Georgia Tech @ Tennessee

MiracleWhips

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583
Here we go:

Overall I was pleased with what I saw last night, to reiterate what orientalnc said this is the best team we will play next to Duke. I didn't think our defense was that bad I just thought we could not hit shots/find good looks but this should be expected from this tough Tennessee team. Initially I was worried that our guys would not be able to respond to the physicality that Tenn would bring but GT definitely brought it. This team showed a lot of promise and there wasn't anything I saw last night that can't be fixed come ACC time.

A.D. - Great game defensively and staying out of foul trouble, I thought he was very physical and made some pretty good plays out of the post

Cole- He reverted to playing like he did freshman year, very timid and not very physical. I think he will be best coming off the bench this year

Alvarado- Played hard like he does every game, just couldn't hit any shots tonight

Brandon- He was one of the only guards who didn't settle on shooting jump shots all night and made it a mission to get to the rim, I can surely say I didn't expect to see this Brandon Alston this year.

Banks- Man, oh man. This guy is gonna be huge for this year, for his first organized game to be against the number 5 team in the country I was very impressed. This guy can definitely be that anchor we need

Wright- Should definitely be our starting 4 and proved it last night. Him and banks are gonna be one hell of a combo.

CGB/Phillips- Live by the three and die by the three

Devoe- His decision making looked suspect yesterday but I will chalk it up to being a Freshman. I think once he gets in the flow over the course of the season he will be good, I just hope he figures it out before ACC

Proposed 5 moving forward:

Alvarado
CGB/Phillips ( not sure who you pick from the two)
Alston
Wright
Banks
 
GTRX7

GTRX7

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I am not sure if this is good or bad. On the good side, I rarely get frustrated with CJP teams and think they are easy to root for and fun to watch in the sense that they are giving full out effort and never stop competing. On the bad side, it probably says something about how extremely low I have set my expectations when that seems to be enough to make me satisfied most nights. But it was last night. *shrug*?
 
jeffgt14

jeffgt14

We don't quite suck as much anymore.
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CGB frustrates the hell out of me because I don't think he realizes how talented he is. Definitely doesn't realize how talented he is compared to everyone else on our team.
 

JDjacket

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634
lv20gt said:
The positives

-Defense overall was pretty good. We have a lot of length at pretty much every position and we are pretty disciplined on that end with the expection of our bigs bring down their arms too often when trying for blocks leading to fouls.
- Alston had a good game. If he is going to play he has to be more aggressive than he was last year. It seemed like when we lost Jose he realized he had to make something happen. Need him to channel that earlier in the game though.
- Wright had a solid game. IMO he should start at the 4 until Cole realizes he can't be so timid on the offensive end. Wright could be a major disrupting force on the defensive end. I thought his 3 point shot looked smoother,and he had a nice turn around bank shot that I hope he continues to go to because even though it rimmed out it was smooth. Reminded me of Duncan (just that shot, not the entire game obviously)
- Banks looks like he adds another solid piece down low. Honestly, we might be better off just telling AD and Banks to play their game and not worry about fouls, and then deal with the issues later. Will be interesting to see how he develops as the year goes.
- AD understands what it seems like few others do on this team, and that's that you can't be afraid of making mistakes. He tries to make plays, and he has some nice moves. Needs to finish better.

The negatives
- Shooting. Good lord we couldn't throw it in the ocean today. This team has to be led by the guards shooting, and Jose/Devoe/Haywood were a combined 2-12 from 3. We rely so much on underclassmen shooting that we will have games like this. Need to hope this is just one of the bad ones and not the norm.
-Devoe. Just all of it. Let's forget he played in this game. But seriously, I did like that he didn't let the bad showing affect his defense though.
-Cole - to put it nicely cole was not very good. He's still too timid on the offensive end, and if he's going to play he has to realize that he has to add more on the offensive end.
- Refs/Fouls. We had some silly fouls. We also had some stupid ones called on us. Jose especially has to not take too many chances on defense. Let Gueye/Banks/Ogbonda foul out cleaning up your mess.

-Overall thoughts.

We were competitive but clearly outmatched against a team projected to be in the top 5 on the road. Don't let the fact that the game was ugly obscure the fact that we looked pretty good defensively. We'll have to improve as the year goes on, but when you look at how many underclassmen we are relying on, that was always going to be the case. I think we are in a decent starting place this year with our defense. If our young guys can mature quickly, find their stroke, and start to gel as a team, we could be a solid team.
Click to expand...

The defensive play had me encouraged as well. Pastner's teams have in general shown a good defensive work rate, and that will keep us in a lot of games where a stretch of good offense will put us over the top. We have a number of decent OOC opponents left where we can hopefully make our mark in Northwestern, St. Johns, Arkansas, and UGA. I'll be looking forward to seeing how we do in those games.
 
AE 87

AE 87

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We did alright, but Brandon Alston is the only guy that looked like he really came to play at the level necessary. Don't get me wrong, I think we played pretty decent team defense, but if you look at the intensity level there was a difference, imo, between where Brandon was at and where everyone else was.
 
ESPNjacket

ESPNjacket

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I am telling myself to be patient since we are running a completely new offense but that was some really bad offensive execution. There was a lot of standing still and dribbling in place. It was almost Gregorian.
 

YlJacket

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3,260
lv20gt said:
The positives

-Defense overall was pretty good. We have a lot of length at pretty much every position and we are pretty disciplined on that end with the expection of our bigs bring down their arms too often when trying for blocks leading to fouls.
- Alston had a good game. If he is going to play he has to be more aggressive than he was last year. It seemed like when we lost Jose he realized he had to make something happen. Need him to channel that earlier in the game though.
- Wright had a solid game. IMO he should start at the 4 until Cole realizes he can't be so timid on the offensive end. Wright could be a major disrupting force on the defensive end. I thought his 3 point shot looked smoother,and he had a nice turn around bank shot that I hope he continues to go to because even though it rimmed out it was smooth. Reminded me of Duncan (just that shot, not the entire game obviously)
- Banks looks like he adds another solid piece down low. Honestly, we might be better off just telling AD and Banks to play their game and not worry about fouls, and then deal with the issues later. Will be interesting to see how he develops as the year goes.
- AD understands what it seems like few others do on this team, and that's that you can't be afraid of making mistakes. He tries to make plays, and he has some nice moves. Needs to finish better.

The negatives
- Shooting. Good lord we couldn't throw it in the ocean today. This team has to be led by the guards shooting, and Jose/Devoe/Haywood were a combined 2-12 from 3. We rely so much on underclassmen shooting that we will have games like this. Need to hope this is just one of the bad ones and not the norm.
-Devoe. Just all of it. Let's forget he played in this game. But seriously, I did like that he didn't let the bad showing affect his defense though.
-Cole - to put it nicely cole was not very good. He's still too timid on the offensive end, and if he's going to play he has to realize that he has to add more on the offensive end.
- Refs/Fouls. We had some silly fouls. We also had some stupid ones called on us. Jose especially has to not take too many chances on defense. Let Gueye/Banks/Ogbonda foul out cleaning up your mess.

-Overall thoughts.

We were competitive but clearly outmatched against a team projected to be in the top 5 on the road. Don't let the fact that the game was ugly obscure the fact that we looked pretty good defensively. We'll have to improve as the year goes on, but when you look at how many underclassmen we are relying on, that was always going to be the case. I think we are in a decent starting place this year with our defense. If our young guys can mature quickly, find their stroke, and start to gel as a team, we could be a solid team.
Click to expand...

I would echo most of your thoughts. Especially on D. I was expecting UT to score in the 80's. I think the over/under was somewhere north of 140. And while the physical comparison of the teams looked like we were an AAU team playing up 2 grades, we played defense really well. I thought for sure there would be a big drop off with Lamers leaving but last night I like what I saw. Fouls are going to continue to be an issue but that is the price of teams being bigger/more athletic than we are at the 4/5 spot. What I hope I saw last night is the team establishing an identity around the defensive side. If they can play defense like that going forward this could be a better year than I thought. Defense travels/is consistent/ all that stuff.

Regardless of any deserved blasting on the offensive side, consistently playing D like last night is huge.

Now the other side - hide the women and children. Beyond the individuals, we really need to work on the offensive scheme. So far we are trying to run a 4 out scheme and base our offense primarily on tempo up the floor and spacing in the half court. Give guys the opportunity to drive and kick in either case. Last night shows what happens when we can't break down defenders on the other side. Honestly, for most of the first half we couldn't even initiate any offense cleanly. We are going to have to go back to some sort of patterns to generate movement and picks for players on offense. Spacing alone won't cut it. Large part of why Devoe and Philips looked so bad. In the second half we tried to run a semblence of the high post motion we ran around Lamers but it really didn't work. We are going to have to come up with motion sets that work for these guys - there are plenty out there that could.

If you accept that guys like Devoe, Jose and CGB have skills, then fixing an offense is a whole lot easier than trying to get them to play D. With that I am somewhat optimistic going forward this year.

Specific to players

Jose is even more of a key to this team than I gave him credit for
Devoe and CGB desperately need motion in the offense
Moses outplayed Cole substantially but still needs to rebound better.
I may have to take back some things I said about Alston. In this spacing driven scheme he is the one person who could penetrate and finish or kick with any kind of regularity.
Banks looked really rusty but physically looked like he belonged. 7 boards were big. Now he needs to quit taking lessons from AD on fouls. Though AD played well last night in that regard.
 
kg01

kg01

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AE 87 said:
We did alright, but Brandon Alston is the only guy that looked like he really came to play at the level necessary. Don't get me wrong, I think we played pretty decent team defense, but if you look at the intensity level there was a difference, imo, between where Brandon was at and where everyone else was.
Click to expand...

I liked Banks' intensity. Rusty but you could see flashes of what he can bring once he's up to speed. I was pleased with him, all things considered.

Devoe had a bad game but you can see where he can help us once he acclimates.

There's meat on the bone for us.

ESPNjacket said:
I am telling myself to be patient since we are running a completely new offense but that was some really bad offensive execution. There was a lot of standing still and dribbling in place. It was almost Gregorian.
Click to expand...

Nice. Can I use that some time?
 

YlJacket

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Messages
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ESPNjacket said:
I am telling myself to be patient since we are running a completely new offense but that was some really bad offensive execution. There was a lot of standing still and dribbling in place. It was almost Gregorian.
Click to expand...

Jeez you really are pissed about last night. That is about the worst insult you can give them

:eek:
 
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