After going to the GT-North Texas game, then walking to Phillips Arena to watch the hawks play against Jarrett Jack. I can finally state a few things that have been on my mind about our game against the Mean Green:
*Jose Alvarado is a straight up baller. Wow!(Owen Wilson's Voice) that step back three was gorgeous. Thought I was watching Kyrie Irving in the finals for a second.
I saw Pastner yell at him one point for throwing that alley-oop to Tadric Jackson that went out of bounds. I don't know about you, but I was perfectly fine with it. Could he have made a simple bounce pass? Yes, but Jose made plenty of solid plays today, and I have no problem with him adding a little bit of that New York swag and attitude from time to time. He is going to be a handful and a pest in the ACC for a long time to come, and I will love every minute of it.
*Curtis Haywood....totally different player from a few games ago. The last game against Grande Valley, he showed signs of playing with more confidence, and today he broke loose. That beautiful shooting form that I'm sure Peacone loves, was on point today, and it was awesome. The ball didn't even touch the net half the time, and I am so happy for him. He was struggling in the past games, due to which I believe was overthinking and not trying to make a mistake. You can see he is now starting to trust his skills again, and knows that Coach has his back and will let him play through his mistakes. If our freshman class can keep progressing, I can't help but keep getting excited about the state of our program a couple years from now.
*Ben had a hard time getting an open look today due to the sagging off of AD, allowing them to double team Lammers. AD took the bait early but couldn't knock down the shots so he had to be pulled to the bench. Of course though, Lammers still found a way to make beautiful mid range shots, fade's, and lefty lay-ups.
* It was nice to see that mid range jumper from Moses Wright, and Tadric back to his euro-stepping, out of control but in control at the same time lay-ups. It is so funny but not funny to watch Pastner's love/hate with Jackson. He gets all over him for driving the lane and turning it over or not playing defense, then Tadric comes back and scores 10 straight points. It's like our own version of Ying and Yang. It's not ideal but it works for us.
My favorite play of the game wasn't even a successful play, but boy was it beautiful. It was Haywood's left to right euro-step on the defender. He missed the shot but the move to get open was on a James Harden/Manu Ginobili level. Total professional basketball player move. Now we just need to work on him finishing these shots. His potential is through the roof, along with the three other freshman....and not even mentioning Michael Devoe, who has the attention of all the national writers and is ballin out right now. After writing this I am going to go look on youtube to see if the stream is still up from his Hoopsgiving game today. It's hard to not get too excited and ahead of myself about the future of the program, so I have to constantly remind myself it's one game at a time.
Time to beat Georgia then get ready for Northwestern.