Great Win Sets Up Pivotal Game Tuesday

[hwdgeplague]

Nice as it has been a while. Our NCAA bid desperately needs a signature win.

 

[DvilleJacket]

Not happening buddy. NIT is more realistic. Happy with the streak but why couldn't this have happened back in Jan? The VT, Louisville, and Cuse game should've been wins. 10-6 right now we would be in the conversation.

 

[Peacone36]

10-6 right now with our wins we are on the 10-12 lines

 

[hwdgeplague]

If we get to 20 wins we are in.

 

[KeystoneJacket]

Going to be mighty tough to win at Louisville (on their senior night?) coming off a loss.

 

[hwdgeplague]

How do we match up with Loville. I understand that they are athletic and explosive. ..leading the country in point differential at 16 + per game.

 

[Peacone36]

Onuaku is playing like a man. They have some injuries up front but now Deng Adel is available and playing well.

This may be one of the most difficult games of the season.

 

[jeffgt14]

72 RPI. SOS in Top 30. Me not watching. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility if we get 20 wins.

 

[RamblinRed]

L'ville isn't a good matchup for us. Good guards, pressure alot. I doubt we slow them down much.
I think this is going to be MGH's first tough game i na while. they will hound him all night long. He is going to be very tired and he is already playing too many minutes.

 

[Fatmike91]

Nice as it has been a while. Our NCAA bid desperately needs a signature win.

We have a signature win. We beat #3 - Virginia. There are only two other teams in the nation that would be a better "signature", and we already missed our shot at 'Nova.

We're not on the bubble, but a win would put us right in those cross hairs with an good bubble resume'.

/

 

[dtm1997]

A win over Louisville might give us a chance to see the bubble, but it'll take a win over Pitt, as well, to actually get on the bubble.

Welp... not sure how many of you are watching dook get waxed by about 20 at Pitt right now.

 

[RyanS12]

After Pitt's win today, if we can steal one @ Louisville and take care of business at home with Pitt that might just be enough quality wins to put us in regardless of what we do in DC. Add a win to that and it's icing on the cake. As much as I'd love to see us do this I'm still not holding my breath. We've beaten a few decent teams but we haven't been able to put it all together for 40 min. Having lapses against L'ville or Pitt to start the 2nd half will kill us though.

 

[McCamish Maniacs]

I think if we win on Tuesday, we're in and if we lose, we're out

(Not saying we only need one more win, but if we win on Tuesday I think we take care of business the rest of the season)

No doubt the biggest game of the BG era

 

[orientalnc]

L'ville isn't a good matchup for us. Good guards, pressure alot. I doubt we slow them down much.
I think this is going to be MGH's first tough game i na while. they will hound him all night long. He is going to be very tired and he is already playing too many minutes.

This is precisely what worries me. We need a genuine team effort on Tuesday.

 

[hwdgeplague]

So L ille pressures us...we have to go with three guards...they exploit their strength against our soft spot. To counter we take care of the ball get their big guys in foul trouble. Win it from the line. Agreed we will need to play our best.

 

[MWBATL]

So L ille pressures us...we have to go with three guards...they exploit their strength against our soft spot. To counter we take care of the ball get their big guys in foul trouble. Win it from the line. Agreed we will need to play our best.

Do we HAVE three guards? Let's see, there's Adam Smith.....and, well, I guess you could count Marcus...and ...who else?

 

[DvilleJacket]

I don't know where you guys are getting all this optimism, but we would have to win out and have a very good run in DC to have a shot.

 

[Connell62]

Do we HAVE three guards? Let's see, there's Adam Smith.....and, well, I guess you could count Marcus...and ...who else?

They over play MGH and Adam, Q is definitely capable of beating them from three. We have seen him go-off before and carry the team to victory.

He goes something like 5-7 from deep, and we have an excellent shot at victory, and he is due for a good shooting game.

Not saying that it will happen, but he has the ability to do it. Either way, we will need big contributions from both Q and Tadric to win this one, and that is assuming our big man rotation continues playing well.

 

[CuseJacket]

L'ville isn't a good matchup for us. Good guards, pressure alot. I doubt we slow them down much.
I think this is going to be MGH's first tough game i na while. they will hound him all night long. He is going to be very tired and he is already playing too many minutes.

Agree with the first part re: Louisville.

Disagree with too many minutes for MGH, this next game being the exception. I'll try to be fair about this knowing I don't have numbers, so I'll start by suggesting that earlier this year we wasted conservatively 4-5 possessions/game with our two traditional PGs in the game (bad shots, turnovers, ineffective sets and no ability to create, blown defensive assignments). 4-5 possessions/game and losing a myriad of games by 1-2 possessions is a big deal. Highly questionable minutes happened all the way through the game @ Clemson.

Since then, during our 4 game win streak, MGH has played no less than 38 min. And in those games he won a game on a contested drive to the basket and knocked down a couple of free throws to seal another game. In other words, he's not tired right now. So why change?

Louisville is the exception with constant ball pressure. I'd scale down MGH's minutes to 35 this game but no fewer, otherwise sub him strategically around timeouts. Back court should be a 3-way combo of Smith, MGH, and Tadric. We're not in a position to lose possessions every game with our backups. We tried that and it resulted in multiple one possession L's.

We could revert back to playing more guys and really save MGH's legs for no postseason, which is where we were headed until the recent win streak. I don't think we're playing significantly better ball the last 4 games; I've seen it more as we are playing our best players more minutes and it hasn't deteriorated their ability to produce.

 

[orientalnc]

Agree with the first part re: Louisville.

Disagree with too many minutes for MGH, this next game being the exception. I'll try to be fair about this knowing I don't have numbers, so I'll start by suggesting that earlier this year we wasted conservatively 4-5 possessions/game with our two traditional PGs in the game (bad shots, turnovers, ineffective sets and no ability to create, blown defensive assignments). 4-5 possessions/game and losing a myriad of games by 1-2 possessions is a big deal. Highly questionable minutes happened all the way through the game @ Clemson.

Since then, during our 4 game win streak, MGH has played no less than 38 min. And in those games he won a game on a contested drive to the basket and knocked down a couple of free throws to seal another game. In other words, he's not tired right now. So why change?

Louisville is the exception with constant ball pressure. I'd scale down MGH's minutes to 35 this game but no fewer, otherwise sub him strategically around timeouts. Back court should be a 3-way combo of Smith, MGH, and Tadric. We're not in a position to lose possessions every game with our backups. We tried that and it resulted in multiple one possession L's.

We could revert back to playing more guys and really save MGH's legs for no postseason, which is where we were headed until the recent win streak. I don't think we're playing significantly better ball the last 4 games; I've seen it more as we are playing our best players more minutes and it hasn't deteriorated their ability to produce.

MGH is 22 years old and in the best shape of his life. And he's highly motivated right now. And he wants the minutes badly as he knows the team needs him on the floor. Until he raises his hand for a sub I leave him in to play any of the first three spots. But, I would make UL stop our inside game. For my view of this is we need to start with our strength against UL, which is getting ball inside to Chuck and Nick and pound the offensive glass. Later, when UL starts digging the post, Smith and Q and MGH will have their open shots. But that depends on our bigs making plays and getting offensive boards.