Jackets MBB host Syracuse, 2/17/2024

spdrama

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
519
Glad to see these guys get a win, especially for themselves. I’m confident they are working hard every day. It’s been a long season with some wonderful highlights scattered throughout. I’m hoping those highlights become more and more regular as time goes along.
Nice win for everyone; players, coaches and those who are looking forward to the future as this program changes direction. The morning after a win is also nice here at the Forum. The haters, bashers, whiners & complainers go into hibernation until another loss. One of the best parts of winning is shutting them up.
 
Last edited:

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,710
This team has….moments.

George executes a perfect pick and roll.
Reeves makes a monster move to the basket for a dunk. Sturdivant hits some timely, long 3 pointers. Kelly hits some clutch shots. Gapare makes several plays around the basket. Ndongo cleans up a few times both on offense and defense. The list goes on.

Obviously, none of this happens consistently enough for the team to win consistently or to even hold a lead for very long. It will get better. Our young players will mature and get better. Some of our players will learn their limits as role players. Several will move on. New players will come into a program where the expected standard of play is clear and a couple of leaders have emerged.
 

AUFC

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,816
Location
Atlanta
This game was not a lot different than a bunch of games we've lost. This time we played tough right to the end. They key rebound we did not get at the end of the ND game fell our way this time. Games like this are ugly, but scrappy play is what we needed. We are not a good shooting team, so we have to win other ways. Last night was a great game on the boards partly because Cuse doesn't match up well with us. They don't have a big who can physically overpower Ndongo or Gapare like ND's Njie and Zona can.
It was glaringly obvious how badly Cuse misses Jesse Edwards. They rank almost dead last in D1 in opponent rebounds and Baye/Gapare feasted because of it, no doubt.
 

GaTech4ever

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,516
Really proud of the guys last night. You could see CDS yelling “Finally!!” To J Batt and the crowd as he was entering the tunnel post game.

Since I’ve been super hard on Gapare, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t acknowledge how well he played last night on both ends. He was under control and let the game come to him. You could tell the staff and his teammates were hyped up for him too. We don’t win that game without him. CDS got to check both the development and win column box score in his utilization of Gapare last night. Wouldn’t it be something if he came around how Moses did in the ACCT his sophomore season?
 

Ramble1885

proud sidewalk fan
Messages
1,855
Location
Atlanta
McCamish was 72% full yesterday (6,241/8,600) Considering how bad we were heading into Saturday, that’s better than I expected. At first I thought Cuse would pack it out but as it got closer to tip off the Tech fans slowly arrived (most likely due to the Baseball game)

Kowacie’s dunk was FILTHY. Made me jump outta my seat.
 

Ramble1885

proud sidewalk fan
Messages
1,855
Location
Atlanta
Really proud of the guys last night. You could see CDS yelling “Finally!!” To J Batt and the crowd as he was entering the tunnel post game.

Since I’ve been super hard on Gapare, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t acknowledge how well he played last night on both ends. He was under control and let the game come to him. You could tell the staff and his teammates were hyped up for him too. We don’t win that game without him. CDS got to check both the development and win column box score in his utilization of Gapare last night. Wouldn’t it be something if he came around how Moses did in the ACCT his sophomore season?
I feel the same way on Gapare. I’ve wanted Claude to start over him but Gapare played well yesterday. Gotta give him credit.
 

lauraee

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,464
Next year the bottom 3 teams will be left out of the ACC tourney but how will the regular season schedule work with 18 teams? Saw that they will keep it at 20 conference games.
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,963
George is struggling... Needs to head to the weight room
He had zero off season last summer at GT. A full offseason of strengths and conditioning training as well as nutrition should help him a lot. He has very good court awareness for a freshman and generally makes the correct decision with the ball.

There is no reason he can't improve his shooting as well as develop a floater. He has a very bright future. CDS is a good coach for him.
 

MacDaddy2

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
424
Location
The Island of Relevancy
Next year the bottom 3 teams will be left out of the ACC tourney but how will the regular season schedule work with 18 teams? Saw that they will keep it at 20 conference games.
This 20 conference game thing has to end. Not to sound like a SEC fan but all we do is beat each other up. 18 would be a really good number and would allow the ACC to showcase what it can do against other conferences with two additional games. Perhaps a weekend series against the BIG10 and another against the BigEast
 

MtnWasp

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
978
I believe that was the first game this season that we won with defense first. We swarmed the boards, hit the floor, contested dribble penetration, didn't bite on the first fake, etc.

Second game in a row where Ndongo hit the deck to save a possession. That is the level of commitment needed to win in the ACC. Now, the SIX turnovers ... LOL.

Sacko showed textbook defense to contain dribble drives, sliding his feet while maintaining vertical upper body position with his hands strait-up. Syracuse players were bouncing off his chest. His play was as close to Karl Brown as I've seen.

Gapare's light bulb is definitely being switched-on late in the season. It's like we are seeing him have an on-the-court epiphany, "oh, so THIS is how a player impacts the game!" Very exciting for the future.

For GT to win Sturdivant has to make shots. He is our shooting guard and when he is not scoring, we are just bad. He is not a PG. His floor game decision making is just way too slow.

Not worried about George. What makes him a good player is his court awareness and demeanor. That doesn't go away. The coaches will work with him to get him stronger and work on his skills and then he will be better able to exploit that rare ability to see the game at a different level.

Kelly is looking more comfortable. he really has rounded out his game, is looking to impact the game in other areas besides shooting, is really trying to dig in on defense, he actually had a good rebounder inside of him that came out this year and is more engaged with his team mates. I thought it was a wasted year for him, but it has not been. Stoudamire really expanded him mentally.

Stoudamire's recent comment, "Strategy doesn't figure into it until you play hard" is a statement that I will remember forever. it is so insightful. No coach can scheme around a team that doesn't play as hard as the opposition. It took too long for the players to get what he was talking about until too late in the season, but I definitely get the impression that they are starting to get it. My two biggest indices for that conclusion is the players starting to dive on the floor and the clear improvement in the effort to contain dribble penetration and fight through screens.
 

bucknellbison31

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
220
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
It was glaringly obvious how badly Cuse misses Jesse Edwards. They rank almost dead last in D1 in opponent rebounds and Baye/Gapare feasted because of it, no doubt.
True, but I was also shocked a) that they played almost exclusively 2-3 zone and b) at how poorly they ran it (considering it's kinda their thing). The ghost of Jim Boeheim still haunts...
 

Techster

Helluva Engineer
Messages
18,209
Really proud of the guys last night. You could see CDS yelling “Finally!!” To J Batt and the crowd as he was entering the tunnel post game.

Since I’ve been super hard on Gapare, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t acknowledge how well he played last night on both ends. He was under control and let the game come to him. You could tell the staff and his teammates were hyped up for him too. We don’t win that game without him. CDS got to check both the development and win column box score in his utilization of Gapare last night. Wouldn’t it be something if he came around how Moses did in the ACCT his sophomore season?

I said in another thread that Gapare is representative of our team. When he's playing well, he's REALLY good. When he's not, he looks like he doesn't belong on this level. Gapare can be a really good player for us, he just needs to find consistency.

When our team is playing well, we can play with any team in the country. When we're not playing well, we can lose to any team. Like Gapare, our team just needs to find consistency.

The gap between our ceiling and floor for this team is probably the widest of any team in the country.
 

CuseJacket

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
19,524
It was glaringly obvious how badly Cuse misses Jesse Edwards. They rank almost dead last in D1 in opponent rebounds and Baye/Gapare feasted because of it, no doubt.
They replaced Edwards with Naheem McLeod. McLeod is out for the season due to injury. The back-up center was out due to concussion protocol.

With Benny Williams (6'9" PF) dismissed, they're down to using Brown at the center and a 6'6" unathletic guard, who also can't shoot, at power forward.

Their roster was horribly constructed to begin with, and now they are toast this season.
 

kg01

Get-Bak! Coach
Featured Member
Messages
15,126
Location
Atlanta
They replaced Edwards with Naheem McLeod. McLeod is out for the season due to injury. The back-up center was out due to concussion protocol.

With Benny Williams (6'9" PF) dismissed, they're down to using Brown at the center and a 6'6" unathletic guard, who also can't shoot, at power forward.

Their roster was horribly constructed to begin with, and now they are toast this season.

Sad Sarcasm GIF by 5-hour ENERGY®


:)
 
Top