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Message: [QUOTE="RichZ, post: 3815212, member: 534"] Stayed away from here since the end of the game. I needed to stew with my own thoughts for a while before I put together my ThoughtZ™ tonight. [LIST=1] [*]Early on, when they were playing well, to me, the team seemed subdued. Precious little smiling by our guys, whether on the court o on the sideline. Later in the game, when the lead was slipping away, there was even less. [*]Adams drive to the hole at just under 8 in the half, I knew beyond a doubt that he was going to get called for the charge as he crossed the 3 point line. It was head down and bull his way in from the get go. That's not the sign of a smart player. [*]We had 6 dimes on our first 8 buckets, but finished the half with just 7 assists on 12 hoops. What happened? our 2nd half assist to bucket ratio was an identical 7 for 12. [*]We saw Cole's best game today. He was unfazed by St. John's pressure. 5 assists and a steal in 38 minutes to go with his 4 for 7 from 3 and 18 point total. [*]Whaley didn't seem to be as offensive minded as usual, but still played within himself and was a positive, though not a dominant presence. [*]Gaff had the best move of his his season -- maybe of his career -- with about five and a half minutes left in the half. Made the ensuing FT too.[I] (See vid clip below)[/I] But those three points were his only contribution of the afternoon. [*]Tyrese wasn't really on his game, but he played hard, rebounded well, provided a relief outlet when St. John's guards tried to turn up the pressure when we were bringing the ball up and made some big buckets. Missed some big buckets, too. Still dealing with the yips. [*]Polley's 2 point jumper put us up by 21 with 12 and change left in the half. Six minutes later, our lead was down to three. That's when it struck me that we could be in real danger of losing this game. [*]Polley seemed hesitant to shoot when when he first got in the game, and when he did start shooting, it wasn't pretty. Seemed to me that once he did start shooting and his three wasn't falling, he went back to being reluctant to shoot. Beyond that actually. He was afraid to shoot. He's not a good defender or ball handler. If he's unwilling to shoot, his value is nil. Sanogo showed both the ability and the willingness to score in this game, and he is a defensive asset in the paint, where St John's did all their damage in the last 8 minutes. Yet Polley played the last 12 minutes of the game while Sanogo rode the pine. I know they were playing 4 guards, but Polley can't guard a guard, and at least Sanogo could have protected the rim. If Polley was Polley today, we win this game handily. But he wasn't. That's going to happen from time to time. But his presence on the floor was detrimental to our cause. I'm as big a Dan Hurley fan as anyone here, but as far as I'm concerned, leaving Polley out there the way he was playing was a callosal coaching blunder. [/LIST] [MEDIA=youtube]pGfHA3Ednnw[/MEDIA] [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach