Alabama (MSG), Sat., Nov. 8, 12 Noon, FS-1/ 1050 AM

It's almost as if folks don't remember the early Baylor and Georgia games last season.

Bama's guards had their way. Our front court was an advantage. Our guards helped much more offensively in the second half, but that is still a work in progress, as is the defense with this group overall.

It was a fun game and atmosphere to be at. Even though we came up short, this game will benefit this team down-the-road IMO.
Post of the day so far other than my no cheese complaining 😀
 
Bama much better team . Fell apart down the stretch .

As for the team, it's easy to forget how we looked at this point last year. Last year's team at this point in the season probably would have been destroyed by Alabama.

I'm actually way more optimistic. I think we have huge upside, and it's just up to Pitino to unlock it. I really think this is the most talented roster we've had in decades.

at one point I was thinking that Wilcher, Glover and Dunlap would've been killed even worse than our new guys. I liked the fight Jackson, Sellers and Sanon showed in the second half after being non-existence in the first. Disappointing Garden start for Mitchell, who I think will be really good. Zuby, Bryce and Prey off the bench should be our constants game in and game out. Hopefully our guards will catch up to them in consistency.
 
at one point I was thinking that Wilcher, Glover and Dunlap would've been killed even worse than our new guys. I liked the fight Jackson, Sellers and Sanon showed in the second half after being non-existence in the first. Disappointing Garden start for Mitchell, who I think will be really good. Zuby, Bryce and Prey off the bench should be our constants game in and game out. Hopefully our guards will catch up to them in consistency.
Will add that part of the challenge in guarding the Bama guards, despite their skill, is how they play. No mid-range, which isn't the norm in college nearly as much as the NBA it seems. Part of what allows the penetration is the fear of the 3 or the step back 3, which they hit a number of today. Whereas other guards pull up for the middie, Bama maybe did that once the entire game (when Philion needed a bucket). Also thought Philion and Holloway were really crafty and terrific at making difficult layups in traffic and around the rim.
 
Really? You can confidently say that already. All power to you.

I look around the top 15 and see several squads who haven’t played a real team yet. I see teams that have played sloppy games against low major competition.

course we have things to work on. We’re far from the only team in the country that can say that. A lot of these rosters were almost completely formed during the summer, including ours. It’s not gonna be a finished product in early November.

I get and share some of the concerns but I’d like to see us play more high level games before I confidently act like there is some huge chasm of space between us and other contenders
To be fair, that was my thought before the season started as well, today's game didn't change much in my mind. I was always closer to what the computers thought of us vs what the media did - that we're closer to 15th than 5th.

There are no perfect teams in college and every team has some stuff they'll need to improve on between now and March. But even when I look at what some would consider tier 2 teams like Illinois, Arizona, Texas Tech etc. I see fewer and/or less impactful questions to answer than we do.

That said, Pitino is still the best coach of all time imo and if there's anybody that can figure everything out before March it's him
 
It's almost as if folks don't remember the early Baylor and Georgia games last season.

Bama's guards had their way. Our front court was an advantage. Our guards helped much more offensively in the second half, but that is still a work in progress, as is the defense with this group overall.

It was a fun game and atmosphere to be at. Even though we came up short, this game will benefit this team down-the-road IMO.
Thanks for a touch of sanity - much needed
 
Agree with your points as written. But there were a few minutes near the end of the game Zuby came up small. He missed a free throw when we only down by 2 or 3, he makes a great move underneath and throws up a wedgie and he has the ball with about a minute to go trying to lead a fast break when he pulls a behind the back dribble move, in traffic near the out of bounds line and loses the ball. These plays cost us at least 5 to 6 points. CRP appeared to ream him out and it even looked like he was headed to the bench.

You are absolutely correct that Mitchell and Sanon were no shows. For those who keep track of this statistic, Mitchell was a -16, Zuby was a -14, Sanon was a -12 and Hopkins was a -8. Prey got the highest score with a +7.

If you think Mitchell was a no show then you need to watch more than the round orange thing going thru the hoop. The guy was great in the first half.

Folks here gotta stop making so much of plus/minus IMO
 
Will add that part of the challenge in guarding the Bama guards, despite their skill, is how they play. No mid-range, which isn't the norm in college nearly as much as the NBA it seems. Part of what allows the penetration is the fear of the 3 or the step back 3, which they hit a number of today. Whereas other guards pull up for the middie, Bama maybe did that once the entire game (when Philion needed a bucket). Also thought Philion and Holloway were really crafty and terrific at making difficult layups in traffic and around the rim.
Incredible ball rotation and patience for uptempo team as well. They consistently found shooters and wore out defenders in the process who were forced to scramble.
 
It's almost as if folks don't remember the early Baylor and Georgia games last season.

Bama's guards had their way. Our front court was an advantage. Our guards helped much more offensively in the second half, but that is still a work in progress, as is the defense with this group overall.

It was a fun game and atmosphere to be at. Even though we came up short, this game will benefit this team down-the-road IMO.
I remember them well. We didn't improve much at all between those games and the middle of March relative to the rest of the country. We just beat up on a down Big East.

This team has much more room to improve between now and the end of the season than last year's team did, but pointing to the Baylor and Georgia losses last year to ease concerns isn't applicable here imo. We were essentially the same team at the end of the season that we were during those games.
 
I hope that this team proves you wrong for all of our sakes.

Me too! I would happily let you make me a cake that said “Nostradamus” with an eye roll emoji and then slam it in my face if we made the Final Four.

I will force positivity if I get the slightest chance. I don’t see that chance right now.

Again, that is calibrated to the ranking and expectation for us as a top ten team. If we were ranked like #23 then I would feel very different.
 
I think what irks me about this loss is that we lost. What i mean is that if we want to be a top 5 team that is a final four contender and national title contender then you have to act that way. You have to beat what is thought to be a lesser team especially at home.

I know everyone is saying look at last year and how things changed, but last year the team wasn't a top 5 team looking at a final four. These are games you have to win if you want to call yourself a national powerhouse.
 
If you think Mitchell was a no show then you need to watch more than the round orange thing going thru the hoop. The guy was great in the first half.

Folks here gotta stop making so much of plus/minus IMO
Absolutely crazy comment. He was awful. He was a complete no-show on the glass. He was the guy that was specifically brought in to combat the length and athleticism of the SEC. He was getting beaten badly off the dribble too.

I loved him in the Quinnipiac game but hurt is big time tonight. We were much better tonight with him on the bench.
 
If you think Mitchell was a no show then you need to watch more than the round orange thing going thru the hoop. The guy was great in the first half.

Folks here gotta stop making so much of plus/minus IMO
I watched the whole game and most of the intricacies contained therein and I repeat, in my opinion, Mitchell was a no show. You may not agree with my opinion and I don't agree with yours.
 
Me too! I would happily let you make me a cake that said “Nostradamus” with an eye roll emoji and then slam it in my face if we made the Final Four.
There are guys on this board with the connections to make this happen right after the Elite Eight game ends, so now pulling for victory more than ever 🤣
 
Let’s look at the bright side. We are all basically new - our guards are not aligned - and we are averaging 97 points against 2 top 10/20 teams.
No, we averaged 84 points against Michigan and Alabama. Those 2 teams averaged 96 points against us! Horrendous defensive performance by our guards today, no other way to slice it.
 
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