Tip Off Tomorrow Miami of Ohio

[TampaBuzz]

At least we didn't lose while being rank in the top 25! Looking at you UVA!

 

[CuseJacket]

Exactly.. The students showed up, season ticket holders did not. In fact, if it had not been for the students, it would have been a morgue.

I'm not sure if it was COVID fears or what, but our fan base laid a big turd last night. First game in a season and it is 35-40 capacity???

That's just **** IMO. Very disappointed to say the least.

Had Cuse and GT on two screens last night (Champions Classic on a third). I noticed real-time that attendance at Cuse's opener was pretty bad too. 19.9k tix sold, but I'd be surprised if there were 10k there.

 

[GT33]

So disappointing, but probably more disappointing was that losing last night was not unexpected.

 

[Hjacket]

End of game situations were the weakest point to me. You have a 7 point lead with under 2 minutes to go. We did not have the leadership on the floor to manage the lead and get quality looks. This is where we miss Jose the most. As a senior, he willed us through those situations and either took the shot or got it for someone else. This is what I feared we would lack the most and it is still my biggest concern. Who is going to seize those moments. But, it's one game and its a long season. The freshman look like players, time will tell how much they can help.

 

[GT11]

Coleman will soon take over for Moore

 

[Peacone36]

I was shocked RH didn’t get a T on that dunk.

LOL...I told ya'll it wouldn't take but one loss while we were trying to find our way for them to show up again. Heck, some never even left!!

Agree with you 100%, we got all we could have hoped for from Rodney. He really turned it up down the stretch, and I think that he only gets better as the season goes on.

I thought not having Bubba's experience on the floor really hurt us last night. As you mentioned, MOH had experience all over the floor while we are still fitting pieces together.

#2 (Lairy) probably has a lot tougher time with Bubba guarding him. He would have been on the floor to help us get better shots at the end as well.

IMO, we must have more offense from the PG spot. We need DS and KS to be better 3-11. They need to be penetrating and getting lay-up's. Too many jumpers from them last night.

Finally, you are absolutely right, Usher and Khalid MUST be better offensively. Otherwise, we will struggle to score until our young guys grow up. Thought Usher should have gotten the basket more often.

Unfortunately, I've pretty much come to the realization that Khalid just isn't an offensive threat. He will flash occasionally, but we cannot rely on his offensive production.

While I thought we would do enough to win this game, I also said I wouldn't be surprised if we got shocked. It's going to take us a few games for all the new pieces to gel.

That said, it was far from a terrible game. Credit to MOH for hanging in and winning it late.

Everyone needs to calm down and back away from the ledge.

 

[Peacone36]

Stop me when you’ve heard this before, Lairy was only a single point shy of his career high last night.

I would love to see a stat showing how often some random guy just completely goes off against GT

 

[Connell62]

Stop me when you’ve heard this before, Lairy was only a single point shy of his career high last night.

I would love to see a stat showing how often some random guy just completely goes off against GT

I’ll go out on a limb and say that he will have a new career high very soon. That dude was balling. He got hot early and never really cooled off.

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

End of game situations were the weakest point to me. You have a 7 point lead with under 2 minutes to go. We did not have the leadership on the floor to manage the lead and get quality looks. This is where we miss Jose the most. As a senior, he willed us through those situations and either took the shot or got it for someone else. This is what I feared we would lack the most and it is still my biggest concern. Who is going to seize those moments. But, it's one game and its a long season. The freshman look like players, time will tell how much they can help.

I couldn't agree more. It should be Devoe and Usher who gets us to the W with leadership this year. Unfortunately, both players seemed rushed during those last two minutes and didn't seem to consider the clock. I was really upset that Devoe allowed himself to get taken out of the game when they manned him up full court. Opposing defenses seemed to do that to Jose last year but he willed his way to the ball and found a way to drive the team to victory. As a guard, Devoe has to take that responsibility upon himself as that guy for this year. Last night, he simply didn't show that desire to fight through the tough defense and find a way to the ball. I hope that changes as the year goes on and he realizes that finding a wide open man (not named Khalid Moore) can have the same impact down the stretch as hitting the big shot. He needs to be the calming presence for the team in tight games and I think he can get to that place. Also goes to show us how blessed we really were with Jose. Dude just found ways to make impact plays.

 

[bke1984]

Did you show up to this game? Because I was there in person and the students were very loud and we were cheering as much as we could. The student section was fairly packed, especially for a Tuesday night game during a busy week for students, and we even incorporated a new dedicated Students Bball section that was yelling all game. Trying to blame the students for not being passionate is not a good look, because I can tell you GT students do show up and support their team as much as possible.

Not really blaming the ones that were

Devoe played great overall but needs to be more assertive at times.
Howard also played great. Double double. Still room for improvement but good showing from him.
Saw flashes from both Deebo and Smith to be excited for but overall they got taken advantage of by their (Miami's) experience.
We need Usher and Moore to be better on the offensive end. They make 3 of their 9 threes and we're fine. Can't have an 0fer though.
Smith in general will be a great defender for us, but his speed was a bit of a liability at times. I expect that to get better with experience though. Was also a tough draw for him tonight.

One thing I really hope is the miserable sacks stay on teh football board and don't infest this one. Of course probably won't happen. Look forward to them disappearing when we start to put things together again.

The basketball team should be fine. They’re young and as frustrating as it is, stuff like last night was bound to happen. We don’t have a proven PG right now.

The football program is a dumpster fire right now. While there is a lot of frustration over there I think most of it is founded, even if those voicing their opinions are being emotional.

 

[bke1984]

I’m already sick of the “we lost the ACC POY and DPOY” excuse. It’s not like either player left the program early. Hell, he should consider himself lucky Usher returned.

You can be sick of it, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true. We basically had two of the best players in the conference last year that both played over 35 min a game consistently. It’s not like you just roll someone in that’s ready to go in those spots.

 

[MidtownJacket]

Some of you all have lost the script man. We played a ton of dudes last night (I think to our detriment) but bagging on Devoe and Usher is foolish. They did what they needed to do for us. Howard and the three headed beast at the 5 did as well.

Our problem was that we needed two new guards to have better games and they didn’t. We couldn’t find offense outside of a few guys and that’s not going to get it done.

That rash of turnovers to start the game also let MOH stay in the game and make plays late which is bad news when you’re young and they’re old. We are going to be fine as we get into the season. Yes I agree early Q3 losses suck, but c’mon man. If it comes down to this game as to keeping us from dancing then we didn’t do enough in season to have deserved the shot anyway.

To the posters saying CJP needs to go, I’ve got something for you.. and don’t let it hit you on the way out, it swings back fast.

 

[bke1984]

Some of you all have lost the script man. We played a ton of dudes last night (I think to our detriment) but bagging on Devoe and Usher is foolish. They did what they needed to do for us. Howard and the three headed beast at the 5 did as well.

Our problem was that we needed two new guards to have better games and they didn’t. We couldn’t find offense outside of a few guys and that’s not going to get it done.

That rash of turnovers to start the game also let MOH stay in the game and make plays late which is bad news when you’re young and they’re old. We are going to be fine as we get into the season. Yes I agree early Q3 losses suck, but c’mon man. If it comes down to this game as to keeping us from dancing then we didn’t do enough in season to have deserved the shot anyway.

To the posters saying CJP needs to go, I’ve got something for you.. and don’t let it hit you on the way out, it swings back fast.

Usher could have played better, but I agree on Devoe. Ushers decisions at the end of the game were one of the key reasons we lost…but at the same time I agree if we don’t have a barrage of turnovers early we aren’t even in that situation. I said it already, but I wasn’t crazy with Pastner screwing with the lineup as much as he did that early against that team. We have some games coming up where there will be a much better opportunity to do that without risking the loss. We had some good things going and then turned over the whole floor at one point, only to go back and start turning it over once we stalled.

 

[Root4GT]

Not really blaming the ones that were

The basketball team should be fine. They’re young and as frustrating as it is, stuff like last night was bound to happen. We don’t have a proven PG right now.

The football program is a dumpster fire right now. While there is a lot of frustration over there I think most of it is founded, even if those voicing their opinions are being emotional.

Young? Seriously we start 3 fourth year players and 2 third year players. That’s not young by any means.

For some unknown reason Pastner can’t seem to get the team ready to win early non conference games.

As an aside he just struck out on signing any HS player in the early signing period.

Oh well on to Stetson.

 

[Peacone36]

Was anyone else amazed with difference in size between Sturdy and Smith? Smith looked so small.

 

[Peacone36]

Yeah I liked what I saw from Usher last night. Khalid Moore on the other hand….

I like Sturdy a bunch. He doesn’t score but he is an Aaron Craft type. He’s just good. I expected more polish from Deebo.

Some of you all have lost the script man. We played a ton of dudes last night (I think to our detriment) but bagging on Devoe and Usher is foolish. They did what they needed to do for us. Howard and the three headed beast at the 5 did as well.

Our problem was that we needed two new guards to have better games and they didn’t. We couldn’t find offense outside of a few guys and that’s not going to get it done.

That rash of turnovers to start the game also let MOH stay in the game and make plays late which is bad news when you’re young and they’re old. We are going to be fine as we get into the season. Yes I agree early Q3 losses suck, but c’mon man. If it comes down to this game as to keeping us from dancing then we didn’t do enough in season to have deserved the shot anyway.

To the posters saying CJP needs to go, I’ve got something for you.. and don’t let it hit you on the way out, it swings back fast.

 

[Connell62]

Yeah I liked what I saw from Usher last night. Khalid Moore on the other hand….

I like Sturdy a bunch. He doesn’t score but he is an Aaron Craft type. He’s just good. I expected more polish from Deebo.

Agreed, I like Sturdy a lot too but he cannot play big minutes and be invisible on offense.

Last year, he was able to get to the cup and finish or dump off for a dunk. We will need more of that from him and a floater would be nice.

We don’t need he or DS to score 20+ per game, but we do need them to be a threat.

 

[bke1984]

Young? Seriously we start 3 fourth year players and 2 third year players. That’s not young by any means.

For some unknown reason Pastner can’t seem to get the team ready to win early non conference games.

As an aside he just struck out on signing any HS player in the early signing period.

Oh well on to Stetson.

Yeah, young. We had times where there were two players playing their first game ever at the college level and one playing after very limited minutes in prior seasons.

Age for Howard and Saba doesn’t really mean anything given that they haven’t played much. Minutes logged on the court is critical.

 

[alagold]

Losing to a non-ACC team midlevel team AT HOME is completely on the coaching staff.We have 3 seniors that SHOULD have controlled things at the end. Scary with that showing in itself but basically we have a small team (last nite MO were small also so it didn't hurt much ) and can''t shoot. Not a good combination. I never dreamed Bubba would be missed with SIX guards on the team.

 

[GTbball2016]

Losing to a non-ACC team midlevel team AT HOME is completely on the coaching staff.We have 3 seniors that SHOULD have controlled things at the end. Scary with that showing in itself but basically we have a small team (last nite MO were small also so it didn't hurt much ) and can''t shoot. Not a good combination. I never dreamed Bubba would be missed with SIX guards on the team.

Especially to a team that shot 6-31 from 3 pt range