FanPost

Positive PostGame Prognosis: On the Road at Cincinnati

It wasn't all bad. We were fine for three quarters of the game. It was a 4pt game with 8:43 to go. Then the wheels sort of fell off. We scored 8pts the rest of the way and in turn Cincinnati started making everything and we could no longer get stops. The majority of the game was close. The game just got away from us down the stretch. Despite that there were visible improvements from the last game against Cincinnati and the Syracuse game.


Look we are exactly where we were after the pitt game. Our 1-4 stretch has been exactly the same as the 1-4 stretch to begin big east play. Biggest problem is shots aren't falling. Guess what they're going to start falling, and when they do we can win games even with out Chris. Get ready for another prolonged win streak fellas. Season is not over. Everyone thought the season was over after the pitt game. The fans were at their lowest. Everything looked bleak. We turned it around then. We will turn this around. #faithinadversity

There are positives to take away from this game:
  • We didn't turn the ball over despite not having our best ball handler.

Despite Chris' absence we set a new season low record for turnovers. Turnovers killed us against Cincinnati in our first match up. In this match up they were not a problem at all. We only had 7 turnovers all game. We only got the ball stolen from us once. We had a turnover rated of 11.9% We had less turnovers than Cincinnati and more steals than they had. This is especially impressive because cinci leads the conference in turnover margin. We showed marked improvement over our first game against the bearcats and our game against the cuse. We only gave up 9 points off of turnovers compared to 21 against syracuse and 16 against Cincinnati the first time. This bodes well for any games we have to play with out Chris.

  • We shot poorly and the other team shot above their ability and we kept it close for most of the game despite not having our most important player.

Look we haven't been shooting well during this losing streak. It happened earlier in the year it's happening now. But just like at the beginning of BE play it won't last. We will start making our shots. If Jason and Austin hit a few 3pters the game goes differently. If Julian can finish his post moves the game goes differently. That didn't happen, but those shots will fall. On the other hand the Bearcats made matters worse by shooting much better than usual against us. According to the guys at HoyaProspectus:

In their past 12 conference games, the Bearcats have managed to shoot 44% [=16/36] from behind the arc against the Hoyas and 30% [=55/181] against everyone else.

 

In addition to that one of the worst FT shooting teams in the big east(14th) hit over 20 FT's in a row at one point in the game. They shoot 67% as a team from the line and shot 80% against us. Yancy Gates shoots 58.3% from the line after including the 10-10 he went from the line against us.

 

  • We showed other improvements compared to the last game against Cincinnati

In addition to the improvements to steals and turnovers mentioned above, we did a better job in a couple other areas as well. The rebounding this game was better than in the last game. We only gave up 32% offensive rebounding% in this game vs. 37.9% in the first game. We also did a better job blocking their shots and not getting our shots blocked in the second meeting.

Player Evaluations:

Austin Freeman: Carried the load on offense scoring 21 points he also grabbed 3 rebounds and dished out 4 assists.

Jason Clark: lead the team with 3 steals also added 5 points, 2 rebounds and an assist.

Julian Vaughn: plagued by foul trouble, but pulled down 2 rebounds blocked two shots, had an assist, a steal, and no turnovers.

Nate Lubick: 6 points on 3-4 shooting recorded an assist and a rebound as well.

Hollis Thompson: 5-8 shooting including 2-3 from behind the arc. Finished with 12 points and 4 rebounds. Had the best offensive ratign of players who scored at 131.6

Markel Starks: Markel had an assist and a steal.

Vee Sanford: Grabbed 3 rebounds and didn't have a single turnover. Had a great 233.3 offensive rating.

Henry Sims: 4 rebounds and 3 rebounds. Only hoya with a positive +/- stat at +3. Was the only hoya who saw meaningful minutes who had a good defensive rating.

Jerrelle Benimon: 2 rebounds and no turnovers. He had an offensive rating of 200 and created 1 point of offense.

Moses Ayegba: Hey we got to see Moses that's a positive right. Sure it was only because the refs called a bunch of BS fouls on Julian and Nate in the first half and Henry rolled his ankle, but he got out there.

Ryan Dougherty: He got some playing time, which is nice for the senior.

 

Faith in Adversity! Let's go out there and have a great Big East Tournament and NCAA tournament!

 

What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...

The tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!

What the fuck happened to the Casual Hoya I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest March of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. "Ooh, we're afraid to Cheer with you HSB, we might lose." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Calhoun, he's a dead man! Dixon, dead! Boeheim...

Stay Casual, my friends.