They had 3 fouls between them. Interesting.
- The flagrant called on CV with 6:32 to go in the game was complete and utter bullspit. It was a dumb foul on his part, but he was clearly making a play on the ball, and did not hold Cumberland from behind. Whatever "excessive" contact there was was caused as much by Cumberland using his shoulder and elbow as it was by Vitale reaching across.
- The 3 consecutive threes in a minute or so of game time immediately following the imaginary flagrant foul might have been our most enjoyable stretch of basketball this season.
- Adams played great. A couple of the earlier calls were kind of ticky-tack, but his last 3 fouls were unquestionable. He knew when he left his feet on the last one that he'd been had, and was pissed at himself before he came down. I guess you could say our chances of winning the game took a big dive right there. For the most part, Tarrin played fine in his stead, but Terrance Myth is not Jalen Adams.
- Gilbert's 3 pointer was off, but other than that, he played great, and he made the important, pressure 3 when it mattered and held us together from the FT line late.
- Our bigs are our weak link, but Carlton was a stud last night.. One board shy of a double double despite seemingly being the designated target of the stripes. Whalley isn't getting any burn, and Cobb, well, Cobb shouldn't be getting any. Damn your stupid injury prone legs, Yakwe! Please, Diarra, get healthy quick. And be good.
- It's not like we didn't have some really sloppy stretches, and everyone made a few costly miscues. But I was proud of the effort and the fight our guys displayed. They deserved a win and didn't get it.
- After our early flurry, both teams were cold for a few minutes, then cinci started to chip away at it. I thought Hurley should have taken a TO to change momentum and get everyone on the right page when the lead got down to 2. He waited until it turned into a deficit. I understand managing the timeouts, but that seemed like a critical point in the game.
- Blown opportunity with around 16:45 left in the game that really stuck out to me. Cinci up 5, air balls a three late in the clock. CV gets his easiest "rebound" of the night. Jalen gets ahead of everyone and Vital hits him with a perfect long outlet. Two defenders closing on him, Jalen drives the baseline and puts up a wild, no chance wraparound instead of going for the easy dump to Carlton who is coming in right behind the two cinci guys. Then Jalen fouls Cumberland at the other end, then 2 seconds later, fouls Jennifer on the drive. Should note that Jennifer clearly traveled before the contact, but he and Cumberland seemed to be the designated whistle proof guys. Jennifer only makes one, but Adams now has to sit with 3, early in the half. At the time, I thought it would be pivotal because of the blown opportunity at our end. Turned out it really was pivotal, but because of the 2 fouls on Adams.
- Wasn't it just a few games ago the refs were stressing the hook and hold or whatever they call it when bigs get arms tangled, and it was called like 3 times on our bigs in one game? Have we seen that "point of emphasis" call made even once, before or since? Nsomesese or however he spells his name could have been called for it a couple times last night.
- We outscored them from the field. We outscored them from 3. We shot a better percentage (81 to 66) from the line, but they shot 38 FTs to our 17, and that is the crux of the matter.