I'd almost forgotten how much this sucks
by Mike Rutherford on Feb 2, 2009 9:48 PM EST
in Basketball
Email
PrintThe last month has been fantastic, but I think it's safe to say that tonight showed just how much work there is to be done between now and the third week of March.
In other news: them boys is good.
52 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Yea, that was rough
embarrassing… They won, they should have, the refs didn’t cost us the game…. But that was the worst officiated game I’ve ever seen. 2 goddamn free throws. But we just sucked.
Poor T Will played his heart out. Earl was downright awful. Samardo was scared shitless. Jennings was a little better and should have played more but still wasn’t great. Adrien is an asshole but is legit. Thabeet is a monster. UConn is really good and we were really bad.
by sam34gtr on Feb 2, 2009 9:54 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Ya, that sucked...
….T-will had two fouls and his ankle was hurt but him sitting for so long at the end of the first half put us in too big of a hole.
Pitino said on the post-game that he didn’t want to jinx it during the winning streak but he’s changing the line-up now, and that UConn matches up with us well but is just better, stronger, etc.
Preston and TJ will be starting now. And Pitino said our offense is now going to be based on athletic players and scoring off our defense. A little late in the year to be switching things up. The offense obviously can’t run through Samardo and hasn’t all year, but we need something different.
The problem for Earl is that there’s no one like Earl to pass it to him. Like Quinn pointed out, he scores near the basket and on dunks and layups. The only problem is that Earl is the only guy who can pass from the high post or make backdoor passes over the defense. Earl can’t throw it to himself.
Overall, UConn is just very good, they matchup really well for us, Earl shot 2-16 and Samardo played terrible. And UConn shot 20-24 from the line. And we shot 2-2. Hard to beat them on a night like that.
Oh well. Onto St. Johns. The schedule gets “easier” from here on out, but still can’t take a night off.
Sosa actually didn't play too poorly--except on D as usual
he had 4 A’s and only 1 TO.
Preston shot and D’d OK— but no A’s and 3 TO’s.
T Will was the only one who really turned it on
Our big men were eaten alive—TJ at the end was coming on, but played only 14 min.
Earl …shouda been shot somewhere during the end of a one-on-one, 2 for 13 , first half. If he won’t listen—or just CAN’T execute—sit his ass down for God’s sake. He killed us with —and didn’t rebound either (3) and had 3 TO’s. A regressed performance.
Another big step backward : Samardo. Jesus. What a scared-silly performance. Again, he shouldn’t have played 19 min as poorly as he was playing.
As CardsFan pointed out above, I believe Pitino made a bad move sitting T Will down so long and allowing the first half to get out of hand at the end. That was the game.
But, guys….we had a magical January and we’re back in the chase after being almost declared dead.
I disagree...
with your assessment of Sosa’s ‘D’. I thought he played pretty good defense tonight. He had a game high 3 steals, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was 1st or 2nd ont he team tonight in deflections.
Yes, I agree , he wasn't as bad last night--so we'll say it was good, in fact very good for him
Their guards still blew by him—but they blew by most of our guards
Our strength is defense....
…The refs took that away from us, wouldnt let us play-so we lost.
2 free throws to their 20+? wow.
Earl is killing me (and Im sure all of you) with the friggin 3’s. Its like sophmore TWill all over again. He should have taken notes from Adrien. Thats how a true 4 plays…
The crowd was awesome-all the way up to when everyone bailed with about 6 minutes to go. For those who left -(for what? So you can sit in your car in traffic?)-Way to make us look bad on national TV people…
Gotta reload and hit St Johns hard on Sunday. No way this team stays down. UConn is the real deal, IMO the favorite to win it all.
I sat front row about 4 seats left of the goal
uofl shoots at in the 1st. It was very evident from the beg. of the game that their guards were freaking quick. Much faster than our guards. We did not match up well with them outside of the 3 spot. Teams with faster guards and a decent big gives us fits. U had to sometimes do double takes on their fastbreak layups cause u couldn’t believe the speed. I’m not upset about the loss, I just wish it was closer since it was on national TV. Were straight. I have faith in Ricky P. I just hope we get a tourney seed drawing where we don’t have to play UCONN or UNC till the final game.
their guards
yeh i agree the refs were horrible. we didn’t deserve the win that game but at 24 to 2 FT differential (event though we were settling for jump shots and they were driving more) is unheard of. but i think i remember turning to my buddy sitting next to me like 7 times and just being like “man, their guards are quick.” i can’t remember any team having less trouble with our press and any guards turning the corner on our guys like that. idk about the twill thing. picking up your second foul early on, you almost have to sit him (i think he went out around the 5 min mark). you couldn’t have him (of all people that night) pick up that 3rd foul. but after he went out, we were useless. the george goode, kyle kurich line wasn’t too effective…
Maybin
Where does this leave us with our man? Not that there isn’t always love for Maybin…but where do we go from here?
Nice stuff, Sam
Will you be a photographer in the next life? Or is this an avocation? My best friend, a friend from my Army days, is a professional photog, and it is a tough gig. Keep up the good work.
Sam, I'd like to use your photos on my blog at times. May I, please?
And if I may, would you like me to sign something formally?
You did--but I wasn't sure if I needed to do anything more formal
since you do it for the school newspaper
please stop posting
Uconn pics. Thabeet looks like a gnome
This season is gonna shave ten years off my life.
We Got Spanked
All those traveling violations. What, did we have six?
And Jerry…Jerry…Jerry…Jerry! At a key point, when we were still well into the game, with those jumpy feet, with two in a row by the side line.
Did he have Saint Vidas Dance?
E5…intimidated?
SamSam…I’ve got nothin’ to say.
But at least Jennings showed up and got a traffic rebound and blocked a shot.
At least I didn’t think this was our most important game of all time.
Maybe we’ll get another shot at Number 1, either in Beast Tourny or NCAA’s.
So depressed last night that I opened up a packet of Ramen Noodles in Mike’s honor.
By the way, my computer layout for The Cardinal is way, W A Y different this morning. Something I do not need at this particular time.
Don’t get down, we’ve got another game coming up (St Johns?). Take care.
Roz
Ouch...
Damn, that hurt. But U Conn is a beast of a team and even if Clark, Sosa and Samuels played up to their norm, we probably would have lost to these guys. They’re legit.
That said… let’s kick Marquette’s butt on March1 and get a solid 2nd place in the Big East.
Grog
"There is no OFF position to the genius switch" - D. Letterman
couple things
Sosa played a good game (seen a few people say something about his play last night, most negative). Not the points he’s used to having, but good assist to turnover ratio and played well on defense considering their guards were slashing through everyone at times (though sosa did have a game high 3 steals). Sosa i think gets unfairly criticized when he plays a decent game. We all know that there exists a good edgar and a bad edgar, but lately he has been either good edgar or solid edgar, which is fine. He had very little to do with the outcome of this game (and in this case, thats a good thing).
We lost this game for a number of reasons. Earl played like crap, plain and simple, but…
-If Earl plays like the cutting, slashing, step out and hit the OPEN 3 we have seen in a few games, thats a different ball game.
-If Jerry Smith was shooting well, and looking for his shot more, its a different ball game.
-If Samardo and Jennings took it to Thebeet, not giving him the space to react to shot and block them and possibly drawings some fouls on him, and if they finished around the hoop, playing above the rim, its a different ball game.
-If the refs called a few most travels/fouls on them and few fewer travels/fouls on us, its a different ball game
Now i’m not saying any one of those things happening would have meant we would win, but two of them, yeah, we walk away with a W. UConn played very, very well. We did not. But that is a beatable team, not just by a team like UNC or with a center that can draw Thabeet away, but by us. I hope we see them again in the Big East finals or the NCAA Tourney.
Also, we still have a very good chance of still winning the Big East if we rebound from this win. The toughest part of our schedule is over, Marquette has yet to play theirs, and UConn still has games against syracuse, marquette, and Pitt twice. UConn and marquette are in the drivers seat, but we are ready to take over if they fall
jeff adrien
looks like an angry t-will. in fact, midway through the first half we were calling him “mean t-will.”
Disagree about Sosa
His complete and absolute inability to prevent his man from driving around him makes us a much weaker team. There were way too many drives around him on the press and in the half court that resulted in our bigs having to commit in a 2 on 1 situation that gave Thabeet an alley-oop or Adrien a wide open dunk. Basically, they did to us what T-Will and TJ did to WVU in the first half of that game. But Sosa simply cannot play defense against high-caliber guards, to the point where he will sometimes step out of their way to avoid drawing the blocking foul.
Jerry is simply terrible. He cannot play defense without hacking. The second half of last season, I thought he played great defense. This year he cannot stay square, and slaps at balls way too often. And he is unbelievably slow on the offensive end.
Yeah, Earl played bad. But the last 5 minutes of the first half, there was absolutely no one in the game even capable of getting an open shot. If Earl would shoot the ball with confidence, instead of “settling” for jumpers and putting up a half-ass twisting jump shot, he would be a better shooter.
And please, Pitino, before you leave this University, teach our guys to run a half court offense. Please. Do you have something against setting screens and moving without the ball. Once McGee passed the ball into the post, faked like he was going to the top of the key and stayed on the wing. Really? What is the point in that? Samardo had about two choices to make in that situation, because every single passing angle on the court was blocked and no one was moving: force up a bad shot or turn it over.
One of the first things I learned in basketball was to pass and pick away. If you don’t get the ball, set as screen for someone else. Jesus Christ.
Yeah, Hari
And another thing about Sosa is that we tend to expect entirely too much from him. After every game it’s like “Let’s rate Edgar, I’ve gotta report on Edgar.” This for a guy who is really just PART of the team….just part of the guard quartet. His rare flashes of brilliance (last years road win at Pitt) do not, in my opinion, make up for his unthinking play or overindulgence in the “fancy” (I think he tried an unsuccessful Pete Maravich pass last night). And it also seems that he “feels” our expectations for this brilliance, thus starting the vicious cycle. Hell, he could be a little less flashy, be more workmanlike, and have a chance of some post graduate work in some pro league somewhere.
I hear ya about Jerry…but, I got a soft spot for him, and I think you do to. He tries like hell every game, shows great joy in his teammates successes, and it hurts me when he doesn’t do well. He’s one of us.
Roz
Couldn't agree more...
…about needing a half-court offense. I simply don’t understand Pitino’s half-court strategy sometimes. For the most part, his teams have to be creating turnovers and/or hitting outside shots to win.
absolutely
the rick is offense is terrible. four guys stand around for a while why one guy tries to take his man on a dribble drive, hopefully either for a layup or a dish to an open 3.
You're right about Sosa
And we’re kind’ve treating Earl the same way this year. He’s shown show much potential at moments, people expect him to be that way constantly.
You’re right, I like Sosa and Jerry, if for no other reason than they try hard and I like everyone on my team. Losing a game brings out the worst attitudes from fans, but that’s still just one game. I think the hardest part to swallow about this loss is that we could have played much better and still lost, because UConn is that good, and we’re really just looking for excuses (speaking for myself).
Earl just needs to
stop putting Crisco on his hands before playing good teams. That, and stop filling in for Bad Edgar when he misses a couple shots. I could see it on Earl’s face that he was going to try too hard.
Jerry and Sosa
I agree with Roz about Jerry Smith. It’s hard not to like the kid when he so obviously cares about his teammates. That said, bless his heart he can’t create his own shot and against a good defensive team that’s a killer. As for Sosa, I get as upset with his attitude as I do his play. He should be better than he is; that famous Texas A&M game showcased his abilities. Too often, seems to me, he plays with a personal pronoun in everything he does, and when things don’t go well, he pouts. That’s not acceptable. Sometimes, though, I have to remind myself that these are just kids — kids on a really big stage, granted. But kids nonetheless. And I must remind myself that at their age, I was a bit of a screw-up, too.
theoldman
out of their element
Personally I thought Sosa played fairly well. Let the kid be! He was giving it all, and turned up his defensive intensity a notch last night. He was picking pockets left and right.<img
UConn (and our fouls and travels) set the tone of that game and we could not break the funk. You have to put a lot of blame on Pitino for not getting the players to execute what seemed like any offensive sets in the 2 half.
Sosa was at least trying to get something going with a couple drives, but our guys weren’t in their passing lanes or UConn has too much length to allow any interior passing or shots.
UofL was totally out of their element
The two screamingly apparent faults of the Cards last night was 1) their inability to pass and 2) lack of hustle getting back on UConn fast breaks. Jeez Louise nobody was making quick passes around the perimeter and definitely no inside/out passing. UConn’s defense must be fo’real. Every time UConn pulled down a board or picked up a sloppy dribble, they were already down the court while our guys were slow to realize what was going on. I don’t know where that came from, as we usually never see that problem. Those are the 2 things we have to do to win from here out.
Also, I know i found myself saying “just give it to TWill” atleast 3 times per possession.
I gave up when they took him out and walked out of Freedom Hall. The crowd was dumbstruck last night.
DocCardsFan
The 'Ville, KY
Hot Post
I think this makes the 40th posting on this issue. I think that’s about the most I can remember. Seems like we all had a lot to say.
Must be hard, labor of love, for Mike (and Frank on Hell/Hall) to come up with something just about everyday. Heck, sometimes, maybe, you just don’t feel like writing, but you’ve got this millstone, this baby (your blog) that needs constant feeding, constant attention, constant postings.
Other times, though, it must be magic.
Yes and yes (and yes I am worried about Linda and her sister too)
I don’t even try to update every day—but I do feel COMPELLED to put something in at least every couple of days—because 300-500 people do drop by each day, which is nice and you want to give them something.
When the teams are going great, it’s a great feeling because it feels like such a release of my thoughts and feelings—a nice catharsis
Preston
I believe in everything Rick does and he knows alot more than me….hes proved me wrong over the years about 1,000 times……….but as much as I love Jerry Smith, there is no way Preston should have been on the bench for that long last night. He was making things happen defensively an one of the only one knocking down shots……I know Rick said after the game that Preston would be getting more minutes…but I feel as if though he had to reconize that during the game.
It seems that the scouting report is out on Jerry….dont let him shoot an make him put the ball on the floor. We all love jerry smith, but lets hope this end of the season/offseason he improves his driving ability.
Im putting together my top 5- to kill big east list..so far
1. Devendorf
2. Bobby Gonzalez
3. Dejuan Blair
4. Jeff Adrien
5. The guy who came up with the Texas-two step during timeouts
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
