Iām glad we pulled out the win tonight. A few threes hit, and that was nice to see. Malik played very well, hustled for 39 minutes of action. Supica and Haslem looked pretty solid inside. Supica is starting to get adjusted to playing like a big on the offensive end.
My one gripe tonight was JD. He seemed REALLY out of it. Not sure if he has been sick, or just wasnt feeling it. Made several lazy passes that were turnovers. Held the ball an insane amount of time, and that cost us dearly. Luckily he shot well from the line, and helped get us the W. But a SR leader like him has to step it up, period.
Pirates basketball fans are a weird crowd. They complained about the double dribble callā¦ not because they thought the ref was wrong but that it was just a homer call that should have been ignored. Same with the inbound violation. Hopefully they stuck around for the participation ribbon ceremony after the game by Dooley.
Lots of yāall are down on the offense and I get that. Way too many times we ran shot clock down to zero. I also feel like on many of those possessions we had really good looks that we passed up trying to get an even better shot. We also played 2 walkons.
With that said this offense is getting us some clean looks and layups that we just keep managing to miss. We did push the ball when appropriate. JD though was putrid. Turnovers and plenty of near turnovers. I was concerned about losing him next season but with each game Iām less and less concerned.
I just donāt know how you can make any kind of call on the coaching or offense at this point of season 1 of Sanchez with an insanely short bench. All Iām looking for right now is effort and by all accounts itās been extremely high.
Have to be patient. Similar to UVa the offense is about being patient and working for a good shot. The problem is you have to have guys who can create and shoot. We have ONE guy who can create and not really any shooters right now and weāre really young and our one guy doesnāt know the system or his teammates. I think weāll see gradual improvement but not substantial until year three when we have full roster with experience and talent.
although i think davis made some terrible plays tonight(too man turnovers), he had some clutch shots when we really needed it. wish we could have established supica a bit more inside but he is really coming along nicely. i will say the same thing i have been saying all season, i want to see the team improve as the season goes on bc we are really playing for next season. we played mcgill and kitoko a lot for long stretches, which should tell you a lot about what sanchez has to work with this season. next season could be really fun but i will enjoy watching us get better this season. ecu looks more well coached under dooley than under lebo and had a couple pretty good players in leday, gardner and williams but i really am encouraged by our defense and our effort.
I thought ECU has a pretty good team. We just played physical for a change.
Iāve seen times I thought Sanchez was rough on some players, but once last night the defense
wasnāt called from the bench in time, and he lit up the assistant coaches !
Iād say heās in full charge of this thing !
And I love seeing the ECU fans piling out with their lip poked out !
its nice to see a coach with this type of passion. he seems tough but not like a maniac, which i think the players respond to. we still allow dribble penetration too easy but the defense was solid last night. even our zone did not look bad.
^This. Itās funny how much Virginia basketball Iāve been watching recently knowing thatās what our team is aspiring to be. What is so interesting to me is how much the offenses have in common, but you see the exceptional creativity and decision making by Virginia players that leads to open shots, and then as said above, the play and shot-making ability when the offense doesnāt create the open look. I donāt know if weāll ever get there, but watching our team get a bit better each time out and comparing to VA has kept me from pulling my hair out when I watch our guys.
Us knocking off another ābig nameā team would be a great confidence builder for our guys. No one really cares about OK State or TCU basketball but theyāre better than the average CUSA team.
Iām confused what that guy is? Is he BringBackTheBuzz for TCU or somethingā¦ TCU hoops is like Baylor hoops even if theyāre good no one really cares until after football season and even then itās just because there is no football to watch.
On the final play he told all of the players ādo not jump on defenseāā¦ well 10 sec later Mangum is jumping at the shooter. Thatās just one of the times Sanchez is over there pounding his head.
On the yelling at the assistant coaches, he went around on the next break laughing with them and high fiving to get over that part. Sanchez has an interesting approach. If you look over at the sidelines after a made basket, 90% of the time Sanchez is the only one over there that looks like he isnāt amused while the rest is cheering. I think his coaching is what the players appreciate but would be interesting to hear what the players say about him and his style.
I saw Sanchez telling Martin something that appeared to be calm down and was laughing about it during the television broadcast. He seems to do a good job of balancing teaching, being tough, and having fun.
Sat with my son in student section 111 and was surprised by the number of ECU fans sitting there. Anyway, nice win and hopefully some momentum heading into the Diamond Head Classic.