SURVIVE and Advance
by Tydides on Mar 19, 2009 10:07 PM PDT
in Basketball
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PrintYes, the Bruins "survived" in every way that is possible staving off a last second shot by the media's Golden Boy Eric Maynor to win 65-64 (box score). The reward? A date with Villanova on Saturday on what is evidently their home floor. It's great to move on. But if the Bruins want to keep dancing, they're going to have to show us and the nation something different than what they showed us tonight.
There were highlights to be sure. Shipp emerged as a playmaker and delivered in the clutch when the offense was stalling in the middle of the second half. Jrue took over for DC and showed us all his potential at the PG position. The defense appears to be back as well, as VCU shot 41% from the floor despite what seemed to be a ton of dunks and layups near the end of the game as they made their (terrifying, horrifying) run at us down the stretch. These three factors will be instrumental in any future success we have.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Michael Perez
Now for the rest...
My complaints about how that game was called could fill a book, but for now I'd like to concentrate on what WE can do on Saturday, so I'll just say that if those weren't SPTRs, they were sure as hell doing a great impression of them, and I'll leave it at that.
We cannot afford to do this again. By "this" I mean hang our regular rotation out to dry like we did near the end. I firmly believe that this is at the root of all the problems that came down near the end of this game. Now maybe Coach knows something that I don't (about his personnel, obviously not about basketball), but I saw some tired legs out there, made even worse by the fact that we were being full court pressed on every possession. I fully expected to see a Lee sighting but he was nowhere to be found. I hope that Lee will find a way into our rotation against Villanova. He's too valuable as a defender to leave on the bench.
I'm going to assume that sitting Gordon has something to do with his knee, so I won't go into that as much, but with Drago actually playing better help defense than we've seen over the past few weeks, his absence wasn't as noticeable. And yes, Jerime looked a little shaky in his minutes out there, but this might be a pill that we will have to swallow at this point, because we absolutely must have an effective Holiday and Collison in crunch time.
I feel my heart drop into my stomach every time one of our layups rims out. We did that plenty today, and while a lot of those were the result of fouls that weren't called, a lot of them were NOT. We are not a good enough team to be able to leave points on the table.
One plac
It is distressing to see us take the air out of the ball for 20 seconds near the end of games. I will hedge this by saying that we did a better job getting the shots we wanted in this particular game, but that's not always a guarantee, especially if our guys are tired. The next time it doesn't work could easily be the last time this season that it doesn't work.
So now where are we? Well in the second round for one thing. We survived what can only be described as a hack job by the officials the likes of which I hope to never see again. We played our starters big minutes, perhaps forcing CBH's hand as far as utilizing his bench for Saturday. We saw a defense that we've quite frankly had trouble with all season long - the full court press - for almost 40 minutes and we're still alive. We probably wrecked a LOT of brackets because of the advice of, well, pretty much all the pundits that gleefully told everyone to pick VCU. So I think it's only fair that we reset at this point.
As amazing (or sobering depending on your POV) as it is, we are now officially playing with house money. 6 seeds are not supposed to go to the second weekend (or to the second game if you believe the pundits). We now face off with a Villanova team coming off a sobering scare of their own on their "home floor". It's going to be rough, and we still have details to iron out as I said above, but at the end of the day (and hopefully at the end of Saturday as well), only one thing is important in March. One ironclad rule of law that supersedes all others: Survive and Advance.
PS. 1600 comments for the game thread? You guys are awesome.
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Just take a second and remember the Princeton game
or the Texas Tech game or even not making the tournament. That was brutal. Tonight wasn’t pretty and there is a lot of room for improvement, but as has been proven throughout the years, nobody is entitled to winning in the NCAA Tournament. Everyone is vulnerable and anyone can win on any night. We didn’t play well tonight, but we played well enough to get the W so enjoy it. Only 64 teams made it this far and 32 will won’t be around for the weekend. We’re one of them so have fun with it.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 19, 2009 10:12 PM PDT reply actions
Or Detroit Mercy
and I was living there when it happened.
by Gen2Bruin1987 on Mar 19, 2009 10:20 PM PDT up reply actions
A Request to BN
I’m not sure if its just me, but my computer bogs down like crazy when the game thread gets large. We have a lot of posters on the site now, and if it’s possible, it’d be nice to maybe split the game thread into the two halves. 1600 posts is a lot!
would be helpful
I wanted to thread it up too but i couldn’t even load the comments! haha Great to have this community.
by UCLAbruin920 on Mar 19, 2009 10:18 PM PDT up reply actions
Its all about the dual core
and 2 gigs of ram or more!
Oh UCLA you sweet bitch, you've BRUINed me for anything else.
by bruin8uclap on Mar 19, 2009 10:21 PM PDT up reply actions
unfortunately
i have to use a notebook right now, since i took my desktop apart for some upgrades
I am on my notebook now
:P
Oh UCLA you sweet bitch, you've BRUINed me for anything else.
by bruin8uclap on Mar 19, 2009 10:24 PM PDT up reply actions
At least you're not on a netbook
That would just totally chug.
Or even worse an iphone
Many apologies
BN should not have minimum specs!
Much like our team tonight, we at BN must make adjustments as well!
I wonder have simutaneous comments were there at the end of the game
Even with dual core and 4 gigs of ram, my notebook froze for almost a minute.
by Gen2Bruin1987 on Mar 19, 2009 10:25 PM PDT up reply actions
Near the beginning
With the frisbee cheer, I saw a lot of posts jumping up at random times so there might have been an issue with server load as well.
I was going to suggest (or even just make) a second half thread
But we had a 10 point lead at halftime. Didn’t want to jinx it.
Oh, and i tried to load the thread…and it took 31 seconds on cable. That’s worth it for novelty alone :-)
Same quote as this morning, but it still fits...
The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.
But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!
Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!
Use what works.
Learn from mistakes.
Build upon successes.
Make little sacrifices for the biggest possible gains.
Trust your teammates.
KEEP.
MOVING.
FORWARD.
M
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
by Meriones on Mar 19, 2009 10:13 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs
I love that
thank you.
Oh UCLA you sweet bitch, you've BRUINed me for anything else.
by bruin8uclap on Mar 19, 2009 10:33 PM PDT up reply actions
Anyone know when the game is on Saturday?
I heard 10am pacific?
Howland commented in his post-game interview
That they had 36 hours and 15-minutes to prepare for their next game. So, 10am PDT it must be.
by snorkeldorf on Mar 19, 2009 10:16 PM PDT up reply actions
By prepare I hope that mean
Layup lines and some R&R
We should have subbed a lot more
I think Sanders had something to do with that ...
It’s not all about blocking shots, altering shots is usually just as effective.
by snorkeldorf on Mar 19, 2009 10:25 PM PDT up reply actions
We've been missing layups all year
our team seriously needs layup drills
There's always the possibility
That we only notice it more because we don’t have a garbage man to clean those up so that we score anyway. I’m willing to bet there were a lot of these blown layups last year that KLove just gobbled up and put back in.
JH is my player of the game
Amazing performance by an 18-year old in his first appearance on the biggest stage. When JA came in, it was pretty obvious that he is just not ready. JH, however, was cool, calm, and collected. Without JH, we would’ve had a huge problem with their press – especially with DC struggling.
Honorable mention for PAA – clutch!!!!! FTs – and ND – 13 rebounds!!!! – and, of course, JS.
And don’t forget DC. He could’ve been hanging his head from a less than stellar performance, but instead he steps up and makes a great defensive stop to save the game.
Any win is a great win in the tourney …. I’ll take it!
JS was clutch with teh double double
16 pts and 10 rebounds.
I say the fact that he was consistently contributing the whole game gives a slight edge over JH.
JH played a great game though
Thoughts on the game now
1) It was obvious that Sanders was in the back of our heads, and we missed a lot of bunnies and got some shots swatted we wouldn’t usually get swatted. However, we need to continue attacking the rim strong and drawing fouls. Sanders had 2 fouls early and sat out. Had we gone after him early again in the 2nd half, like Josh did, we could’ve put him back on the bench for a while. Good news is we won’t face any shot blockers of his caliber unless we face Thabeet, but that won’t happen unless we’re in the championship game.
2) The effort in this game was definitely a lot better. People were hustling on defense and getting rebounds as well. We also didn’t turn it over against the press which is a major step up.
3) I am, however, still scratching my head at the rotation. Lee didn’t see the game at all. At the least, put Lee on Maynor and give us 5 more fouls on Maynor. Make him earn his points. Lee has been probably our best defender this year, and it would’ve been nice to see his length and athleticism hold up against Maynor. Plus it keeps DC from drawing 4 fouls and sitting out. Lee’s also a good rebounder.
4) That said, Jrue at the point is what I’ve been clammoring for a long time. Jrue was steady, and extended our lead big time with him at the point. I’d like to see Jrue play the point when DC is on the bench, and put Lee at SG or SF. JA was just too out of control trying to make plays happen inside that we had a couple bad TO’s from it.
5) Credit VCU’s defense at the end, but if there’s one thing I wasn’t digging – it was the fact that at the end it seemed like we were playing not to lose again. I was having flash backs of ASU. We need to keep extending our lead and keep the pressure on. Eating time is obviously important, but passing the ball around the 3 pointer and then waiting until the last second to create something is hard.
That said, survive and advance and hopefully we are ready for Villanova.
Also forgot to add
I guess Gordon was in street clothes? Or he was just giving him some rest. That said, our post players played admirably today and ND getting double figures in rebounds was clutch. However, Villanova has some good big men that we’ll need a lot more bodies underneath. We’re definitely going to need some more bench players playing so we don’t get tired.
As far as out O
I think a lot of times we’re 1-dimensional in the 2nd half.
Sometimes we fall in love with the 3 and keep shooting those. Today we kept trying to drive and we kept either missing the layup, getting blocked, or got no calls. We need to use the drive to set up open jumpers (don’t even need to be 3’s). I missed the first half, but I read some stuff about good ball rotation from the thread so I assume we did a much better job of this in the first half
Drive and kick
Our offense was much better in the first half when were driving and kicking out for 3s. In the second half we were holding the ball, passing around the perimeter, and then when we did drive didn’t look to kick it out. We only shot 2 or 3 3s in the second half and none of them were in the flow of the offense. Hopefully we will be better on Saturday.
by bruinponcho on Mar 19, 2009 10:37 PM PDT up reply actions
Even passing it around the perimeter would be an improvement
as it stands we’re just letting Collison dribble the clock before we even make one pass
I don't know why DC kept driving to the basket
in the latter stages of the game with the big man lurking in the paint. He can stop on a dime and take the medium range shot.
by UCLA Championships Made Here on Mar 19, 2009 10:26 PM PDT up reply actions
Yeah, I thought he would have been better served
to put up a floater from 10 feet than take it all the way in that last drive.
by snorkeldorf on Mar 19, 2009 10:31 PM PDT up reply actions
It's pretty obvious why.
He was trying to get the 5th foul on Sanders.
with the way the refs were calling fouls on any sort of contact I have to assume we were driving so much to try to draw the fouls and get their guys out of the game and get some free points from the charity stripe (there was at least one occasion JS put more effort into drawing the foul, which worked, over getting a better shot at a layup). DC is usually money from the floater, but he thought it was better to go right for the rim, and its just unfortunate he wasn’t able to get the layups and short shots over Sander’s long arms.
Good thoughts
I agree Sanders had a lot to do with the blown layups. I don’t think he should have been on the floor as much as he was though…
Lee
It wasn’t that surprising that ML didnt get playing time. VCU pressed the entire time and we needed our best ballhandlers on the court. I love ML for his defense and hard play, but he is a turnover waiting to happen at this point in his career. Hope to see him some on Saturday though.
by bruinponcho on Mar 19, 2009 10:35 PM PDT up reply actions
I don't much about Villanova except they are
a guard heavy team. The second round game has always been tough for us in (95, 06, 07, 08). If we can get past Nova, I like our chances against Duke, or wouldn’t mind playing Texas on a neutral court, we owe them!
I wouldn’t mind an old-fashion defensive slugfest against Nova.
by UCLA Championships Made Here on Mar 19, 2009 10:25 PM PDT reply actions
I caught a little of their big east tourney game with marquette
They’ve actually got a pretty good size this year. I think they match up well with us, but they actually have some interior post presence. I don’t think they play D very well though.
'Nova's defense was torched by American ...
they are vulnerable.
by snorkeldorf on Mar 19, 2009 10:29 PM PDT up reply actions
... in the first half
when American was making 50% 3s from 5’ past the college line.
Shell shocked
Just saw Josh, Darren and Jrue on post game interviews. They looked shocked and maybe a bit humiliated. This is the first time I’ve seen Josh not smiling. Maybe they are just tired and jet lagged. But, they have to be totally upbeat and energized if they are going to win on Villanova’s home court on Saturday. Somebody needs to really step up and lead this team.
blinkshot, you're right about
Holiday playing point guard. Even the two commentators agreed. He showed us flashes of his vaunted potentials tonight after Collison left.
What people said here about Holiday proved to be true too. In deference to DC, Holiday plays out of position all season long.
Drago had the best game of his career imho
I have not seen him rebound or defend like that ever. Props to him.
BH needs to loosen the reigns and let this team breathe. They are tired, overworked and uptight. trust the freshmen, Ben. They will not let you down.
BTW- Drew Gordon had a concussion and was not cleared to play. Malcolm Lee was a coaches decision not to play. don’t know why
"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"
by silverlakebruin on Mar 19, 2009 10:30 PM PDT reply actions
tuesday
"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"
by silverlakebruin on Mar 19, 2009 10:32 PM PDT up reply actions
Did they fly into Philadelphia Monday or Tuesday?
The concussion occurred in practice?
by snorkeldorf on Mar 19, 2009 10:35 PM PDT up reply actions
Overall
Yeah it was our first game, and we had some frustrations down the stretch, but I’ve gotta say that we played a team that easily should’ve been seeded higher than 11, but were put there just because they’re a mid-major. Any time you have a senior NBA lottery point guard, with a future NBA big man with freakish length as well on your team, you’re going to be deadly.
No games outside of the #1-16 and #2-15 games of the first round are easy in the tourney so lets keep it up
Is it me or does James Keefe
not give us enough off the bench? I just checked his stats and he played 8 minutes with 2 points, 1 rebound and a few fouls. He’s like our only option at a big man when Aboya comes out.
he didn't contribute a lot offensively
but he was solid on defense which is just as important
tonight Drago played great defense and boarded
so Keefe wasn’t needed. Many nights he brings a lot more toughness than Drago, but tonight Drago brought it.
"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"
by silverlakebruin on Mar 19, 2009 10:38 PM PDT up reply actions
JK has never played up to his potential yet (I hope)!
Next year is his year to shine, former McDonald All American in his final year next year, maybe he’ll break out in this tourney, he had a stellar game last year in the tourney
He had a huge game against W. Kentucky
26 points and 12 boards IIRC.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 20, 2009 2:21 AM PDT up reply actions
A win's a win
I think we learned a valuable lesson tonight: expecting the bad referreing to go away just because we don’t have STPRs anymore was a false hope. After all, 14 of the 96 referees chosen for the dance were STPRs. That says something about how bad the other conference’s refs must be…
Definitely like what we’re seeing from Holiday at the PG position. Too late for this year perhaps, but given that he’ll almost certainly be back, looking good for the future.
Breaking down the minutes:
Holiday: 38
Aboya: 37
Dragovic: 35
Shipp: 34
Collison: 32
Roll had 10, no one else had double digit minutes.
On Villanova:
Cunningham: 36
Redding: 36
Reynolds: 35
Anderson: 31
Clark: 19
Non-starters: Fisher (27), Stokes (16)
So three of their guys were equal to us in time player, but their fourth and fifth guys had considerably less. All things considered, not a horrible inequity, it’s not as if we’re playing UConn, who had only one guy above 30 minutes.
props to JRUE~!
he stepped up like we thought he could… for all the things that’s been said about him, it seems he is just hitting his stride with the ball in his hands more often. I’m just sad it didn’t happen sooner but i’m thrilled to see him step up to the occasion…
let’s go bruins! this past game has nothing to do with the next. let’s take nova down!
Looking forward to Nova
Apparently they play only 7 players most games, and the 2 subs are guards, so we’d be well off getting Lee into the game, and getting their big men into foul trouble so we win the game of rebounds.
This is going to be a big test to our guards, but we just need to focus and play lock down D.
I will say this though – we need to run some set plays with 3 minutes left, especially since Josh has been hot lately, and if we can get a play for him to get a shot, I’d like our chances.
Great writeup Tydides
Couldn’t agree more with you about everything you wrote. Was at a bar in West LA with a ton of Illinois fans (God bless them) and even they said it was the worst officiated game they had seen in years.
close but ill take it
Sadly, they wouldnt take me away from the Illinois vs Wku game until there was only a minute left in the bruin game (which is ridiculous since that game was a blowout until the last minute)
I couldnt get a grasp on how they played but I was getting some breathing room when i looked up and we were up 11 and then they came back from a commercial break only up 3. Hopefully we can finish better Saturday. Nova is going to be tough especially on their home court.
ps i couldnt be any happier that illinois was the upset instead of us…man i cant stand living in the same state as those fans
I'll be in Seattle this Saturday
Do you think CBS will show our game over there?
I would think so
Washington and Gonzaga probably won’t play until later since they’re at a west coast site so you should get the UCLA game.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 19, 2009 10:43 PM PDT up reply actions
Hopefully, but it’s worth noting that the game they skipped down here in LA was the Washington game…
That's the time slot
Every year they don’t show a game from 2 pm to 4 pm. The last two years (since CBS bought CSTV and turned it into CBS College Sports) they took one game and played it at that time on CBS College Sports. They take that break so the east coast can get their local news in at 5 or 6 pm.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 19, 2009 10:46 PM PDT up reply actions
thanks guys
hopefully I’ll get good internet to watch online
Only Early Game Saturday
The Nova game is the only game played at that time so it should be national coverage.
Hey guys what conference were these refs from?
Just curious…thx in advance
Different places
John Cahill is a Big East/ACC guy. John Hampton is a Big XII guy and James Breeding is a Big East/SEC guy.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 19, 2009 10:57 PM PDT up reply actions
I think a lot of it
is these guys don’t work together much. Hampton doesn’t call any Big East games and Breeding and Cahill both work other conferences in addition to the Big East so they probably don’t work together all of the time. It seems as if the officiating is better in the regular season (Pac 10 not included) than the postseason and I think the lack of familiarity between the refs is part of it.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 19, 2009 10:59 PM PDT up reply actions
I can see that
Reffing is a hard enough job. We give them a ton of grief but it really is difficult. Not excusing what we saw tonight, but in general it’s very difficult. I know NBA refs often have certain “crews” stay together for a while which would breed this kind of familiarity. Seems like a good system, provided you have competent officials in the first place.
Mainly the Big East, oddly enough
It seems that two of them are primarily Big East Refs, while the other worked a bit of the Big XII and SEC (And the CUSA tourney).
Yea weird
I googled it (of course) and it looked like a hodgepodge of refs that never work together, which is why I asked.
Thanks again everyone
by bruinhopeful on Mar 19, 2009 11:07 PM PDT up reply actions
Head Ref (Big East/ACC), 2nd Ref (Big East/SEC), 3rd Ref (Big 12/Ohio Valley)
Link to Referee Bios (scroll to bottom of page).
Do we want our SPTRs back?
by snorkeldorf on Mar 19, 2009 11:07 PM PDT up reply actions
JH and DC
I’ve read a lot of comments saying that JH looked great today and DC didn’t. I disagree with that. The reason that JH had the ball in his hands so much was because VCU was double teaming DC with their press so JH was left open to dribble the ball up the court. This is the beauty of having two point guards: we are difficult to press. However, I felt that too many times JH got a head of steam and just got tunnel vision with his drives to the basket after breaking the press. (JA was an even worse offender in this regard). JH showed us all what he could be today, but before people start the whole “I wish JH was the point instead of DC” garbage, understand that the reason that JH was able to have as good of a game as he did was because VCU was concentrating on DC.
by bruinponcho on Mar 19, 2009 10:56 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Way to tough one out, Bruins.
Anthony Grant = Class, Class, Class. He will be coaching a power conference team next year. Alabama? UK? UVA?
UVA hopefully
I think he’s a major talent and have always liked the Cavs for reasons unknown.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 19, 2009 11:05 PM PDT up reply actions
I would put $$ on that.
Good coach. Class act. Good fit for the Wahoos.
by orlandobruin on Mar 19, 2009 11:11 PM PDT up reply actions
Dude can coach. No argument there.
He mixed up D on us, and not jsut for gimmick’s sake, but to flummox our semi-ailing PG and our freshmen backups. He also drew up good screen plays for 3s, which forutnately didn’t all fall.
An honorable adversary… even if he is from Florida.
M
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
JH played okay
He can still do a lot more for the team. Actually, every player can do more for the team. And that’s the problem. Nobody on the team has put it all together on a consistent basis. At this point Bruins need to just do enough to stay alive in the tourney.
I pray with all my might
that CBH goes to our bench (JA, ML, MR, JK, DG if available) early and often tomorrow. As has been pointed out we are clearly gassed and probably jetlagged, and DC is still recovering. Nova is no doubt just as tired from having to overcome a 14 point second half deficit, so if our bench can come in and blitz their starters while giving our’s a rest a can’t help but like our chances
PS- I want to see MR get extended minutes as one of the focal points of our offense (maybe with DC and JS on the bench). All I can do is think back to when he was starting earlier this year and how dangerous he both behind the arc and off the dribble once he gets going
Officials.
SPTRS? I wish. Those calls (both ways) were awful. I was screaming at how bad the calls were that went UCLA’s way!!! Never seen so many calls 25 -30 feet from the hoop. Hope we have a different crew next game.
If Crews must all be from Neutral Conferences ...
then we will sure have a different crew.
by snorkeldorf on Mar 19, 2009 11:10 PM PDT up reply actions
back from the game
in my hotel room.
survive and advance. our small, outspoken contingent was awesome.
what was not awesome was wachovia center ushers asking us to sit down with 2 minutes remaining, and swearing at us when we didn’t do it.
a great night. it’ll be tough on saturday. i’ll try to post my pictures in the morning.
We heard you guys
Why are they telling you to sit at a basketball game? That seems pretty ridiculous.
apparently
the fans in the next section over couldn’t see when we stood.
If you are not willing to stand . . .
. . . at a major college sporting event (that includes you Rose Bowl and Pauley Pavillion season ticket holders) you should not go to the games. Assumption of the risk. GOOOOOO BRUINS!
by orlandobruin on Mar 19, 2009 11:24 PM PDT up reply actions
Can't wait to see the pictures
I’d love to hear any comments from the experience at the game too!
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 19, 2009 11:10 PM PDT up reply actions
I have a horrible narrative style
but i’ll still try to write up a fanpost of my day in the morning.
Whatever you can do would be great
Looking forward to it!
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 19, 2009 11:24 PM PDT up reply actions
Sit down?!?
WTF?
Oh UCLA you sweet bitch, you've BRUINed me for anything else.
by bruin8uclap on Mar 19, 2009 11:11 PM PDT up reply actions
Awesome
I perused the stacks there for many a year
by bruinhopeful on Mar 19, 2009 11:47 PM PDT up reply actions
YRL? URL!
It will always be URL to me…same with Circle Drive.
by Westwood Wizard on Mar 20, 2009 6:37 AM PDT up reply actions
I was almost in tears
whether we won or lost, i was going to cry. that was an emotional game for me. i was going CRAZY there, and had to delay the Persian New Year festivities just to make sure we got our win.
the one thing i want to comment on is the turnover problem. if there’s anything we’re “lucky” for, it was VCU’s absolute inability to score off of our turnovers. any other team—we would’ve been punished in a bad way for that.
words cannot explain how proud i am of our guys and our school right now, and i’m looking forward to us getting an old fashioned, Ben Ball win on Saturday.
and lastly, Tydides, GREAT and accurate description of Maynor—he seriously was the media’s golden boy. he was great tonight and definitely the real deal, but the media fawned over him like you cannot believe.
Go Bruins.
I didn't like putting in DC late
when JH was handling the team so well. We had good momentum and got our 11 point lead. When CBH put in DC we went to the DC slowdown, milk the clock and have him drive the lane hoping for a foul on their big man.
We lost our momentum and wound up playing not to lose which is almost always fatal. DC cannot win these games by himself with the offense in the final minutes. No one can. If we go this route he needs to run the play sooner and kick out to the open man, et cetera, keeping our options and threats open.
Overall, I thought we played with composure, but I was distressed by how much more hustle VCU had at the end of the game. That is a concern that I doubt we will have against Nova given that they are such a high-seeded team. Can’t really blame CBH’s sub pattern because VCU didn’t even have the manpower to sub much.
Everyone on our team really played pretty well tonight. With either a little luck, finishing on some of our brick layups, or a couple three pointers in the second half we would have blown this open IMO. JH actually saved our bacon with his good play tonight despite missing about 5 layups.
I think we beat Nova, really. We are a better team. We’re at least as good as Duke. I’m hoping for the elite 8. If by some miracle the rest of our freshmen come through I think we can make the Final Four. Nobody out there is a world beater this year. Nobody.
GO BRUINS.
Saturday Schedule
One thing I hate about March Madness . . . no cetainty regarding when the next round will be played. CBS, Sports Illustrated ESPN, all the major sites are silent about the Satirday sked. When are we playing!?!?!?
all the JH haters were shown something tonight....
It’s amazing that in our last lost we saw a whole mess of trolls asking for JH to make his jump to the NBA. I think we saw a very composed and talented freshman out there tonight.
Witht that being said…congrats Bruins…and good job to the Bruin fans that were out in Philly cheering on our Ben Ball Warriors. I can’t believe they expected you to sit down. At a sporting event??? Ridiculous…
Last thoughts of the night….PLEASE heal up DG. We’re definitely going to need you Saturday.
regarding Lee...
just thought I should say that I think he’s still turnover-prone, and I’m not so sure he would’ve been much use at breaking the press. But I, too, thought he’d play, if at least for a minute or two, just to see how he responded.
Howland's freshmen
It seems this season more than in any other season CBH for some reason or another has not shown much faith in the freshmen outside of JH, and even JH had to be benched in the second half of a gem. I wonder what is going on in practice that has CBH so unsure of his freshmen class in terms of playing them.
In fairness, when's the last time CBH had this many contributing seniors at once?
Even in 2006, we had really only 2, as Fey was a non-factor most of the year.
M
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
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