Loyola Chicago (8) vs. Georgia Tech (9), Friday, 4pm ET, TBS

[RamblinRed]

GT defensively made the strategic plan it was going to try to limit Krutwig (by constantly digging the perimeter players to the post) and see if someone else on Loyola would step up and beat us. Given what we had to play with and Loyola stats (Krutwig is the only player on the team that has scored in double figures in more than 1/2 their games) that is a good strategy. Loyola did have players step up and win the game. All you can do is congratulate them on what they did and move on. Even without Moses we made them play left-handed and they won that way.

They are a 35% 3-pt shooting team. They avg 41 percent on a high volume yesterday. All you can do is say good makes and move on.

Not getting offensive rebounds or turning them over was brutal for what we wanted to do. They were very similar in us in terms of offensive rebounding for the year, but killed us yesterday.

Having 12 more offensive rebounds and one fewer TO means Loyola effectively had 13 more possessions than GT (I count a possession as 1 shot - of you get a off rebound, that is a new possession).
It doesn't matter how well you shot, and I was really impressed that we did not settle for many bad shots when we didn't have any interior big, but an opponent having effective a dozen more possessions is almost always going to win.

The plan has always been get old, stay old. There frankly weren't many opportunities to get the young bigs playing time in what was a strange season. It hurt today, but the strategy used was the right one for the year as a whole.

 

[RamblinRed]

I’m watching these other games and thinking that with Moses and better seeding we are at least a sweet 16 team.

Moses is worth at least a net 20 points. It's not just about what offense he would provide but also how many points he prevents the opponents from scoring.

 

[4shotB]

The plan has always been get old, stay old. There frankly weren't many opportunities to get the young bigs playing time in what was a strange season. It hurt today, but the strategy used was the right one for the year as a whole.

Frankly, one cannot fault Pastner for taking this approach considering his "seat was warm" going into the year. The initial two losses only exacerbated the situation. I long for the days when we have a coach in our two main revenue sports who builds up enough goodwill capital within the GT family that each season can be approached with a longer term view.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Losing always sucks. Grieve today and prepare for tomorrow.

Oh, I don’t know, I’m going to give myself more than a day to grieve. I’m thinking this needs a couple of weeks maybe.

 

[slugboy]

Frankly, one cannot fault Pastner for taking this approach considering his "seat was warm" going into the year. The initial two losses only exacerbated the situation. I long for the days when we have a coach in our two main revenue sports who builds up enough goodwill capital within the GT family that each season can be approached with a longer term view.

It’s hard to remember, but his seat was warm a month ago.
Even looking past that, it was clear that his plan for the first few games was to get Saba and Howard playing time, but hot seat or not the team needed to get squared away quickly with games against Nebraska and Kentucky coming up. With COVID, there wasn’t a bank of pushovers to cut your teeth on.
After that, it was conference play, and I wouldn’t have played it any differently there.

 

[jacketup]

Frankly, one cannot fault Pastner for taking this approach considering his "seat was warm" going into the year. The initial two losses only exacerbated the situation. I long for the days when we have a coach in our two main revenue sports who builds up enough goodwill capital within the GT family that each season can be approached with a longer term view.

I agree, but it has a lot to do with AD stability. That's something we haven't had. Too much turnover (and bad ADs) between Rice and Stansbury. A new AD is quick to pull the trigger to bring in his guy.

I believe Stansbury is satisfied with Pastner, and unlike a lot of our fans, understands what Collins is up against as a rebuild.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Everyone’s pointing to different things but this is THE stat that mattered today. Early fouls on Moore and Ush limited their defense and rebounding ability. Without Moses we had ZERO depth. The 10 foul differential with our 60% shooting night is 6 extra shots we didn‘t make, 12 pts. Add to that additional time they’re on defense expending energy. Some of those 3’s probably don’t go down. Flip the tables & give us their advantage and that’s 12 buckets, 24 pts plus a ton of rebounding. We lost the whistle battle & hence the war.

Yes. It can be argued that going small will mean a foul advantage for the bigger team. However, we drove to the hoop over and over all game long and only got five fouls called on Loyola in the paint.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Yes. It can be argued that going small will mean a foul advantage for the bigger team. However, we drove to the hoop over and over all game long and only got five fouls called on Loyola in the paint.

I watched the Wisconsin UNC game. UNC looked awful, but it was a street brawl without police. It was crazy what went on in that game.

 

[4shotB]

Yes. It can be argued that going small will mean a foul advantage for the bigger team. However, we drove to the hoop over and over all game long and only got five fouls called on Loyola in the paint.

Apparently I am in the minority on this but as I watched the game I didn't have an issue with the refs. Like the FSU game I thought they mostly let them play. That style of refereeing helped in the championship game and in general is what I like when watching a game. I don't want to watch a free throw shooting contest.

 

[lv20gt]

I have not commented on Kyle before because I generally like it when posters are encouraging of Tech student athletes. One question I have is his ball handling. His constant crouching seems to limit his vision and most of his bursts of speed seem to be straight ahead with not a lot of crossover or change of direction. Help me with what I am seeing / not seeing.

Kyle is a very different player than Jose and Mike is different than both. All 3 can be, and two have been, successful with their style. The thing is, especially with guys who handle the ball a lot, you need a team that adjusts to their style. You can tell that everyone on the team is used to what Jose does when he drives, always expecting him to keep his dribble alive and be ready for a pass with his craftiness. Usually you'll see guys position themselves for possible dump offs or lobs instead of going for offensive rebounding position. And that's the right call with Jose. Likewise when Mike drives, players usually try to create space for him to allow him to get his angles, and rotate to provide him releases if his drive doesn't get to where he wants. IMO Kyle is more like a usual Carolina PG. When he drives, you want your bigs not to position for a dump off like with Jose, but for an OReb. For this team that somewhat hurt as we didn't have good rebounding and compound that with not playing for rebounds usually.

If you're worried about him for next year just remember that there is a big difference between a guy trying to step in and be a role player to an established dynamic, and having an offseason/preseason/preconference to completely build around him being a core player.

 

[chicoGT]

What’s chance of losing Reveno to a HC or more lucrative assistant position?

 

[Wrecked]

Apparently I am in the minority on this but as I watched the game I didn't have an issue with the refs. Like the FSU game I thought they mostly let them play. That style of refereeing helped in the championship game and in general is what I like when watching a game. I don't want to watch a free throw shooting contest.

My big issue with the refs is they just let Krutwig camp in the lane. There were multiple possessions where he never left the paint. This hurt us on the glass and it showed in the stats. Bottom line, we were going to need someone to play big and pick up Moses stats. It just didn't happen and thats not a shot at our players at all. Loyola's guards also came up huge. It was a good season and it should be a start of a Cremins type run of tourney appearances.

 

[jeffgt14]

I like Kyle. He shows flashes of a good scorer and he showed he isn't afraid to step up and be an offensive threat yesterday. Probably forced a few things but I think he knew we needed somebody to step up because everyone else was scoring about their usual which wasn't going to cut it. Total respect for that.

Defensively is where he really needs to step it up but that can be coached and developed with more experience.

 

[Jacketman99]

The foul discrepancy is not just GT fans complaining. I have talked to others who are not GT fans that were miffed by the lack of calls for GT especially when we were the more aggressive team offensively. I think having Moses would have changed the way both teams approached the game. Loyola would not have been able to play defense as aggressively on the perimeter. No way their center guards Moses 1 on 1. They would have been forced to help which could have led to more open 3 pointers from us. Having Moses on defense would have allowed us to play more aggressive defense on the perimeter because he could handle the paint area. Lack of rebounding was a huge problem against Loyola. As Red pointed out, Loyola had around an extra 13 possessions which really was the difference in the game. Gotta think Moses would have helped here. Just stinks that we did not get to see what this team could have done at full strength.
Kyle did not have his best game. However, I am not worried about him for next year. Like Usher, I think he will be much better his second year in the program especially since he will be getting major minutes. He has shown enough flashes for me to see he is a talented player. We will just need to understand he is not Jose. They are different style players. I don't expect him to be as disruptive defensively but he has shown the ability to run the offense.

 

[augustabuzz]

Apparently I am in the minority on this but as I watched the game I didn't have an issue with the refs. Like the FSU game I thought they mostly let them play. That style of refereeing helped in the championship game and in general is what I like when watching a game. I don't want to watch a free throw shooting contest.

That's just it. They did let them play, but not us. They were in panic mode when we jumped out 13-3 and we started picking up fouls to key players which were not reciprocated on the other end of the court.

 

[ncjacket79]

Apparently I am in the minority on this but as I watched the game I didn't have an issue with the refs. Like the FSU game I thought they mostly let them play. That style of refereeing helped in the championship game and in general is what I like when watching a game. I don't want to watch a free throw shooting contest.

All I can say is I have never seen any team score 42 points in the paint and only shoot 5 FTs.

 

[tsrich]

Moses is worth at least a net 20 points. It's not just about what offense he would provide but also how many points he prevents the opponents from scoring.

Excellent point. Our team defense would have been very different with Moses in there. Look at how hard we pressed the shooters on the perimeter during our winning streak. There would have been a lot less open looks from 3. Even if Moses didn't score, the defense alone might have changed the outcome

 

[gte447f]

I have not commented on Kyle before because I generally like it when posters are encouraging of Tech student athletes. One question I have is his ball handling. His constant crouching seems to limit his vision and most of his bursts of speed seem to be straight ahead with not a lot of crossover or change of direction. Help me with what I am seeing / not seeing.

Kyle is a straight line driver. That’s his handle right now. Who knows whether he will develop more varied ball handling skills. I like his game. I like his aggressiveness and for his size I think he is a good finisher at the rim. Josh okogie was pretty much a straight line driver also. That was one of the criticisms of him from nba scouts. I’m not saying Kyle is equal to josh. Josh obviously had some physical abilities that were off the charts and that is what separated him.

 

[JacketMicMan]

Kyle is a straight line driver. That’s his handle right now. Who knows whether he will develop more varied ball handling skills. I like his game. I like his aggressiveness and for his size I think he is a good finisher at the rim. Josh okogie was pretty much a straight line driver also. That was one of the criticisms of him from nba scouts. I’m not saying Kyle is equal to josh. Josh obviously had some physical abilities that were off the charts and that is what separated him.

I will always appreciate Kyle’s contributions in the ACCTCG. He broke presses, distributed, and made foul shots. His offensive game reminded me of Karl Brown. Every Lethal Weapon 3 needs a Karl Brown type of player. We need Kyle in the future. I remember someone on this board saying it takes time for a transfer to understand his role. I believe he will develop this offseason. Trusting the process and the 5* player development.

 

[Buzztheirazz]

What’s chance of losing Reveno to a HC or more lucrative assistant position?

100%. Remember this is GT. It’s like losing your best player to Covid right before the NCAA tournament. It’s just going to happen.