GT Hoops - Georgia State Panthers - 9PM

[CLM]

Meka has really good athleticism but has zero offensive game still. Maxwell looked collective and smart. I would give him some more run. Howard has foot issue so not sure what it long term prognosis is.

Gotta get better players though. Shouldn’t struggle again teams like Georgia State and Georgia Southern

 

[bke1984]

Somebody find that poster who said Jordan Usher sucked a few games ago.

I was thinking the same exact thing when he was going off at the start of OT. He is nasty when he gets hot. I thought he was going to get a put back dunk on O, but someone (Khalid?) cut him off.

 

[kg01]

What a game. So glad they were able to pull it out for Devoe. I imagine he was kicking himself for having such a bad game.

Usher showed up biGTime late.

Good game out of nowhere by Meka.

 

[bke1984]

I'm overall happy with this game. If we really drive home that fast paced first half offense, I think we can have a great ACC schedule. Big issues with the second half offense but I expect Josh is smart enough to figure that out.

Lol. I’m happy because we won. From about the 2 min mark in the first half to the 2 min mark in the second half we played absolutely horribly on offense - one of the worst games I can remember. Then Devoe fouled out and we put our fate on Usher and he dominated. I think we are asking too much from Devoe to run the offense against guard laden teams. We need Kyle or Deivon to step up and take that spot without being a turnover liability. It will open Devoe up to score off the ball.

 

[GTJason]

Where has Meka been. More than serviceable at the 5. He's at the very least aggressive and throws his weight around. Definitely earned more minutes tonight

 

[YlJacket]

I'll take the win. But our offensive sets suck. We are trying to run our offense through 3 different 5's who were not supposed to be any kind of offensive focus this year. I don't understand the rational for that.

Devoe got ungodly frustrated trying to go one on everyone tonight and thank god Usher simply did a better job going against the whole GSU world by himself. Note that with Mekka we generally went away from the Princeton and even ran a couple of horn sets late in the second half and in OT.

Beyond the offensive sets, we really didn't have much energy tonight. We were blah most of the evening outside of Usher. Go back and watch us stand around on offense all night long. CJP has to be absolutely pissed at this game. I would be in his position. Besides Usher, the other thing that saved us is we only had 3 or 4 TOs from about the 8 min to go mark through overtime. CJP wanted 9 or less for the game and we had 23. Yuck.

ACC may be and is way down this year but we got to pick it up

 

[gt24]

its been said in a variety of ways for weeks now, but i want to say it in a slightly new way... what this team is lacking is sophomore-year miles and deebo. next year we will be saying "if only we had this miles and this deebo with ush and devoe last year." i understand the calls for a scoring PG or a scoring 5-man. but those are secondary, imo.

 

[gt24]

I'll take the win. But our offensive sets suck. We are trying to run our offense through 3 different 5's who were not supposed to be any kind of offensive focus this year. I don't understand the rational for that.

Devoe got ungodly frustrated trying to go one on everyone tonight and thank god Usher simply did a better job going against the whole GSU world by himself. Note that with Mekka we generally went away from the Princeton and even ran a couple of horn sets late in the second half and in OT.

Beyond the offensive sets, we really didn't have much energy tonight. We were blah most of the evening outside of Usher. Go back and watch us stand around on offense all night long. CJP has to be absolutely pissed at this game. I would be in his position. Besides Usher, the other thing that saved us is we only had 3 or 4 TOs from about the 8 min to go mark through overtime. CJP wanted 9 or less for the game and we had 23. Yuck.

ACC may be and is way down this year but we got to pick it up

kyle deserves credit for energy too. he had some sloppy play and mistakes for sure, but he played with good energy.

separately, Q4 cjp sitting on the scorers table silently with arms crossed.

 

[GTbball2016]

Interesting observation but the clock was off by .2 seconds on the TV at end of regulation. I was sure live that Usher tried calling a timeout with time left, but the red light on the hoop was off.

 

[YlJacket]

kyle deserves credit for energy too. he had some sloppy play and mistakes for sure, but he played with good energy.

I take your point. Several times down court the team stood around and watched him hit fade aways in the lane.

You were right about the horn sets. Glad I got to see them.

 

[Bonaire41]

So glad we won but we have a long long long way to go this year if we expect to be just a little competitive in acc play this year!

 

[ESPNjacket]

I understand that you play to win the game. If we didn't manage to tie it up late there would be people losing their minds on here.

We need to run an offense our players can play. Enough of the big man in the high post with guys who can't pass. It isn't going to get better.

Enough of the player bashing. We have guys with skills. They just don't fit that offensive approach.

 

[CuseJacket]

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

I have been known to harp on Khalid Moore for some of his shortcomings, but he really played a good game last night I thought. He added some much needed scoring and rebounding when it mattered most. Hopefully this is what we get out of him every night.

 

[orientalnc]

What a game. So glad they were able to pull it out for Devoe. I imagine he was kicking himself for having such a bad game.

Usher showed up biGTime late.

Good game out of nowhere by Meka.

When Devoe fouled out he was physically spent. Happy that Usher kicked it up and saved the team.

 

[SecretAgentBuzz]

I have been known to harp on Khalid Moore for some of his shortcomings, but he really played a good game last night I thought. He added some much needed scoring and rebounding when it mattered most. Hopefully this is what we get out of him every night.

He plays really hard and does a lot of the little things that lead to winning. There was one play in the second half where he dove and grabbed a ball on the ground and somehow made a perfect bounce pass to someone on our team. I couldn't believe he secured it, much less safely passed it out. It is those possession-saving plays that make a huge difference. He is already an essential piece to this year's team on defense...if he can continue to hunt those easy baskets and hit the occasional 3, that really helps our offense.

 

[kg01]

I understand that you play to win the game. If we didn't manage to tie it up late there would be people losing their minds on here.

We need to run an offense our players can play. Enough of the big man in the high post with guys who can't pass. It isn't going to get better.

Enough of the player bashing. We have guys with skills. They just don't fit that offensive approach.

You sir are wise beyond your years.

 

[Connell62]

I understand that you play to win the game. If we didn't manage to tie it up late there would be people losing their minds on here.

We need to run an offense our players can play. Enough of the big man in the high post with guys who can't pass. It isn't going to get better.

Enough of the player bashing. We have guys with skills. They just don't fit that offensive approach.

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I think that this offense is a better option than the changing to an alternative at this point.

Our bigs aren't very good scoring with their back to the basket, so we can't play through the post, nor are they good in the P-n-R.

Not a lot of good options for us and changing at this point of the season would be very difficult.

The thing that is missing IMO is our ability to finish in the lane. No one outside of Devoe has been able to get into the lane and finish.

Kyle, Deivon, and even Jordan have been able to get good looks, but we cannot seem to finish at the rim. Jose spoiled us with those abilities.

 

[orientalnc]

With our 5s not a genuine threat the defense is sagging and making the rim a tough battleground.

 

[kg01]

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I think that this offense is a better option than the changing to an alternative at this point.

Our bigs aren't very good scoring with their back to the basket, so we can't play through the post, nor are they good in the P-n-R.

Not a lot of good options for us and changing at this point of the season would be very difficult.

The thing that is missing IMO is our ability to finish in the lane. No one outside of Devoe has been able to get into the lane and finish.

Kyle, Deivon, and even Jordan have been able to get good looks, but we cannot seem to finish at the rim. Jose spoiled us with those abilities.

I hear you on the changing offense midstream thing. But I think the games against the higher-level teams have shown we simply can't stand pat. Changing now is not ideal but staying with what we were doing would be a death knell (am I using that right?).

Agree on our finishing. We struggle there but defenses sagging on our bigs exacerbates that trait exponentially.

I must also say, my expectations on Smith were way too high. He has great physical tools but he needs development. And that's perfectly fine. He's a young player, so that should be expected. I, for some reason, had a vision of him stepping in and giving us what Jose was giving us. That's totally unfair to Smith.

I say that because I get the sense that many of us may be in the same boat as I was. He'll be really good for us once he's further down the road. For now, I just want to see him play within himself. Use his tools to impact the game. He can be a weapon for us.