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Message: [QUOTE="RichZ, post: 2039974, member: 534"] Once again, it was great to have the full replay to review as I prepped my notes. Thanks, guys. There were a lot of interesting storylines in this one. The way the game changed based on Tacko's presence or lack thereof. How much impact a homer official can have. The dynamics of our guard play. Endgame strategies. The rise of Christian Vital. Let's start a minute or so in... [LIST=1] [*]Fall's 2nd foul was about as egregious an offense as you could make in the paint. He backed into Brimah and just kept going for four full steps, taking him all the way out of bounds. A minute and a half into the game, score still nada to naught and Tacko is on the bench with a pair of fouls. [*]Jalen finally brings an end to the futility with a jumper 3 and a half minutes in. Score remained 2-zip until well past the first TV timeout. That's some ugly basketball. [*]Brimah went down early with an ankle injury, and what's left of the season flashed before the eyes of the UConn faithful. Except maybe mau. [*]Facey had as bad a first few minutes as anyone not named Tacko. Two turnovers, a missed shot (tacko may have gotten a fingertip on it) and two fouls. He then proceeded to be one of the most impactful players on the court not named Rodney for the rest of the half, with 8 points and 4 boards. He ended with 12 and 4. [*]UCF finally got on the board at 13:46 with a 3 pointer. [*]Rodney in the first half -- 5 for 7, all made buckets on catch and shoot threes. Missed a layup and a three. Rodney from the field in 2nd half -- 0 for 5. One layup attempt and 4 missed jumpers. All shooting off the dribble. Two of the jumpers he was blocked, and one of the others, he was reasonably open. But it's clear that he should NEVER shoot off the dribble. [*]Rodney's barrage of catch and shoot jumpers in the first half all occurred when Fall was on the bench. When he was in the paint, the defense didn't collapse on a driving guard and didn't pack into the paint while we were probing. Thus, no open spot up guy to pass out to. When Fall was on the bench, they packed the paint for the first half of the shot clock and helped on the penetration, leaving guys open on the perimeter. Rodney was the chief beneficiary. In the 2nd half, Fall was there, and Dawkins' half time adjustment of putting Miller, then Davis on Rodney like glue, helped to keep Rodney from getting any open spot up looks. But to an extent, Vital and Jackson were the beneficiaries. [*]Amida's rebounding was once again pretty impressive. Except on the offensive boards when Fall was in the game. Fall though, didn't board very well at his offensive end, either. [*]Speaking of rebounding, we had an 11 board edge at the half and ended up with a 2 board deficit. UGH. [*]Purvis' first three was at the 10:30 mark in the 1st half. He would make 4 more in the next 9 minutes. All catch and shoot and only the last one came close to being contested. All made with Fall on the bench. [*]At the 5 minute mark, Jalen on the break, 3 on 3. Jalen draws all three defenders to the paint and hits Purvis with a soft pass. Money. Maybe the prettiest break I've seen this season. [*]Early 2nd half. Tacko's first points of the game. He enters the paint at 19:39. A shot goes up at 19:31. He is still in the paint. He gets the offensive rebound at 19:28 and stuffs it at 19:25. This possession set the trend for the rest of the second half. Tacko? Yeah, he can set up shop in the lane as long as he wants. [*]From just under the 15 minute mark on, there was a palpable difference in the way the game was being called. [*]Enoch had a block at around 13:00, and UCF regained possession and he was called for a phantom foul by the bald ref. [*]Banyard slid out of bounds with the ball on the next possession, and the bald ref helped him up. Makes sense. By that point in the game, they were pretty much teammates. [*]As hot as Vital was on spot up 3s in the 2nd half, he passed one up at 9:00 and opted to pass to an exhausted Adams, too far from the basket. Eventually, while Adams was resting with the ball out near mid court, Vital stepped out of bounds with one foot while running the baseline. There is no way he gained any meaningful advantage by doing so. 4 seconds after he re-established both feet in bounds, Adams passed the ball to him and he immediately passed it back. The same bald headed ref called him for going out of bounds to gain an advantage. [*]Our next possession Vital made one of the most important plays of the 2nd half when he got control of the ball following a block on Purvis (off the dribble -- why, dear God?) jumper, used the rim to protect the ball and laid it in. [*]8 minutes left and we're still up 16, but their press and our slowdown are about to become the dominant stories of the game. [*]4:45 and 7 points of our lead has melted. [*]4:27 I'm not even sure I can even describe this debacle, but it ends up with Amida dribbling between the 3 point line and half court, then trying to shuffle the ball to Jalen. They both end up on the floor while Davis is dunking at the other end. [*]Adams finds a seam and hits an awkward left handed floater at about 2 minutes to get us back to seven. After that, he was limping and grimacing noticeably. [*]Vital hits a spot up three off a Purvis pass as the shot clock is winding down on our next possession. Back to 10 points! [*]A UCF free throw makes it 9 at 1:19. Then the real ugliness starts. [*]UCF has to foul three times to get us into the bonus, which burns about 18 seconds. [*]After a Vance missed FT, CV gets the rebound and gets fouled hard. Vital reacts with a kind of shove and it ends up with the bald ref reviewing it, looking for a way to call a T on CV, I suppose. Or maybe just to insert a few minutes of concern on Vital's part to get some nerves going before he heads to the line. Vital, who has been money at the line in winning time, misses the first of the one and one. [*]Banyard scores. Rodney grabs the ball coming through the net, steps out and fires it in to Jalen before the defense can set up. Jalen gets fouled immediately and heads to the line. To me this shows our endgame strategy. Speed is of the essence, and the guy who takes the ball out of the net steps out and get it inbounds in a hurry, before their defense is set [*]Jalen makes the free throws. Back to 6. [*]Taylor brings it straight up and goes to the rim with no resistance. 4 point game. The ball comes through the net directly into Amida's hands. He steps out for the quick inbounds, but Brown is on his hip under the bucket and covers him on the inbound play. Jalen shows at the baseline, alf way to the corner and Amida throws him a weak pass that he mishandles. We lose possession with 22 seconds left, but regain it on a tie up with just over 10. [*]CV inbounds to Rodney who is fouled with 10.2 left. He misses the first, makes the 2nd. 5 point game, 9 seconds. [*]Taylor unmolested lays it in again to make it 3 with 4.1 left. Rodney grabs the ball coming through the net, steps out and immediately inbounds to CV, who is almost as quickly fouled. As we've come to expect, CV is money from the line in winning time. A UCF bucket that probably shouldn't have counted anyway, it meaningless. [*]I hate winning a game by three when we were up by 18 in the 2nd half. But not as much as I hate losing. [*]Now, we await the reports on whatever was bothering Jalen's hip late in the game. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

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