Game Thoughts - Temple dos

[dennismenace]

Regarding the cheer squad, there was a shot coming out of a timeout near the end where the group was doing a little shimmy move that appeared designed to shake the girls and without any other point or display of skill or choreography. I was enjoying the show when my wife comments "I think one girl just flat out didn't wear a sports bra today", yes sweetheart, I noticed

It was one of the few redeeming parts of the broadcast.

 

[huskymagic]

[QUOTE="RichZ, post: 2054040, member: 534"

1. Amidah was a non-factor, playing only 18 mostly uneventful minutes. Enoch produced an almost identical stat line in about half the PT.

[/QUOTE]

It's ironic that despite being labeled as some "bad" player by the usual suspects on the Yard, UCONN seems to win quite a few close game with Amida in the lineup in end of game situations. If Amida wasn't in the game to set the screen and provide an option that Temple has to respect on offense, that Jalen game winning layup maybe doesn't happen.

Amida's value defensively and offensively to UCONN's success is incredible. UCONN's athletic potential is much higher with Amida than without. Amida also hit 2 huge free throws in both Memphis and Temple games. Amida and CV are the team's lucky charms. We are lucky to have Amida.

 

[Palatine]

1. It wasn't a panic situation by any means, but we were down at the half and not playing particularly well, so it was another no left shoe for the 2nd half game.
2. Getting this out of the way right off the top. I had to watch with the sound muted from about 4 minutes left in the first half on. Burke and O'Brien spent about 10 minutes of 1st half game action talking with Lunardi about bull dung that had nothing to do with the action in front of them. The various ESPN outlets are rife with talking heads discussing seeding etc about 20 hours a day. The play-by-play guy should actually be watching the came he's supposed to be reporting the action on, and do some you-know, play-by-play kinda stuff. I turned the sound on every now and then to see if it was any better, but all I caught was Doris droning on about who knows what. Back to mute.
3. Watching the game, I would never have thought we led them in rebounds (29/26), FG% (47/44) and 3pt% (44/33), and both teams ended up 10 of 14 from the line.
4. Jackson had his best game in conference play, despite the 3 TOs. 8 points, (2 of 3 from 3), 5 boards, plus some heady defense including a steal, a block and some good footwork cutting off the roll on their P&R.
5. Amidah was a non-factor, playing only 18 mostly uneventful minutes. Enoch produced an almost identical stat line in about half the PT.
6. Rodney was huge for us today. Until Jalen made magic happen, Rodney kind of carried us. He played his usual good on ball defense all day, and found his shooting stroke in the 2nd half. He missed his first three shots (2 threes and a midrange jumper) before making a layup and a three late in the first half, then missing another 3 in the final minute. Second half, he was 3 for 4 on threes and 2 for 4 on two point attempts. He also had 5 dimes on a day when as a team we only had 11 total.
7. Did anyone else find their heart in their throat when Rodney layed out trying to save his steal attempt at 13:35 of the half as it went out of bounds? It sure looked like he went down awfully hard and awkwardly.
8. Temple lists Dingle as a guard, but his game and his dimensions both scream stretch four. And he was by far their best player today. Until he missed a front end in the endgame, anyway.
9. I believe we had them 28 to 16 on points in the paint.
10. Facey's drive and dunk on Enechionyia at about 17:30 in the 2nd half was something special and totally unexpected from him. I'm trying to think of the last time he dunked the ball that wasn't on an alley oop, and I really can't remember him ever doing anything like that. Not sure I've ever seen him up that high. Now I want to see that at least once a game for the rest of the year, dammit.
11. There were times during the game when I felt like "This is what we're like when Jalen has an off day," and it wasn't a good feeling at all. Then Jalen made that steal with just over a minute left, tried to tomahawk it, and drew the foul, which made it a one point game when he sunk both. Of course he sunk both in that spot. Because Roxbury, you know?
12. Breaking down the last minute. After a Temple time out, they inbounded with 54 seconds left. Standing directly in front of the ref at the 3 point line, Williams had a case of nervous feet, and shuffled both feet several times, with no call. Then there was a bogus call on Purvis, sending Dingle to the line. I know it was a bogus call, because Doris felt the need to defend it, without anyone having questioned it.
    Dingle missed the front end, Facey rebounded, and KO called a time out. KO spent the first half of the time out huddling with Miller and Ricky. (I think it was Ricky -- might have been Killings, all I saw was the back of the bald head -- then went over to the players and set up the possession.
    In the meantime, Burke was talking about Dunphy stressing the importance of not letting Jalen attack the rim going to his right. Sure enough, Jalen goes to his right and gets tied up. Possession arrow to UConn. Again Jalen goes to his right, and this time he gets fouled. That could not possibly have worked out any better. Now we had a new clock and didn't need to leave them 11 seconds! They foul Jalen again at 8 seconds, which as far as I'm concerned, made it a done deal. This one was going to be Jalen's game to win or lose. Dunphy takes time out. No huddling with the assistants this time. This one, I believe, is all about KO's NBA experience. Set up Jalen to take it to the rim off a high screen.
    On the inbounds, Brimah sets that high screen, Adams takes them by surprise by going around the left side of Brimah, and Brimah rolls toward the hoop on the right. At that split second, I envisioned a lob to Brimah. But Brimah gets held by Enechionyia. Jalen though, blows by Alston and gets his head, shoulders and ball past Aflakpui, then goes up with his right hand and uses reverse English to spin the ball into the hoop. You can't teach that. That's magic kinda stuff right there. Dunphy out of timeouts, and unlike when Cincinnati went ahead last year, our guys don't dance around celebrating. Instead, they run down court and defend.
13. As a final note, Temple has a much better looking dance team/cheerleading squad, whatever they call them, than we do.

5. Funny how our comeback to win the game coincided with Brimah returning to the court.

 

[Chief00]

Brimah is a tale of two cities - seldom has there been a player with such acute pluses and minuses. Even the pluses come with a time constraint due to his inability to stay on the floor and out of foul trouble.

Travis Knight had that problem his Freshman year and at the start of his Sophomore year. Calhoun made an interesting experiment - and just said F it - no matter how many fouls he has I am just playing him. Either the refs adjusted to Travis or Travis adjusted to the refs - but it seemed to work.

On the other hand sloppy Travis and neat freak Ray34 never could adjust to each other as roommates - but that's a story for another day.