Georgetown, Sat. Feb. 25, Noon, YES&FOX/570

[fun]

Continue to be amazed by how this staff and team, despite the game to game volatility, just keeps pushing the overall improvement, trajectory, and momentum of the program upwards. Thought 7 BE wins would be great pre-season, by December thought they'd struggle but might get to 6, that they have 7 secured with 2 to play is just amazing.

Great atmosphere at the Garden, and agree with others we are probably a year of quality winning away from pushing that attendance figure up 2-4K. Can't discount that it was good energy as it was for 8th and 9th place in conference. If we get back to the top half of the conference think it will get that much better.

Would think Ponds came pretty close to putting a stamp on BE ROY Saturday. Incredible game from him, scoring with ease against bigger guards. Really not a lot of comparison between his and Patton's conference numbers, Lovett the other primary candidate IMO. Would be great for one of them to get this award.

Nice to grind this one out, especially against Georgetown at the Garden. But the Hoyas are just an awful basketball team. Outside of getting Pryor some quality looks (albeit often a result of bad D from us) and a concerted effort to go inside to Govan in the 2nd, they didn't really do anything impressive strategically despite the strong shooting.

We are clearly at the point where just racking up wins however we can is what matters. But next year this is the type of game we hopefully make the jump to mostly eliminating next year. Chances to step on them in both halves and didn't do it either time. When you win turnovers 22-9 and attempt 10 more shots should capitalize on that more fully. But a great win nonetheless!

I don't agree with amount of time Lovett spent on the bench Saturday unless something transpired that hasn't been reported, especially because he was having a lot of success driving against bigger GTown guards and kicking out (had almost half our team assists in 25 mins). But I can understand the rationale that Ponds and Mussini were having days and staff didn't want to go with 3 small guards against the Hoyas size. What I can't understand (and also disagree with) is the amount of time Ahmed also spent on the bench, especially at the same time as Lovett, while Ellison was on the floor (a lot of times guarding Pryor who destroyed us). Nothing against Malik, hope he has a nice role here the next 2 years, just about optimizing lineups. 34 minutes and almost 10 more than both Lovett and Ahmed doesn't seem to add up so am curious what the underlying equation is/was. Not concerned about one game obviously, and apologies to bring this up after a win, but we've seen with prior staffs how things that don't seem to add up can become an issue. Guess we'll see next year.

I didnt really have a problem with Mussini & Ellison. Mussini had a hot hand and was pretty efficient. Ellison gave us some size (6 boards) after Owens went down. Lovett was in down the stretch and was big the last 4 minutes(total of 25). I'm not looking much into it that there are "issues". It's about winning not egos or keeping players happy.

Agree completely regarding egos and keeping players happy, and didn't mean to imply there are issues (have no idea). I'm looking at it on a more basic level. Ahmed made the conference Weekly Honor Roll (1 of 7 players recognized) and played less minutes than Ellison for the week and by 9 on Saturday. Ahmed is in double figures 13 games in a row (and 24 times this season), Ellison is in double figures 7 games total, and their MPG are only separated by 2.2. Recognize their minutes are not mutually exclusive, but when you add in the Lovett piece on Saturday and that this has been something of a trend, something just isn't completely adding up.

Maybe I'm off here, but roles are important and players take note when it appears there may be a discrepancy between role and production, and not just the players directly impacted.

The strangest thing about Ellison's minutes - and especially his end game minutes - is that he's such a horrible FT shooter. He's big, I get that, he handles the ball well enough, I get that. But in an end game situation he's a liability. He's (a) a bad FT shooter and (b) dead from the neck up and so as likely to make a good decision as to view a bad decision as beneficial. There are six players on the roster who shoot north of 70 percent from the FT line, those are the players who should be on the court.

 

[austour]

I don't thing you're allowed to have six players on the court but I'm all for giving it a shot.

 

[JackofVirginia]

Hard to tell from where I was sitting, but how aggressively did Ponds try to get open for the inbound pass from Mussini? It didn't look to me like anyone was making an all out effort to get open, but again it was tough to see from where I was. Mussini panicked when he realized that the 5 seconds were about to expire. Not knowing if he had time to call he TO, he threw the ball in and hoped for the best, but wound up getting the worst. As others have said, he should have flung the ball downcourt.

You are right, no one was trying very hard to get open. Having said that a TO was in order and at worst a heave down court but Mussini panicked. Not a good play by anyone, coaches or players. One last comment, I post during games as a release and the vast majority of the time they are negative because that's what gets me going but the posters who are less insane than me (and others) have a point about the preponderance of negativity. We won and in the bigger picture the program is clearly heading in the right direction

No one is happier than me that we won, and we won in large part because of Mussini, and no one is a bigger Mussini fan than me. However that one play could have cost us the game which is why others were commenting on it. And since I didn't have the luxury of seeing it on TV, I asked for some clarification from those that did. I don't see that as negativity.

Sorry, should have explained myself better. Do not, did not, think your request was at all negative. In fact, my comment on negativity had nothing to do with your question at all; it was more me falling on a sword because pretty much ALL my comments during a game are negative and several people commented about the negativity in general on a thread for a game we won. Again, I piggy backed what should have been two separate posts, completely my bad.

Nothing wrong with being negative after a victory, just picking up some questionable substitution decisions by Mullin.
Makes me wonder if coach ever guaranteed Malik's playing time to his father. Sounds crazy but if we were coaching Ellison wouldn't see as much playing time.

 

[redken]

Continue to be amazed by how this staff and team, despite the game to game volatility, just keeps pushing the overall improvement, trajectory, and momentum of the program upwards. Thought 7 BE wins would be great pre-season, by December thought they'd struggle but might get to 6, that they have 7 secured with 2 to play is just amazing.

Great atmosphere at the Garden, and agree with others we are probably a year of quality winning away from pushing that attendance figure up 2-4K. Can't discount that it was good energy as it was for 8th and 9th place in conference. If we get back to the top half of the conference think it will get that much better.

Would think Ponds came pretty close to putting a stamp on BE ROY Saturday. Incredible game from him, scoring with ease against bigger guards. Really not a lot of comparison between his and Patton's conference numbers, Lovett the other primary candidate IMO. Would be great for one of them to get this award.

Nice to grind this one out, especially against Georgetown at the Garden. But the Hoyas are just an awful basketball team. Outside of getting Pryor some quality looks (albeit often a result of bad D from us) and a concerted effort to go inside to Govan in the 2nd, they didn't really do anything impressive strategically despite the strong shooting.

We are clearly at the point where just racking up wins however we can is what matters. But next year this is the type of game we hopefully make the jump to mostly eliminating next year. Chances to step on them in both halves and didn't do it either time. When you win turnovers 22-9 and attempt 10 more shots should capitalize on that more fully. But a great win nonetheless!

I don't agree with amount of time Lovett spent on the bench Saturday unless something transpired that hasn't been reported, especially because he was having a lot of success driving against bigger GTown guards and kicking out (had almost half our team assists in 25 mins). But I can understand the rationale that Ponds and Mussini were having days and staff didn't want to go with 3 small guards against the Hoyas size. What I can't understand (and also disagree with) is the amount of time Ahmed also spent on the bench, especially at the same time as Lovett, while Ellison was on the floor (a lot of times guarding Pryor who destroyed us). Nothing against Malik, hope he has a nice role here the next 2 years, just about optimizing lineups. 34 minutes and almost 10 more than both Lovett and Ahmed doesn't seem to add up so am curious what the underlying equation is/was. Not concerned about one game obviously, and apologies to bring this up after a win, but we've seen with prior staffs how things that don't seem to add up can become an issue. Guess we'll see next year.

I didnt really have a problem with Mussini & Ellison. Mussini had a hot hand and was pretty efficient. Ellison gave us some size (6 boards) after Owens went down. Lovett was in down the stretch and was big the last 4 minutes(total of 25). I'm not looking much into it that there are "issues". It's about winning not egos or keeping players happy.

Agree completely regarding egos and keeping players happy, and didn't mean to imply there are issues (have no idea). I'm looking at it on a more basic level. Ahmed made the conference Weekly Honor Roll (1 of 7 players recognized) and played less minutes than Ellison for the week and by 9 on Saturday. Ahmed is in double figures 13 games in a row (and 24 times this season), Ellison is in double figures 7 games total, and their MPG are only separated by 2.2. Recognize their minutes are not mutually exclusive, but when you add in the Lovett piece on Saturday and that this has been something of a trend, something just isn't completely adding up.

Maybe I'm off here, but roles are important and players take note when it appears there may be a discrepancy between role and production, and not just the players directly impacted.

The strangest thing about Ellison's minutes - and especially his end game minutes - is that he's such a horrible FT shooter. He's big, I get that, he handles the ball well enough, I get that. But in an end game situation he's a liability. He's (a) a bad FT shooter and (b) dead from the neck up and so as likely to make a good decision as to view a bad decision as beneficial. There are six players on the roster who shoot north of 70 percent from the FT line, those are the players who should be on the court.

Cringe when he goes to the free-throw line in the closing minutes of a close game, but he did go 4 for 4 in the last 1:40 of the game, along with two big rebounds.

 

[frank61]

For anyone who wanted to see the game and couldn't can see the game in it's entirety on Youtube.

 

[Sherman Sheridan & Grant]

Hard to tell from where I was sitting, but how aggressively did Ponds try to get open for the inbound pass from Mussini? It didn't look to me like anyone was making an all out effort to get open, but again it was tough to see from where I was. Mussini panicked when he realized that the 5 seconds were about to expire. Not knowing if he had time to call he TO, he threw the ball in and hoped for the best, but wound up getting the worst. As others have said, he should have flung the ball downcourt.

You are right, no one was trying very hard to get open. Having said that a TO was in order and at worst a heave down court but Mussini panicked. Not a good play by anyone, coaches or players. One last comment, I post during games as a release and the vast majority of the time they are negative because that's what gets me going but the posters who are less insane than me (and others) have a point about the preponderance of negativity. We won and in the bigger picture the program is clearly heading in the right direction

No one is happier than me that we won, and we won in large part because of Mussini, and no one is a bigger Mussini fan than me. However that one play could have cost us the game which is why others were commenting on it. And since I didn't have the luxury of seeing it on TV, I asked for some clarification from those that did. I don't see that as negativity.

Sorry, should have explained myself better. Do not, did not, think your request was at all negative. In fact, my comment on negativity had nothing to do with your question at all; it was more me falling on a sword because pretty much ALL my comments during a game are negative and several people commented about the negativity in general on a thread for a game we won. Again, I piggy backed what should have been two separate posts, completely my bad.

Texting leaves much to be desired - can easily mis-read what's sent - a text fails to give the tone, intention and/or convey the actual meaning....so much better to hear a voice, see the face - or as you both did, clarify the situation!
Thanks!