11/15 Tech v. UGA

[gte447f]

I watched the first 5 minutes of last night’s game with SWMBO and we were both so bored and disgusted we turned it off. And neither of us even thought about actually going to the game. Folks who complain about the lack of fan support need to realize that you actually need to give us (more casual) fans something to cheer about before we will begin attending games.

Winning counts. Entertaining play counts. Losing and showing terrible basketball skills also count…in the negative.

Sorry to be so brutally honest, as I do root for the program and remember vividly the glory years of GT basketball. But you gotta give me a reason to get excited….

This is a valid take. As a diehard, I attend almost every game, and often lament the lack of fan support and the usually truly depressing atmosphere inside McCamish. It is the Thrillerdome no more. But I totally understand your perspective MWBATL. It’s very hard to support this program even as a diehard, so there isn’t much of any reason for a casual fan to be interested.

Last night was unfortunate. The crowd was actually pretty good. The students and fans did their part, but the team didn’t deliver. Probably burned a lot potential fan interest with that loss.

We have games like this every year that fail to capitalize on potential fan interest. The Wisconsin game a few years ago comes to mind. The upcoming Cincinnati game could have big if the team had taken care of business against uga last night.

 

[gte447f]

Just finished up watching. I think 2-2 is about where we probably expected to be at this point, maybe 3-1 but I don't think the goal has changed. The Cincinnati game next Saturday becomes huge for a resume-boosting opportunity next Saturday. We will need to go on a tear right now and win the next 4 in a row to put ourselves in bubble position entering ACC play.

Mike White's UGA is a good defensive team so I'll give them some credit on shutting down our offense but we devolved into a lot of street ball in the first half. We can't have players getting the ball into their hands and then processing what to do next in this offense. I actually didn't think our defense looked too bad for the first 30 minutes, but we had a fatal couple minutes after that where UGA went on a huge run and the defensive energy and focus just deflated. You go into a hostile environment and killshots like that can happen but those kind of things shouldn't really be happening on our home court.

For the "CDS is a bad coach and never plays zone" crew, you got your wish - we played zone and they literally dribble penetrated it and hit an open pull up from the free throw line.

AUFC, I don’t follow you on this prediction. There is no way we should have expected 2-2 after these first 4 games. It should have been 4-0 (uga is not good, everyone should stop consoling themselves with that), or 3-1 at worst. We should never have been expected to lose to any of west Georgia, north Florida, or Texas southern. We paid north Florida $90k to get them to show up. We would have been favored to beat uga if we hadn’t lost to north Florida.

 

[gte447f]

And if we truly should have expected to be 2-2 at this point, then we certainly have no business expecting something huge against Cincinnati if they are truly a borderline top 25 team. A win could certainly happen, but it should be considered a looong stretch if 2-2 is really where this GT team should be.

 

[YlJacket]

First time I have been able to watch them for an extended period of time. The first impression I got was that Ndongo is not nearly as explosive as he was last year I don’t know what’s going on there.

The second impression is that the office we are running is really stagnant. We are trying both four out in five out sets but there’s not any kind of scheme or passing going on. So we are devolving into one on one basketball I don’t know if this is simply a carryover from Boston where Tatum can make things work but for college we need a different approach that moves the basketball

We have some pieces, but I don’t think they’re being put together we’re playing together very well yet

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

I’m certainly not saying that CDS is the answer to GT’s pretty much 25 year basketball issues, but I am certainly not ready to give up on him after 1 year and 4 games. Despite last year’s ups and downs, I was encouraged by some huge wins. Recruiting is definitely not at the top of the ACC, but it is improved from Pastner. Our coaching must improve.

 

[awbuzz]

"About this year’s team, Stoudamire said: “I just don’t like our mental makeup.”"

Speaks loudly.

Georgia’s defense suffocates Georgia Tech en route to win at McCamish Pavilion

Tech (2-2) shot just 36.5% and missed 17 of the 22 3-point attempts. The Bulldogs (4-0) had four players in double figures in a win they mostly controlled from start to finish

www.ajc.com

 

[LargeFO]

Not sure what we are attempting to do on offense. Sorta has some late PH/BG vibes.

 

[awbuzz]

Not sure the teams knows either... Definitely looks that way on D sometimes.

 

[jbix80]

One thing I noticed is that we need McCollum on the floor. He didn’t have a great game last night, but they went on a 12-0 run when he picked up his fourth foul. I enjoy watching big DO. I think he is going to be a nice player in time. Ndongo has had some trouble finishing this year, for whatever reason. He’s still the guy that needs to take over for us. I want to see the Ndongo that dominated Duke last year. Our passing last night was really rough (way too many dumb alley oops that weren’t there and long cross court passes that got picked off). I’m no expert, but I feel like we are getting killed on mismatches by switching on every screen on defense. NBA players are big enough and athletic enough to do that, but it has put us in some vulnerable positions. I’m excited to see us grow throughout the year, which I believe will happen.

 

[MacDaddy2]

Pastner was a good X & O coach.
CDS is a very good recruiter.
In today's basketball world, I don't know which is better to have if you had to choose between the two abilities.

This is easy, Johnnies and Joes (Bobby C made a great living from that as he was a terrible x and o guy). That said Cremins would land kids that became superstars. Im not sure this roster has a guy on it that will play in the NBA other than perhaps Ndongo.

 

[GT33]

Losing to the mutts disgusts me. I don't care if it's boxing out, FT shooting, turnovers, stagnant offense, poor 3pt shooting, etc. I've watched a lot of crap GT basketball. I've also watched a lot of great GT teams lose to these bastards. I just hate the losing part which needs to stop particularly against crap teams like the mutts.

Particularly disgusting is our guards did not manhandle that goofy MF'er that looks like he cruises movie theater parking lots for freshmen HS girls in his step daddy's corvette. They should have slapped him silly.

I'm in town for NC St & going to stay for Cincinnati even though I really need to be back at work for the year end push. Gotta see this coach and team close up to convince myself to keep watching. I hope I see something different than 2 of the last 3 games.

 

[bke1984]

Pastner was a good X & O coach.
CDS is a very good recruiter.
In today's basketball world, I don't know which is better to have if you had to choose between the two abilities.

Neither alone can be entirely successful but as of right now Pastner appears to have been miles ahead of Stoudamire in terms of building a winning program.

 

[bke1984]

I watched the first 5 minutes of last night’s game with SWMBO and we were both so bored and disgusted we turned it off. And neither of us even thought about actually going to the game. Folks who complain about the lack of fan support need to realize that you actually need to give us (more casual) fans something to cheer about before we will begin attending games.

Winning counts. Entertaining play counts. Losing and showing terrible basketball skills also count…in the negative.

Sorry to be so brutally honest, as I do root for the program and remember vividly the glory years of GT basketball. But you gotta give me a reason to get excited….

This ^^^^^

Stoudamire is on a fast track to being fired. Outside of getting players everyone thinks are talented to sign at Tech he’s not shown any promise whatsoever. When we signed him I was worried that we were regressing to a state of trying to out talent teams that we simply can’t out talent. What I’ve seen so far supports that argument. To be fair, if this is our game plan we should give CDS time to build the roster, but to be frank I don’t see any way this works out for us. Three years from now I see us stacked with talent that at best is exiting the first round of the NCAA tourney with a loss to a G5 school. I hope I’m wrong and will gladly eat crow.

 

[bke1984]

"About this year’s team, Stoudamire said: “I just don’t like our mental makeup.”"

Speaks loudly.

Georgia’s defense suffocates Georgia Tech en route to win at McCamish Pavilion

Tech (2-2) shot just 36.5% and missed 17 of the 22 3-point attempts. The Bulldogs (4-0) had four players in double figures in a win they mostly controlled from start to finish

www.ajc.com

Wtf does that mean? The coach sets the tone.

 

[gte447f]

Chad Bishop’s AJC coverage of this bball season has been pretty scathing so far, but it’s been true.

 

[Root4GT]

Neither alone can be entirely successful but as of right now Pastner appears to have been miles ahead of Stoudamire in terms of building a winning program.

LOL. Losing record at GT after a 7 year run. The roster was barren when he left. He hit on Jose and Moses for sure. Besides those and Okogie his rosters were void of high level ACC talent.

GT’s current roster only has one high level ACC talent in Ndongo. There are many solid ACC players on the current roster and some seem to have real potential.

We are in year 2. Bobby was 23-31 after 2 years. We will know after year 4.

 

[TheStolenT]

"About this year’s team, Stoudamire said: “I just don’t like our mental makeup.”"

Speaks loudly.

Georgia’s defense suffocates Georgia Tech en route to win at McCamish Pavilion

Tech (2-2) shot just 36.5% and missed 17 of the 22 3-point attempts. The Bulldogs (4-0) had four players in double figures in a win they mostly controlled from start to finish

www.ajc.com

I said this after the north Florida game and got ate up for it. I know that game we had the post homecoming hangover excuse, but these guys don’t give off a great vibe when you watch them live. Not saying that can’t change, and seems like it should start with CDS, but it’s glaring so far this season.

 

[AUFC]

AUFC, I don’t follow you on this prediction. There is no way we should have expected 2-2 after these first 4 games. It should have been 4-0 (uga is not good, everyone should stop consoling themselves with that), or 3-1 at worst. We should never have been expected to lose to any of west Georgia, north Florida, or Texas southern. We paid north Florida $90k to get them to show up. We would have been favored to beat uga if we hadn’t lost to north Florida.

Maybe I’m aiming low but I’ve seen very little from this program over my decade and a half of fandom that shows 3 straight wins against mid-majors is the expectation. I don’t want to be 2-2 but I did see it as a very realistic floor to this point.

 

[Peacone36]

Some of the excuses you guys come up with are gold. Same every year. Baye, NTG, Wacie, Terry have all been with CDS over a year now. They’re the core of the team. If they haven’t got it by now, I doubt a couple more weeks are going to help.

 

[SecretAgentBuzz]

True confessions...I don't mind that we lost. I don't expect to win every game, and I understand that bad games happen. It's how we lost that bothers me. We let them be the aggressor for most of the game, and we were slow in making adjustments and overall, it looked like they wanted it more. I don't think U(sic)Ga has a more talented basketball team than GT does. More and more, it seems like CDS' plan is 1)Recruit really good players, 2) Let those really good players play, and 3) Profit. It remains to be seen if he can follow through with that plan. Here are some things I liked and didn't like:

What I liked:
-The crowd. Finally a crowd that was into the game and gave our guys some juice. Thanks to those who attended.
-Lance Terry in the last five minutes. Dude made up his mind he's wasn't going down without a fight and almost single-handedly willed the team back into the game. This is the kind of attitude we need from him and the rest of the team for all 40 minutes. I was amazed at the way he played and kept thinking, "Where has this Terry been?" More please!
-D.O. and his passion for the game and aggression on the boards. Keep bringing it, kid.

What I didn't like:
-Baye and Nait and Kowacie all had really really poor games for their standards. TOs, missed shots, disappearing acts on the boards. They played a total of 85 minutes between the three of them and totaled 4 rebounds and shot 8-31 from the field. From probably our three best players, that was a HUGE fail. Baye missed a ton of early shots at the rim and George and Reeves never seemed into it. Reeves either got benched in the 2nd half or possibly injured.
-The refs. I know, I know, we didn't lose because of the refs, but they left a lot to be desired. They called a dumb Technical on DO for a brief hold on the rim, and they generally let UGA get away with a lot of elbows and pushes and hacks, particularly early in the game. Every single high screen included the screener reaching out to grab the defender as he tried to fight through and they called it maybe once. And I lost count of the number of times their bigs sealed off and held our guys to clear a lane for their guards. Is that legal? I don't think so, but it never seems to be called.
-UGA's 46 points in the paint. Same, same, no need for change, right?
-1 point on fast breaks. 1.

This one + the UNF game point to a pattern, and it ain't pretty. I reserve hope for a turn-around, but this was a difficult game to watch. Come on, CDS and team, let's turn this thing around before it is too late! Go Jackets!