Fryer ThoughtZ

[RichZ]

1. Going in, I thought that if Solo's shot was on, we'd be in good shape. If not, Then it would be up to Demary and Reed, and they'd need to score at least 30 between them. As it turned out, they combined for 35.
2. Sometimes, Reed's usage is a mystery to me. It feels like we often go to him early, and he makes a few layins. Then Reibe comes in, and when Reed does come back in, we don't go to him at all. In the early 2nd half, we sometimes go to him a few times, but we pretty much then ignore him until crunch time most of the time. But boy did he come through in crunch time last night!
3. Solo throws the ball away with 8 minutes left in the half.
4. Our 10 point lead was down to 1 in less than 3 minutes, 29 to 19 @ 9:15 shrunk to 31 to 30 @ 6:21.
5. Very pretty play at 5:11, Smith to Riebe for the bunny.
6. What the heck was Reibe doing covering someone other than his man, at half court, to end up giving their center an uncontested dunk?
7. That was an ugly half of basketball. Reed with 10 was the only player on either team to reach double figures in the half. Our shooting wasn't awful (41%) and we connected on 6 threes as opposed to Providence's 1. Don't care much for giving up 4 uncontested dunks though.
8. Thought Solo's shooting would be a big factor one way or the other. At the half, it's been a negative.
9. 2nd half opens on two horrid plays in a row.
10. After going 1 for 6 from 3 in the first half the Fryers are 3 for 4 in the first 8 minutes of the 2nd, and ended up at 5 for 14. We were 11 for 24 from 3.
11. Reed's line in the box score was sweet as could be. 19 points in 19 minutes. 8 of 9 from the floor. 6 boards, a dime, a steal, and 4 blocks. The only blemish was his FT shooting (3 of 9! ):
12. And Reibe did pretty well in his stead, actually getting 2 more minutes on the floor than Reed, and going 6 for 6 while corralling 8 boards and adding a couple blocks and a steal. From my vantage point, our center combo had their best combined outing of the year, with 33 points, 14 boards, 6 blocks, a couple steals and only one TO between them.
13. Solo managed to scrape together 17 points, but he shot 5 of 18 from the floor (including 2 for 10 from 3) and that definitely ain't good.
14. We played with two point guards on the floor quite a bit last night as Demary and Smith had 62 minutes between them, combining for 27 points, 13 dimes, and zero turnovers. Although he played point some, I really got the feeling Smith was getting some minutes that would normally have gone to Mullins, and his 4 for 4 three point shooting proved it was a good move.
15. Other than three pointers, we didn't dominate the scoring percentages -- (shooting, 3s, FTs) 44/45/64 to 48/36/77, but in the dimes, steals & blocks comparison, it was 23/8/9 to 10/5/6.
16. It wasn't a particularly pretty game, and we never could seem to stretch the lead out to a comfortable margin. But the bottom line was a W for the good guys, so we'll settle and move on. Just wondering though, if we're in such a lousy conference, why can't we seem to blow anybody out? Ever since the first Providence game, they all feel like nailbiters.