2023 Holiday Break - GT in the Diamond Head Classic

[bke1984]

I expect us to make the Sweet 16 this year. CDS is the real deal and will cope with figuring it out.

We will see. We are all over the place right now. For the most part it’s been one game to the next, but you saw both sides in the Hawaii game. We also haven’t played very well in true road games - though the game against Hawaii should qualify and is the line exception thus far. That upcoming FSU game on the road is huge. We need to go down there and win and then snag a few conference wins out of the gate - then maybe we can talk about making the tourney.

 

[orientalnc]

I expect us to make the Sweet 16 this year. CDS is the real deal and will cope with figuring it out.

I suppose you are referring to the NCAA tournament. Right now we're marginal for the NIT. We still have a lot of ground to make up.

 

[TechPhi97]

FTR, the "conversation" about Kelly, it's not that he's turned into a bad player, or that he's even taking bad shots. He's playing good defense, and he's one of our best rebounders. The reality is his shots are not falling like they were in the past. IMO, I think he's pressing a bit and he's probably in his own head. Obviously, Stoudamire still has confidence in Kelly or else he wouldn't be playing the minutes he's gotten.

So how do we get the Kelly of 2022? That's the money question for Kelly and Stoudamire.

I think the break will do him good, needs a reset. I’m confident he can make it happen.

 

[YlJacket]

Blackshear is too strong for Gapare and Tafara is very foul prone. When a player is having a game like blackshear was last night there's not a lot you can do. Trying to deny him the ball is very difficult. Blackshear is a 5th year senior (grad student). I think his sister said he is 23.0

Blackshear played very well and we were not going to "shut him down" but I think there were other things we could have done rather than just watch him repeatedly play bully ball with Reeves. Nevada spread the floor and went ISO ball with Blackshear - no threat from over 15 feet or so - just back into the lane bump Reeves back a step and shoot a fadeaway. Lather rinse repeat.

Options - go big and make it difficult for him to go bully ball or at least give him some concern on his shots. Gapare to me is the best option but pick anyone 6'9 or so. You could even go with Ndongo but given his fouls probably not.

Go zone and have 2 guys at the line to stop the backdown. Con is that you have to have someone stay with Lucas which is an issue. But no one else was going to beat us.

Commit to early help from Kelly who was guarding Foster or McIntosh. Make Blackshear pick up the ball and see if Foster/McIntosh can beat us. Key is make someone else beat us.

The other part to be honest though would be to make a shot. 6-26 from 3 and 38% from the floor puts way too much pressure on the defense.

 

[BeeRBee]

In a nutshell, I don't think that getting to Hawaii on the 15th or 16th, then having a game on the 24th that the time change was a real cause in any of the reason why we lost

Not arguing whether it had an effect on the game, but according to the GTMBB Xitter account they arrived in Hawaii on the 18th.

Returned from NY on the 16th, practiced on the 17th (Jarrett Jack came by) then flew out on the 18th.

 

[spdrama]

I suppose you are referring to the NCAA tournament. Right now we're marginal for the NIT. We still have a lot of ground to make up.

Wholeheartedly agree, but I like GTNavyNuke’s optimistic prognostication. And let’s not forget that Nevada is a very good team, NET 36, RPI 16, and 3 votes in the coaches poll. Tech was down by 1 at 4 minutes and Alford had to call a timeout. They were down by 2 at 2:55. Even with poor shooting Tech was very much in this game to the end. A lot to be optimistic about

 

[Root4GT]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Lucas put up 25 in their game against TCU, averaging over 17ppg. Definitely not a career night for him. I thought we kept him in check, relatively. His twenty did not beat us.

Blackshear did a Michael Jordan on us. He was playing with us. The one guy we had that Nevada could not match-up was Ndongo and for some reason Stoudamire took him out of the game with 4:02 left in the game and that was the game. Gt was +9 with Ndongo on the floor and -17 without him on the floor.

But it is pretty remarkable that we stayed with them the entire game with a shooting differential of 49.1% to 38.6% (31.8% to 23.1% from three).

I think the heat on Miles Kelly is legit. The fact that he tested the NBA waters after last season makes his shooting performance this year, more than a third of the way through the season, a bit of a joke. He actually had to be pulled from the game last night. He deserves all the, "C'Mon, man!" cries he gets.

Since I am not a Claude (-15+/- last night) or Dowuona believer, Gapare becomes an important player as we need another post player to take some pressure off of Ndongo. Gapare is a player who too often plays off balance, and way too often shoots off balance. He needs to use his athleticism to get where he needs to go then set himself to shoot or rebound or make a block. He needs to IQ-up and let his athleticism work for him instead of against him. If he can get himself under control, he could be an important player for us.

If not, then we have to hope that Ndongo can hold-up as our only competent post presence.

Claude is a solid rebounder. He isn't nearly as athletic as either Ndango or Gapare. Not really a high level offensive player. He gives generall solid minutes.

Ndango and Gapare are still really inexperienced players so Claude's experiences in needed on occasion. By year's end I would think he will get 10 or so minutes a game based on opponents.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I suppose you are referring to the NCAA tournament. Right now we're marginal for the NIT. We still have a lot of ground to make up.

Ignorance is bliss. And I've seen so much improvement this year that I'm hoping the improvement continues. If it does, we'll get to the NCAA and be on a roll.

Don't ask for my baseball prognostication. More of the same until something changes.

 

[GTRambler]

Stoudamire’s first-year Georgia Tech team is young, but athletic and talented. Thus far its offense has been nearly all free-lance, with few, if any, established offensive play sets.

Given this, the results to date have oscillated wildly, with hot and cold shooting streaks interspersed with turnover-free to turnover-prone periods of play. And these things all happen together, even frequently within each game.

Thus the inconsistency.

The hope is that the team can mesh together well enough to maximize the ups and minimize the downs, and become a force of consistency by the time March arrives.

 

[MtnWasp]

Nevada is just very good and their coach is also really good and he out-coached us last night. Blackshear was just a bad match-up for us.

But we were right there to win that game. He hung close to them the entire game. We needed just decent shooting from someone other than Ndongo (Oh and that color analyst CONSISTENTLY mispronouncing Baye's last name became exceedingly grating to me, not to mention that I disagreed with about two thirds of her insights).

I watch Ndongo play and think, that guy is going to be a beast Then I see his numbers at the end of the game and say, he already IS a beast! Still loads of upside there.

Very high on both George and Ndongo (Pronounce the dadgum "N"!). Both of them could be really special.

 

[orientalnc]

I know we lost the game in the final minutes, but do we still have Swarm posters who think this team is no better than the last year?

 

[GTRambler]

I know we lost the game in the final minutes, but do we still have Swarm posters who think this team is no better than the last year?

Oh, I believe this team is a lot better than last year’s team.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

[GT33]

Year.............................. 2023.........2022
Overall............................ 8-4...........7-5
Mutt..................................L .............W
ACC................................1-0........... 2-0
Blowouts......................... 2 ...............3
Chatters per game..........2-3...........6-10
Fire coach threads...........1.............. 10

Data suggests we're better

 

[Doddjacket]

FTR, the "conversation" about Kelly, it's not that he's turned into a bad player, or that he's even taking bad shots. He's playing good defense, and he's one of our best rebounders. The reality is his shots are not falling like they were in the past. IMO, I think he's pressing a bit and he's probably in his own head. Obviously, Stoudamire still has confidence in Kelly or else he wouldn't be playing the minutes he's gotten.

So how do we get the Kelly of 2022? That's the money question for Kelly and Stoudamire.

He's not a arch shooter. I believe players that have a flatter trajectory on their shots can tend to be streak shooters. Notice his free throw shooting. Much easier to adjust your shooting when you have more arch.

 

[Fatmike91]

Year.............................. 2023.........2022
Overall............................ 8-4...........7-5
Mutt..................................L .............W
ACC................................1-0........... 2-0
Blowouts......................... 2 ...............3
Chatters per game..........2-3...........6-10
Fire coach threads...........1.............. 10

Data suggests we're better

Last year our wins to this point in the season were mostly against cupcakes and directional schools: Clayton St, Ga St, Northern Il, N AL, Northeastern, GA, AL St.

This year we’ve beaten: Duke, Penn St, Hawaii, Miss St and uMass

We’ve played a much harder schedule this year and have a better record and some quality wins.

/

 

[GT33]

Last year our wins to this point in the season were mostly against cupcakes and directional schools: Clayton St, Ga St, Northern Il, N AL, Northeastern, GA, AL St.

This year we’ve beaten: Duke, Penn St, Hawaii, Miss St and uM
We’ve played a much harder schedule this year and have a better record and some quality wins.

/

oops ACC wwas 0-2 last year

 

[78pike]

I kept hoping they would put Gapare on Blackshear as he was just muscling Reeves. Blackshear isn’t a typical guard but they isolated him and made it work.

We do need to come up with a way to double a hot guard and make somebody else beat us

I was hoping we would try Sacko on him. Same height and similar build.

 

[Tourneybound20]

Merry Christmas! Tough loss,great weekend.Blackshear was a worst case scenario type situation.An iso player who could create,finish and get to the line.That's a tournament team and we played them tough.CDS has substituted well,he's always got a "dangerous" mix on the floor.Having said that it's time to bury Claude on the bench.Sacko can give you the same things Claude does with more ball handling,shooting and defense versatility. Gapara has shown flashes and should continue to play 15-20mpg with Kowacie getting more minutes upfront going with a faster,more dynamic small ball approach. Abram could get another look playing off the ball if CDS adds Claude to the DNP list with Dowouna. If Ndongo gets hurt or gets in early foul trouble you have 2 experienced physical bigs to go to.George and Baye will be stars just need time.Sacko needs to evolve over this break,slowdown and start making plays on both ends.If he can do that we cookin' !

 

[kg01]

Merry Christmas! Tough loss,great weekend.Blackshear was a worst case scenario type situation.An iso player who could create,finish and get to the line.That's a tournament team and we played them tough.CDS has substituted well,he's always got a "dangerous" mix on the floor.Having said that it's time to bury Claude on the bench.Sacko can give you the same things Claude does with more ball handling,shooting and defense versatility. Gapara has shown flashes and should continue to play 15-20mpg with Kowacie getting more minutes upfront going with a faster,more dynamic small ball approach. Abram could get another look playing off the ball if CDS adds Claude to the DNP list with Dowouna. If Ndongo gets hurt or gets in early foul trouble you have 2 experienced physical bigs to go to.George and Baye will be stars just need time.Sacko needs to evolve over this break,slowdown and start making plays on both ends.If he can do that we cookin' !

Tend to agree with you and @78pike on Sacko. Probably would've been a good idea to make his primary cover the Blackshear kid. Honestly though, it took a Lebron-level game from that kid. And a Curry-level game from that other kid, and they barely beat us on a night when we struggled to score. No moral victories but I get it.

Sorta agree on Claude. Seems to be struggling at this level, for the most part. We need to spell Baye, so we need either him or Ayo to 'hold the rope' at times. But Claude looks unplayable a good bit. And foul-prone. Maybe not in volume but definitely ill-timed fouls.

We gotta solve the Abrams mystery. He's not a primary ballhandler, but he's gotta be able to give us something. My theory is that he should be a bucket-getter 1-on-1 in spots. But, admittedly, I saw none of that ability when he was getting minutes so maybe I'm wrong?

I dunno but that's why they pay me the small bucks.

 

[orientalnc]

Tend to agree with you and @78pike on Sacko. Probably would've been a good idea to make his primary cover the Blackshear kid.

I believe CDS has a good idea about Sacko and how much value he would have added. Sacko shows moments of promise, but I am not 100% sold on him. Blackshear was a matchup problem for us. That, and everytime the ball left his hands it went for two points.

Sorta agree on Claude. Seems to be struggling at this level, for the most part. We need to spell Baye, so we need either him or Ayo to 'hold the rope' at times. But Claude looks unplayable a good bit. And foul-prone. Maybe not in volume but definitely ill-timed fouls.

Claude is too small to play the five and not enough of anything else to play the four. But Dowuona is a true negative on the offensive end. I can see why he was not getting minutes at NCSU. And, at least Claude is a bull on the boards. I liked the Nevada five out and wonder if CDS is considering that for our Ndongo rest peeriods. Gapare at the five would be OK for 1-2 minutes here and there.

We gotta solve the Abrams mystery. He's not a primary ballhandler, but he's gotta be able to give us something. My theory is that he should be a bucket-getter 1-on-1 in spots. But, admittedly, I saw none of that ability when he was getting minutes so maybe I'm wrong?

I am beginning to think this is not solvable. And, it could be that CDS agrees. Abram did not see the floor in Hawaii. I would not be surprised if he hit the portal now that multiple transfers have immediate eligibility.