11/28 - MBB vs. Miss St.

SecretAgentBuzz

SecretAgentBuzz

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YES! Great win, and hopefully the first big win of many Coach Stoudamire. We led from wire-to-wire! When was the last time that happened? A quick summary:

The good:
-DEFENSE! Somebody got through to this team that effort and communication are the keys to good defense, and they responded well. I'm not sure how much the new starting lineup had to do with it, but the defense in the first half was really good. Keep that up and we will have a winning record.
-Hitting shots in the first half. There was good ball movement and shot selection and we actually hit the shots we should hit...in the first half, at least.
-Naithan George! Hello, young man, welcome to college basketball! George played extremely well for his first real action. He was calm, strong with the ball, and made good decisions. He made a huge difference in this game.
-Ndongo only scored 2 points but he made a big difference. He is a solid passer, rebounder, and defender. Dowuona also played well in his minutes.
-"Second half Miles" in the first half. Miles Kelly got into the action quickly and played a great game. He was solid on defense and rebounded really well. If he can play both ways like he did in this game, we will go very far.

The bad:
-The second half offense was ugly at times, and it seemed like we might have slowed down too soon, taking our foot of the gas and losing some of the rhythm we had in the first. We shot 22% in the second half!
-Claude seemed frustrated and outmatched in this one. MSU's big guy moved him around a good bit.
-Somehow we only had 8 assists. I thought our passing looked good, but more TOs than assists is a recipe for disaster.

More than anything, I think this game was important to show the team that defense wins. Even when you are off on offense, defense keeps you ahead or at least close. I also thought Miss. St. did not shoot well or have their best game. This win will continue to look good, though, as I think they are a better team than they showed. Kudos to Coach Stoudamire for getting the team ready and pulling the plug on the players who had not been performing. I think our hopes have been renewed for this team. Go Jackets!

(Also, everybody take note of the right way to title the game thread! It was for sure the biggest factor in the win!)
 

GTRambler

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George looked like he filled in the missing piece this early in the season.

It’s a long, long season ahead, though. But hopefully the team can continually improve.
 
Northeast Stinger

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GTRambler said:
George looked like he filled in the missing piece this early in the season.

It’s a long, long season ahead, though. But hopefully the team can continually improve.
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In the second half I noticed something odd about his dribble. He continually got the ball far away from his body, down court and close to the defender like he was “inviting a steal.” Couldn’t make up my mind if this was a deliberate ploy where he would break toward the basket if the defender attempted the steal or if he was just tired and getting sloppy.

Anyone else notice this?
 
LargeFO

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Northeast Stinger said:
In the second half I noticed something odd about his dribble. He continually got the ball far away from his body, down court and close to the defender like he was “inviting a steal.” Couldn’t make up my mind if this was a deliberate ploy where he would break toward the basket if the defender attempted the steal or if he was just tired and getting sloppy.

Anyone else notice this?
Click to expand...

I think he was pretty gassed. Going from essentially not playing to 30+ is a big shift.
 
Bogey

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Northeast Stinger said:
In the second half I noticed something odd about his dribble. He continually got the ball far away from his body, down court and close to the defender like he was “inviting a steal.” Couldn’t make up my mind if this was a deliberate ploy where he would break toward the basket if the defender attempted the steal or if he was just tired and getting sloppy.

Anyone else notice this?
Click to expand...
I did and think he thinks he is a quicker than his defender and trying to draw a foul on a steal attempt.
 

YlJacket

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I only got to see the first half. Obviously liked what I saw.

We tweeked the offense a bit. Less dependence on the high ball screen to initiate the offense and more on passes and downscreens to get things going which led to player and ball movement before trying to penetrate. Makes it a lot easier to create an advantage. And George executed the offense much better than we have seen. Could get in the paint to force help and made a couple of really nice skip passes for open 3's. Not sure if those were set plays or just him recognizing where the help came from but it was great to see.

But the big difference between last night and Cincy was MS could not make shots. We were good at helping on the drive - especially their small PG - which left open 3's against a close out. Cincy killed us there and MS didn't hurt us. Either missed or didn't even take the shot.

Our interior defense was just good enough.

Reminded me of 2 major axioms - matchups really matter and this was a much better matchup than Cincy - and basketball has become a game of shooters. Probably an offshoot of the first but we got better shots and made them and they didn't.

Long season with a lot of ups and down - good matchups and bad - days we hit shots and days we don't. But we needed to make some tweeks to the offense and did.
 

GaTech4ever

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I haven’t read through the replies yet, and I want to qualify this statement by stating I am taking nothing away from that win. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a team (other than GT) be on the wrong end of seemingly EVERY 50/50 ball, foul, etc. as Mississippi State was last night. I couldn’t imagine how demoralizing it was for their players (and frustrating for their fans). I’ll take it 100% of the time, but it really was incredible how unlucky they were on so many plays.

We played very well — our ball movement looked amazing. I was unable to watch the Cinci game, but George looked so much better than Abrams and I love the move by CDS.
 

GaTech4ever

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Northeast Stinger said:
It looked dangerous. Like a freshman who has yet to realize how fast ACC defenders will be. But, as someone else said, maybe he was gassed.
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He was doing it in the first half and was nearly making defenders fall over with his change of direction. I would agree that it became less effective because he was tired in the second half. I haven’t seen a replay, but I’m pretty sure the move was the behind the back to snatch crossover that Jamal Crawford perfected:

 
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