Christmas Comes Early for Villanova; Bruins Lose 82-70

It is that the focus and leadership is not there yet. When this team applies itself it can play with anyone, but it seem sot have trouble giving a consistent effort (beginning with Honeycutt and Reeves).

Smith was definitely a bright spot, and I thought another one was Jones. I know that he got abused on defense way too much, but Corey Fisher is a great guard. It was his poise and leadership that had me excited. It didn’t seem like he ever felt pressured or out of control, and after VIllanova opened 8-0 it was his clutch shooting that brought us back. I think he will slowly but surely become the floor general of this team as the season progresses.

uh, well there you have it…

IIRC, we were down by 6, Honeycutt missed both his free throws and on the next possession Nelson went 1 for 2. Villanova pushed the lead on its next several possessions. Those three free throws could’ve made a big difference down the line.

but I also 100% advocate Coach’s approach of playing your very best and letting the W’s and L’s take care of themselves.

In that sense, there were a lot of positives to take from tonight. With the exception of Villanova’s big 14-3 run to close the first half, and with a myriad of questionable (at best) whistles going against us, and with poor games from our top 2 stars, we still hung really well with the #7 team in the country. Hopefully, ‘Nova isn’t doing their Longhorns FB impression and fooling us into feeling inappropriately good about ourselves.

Last year’s team would have gone into the crapper at halftime and been flushed away. This year’s team played tough the whole second half. They didn’t always execute well, but they showed some character. The execution will get better as the team develops, and especially as we get into a pretty mediocre Pac-10.

It always totally sucks to lose, and we absolutely much improve from here. But I think this team has what it takes to learn and grow and be better for tonight’s experience.

Field goal percentage from the pg and sg isn’t going to getit done. Nevertheless, we showed energy and promise. November is for growth, don’t expect to beat KU or even BYU, but we should be a MUCH better team by the time conference play kicks off.

There is no question that the Nova guards are the real deal and a tough matchup. But I really thought that Nova didn’t have the depth to match us in the frontcourt. Would have liked to see us pound it in more and perhaps get their bigs in foul trouble early. In the end I would rather lose a game like this early in the season to a highly ranked team than stumble later in the year to a pac 10 foe. Really need to beat VCU on Friday to see if this team has the ability to rebound from a defeat. No sulking.

I can live with losses like this right now. As irritated as I was at the careless turnovers in that terrible stretch at the end of the 1st half and the nova guards getting to the basket too easily I am equally pleased at the tenacity and spirit we then showed in the 2nd half. We may have a long way to go to be a top team still, but we showed how capable we can be.

I honestly think barring injury we can be a top 25 team and we should be a tournament team. We can put 5 good players on the court at once with a few decent subs. I think our front line is top notch for college hoops with 2 decent subs. I think our team needed to be shown what quality players look like and showed some weakness early against them exhibited by playing defense on our heels, Honeycutt and Jones turnovers etc.. But I do think they got better acclimated later. Remember Honeycutt in a man-2-man was forced to defend a perimeter guard in this one (hence his lower rebounds) and help out ball handling because they have better guards. Considering that and the referees were pretty bad we did a good job staying in that one.

I think when our offensive aggression ratcheted it up it helped our defense. 2 things in general I don’t like to see our us walking it up the court (especially down 10+) and taking threes that are not late in a clock or wide open from a nice pass. We need to hammer it inside to our beasts, especially Smith whenever he is on the floor. I am a big proponent of forcing teams to defend the whole shot clock and threes are just settling with the interior talent we have. We need to get our bigs going early. Also since Honeycutt was played by a guard perhaps we should have looked to getting him isolated in the post to exploit our mismatch.

Now hopefully we can mentally check in at tipoff at take it to VCU.

But, I saw a lot of things worth being happy about. Many of you have already mentioned Smith’s improved play and resultant impact on the game. That block party had me jumping up and down. And, it wasn’t just Smith. Lane, Nelson, Honeycut were all getting involved and swatting that junk.

But, by far the most exciting aspect of this game was Jerime Anderson’s improved play. At one point in the 1st half, I wanted to post a comment about not recognizing him, but I didn’t want to jinx it. He finished with a solid game. I hope he’s here to stay.

They were a senior team with superior guards that also got home court calls on the fouls all night. No surprise there.

What killed us were the poor free throws and the turnovers, especially in the first half. The latter are a question of focus. The former seem to be a constant problem year in and out. We must have left at least eight points off the scoreboard in missed free throws alone.

Unless Lee and Andersen dramatically pick up their game, we will remain weaker at guard. I wish I knew what Lee’s problem is. He was highly touted but does not play smart or aggressive. Andersen stepped it up tonight. If he gained more confidence he might contribute with his shot.

Our front line looked great, especially Smith, Lane and even Stover. Surprisingly we did not go inside enough tonight IMO. Understandable with Smith because of the foul troubles, but I did not see much effort to get Nelson or Lane the ball near the basket.

The defense slept in the first half. It was tremendous in the second until the game was over. The question will be if the young team can play with tenacity the whole game on defense. If they do, we can compete with anyone.

Smith is awesome. His talent, hands, attitude, smarts, everything are just great. By midseason, when he has lost another 20 and learns to avoid the refs’ cheap calls, he will be an unstoppable force. We should go through him on almost every play, which I am sure is CBH’s goal.

The game with VCU should be a good one. We should win but will have to show we have learned our lessons with tougher defense, fewer turnovers and more inside game.

This team played tough and hung in there. I think they can be vey good before the year is out, if Jones can just get some help at guard. He cannot do it all himself.

The reffing was definitely inconsistent (aka horrible), but give Villanova credit – they played a smart, smart game to adapt to it. They knew that calls were being made with minimal contact inside, and every time we would get within 6-8 in the 2nd half, Nova would just drive hard to the basket and expect to get bailed out. And usually, they did. It’s interesting because playing in the rugged Big East, you know that’s not how they usually play. But they adjusted to the way the game was being called, and you have to acknowledge that.

On our side, this was the first time I’ve seen the team play this year and I was very pleased with the progress from last year. The one that stood out to me was Reeves Nelson. Just wow. When I flipped the game on and saw him sprinting downcourt, my first thought was “Is Carlino healthy, or do we have some other white guard?” I couldn’t believe how quick and lean he looked, and his play was just as improved.

The one guy I was really disappointed with was Brendan Lane. I’ve heard the reports of him getting off to a great start, but he really showed me nothing today. In a 2-3 minute span in the mid-late second half (while the game was in doubt), he took a rushed 3 pointer that got blocked, and let one of Nova’s big men (not sure who) get 3 consecutive offensive rebounds – and he never even tried to block out or jump. He just looked disinterested and over-matched. Remember – this is the first time I’ve seen him this year so I might be unfairly judging him – but to me he seems like a guy who will be productive against less athletic, less talented teams and will struggle against NCAA tournament teams.

Overall I was really pleased with the effort, but walked away with a bad taste in my mouth. This was a very, very winnable game, and despite our youth and the poor officiating, if we had not missed SIX consecutive FT’s down the stretch, we would’ve been within 1 possession with 4 minutes left. But the important thing now is that we can’t let down against VCU. They’re still a good team, but if we’ve improved to the level that we all expect, we should take care of business.

To make matters worse, the “inconsistent” rules for what constitutes legal contact found the Bruins in foul trouble at virtually every position, and also gave the Wildcats a consistent double digit free throw attempt advantage that mysteriously enough seemed to mirror the deficit that the Bruins faced at any given moment (hence the Christmas reference in the title).

At first thought, I figured ‘Christmas’ was for the gifts we gave Villanova, passing the ball directly to them.

we kept very even with VIllanova, 24 field goals to their 25 (both teams made 4 3-pointers)

10 of the 12 points differentiating our teams came from free throws.

Obviously, we can’t go off complaining about poor officiating, Villanova played strongly and I still think they would have most likely won anyway. However, I think it would have been a lot closer if the refs would have allowed us to close that 8 point gap that was persistent throughout most of the second half. We did have several opportunities to cut that lead via free throws, so we can fault our own team for failing to capitalize. I hope CBH plans on getting some practice in for those free throws, a prominent problem from last year as well.