USF game thoughts

[RichZ]

1. Two point lead with 8 minutes to go and win by 21? I would take that against the holy sisters of the poor.
2. The first 5 or 6 minutes of the game were beautiful basketball. The last 8 minutes were damned impressive. In between, we seemed content with just holding our own. The two really good spurts were all about dribble penetration. Which means they were all about Jalen. The middle of the game, we had little dribble penetration, and the offense ran more through tossing it in to Facey at the top of the key. I don't think you can ask Adams to do what he did early and late, for the whole game. Not every game, that's for sure. So the other way to get into the teeth of the zone is the entry pass to the free throw line area. Enter Kentan. Facey didn't have a great game tonight. Didn't shoot well and didn't handle the ball cleanly. But he still ended up with 12 points, because he was the focal point of the offense for much of the game.
3. What an opportune time for Vital to have a coming out party! I was surprised he only played 24 minutes. 5 for 7 for 3 and 6 for 8 overall. Even played some semi-respectable defense late.
4. Vance continues to prove his immense value. I think it's time for him to start asserting himself a bit more, because he's really tough to defend. He should have double figure attempts in most games.
5. USF had 2 possessions with 3 and 4 O boards, which accounted for more than half their offensive rebounds. We outrebounded them on both ends of the court, which might be one of the biggest and most important areas of improvement over the last half dozen games.
6. I know it's SOP around here to rag on Brimah, but the improvement in his rebonding this year is substantial. He still loses it too easily to a gentle nudge on the elbow, but he is rebounding at a much better rate than last year.
7. Like Thabeet and Mek before him, Brimah gets jobbed by the home team stat man on block count. I thought he had 2 watching live. On replay, he actually had 3. Got credited with 1 by the USF scorer.
8. Nice to see Rodney find his stroke in the 2nd half.

 

[selles]

I'd like to combine your point 2 about the need for someone to create offense other than Jalen and your point 4 about Vance needing to assert himself more. Good things seem to happen when Vance drives into the lane. I'd like to see him do it more, and am willing to deal with some turnovers/ugly plays while he tries to figure that out.