Iti. Iti played a great game. He hustled, he rebounded. He did very well. The kind of performance I’d be happy with everynight.
Withers. Withers also played great, however he should have gotten the ball much more in the late 2nd half and in the OT’s. I think they started guarding him better but we need to try to get him the ball more.
Baldwin - Mitch also played very well. 6 assists is awsome.
Eddie - Eddie played well down the stretch and hit some huge baskets.
Plav. - Yes I said Plav. His FT shooting was terrible and I think it’s ridiculous he can’t hit one, but he played solid D tonight (3 steals) for him and he hustled all night. I think he got tired down the stretch and it showed.
I’m slowly coming to the realization that this is the same ole Niner team we’ve seen for years. We’ll beat people we probably shouldn’t, we lose games we never should. We’ll be sweating it out come selection Sunday unless we win the C-USA tourney, we’ll proabably be an 8-9 seed and we’ll bow out in the first or second round. That is the Niner team we’ve seen for years.
Of course I have no way of knowing that’s how it will end up and I pray it isn’t. However this year, game after game, is just looking like every other year.
[i]Originally posted by MKNiner[/i]@Dec 4 2004, 11:37 PM
[b] Of course I have no way of knowing that's how it will end up and I pray it isn't. However this year, game after game, is just looking like every other year. [/b]
There is no reason for the MOST OPTIMISTIC Niner fan to think any different than this.
Although it was encouraging to see some of the things that Iti showed tonight.
[i]Originally posted by MKNiner[/i]@Dec 4 2004, 11:37 PM
[b] I'm slowly coming to the realization that this is the same ole Niner team we've seen for years. We'll beat people we probably shouldn't, we lose games we never should. We'll be sweating it out come selection Sunday unless we win the C-USA tourney, we'll proabably be an 8-9 seed and we'll bow out in the first or second round. That is the Niner team we've seen for years.
[/b]
Word for word, that’s the same conversation we had on the ride home (which wasn’t a pleasant one). Even though you come to expect it, you still think that just maybe this is the season we win 6 or 7 straight games, knock off a ranked team, protect home court and get ranked. But then you have the Rutgers debacle and us dropping a total heartbreaker to a ranked team tonight that brings you back down to reality.
Long way to go this season but I do agree 100% that the 2 losses we have are precisely why we find ourselves fighting to get an at-large and winding up in the 8/9 game each year. We lost at home to a team we should have beat and we let a game slip away that we probably weren’t supposed to win. That’s the kind of things that just make it so hard for a team like us come March.
Iti has grown up the last couple of games. But, he still has to learn to hit free throws like everyone else.
We OUTPLAYED a very, very tough team. We got alot of bad calls and were horrendous from the line and did have some poor execution down the stretch, but I can honestly say this is the best game I saw us play this year. We were the better team tonight, in my opinion.
But, until we can hit free throws were gonna have alot of heartbreakers.
I guess there are some good things that can be taken from tonight, but its hard to get excited about any of them. We’re not going to have very many chances to prove ourselves against really good teams this year. Indiana, Cincy, and Memphis are ok, but Louisville may be the only ranked opponent we play the rest of the year.
Unless we really turn it on in conference play I see the 8/9 game in our future even though we are more talanted than that. We do have enough talent to take out a #1 seed this year though… provided we learn to shoot FTs before March.
MK,
Your out of your mind if you think Plavich played solid D tonight. On the game winner Winston had a clear shot because Plavich tried to draw a charge or whatever the hell he was doing, and Plavich just fell down…terrible…I’m getting sicker everytime I think of it…and to top it off I woke up this morning and started drinking…this loss summarizes our entire program and at this point I wish we’d gotten beat by 40+.
Can’t wait till Lutz Live on Thursday…Bobby Lutz on trial…and I don’t want BALCO type answers…can you imagine Bobby saying that he didn’t know Plavich would shoot those two 3s to try to tie it?
We do this every year, ie cubs, maybe one day we can be like Pi’s beloved Redsox and break the curse.
Until then relax a little.
As for Lutz changing , you can forget about that. However, in the postgame show, Lutz made comments that we should get Withers the ball , and Baldwin said the same thing. Sometimes I wonder if our guys just don’t execute:))
But don’t think for a minute Lutz is going to admit a mistake, uh huh, no way.
One more positive… that was probably the best team we will play this year. I was very impressed with Alabama. Balanced, big, athletic and a pretty stong resolve to win. They hit some big time shots. And We still should have won the game. The two techs killed us. The four straight free throws missed by Curtis and Iti were daggers, the two misses by Plav made me want to punch him in the mouth and the jump ball call against Drayton (while being mugged by three defenders) made me want to punch the official in the mouth.
All in all a very exciting game and a top three in Halton.
[i]Originally posted by MKNiner[/i]@Dec 5 2004, 12:37 AM
[b] I'm slowly coming to the realization that this is the same ole Niner team we've seen for years. We'll beat people we probably shouldn't, we lose games we never should. We'll be sweating it out come selection Sunday unless we win the C-USA tourney, we'll proabably be an 8-9 seed and we'll bow out in the first or second round. That is the Niner team we've seen for years.
[/b]
QUOTE (Hooligan @ Nov 23 2004, 09:40 AM)
Guys were stuck in a rut. Were on top of the Bobby Lutz plateau. Hes to content with an 8-9 seed and a One and Done season. Well be sweating it out for an at large bid or praying for another miracle in the conference tournament.
QUOTE (MKNiner @ Nov 23 2004, 10:36 AM)
Amazing how you know all this after two games. You confident enough in these predictions to lay a few paychecks on them in Vegas?
Had we won the Rutgers game, this would have been one of those “moral victories”. We didn’t, so this is just another bad home loss. No positives at all.
[i]Originally posted by ATL_Niner[/i]@Dec 5 2004, 08:35 AM
[b] MK,
Your out of your mind if you think Plavich played solid D tonight. On the game winner Winston had a clear shot because Plavich tried to draw a charge or whatever the hell he was doing, and Plavich just fell down...terrible...I'm getting sicker everytime I think of it...and to top it off I woke up this morning and started drinking...this loss summarizes our entire program and at this point I wish we'd gotten beat by 40+. [/b]
You're out of your mind if you think that one play in anyway takes away from how hard he played on defense.
And Plavich wasn’t trying to draw a charge I don’t believe, he was bowled over, either from a screen or a push off I couldn’t tell which.
Brendan always plays hard, that’s not an issue. He just isn’t a talented defender, and he got flat out burned out there.
If he’s not shooting well, he doesn’t need to be on the court. It’s nothing personal against him, but if he’s not on fire, he can turn into a liability. He’s not a good defender, and when he’s not scoring he doesn’t do us much good. He wants to win, sure, but Leemire is more athletic and is a streak shooter as well.
I think the biggest problem is, Bobby considers Plav clutch, and he hasn’t shown that he is clutch. He’s missed big fts, he doesn’t drop that big 3 bomb to win the game 8 out of 10 times. He’s a great streak shooter and a good roleplayer who gets too much asked of him. He’s not Jobey, he’s not even Demon. He is BP, though, and when he plays within himself, he is a dangerous weapon.
The Alabama game was my first this year and from all the Plav bad D talk I thought he would be horrible. Last night I thought he played D pretty well. Sometimes you can’t have it all…great shooters are generally not good defenders.
I didn’t think he got burned all that much. Eddie was playing D on Winston for most of the night and he still scored 33 (or whatever it was).
The problem with taking positives out of this game are:
It seems to be the same old story. “A scrappy Charlotte team would not go away but just couldn’t pull this one out.” This is the same theme year in and year out.
The loss would not be quite as bad if we hadn’t gave away the Rutgers game also.
The positives I do see:
Maybe the guys will get tired of being “close” and be fired up for every game.
We have several good players who all contributed last night.
