- Joined
- Sep 29, 2013
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- 798
It's clear that the Huskies are playing poorly right now. But, we are not in terrible shape.
Our resume is impressive
This same exact team beat Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Washington this season. All of our leading players had impressive wins last year against MSU, Harvard, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Cincinnati. Our personnel has not changed during this season and is virtually unchanged from last season. The same players who are struggling today are the same players who won these games! We have the right skill set to win similar games against similarly good teams - albeit with a lot of problems at the post.
We have real talent
We have some very talented players. We all know Bazz and Boat have skills. DD and OC were highly rated recruits in their respective classes. Giffey rocked over the summer playing against some of Europe's top NBA pros. Kromah is solid and was a D1 double digit scorer for the last 4 years. Our frontcourt is hurting, but TO started in the NC game in 2011, Facey, while riding the bench, was NY's HS player of the year last year and Brimah is obviously an awesome athlete.
We are 11-3
-The Duke Bluedevils are 11-3 after losing to Notre Dame today.
-The 2010-2011 title team lost 9 games, including going .500 in conference
-There are a lot of games yet to play and the level of competition during the rest of the season is pretty comparable to the level of competition we faced in the first 14 games.
Today's Huskies (January 4th, 2014) are considerably worse than the Huskies a month ago
I think it's pretty obvious that if today's Huskies played Florida, IU or Maryland that we'd lose by double digits. While this is concerning, it also is the single fact that gives me the most hope. We are playing very badly right now. But, if our guys played against Houston or SMU like we did against Florida or Maryland then we would have won easily. And, there's nothing preventing these exact same players and coaches from producing the exact same results in future games.
So, am I saying the team's fine?
-No
-We all know that are at a considerable disadvantage in the post. After watching all of our center options take their turn starting games, I'm convinced none of them are ready to start for a high level D1 program.
-We were able to overcome this serious problem in the first 10 games because we were hitting jump shots consistently and Bazz was hot. Our number of 3's taken and hit is way down. Against Maryland we were 10 of 23 from 3 point range. Florida 11 of 24. Houston: 7 of 14, SMU 5 of 16. Some of that might be on the considerable decline in shot attempts by Giffey. We've discussed that extensively, but that can (and hopefully will) be solved
-However, we sink or swim with Bazz. He has been terrible 3 or the last 4 halves of basketball. He turned it on in the second half versus Houston and we almost won after being down 21. If he hadn't scored a mere 2 points in either the first half of SMU or Houston, I'd argue we'd have won those games. He is struggling. But, when he doesn't struggle, we will win. His shot making ability compensates for our lack of post production. He will be hot again. How do I know? Because he has shown over the past two seasons that is what he does. These last two games are the exception for Bazz, not the norm. But, even if he isn't hot, we can still win if we have a couple of the following guys getting the hot hand in a game: Giffey, DD, OC, Boat, Kromah. If two of those guys were hot today then we'd be celebrating a win. There's less production from OC and DD than a lot of us hoped for, but we have enough options to compensate. But, if they do turn it on later this season...watch out. Do I worry that we rely so heavily on Bazz? Sure. But, we relied even more heavily on Kemba 2011 (the season when we went .500 in league play, but he was hot at the right time).
-Can Bazz get hot at the right time, like Kemba did? Maybe. I hope. But, I guarantee he'll be hot again this season; and when he is we will win.
Doomed
So, I think it's premature to be convinced that we are going to the NIT or that we are fundamentally flawed or that our coach sucks or that we have to wait 5 years to make the sweet 16 again or that we're going to come in middle of the pack in the AAC or that we're going to lose all our big recruits or whatever negative prediction has come out of this board for the rest of the season. All that could happen, but I really doubt it. We are not a good team this week, but we have been a good team this season and in all likelihood will be again during this season. We probably won't reach the loftiest of expectations, but we have a lot of winning yet to do.
The future
Hamilton, Purvis, Ali. I just have to say wow. We have a lot of winning ahead of us.
Our resume is impressive
This same exact team beat Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Washington this season. All of our leading players had impressive wins last year against MSU, Harvard, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Cincinnati. Our personnel has not changed during this season and is virtually unchanged from last season. The same players who are struggling today are the same players who won these games! We have the right skill set to win similar games against similarly good teams - albeit with a lot of problems at the post.
We have real talent
We have some very talented players. We all know Bazz and Boat have skills. DD and OC were highly rated recruits in their respective classes. Giffey rocked over the summer playing against some of Europe's top NBA pros. Kromah is solid and was a D1 double digit scorer for the last 4 years. Our frontcourt is hurting, but TO started in the NC game in 2011, Facey, while riding the bench, was NY's HS player of the year last year and Brimah is obviously an awesome athlete.
We are 11-3
-The Duke Bluedevils are 11-3 after losing to Notre Dame today.
-The 2010-2011 title team lost 9 games, including going .500 in conference
-There are a lot of games yet to play and the level of competition during the rest of the season is pretty comparable to the level of competition we faced in the first 14 games.
Today's Huskies (January 4th, 2014) are considerably worse than the Huskies a month ago
I think it's pretty obvious that if today's Huskies played Florida, IU or Maryland that we'd lose by double digits. While this is concerning, it also is the single fact that gives me the most hope. We are playing very badly right now. But, if our guys played against Houston or SMU like we did against Florida or Maryland then we would have won easily. And, there's nothing preventing these exact same players and coaches from producing the exact same results in future games.
So, am I saying the team's fine?
-No
-We all know that are at a considerable disadvantage in the post. After watching all of our center options take their turn starting games, I'm convinced none of them are ready to start for a high level D1 program.
-We were able to overcome this serious problem in the first 10 games because we were hitting jump shots consistently and Bazz was hot. Our number of 3's taken and hit is way down. Against Maryland we were 10 of 23 from 3 point range. Florida 11 of 24. Houston: 7 of 14, SMU 5 of 16. Some of that might be on the considerable decline in shot attempts by Giffey. We've discussed that extensively, but that can (and hopefully will) be solved
-However, we sink or swim with Bazz. He has been terrible 3 or the last 4 halves of basketball. He turned it on in the second half versus Houston and we almost won after being down 21. If he hadn't scored a mere 2 points in either the first half of SMU or Houston, I'd argue we'd have won those games. He is struggling. But, when he doesn't struggle, we will win. His shot making ability compensates for our lack of post production. He will be hot again. How do I know? Because he has shown over the past two seasons that is what he does. These last two games are the exception for Bazz, not the norm. But, even if he isn't hot, we can still win if we have a couple of the following guys getting the hot hand in a game: Giffey, DD, OC, Boat, Kromah. If two of those guys were hot today then we'd be celebrating a win. There's less production from OC and DD than a lot of us hoped for, but we have enough options to compensate. But, if they do turn it on later this season...watch out. Do I worry that we rely so heavily on Bazz? Sure. But, we relied even more heavily on Kemba 2011 (the season when we went .500 in league play, but he was hot at the right time).
-Can Bazz get hot at the right time, like Kemba did? Maybe. I hope. But, I guarantee he'll be hot again this season; and when he is we will win.
Doomed
So, I think it's premature to be convinced that we are going to the NIT or that we are fundamentally flawed or that our coach sucks or that we have to wait 5 years to make the sweet 16 again or that we're going to come in middle of the pack in the AAC or that we're going to lose all our big recruits or whatever negative prediction has come out of this board for the rest of the season. All that could happen, but I really doubt it. We are not a good team this week, but we have been a good team this season and in all likelihood will be again during this season. We probably won't reach the loftiest of expectations, but we have a lot of winning yet to do.
The future
Hamilton, Purvis, Ali. I just have to say wow. We have a lot of winning ahead of us.
