RichZ
Fort the ead!
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 5,227
- Reaction Score
- 22,271
- Josh picked a nice time to have his best game since the middle of his sophomore year. I don't know -- it might have been the best game of his career. He played like a man on a mission.
- Sanogo on the other hand, did nothing to justify the 10 minutes he spent on the court. One point, no boards, 3 fouls. I would have thought that he'd be a tough matchup for the elder Mobley.
- Polley's shot ain't right, and he seems reluctant to take it. His entire line consisted of 4 minutes, 4 fouls, and absolutely nothing else.
- As a team, we defended well enough to win, but the necessity to double Evan Mobley created a lot of wide open 3 point opportunities on the weak side elbow and wing. We did a semi-OK job of recovering on the wing, but not so much on the elbow. Fortunately, USC couldn't hit wide open threes. 3 of 19?
- Mobley is a talent, but Whaley played him tough, and the double team strategy kept him in check. 9 of his 17 points came on freebies, and he shot only 4 of 10 from the field.
- Whaley played 36 minutes, most of it on a bigger guy who is the centerpiece of his team's offense. Zay never showed any signs of fatigue. If he got the same level of protection from the refs as Mobely, he'd have outplayed him handily. I have a soft spot for bigs -- especially those with shot blocking instincts (Zay had another 5 tonight). Bouk, Andre and Martin aside, Whaley's my favorite player on this year's team.
- Martin really showed his value, and was a bigtime contributor at both ends. When he gets the ball, his first instinct is to attack. Reminds me of senior year Donny Marshall.
- Andre on the other hand, had a kind of a deer in the headlights look to him. Only played four minutes, because as soon as he touched it, he passed it. Not an attacking pass, not a probing pass. Just an "I don't want this thing" kind of pass. Maybe he needs to get involved in a few breakaways to get his juices flowing and his comfort level up. Pretty sure not being the dominant player on the court is new to him, and he's not sure how to adjust.
- Once again, Bouk started like a man possessed, then kind of disappeared offensively and when he tried to turn it on again late, he couldn't get it going. Hope that doesn't turn into a season-long recurring theme. Even when he's not being a scoring force though, he occupies the oppositions best perimeter defender, and he still contributes -- last night, he had 7 boards a steal and a couple dimes.
- Fifteen offensive boards to USC's 9 is a remarkable stat. Actually, I think they got three of their O boards on their last possession. Other than that possession, I suspect that our advantage had as much to do with USC sacrificing offensive rebounding to make it tough for us to run on them, as it did for our rebounding prowess.
- Neither team had a great assist night, but 9 is a bigger number than 4, so hey-hey for the good guys.
- On a purely statistical basis, we won this game from the 3 point line. When was the last time that ever happened? Freethrows were a virtual wash (16 to their 17). Both teams made the same number of field goals -- but we got 4 more points from the floor than they did, by way of 7 made threes to their 3.
- How did USC only commit 5 turnovers?
- Did anyone else think the horn at the Mohegan sounded like a kazoo?
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