12/3 MBB @ Oklahoma

[GTBandit22]

I said in chat, ref ball gave them this double digit win. They had season high FT attempted and made. We still probably lose, but between the tech call on our bench, Mustaf not getting a call, to Bayes clean block foul out and 10 second later whistle on the fears drive, we probably deserved to lose this by a couple possessions. This week hasn’t been good for SEC refs.

-Powell had a great game. Just don’t shoot 3s.
-Need to find another scoring threat besides Mustaf in the lane or Terry. Nait didn’t have a great scoring night. O’Brien hit a three but he seems hesitant to shoot. Maybe the injury and getting into the flow, but show me that Colorado 3 stroke son,
- need McCollum and Reeves back. Two guys that can slash. We look stagnant at times without them on the floor.
- Baye played well until his second foul then he went ice cold on the bench and picked up two more dumb ones. He’s our best big and needs to play smarter so he isn’t sitting next to CDS for over half the game.

That first half just shows how good we can play. Have to build on it.

 

[gte447f]

I’ll just say it, this team needs a lot more from Nait and Baye.

Nait has been balling out as a facilitator against weak competition, but he has not been able to replicate that same level against power conference teams. In my opinion, he needs to be more of a scoring threat first. When he plays one dimensional as a pass happy point guard like he did tonight, he is too easy to predict and shut down.

Baye, frankly, just doesn’t look like the same player as last season. He is missing a lot of close range, easy shots; he has developed butter fingers and cannot seem to hold on to the ball; and he just looks a step slow and a bit lost out there sometimes. I have no idea what is going on with him. I have read on here that he gained anywhere from 20-40 pounds in the offseason. I don’t know if that’s true or whether it might be affecting his athleticism.

Duncan Powell came to play tonight, and Mustaf is progressing.

 

[GTBandit22]

Also Big O is my favorite player on this team. The three block possession in the first half had me up and yelling at the screen. He’s gonna be a good one. You can see the flashes, just needs to develop that nasty streak and keep improving

 

[gte447f]

Shoutout for DO for blocking Jalen Moore’s shot twice on one possession. That was awesome.

 

[jbix80]

 

[jbix80]

Nice dunk, but ESPNs headline is “Luke O’Brien throws down a massive poster for Georgia Tech.” Do your homework, ESPN.

 

[cpf2001]

Liking how the freshmen are looking.

Sophomores are still a bit MIA, but if Stoudamire is successful it’s going to be because of recruited talent, and so it’s nice to see the incoming class picking it up.

 

[AUFC]

I said in chat, ref ball gave them this double digit win. They had season high FT attempted and made. We still probably lose, but between the tech call on our bench, Mustaf not getting a call, to Bayes clean block foul out and 10 second later whistle on the fears drive, we probably deserved to lose this by a couple possessions. This week hasn’t been good for SEC refs.

Baye is gonna get a dumb foul called on him at some point every game - it's the nature of the sport, especially as someone who protects the rim. We need him to avoid doing stupid things to pick up the other 4 so that he can still participate when that dumb foul gets called.

 

[GTJason]

Not sure why we stopped driving the lane when it was open all game. We looked like the much better team the first half then were back in it with 3 minutes left and typical GT team can't make free throws.

 

[57jacket]

First chance I've had to see a complete game. I see potential in this team even with missing key players. The 1st 10 minutes were excellent. The 1st 10 minutes of 2nd half were a disaster. Play a complete game like the first 10 minutes and we are competitive. Defensive effort was definitely there. Board work was good. I like Powell. But with only Terry as 3 pt threat we had trouble scoring. George should take those open 3's he has.

 

[Peacone36]

Concussions can be rough. Sometimes you’ll hear that you can recover in a week, but the effects can linger for months or longer.

I hope he gets better soon.

Effectively ended Justin Morneaus career after about one.

 

[Peacone36]

There’s always next year.

 

[GaTech4ever]

The unfortunate part about freshmen being the best players on your team is that they become sophomores.

 

[SecretAgentBuzz]

This was about what I expected, maybe marginally better, but its still a loss in what was a winnable game.

What I liked:
-The team played with good toughness and intensity and particularly in the first half, dominated the boards. The formula of good defense and rebounding, getting to the basket and hitting open shots was working...
-Powell and Mustaf continued their good run and I love their aggressiveness. They both had excellent games but it did look like Mustaf got tired at the end (on both ends of the floor). And I agree with others, Powell needs to stop shooting 3s.

What I didn't like:
-Dumb fouls and dumb fouls called. The refs were bad, but we also have a hard time controlling our aggression and defending well.
-Baye had his worst game at a bad time. We needed him, and he threw the ball away twice on double teams, and couldn't play smart in foul trouble. I still think he seems off this year. We had the advantage inside and we couldn't do much with it with Baye on the bench.
-I guess we just aren't a very good shooting team (again). We had the chance to keep our lead or stay close and we just couldn't hit any shots for 5 minutes (while they got hot). 26% from 3 is not good at all. 1/9 in the second half is horrible.
-Where are the in-game adjustments and coaching? OU adjusted...and it didn't look like we did anything different.

For all those saying that "we need somebody like Fears!" we have him. He is on the bench in concussion protocol and he would have loved to be in this game.

I am not ready to throw in the towel for this team yet, but they have yet to play a solid 40-imunte game. Defensive effort is still lacking and its looking more and more like we are not a good shooting team either.

Also, for the ACC so far. This is going to give the tournament committee fuel for their stupidity when they only put 2 ACC teams in tourney.

Go Jackets!

 

[Ramble1885]

$eC is whopping up on the ACC so far and it’s not really close.

Also, I’d love for us to have a kid like Fears on our team. He’s taken every guard that’s been on him to school tonight.

Clemson beat Kentucky though!!!

 

[Northeast Stinger]

There’s always next year.

Booooooo

 

[spdrama]

Baye Ndongo was our freshman sensation last season. We all dreaded the thought of him being drafted and breathed a collective sigh of relief when he returned. He was a pre-season top 75 ranked Division 1 player. Our only elite. He is not making 6’ jump shots. He is not finishing at the rim. His foul shooting has fans crossing fingers. He makes touch fouls 10 feet from the basket & sits valuable minutes in foul trouble instead of contributing. He shouldn’t have to be tought how to defend at this stage of his career, especially after impressing NBA scouts in competition at the pre-draft combo games. But certainly the coaches are not ignoring any part of his game. He doesn’t even have to carry the big man load offensively or defensively this year with a talented freshman giving him some cover on both ends. His future opportunities to play professionally will dim if his if this first year star burns out in year two.

Injuries to key players happen. They can contribute to a ruined season. That’s yet to be seen as it is still early & we know little about their return to play. Biggest question for me is what is wrong with Baye Ndongo? Defenses are on to him so denying him the ball is part of their plans. It’s not what he does without the ball that is problematic. We have other scorers. It’s what he has been doing with the ball against good competition that is head shaking and eye rolling. Rebounding & shot blocking, two parts of his defensive game that brought him national attention & accolades last year have been lackluster this year. He’s become a puzzle that needs to be solved for both the team’s & his own success.

“I have to be careful with my words. I spoke to Baye. He knows he has to be better for us to win”. CDS knows he has a Baye puzzle to solve. Many of these kids have that NBA dream. Recovering emotionally when that dream is shattered might be difficult. Maybe Baye is trying to recover from a non-physical injury.

 

[AUFC]

I watched that CDS post-game presser and it sounds like Javian is out another week at minimum unfortunately, so we'll miss him for the ACC opener @UNC and have to just hope he's back for Northwestern.

 

[MWBATL]

There’s always next year.

Just wait until CDS gets his own player son this team….

 

[Connell62]

CDS got outcoached by Porter Moser to be honest. CDS walked in with a solid gameplan, but Porter made adjustments on both sides of the ball, neutralized our bigs (and Nait in the middle minutes), and took the game over.

Like what I'm seeing growth-wise from Moose, who is figuring out how the college game works. I think Shag Man gives us some good minutes too but needs to understand his role, which is not playing isoball and chucking 3s. Baye and DO need to figure out how to play more level headed. It's been a problem w/ Baye for 2 seasons now.

I don't know that last night's victory had anything to do with Porter Moser and/or his coaching prowess vs. Damon's.

I think that it is much simpler than that... Last night boils down to two things:

• Baye's Disappearing Act - WE NEED MORE FROM BAYE. He's gotta be our best player..If you told me we get 4/4 from him before the game, I say it's a definite L.
• Injuries / Shortened Rotation - We ran out of gas; the short bench / fatigue caught up with our guards. As Damon mentioned in the post-game, Nait and Lance have been playing too many minutes.

Additionally, they just faced one of the better backcourts in the country, and they had to work much harder on the defensive end.

Bottom line, they ran out of gas.