11/9 - MBB vs. Howard

[GTbball2016]

I saw this so now y’all have to

He also tweeted that St. Mary’s was doing the same thing. Non-story it would seem.

 

[AUFC]

I will say crowd was instrumental down the stretch. The defensive energy picked up and you could see the chaos on Howard’s offensive possessions late with the crowd noise. We need 8,600 strong though, especially against Top 25 opponents like Mississippi State and Duke coming up.

 

[ESPNjacket]

Early November games can be ugly, especially with a lot of roster turnover. Our interior defense delivered on that tonight.

I am glad to get a win playing poorly. There is something to be said for the cliche "finding a way to win."

 

[lv20gt]

I don’t understand why no one is going to the games? The best talent we’ve seen in years. Can someone enlighten me?

You can find reasons to be excited, but if you don't understand the reasons for apathy then you're just blinded by gold shades.

We're playing Howard. A team from a one bid league with that being a 16 seed.

The program has 1 NCAAT appearance in the past decade.

Our new head coach might turn out good, but his resume isn't really a strong one (no caveats are going to make a sub .500 record without a NCAAT appearance exciting to the masses) with no real ties to the school or region. IMO people greatly overvalued the name recognition his playing days as he said in an interview 5 or 6 years ago, that highschoolers today don't know him.

We've added some talent but not the Derrick Favors level of it bringing in views based on hype .

Ultimately, if we win more people will watch, and if we win and have one or two players ascend to be true star level players that will help even more.

 

[Ramblingon]

Anyone have any word on Ndongo's or Terry's injuries? We could use them both.

 

[AUFC]

Anyone have any word on Ndongo's or Terry's injuries? We could use them both.

Thanksgiving for both according to the AJC. Cincy or Missy St.

CDS will fix 12 assists on 34 FGs. He knows that’s unacceptable.

 

[kg01]

Miles Kelly won us that game by picking up his defensive intensity in the 2nd half. His point-of-attack D was a game-changer.

 

[Treb1982]

Like Al Davis said " just win baby"... Let's keep it going!!!!

 

[brandon_cox]

Everybody's acting like their dog died. From my seats in Section 104, I was EXTREMELY IMPRESSED with Howard. They were athletic, disciplined and well coached. I don't care what conference they play in, that's a tough team. We didn't play well but they had a lot to do with that. We came back from 14 down in the second half to tie it, they immediately ran it back up to 7 and we fought back and eventually hung on for a tough win. The good guys showed some serious heart tonight.

You may all now resume your woe-is-me bitchfest. But for me, I'm pleased.

 

[orientalnc]

We won against a decent team on a night when shots were not falling. We lost this game in recent years. Move on and play UMass Lowell next week.

 

[ESPNjacket]

Everybody's acting like their dog died. From my seats in Section 104, I was EXTREMELY IMPRESSED with Howard. They were athletic, disciplined and well coached. I don't care what conference they play in, that's a tough team. We didn't play well but they had a lot to do with that. We came back from 14 down in the second half to tie it, they immediately ran it back up to 7 and we fought back and eventually hung on for a tough win. The good guys showed some serious heart tonight.

You may all now resume your woe-is-me bitchfest. But for me, I'm pleased.

If you are pleased with the interior defense you must be among the world's most pleasant people. Again, crazy results happen in November in college basketball. Winning it instead of losing it is a good thing.

Another way to spin it is that we now have lots of how not to play interior defense film. When your teammate is beat off the dribble, don't back away from the guy with the ball. That would be a start.

 

[57jacket]

LOL 2 and 0 baby!. But we need Pastner's defense. LOL. He'll fix it. More talent than any GT team since Cremins best teams. Distributing playing time will be a challenge.

 

[calvin forever]

Miles Kelly won us that game by picking up his defensive intensity in the 2nd half. His point-of-attack D was a game-changer.

Completely agree, his effort helped turn the game…everyone seemed to step it up a notch when he did. I also like that he began to take it to hoop and draw fouls vs. shoot the pull-up/floater that wasn’t falling tonight.

 

[Bogey]

We were down by 14 in the second half and then started playing some defense to close the gap. Then Kelly got hot and puIled us through. We will need much more consistent play as the season progresses.

 

[GT33]

But we need Pastner's defense.

Way to early to jump to any conclusions, but maybe we're witnessing the basketball version of the transition fron Chan to Paul.

It's ok to win basketball games 88-85. We got so used to 60-56 slugfests and the clogged toilet offenses I'm not sure what we're even watching right now.

 

[awbuzz]

They’re fine but they had three good players hit the portal last season as well. This is a cop out IMHO. We were the superior team and for the second game in a row we played poorly for 30 or so minutes.

Let’s just hope this isn’t a thing.

Hard to disagree with this... so hard that i can't disagree.

 

[SecretAgentBuzz]

What a strange game. But as many others have said, an ugly win is a win, and we will take it. I agree that previous teams would have folded and lost this game. We were down 14 in the second half!!! Here is a summary of some things I saw:

What I liked:
-The leadership from the core guys. We have a lot of new faces, but we also have a veteran team with guys who have played a lot. They, like their coach, don't get rattled.
-Kelly taking over. He is that guy.
-Finally taking what the defense was giving. I don't like ISO basketball, but when they are parking the 5 under the basket, you screen up top and give your playmaker the ball. That's what we did.
-Only 7 turnovers.
-The defense in a few stretches. When we ticked up the intensity and effort, we shut them down.
-Claude is a MAN down low. He had the team's best +/- with +9.
-Reeves does all the little things well.

What I didn't like:
-The defense for the other 30+ minutes. There was a lot of getting backed down and getting blown past and leaving guys open. It was, other than those two stretches in the second half (that won the game), really atrocious defense.
-Gapare and Abram still don't look comfortable.
-Missed floaters and 5-foot jumpers. We missed approximately 5,932 shots inside 10 feet.
-22% from three and 59% from the charity stripe aren't going to cut it. How in the world did we still score 88?

For what it's worth, like many others, I was impressed with Howard's play. They were athletic, and they have some playmakers. They will be a top team in their league. I think we can build on this and continue to get better. Its nice when you play poorly and still win sometimes. We shot the ball horribly and played horrible defense for 30 minutes...and still won.

Go Jackets!

 

[Ramble1885]

A win is a win. Way to comeback and fight to the end.

 

[orientalnc]

-22% from three and 59% from the charity stripe aren't going to cut it. How in the world did we still score 88?

When your opponent gets an offensive rebound it's statistically the same as a turnover. They get an extra possession. Howard let us have 22 offensive rebounds and turned the ball over 14 times. That's 36 extra possessions! We had 7 turnovers and gave up 11 offensive rebounds. 18 possessions for Howard. That is how we won the game. In spite of poor shooting we shot the ball 77 times and Howard had only 60 shots. Those extra possessions matter a lot.

My main complaint last night was the FT shooting and a few Howard possessions where we simply got lazy/complacent on defense. I think Abram underestimated Warfield and got beat early a couple of times. CDS made the comment in the presser that we need to respect our opponents.

But, this team can score. It can get disorienting when 60 points has been your normal to suddenly see 60 points with 15 minutes on the clock.

 

[slugboy]

Stoudamire said before the season that the defense and playing hard on both sides of the court was what he considered success. I don’t know if we play with a lot of pace, but the scores on both sides are pretty high.