WWCD
Well-Known Member
So all of those years we went 9-20 it was because we weren't using our altitude right
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Men's basketball - 2021 March Madness Selection Sunday (Selection show on CB beginning at 4:00 PM MT; #5 seed Buffs open up against Georgetown)
- Thread starter AztecBuff
- Start date
So all of those years we went 9-20 it was because we weren't using our altitude right
jumped ship
Well-Known Member
Also ironic that this has far and away been one of our best road performance seasons – winning @ Utah, USC, OSU, WSU, and Stanford
jumped ship
Well-Known Member
Thoughts on the Hoyas:
Just watched the highlights of the Hoyas BE tourney run. That Nova game was fun, Earl is a damn good player but they lost it at the FT line. Creighton folded like no team I've seen before.
This will be a fun game. I view the 1 & 2 spots as a bit of a wash (Kin is better than Dante but Blair is more of a true SG than Eli).
Expecting the difference makers to be Battey, Schwartz, and Horne. They will be able to use their athleticism to take the Hoya big men off the dribble. What I like about Dallas is he tends to step up early in big games, and I expect a pleasant surprise from his performance.
We need to be aggressive, make our FTs, and finish strong, period.
Walker is the x factor. He should be back in the groove now. His rebounding, shooting, and attack mentality could give the Buffs a serious edge.
I see a huge opportunity for Tad to throw some zone and full-court pressure at the Hoyas. The Buffs have played solid transition D this year and that needs to continue on Saturday.
Hope y'all enjoyed my unsolicited thoughts.
Just watched the highlights of the Hoyas BE tourney run. That Nova game was fun, Earl is a damn good player but they lost it at the FT line. Creighton folded like no team I've seen before.
- their best offense comes early in the clock / in transition
- play with a lot of frenetic energy which leads to some sneaky good buckets but is definitely the cause for their higher turnover rate
- they are confident shooters, lots of deep 3s that they were hitting at a high rate during the BE tourney
- didn't see anything abnormal on defense aside from the aforementioned frenetic energy
- big men are big with solid offensive skills but not very mobile, didn't see a lot of their opponents denying entry passes
- rebounding is good, but they rely on their size, didn't see a lot of great fundamentals
This will be a fun game. I view the 1 & 2 spots as a bit of a wash (Kin is better than Dante but Blair is more of a true SG than Eli).
Expecting the difference makers to be Battey, Schwartz, and Horne. They will be able to use their athleticism to take the Hoya big men off the dribble. What I like about Dallas is he tends to step up early in big games, and I expect a pleasant surprise from his performance.
We need to be aggressive, make our FTs, and finish strong, period.
Walker is the x factor. He should be back in the groove now. His rebounding, shooting, and attack mentality could give the Buffs a serious edge.
I see a huge opportunity for Tad to throw some zone and full-court pressure at the Hoyas. The Buffs have played solid transition D this year and that needs to continue on Saturday.
Hope y'all enjoyed my unsolicited thoughts.
Let's hope that getting away from Pac 12 refs means that Jabari can step on the court without being called for a foul
the last thing in the world I want Tad to do is to unleash his full court pressure defense on the Hoyas. That's been a disaster this year.
Or at Folsom field because it’s beneath ground level.
So what you just said in a thousand words is, "You sucked until January 30, but now you're awesome."Hoya Fan here.
I thought I would stop by and offer some background on the Hoyas.
It was really a story of two seasons for the Hoyas. As deeper background, the Hoyas brought 9 newcomers in this year. Covid’s impact on campus really affected the team. There was no summer league on-campus or summer on-campus work-outs. The Hoyas were actually the last Big East team to physically return to campus. This appears to have put team-building way behind schedule.
Not much was expected from this team. The Big East coaches picked Georgetown to finish last in the league. At the time, Ewing didn’t argue with it. The Hoyas struggled mightily early. They lost to Navy which should never happen. They played WVU tough but eventually faded. They were 18 points ahead of Villanova at halftime in December but lost the game in the 2nd half. This was just one of several epic collapses. They showed some glimpses but could never put a full game together.
Eventually, Covid caught up to the program and put them on pause. They were shut down for 3 weeks between January 10th and January 30th. Four games were canceled. Unfortunately, they were against what turned out to be the bottom of the conference. At the time of the shutdown, the Hoyas were 3-8 overall (1-5 in conference) and really struggling to find their way. We finished the league 7-9 and ranked 8th of 11. We had a chance at finishing 5th in the league heading into the last game day. Those 4 missed games against the weakest teams in the conference may make us look worse than we probably were.
This shutdown was the turning point of the season. Apparently, they spent time reviewing film on Zoom and had some sort of meaningful players-only meeting. When the Hoyas returned, they changed the starting line-up and added 6’7” Chudier Bile who had been a confounding player to that point. He played hard and with an edge, but he was out of control and would force things too much at times. Chudier blossomed with his insertion into the line-up and arguably has been the Hoyas best player since.
Actually, it is really tough to tell you who Georgetown’s best player is. I just told you about Chudier Bile. Georgetown has two other seniors: 6’5” Javon Blair and 6’10” Jamorko Pickett. Both these guys are talented and you could argue are Georgetown’s best player but they never played with the needed consistency. If they did play with that consistency, they both could have been 1st team All-Big East. Blair has range from one step off of the bus. He doesn’t always shoot a high percentage but when he is feeling it, watch out. He leads the team in scoring for the season but he now comes off the bench, a change that started about 6 games ago for which we never got a full explanation.
Pickett is a long 6’10” forward who has a curse. That curse is that his ceiling, if and when he puts it all together, is basically Kevin Durant. He has struggled living up to that level of expectation. He is not Kevin Durant, but he has become an incredible defender both on the wing and in the paint. He also spent much of the season leading the conference in rebounding. He has absolutely shut down some of the best forwards in the conference. He is playing his best basketball in his final games.
Meanwhile, Georgetown has an unheralded, unranked freshman PG, Dante Harris, who was drafted into service in December when the starting PG took an indefinite hiatus from the program. Dante just killed it in the Big East tournament and was named Most Outstanding Player. He was an absolute menace defending some of the best guards of the conference including the 1st team all-conference PG completely disrupting him. He has become a star player over the last 10 games. We are excited to have him for hopefully 3 more years.
At this point, I haven’t even talked about our centers for which we are probably best known of which we have a collection of 6’11+ guys. Patrick Ewing collects 7’ center like kids collect Pokemon cards. We have a 4th 7’, Dikembe Mutombo’s son, arriving on campus in the fall. Not sure why any team needs four 7’. For the sake of brevity, I won’t breakdown our centers, but our starter Qudus can be quite disruptive offensively and defensively. So basically, Georgetown doesn’t have a 'best' player. Georgetown gets big contributions from six different players, and a different player has been stepping up recently every game.
Some of you see a 9-12 team. That’s one way of looking at it prior to the Hoyas winning the Big East tournament. Another way is that this team is 10-4 since Jan 30th when the lineup changed. So if you are thinking the Big East tournament was just 4 good games, you could be right, but you might be missing the trend. The Hoyas have really found themselves and right now they are playing incredible defense. Over the last 10 games, their defensive efficiency ranks #11 in the country. The committee had no choice but to put as a 12 seed as our overall body of work for the season is weak. For the second half of the season, in my opinion, we have played far better than a 12 seed. Colorado is the unlucky team that gets what is probably an under-seeded twelve seed (see more on that below).
The Big East tournament was a good combination of good play and a favorable draw that gave us winnable match-ups. We could have beaten Viillanova in both of our two prior match-ups even when they had Gillespie. I don’t think anyone expected to be playing in any tournament now given how the beginning of the season went. The Hoyas are playing with house money. Will they be fully satiated and play lethargically? Perhaps. Will they seize the opportunity in front them? We will see.
Another important part of the backstory is Hinkle Fieldhouse. In case you aren’t aware, this is the gymnasium in the movie Hoosiers. It is a spectacularly beautiful venue, and the Hoyas love it. If we could buy it, take it apart and move it to DC, we probably would. Except for Butler game pre-break, the Hoyas haven’t lost there. Typically, Butler is quite formidable at home. Going into Sunday night, many Hoya fans didn’t care about the opponent or our seed…..as long as we could play at Hinkle. I wish you guys could attend the game, because it is one of the best venues in college basketball.
More about our backstory, Georgetown has a tough recent history in the NCAA. When we used to be frequent participants, we have consistently drawn dramatically under-seeded teams. You may or many not recall an obscure player named Stephon Curry at Davidson who had a coming out party against us. Andy Enfield got his USC promotion in part due to his Florida Gulf Coast game against Georgetown. That Georgetown is not facing a double digit team this week is a relief to many long-time fans though I understand it is little consolation to Buff fans.
Now, I am not telling you this because I am here to tell you that the Hoyas are going to beat the Buffs. Colorado clearly has an excellent team that had an excellent season. The Hoyas have great 3pt FG% and free throw%, and the Buffs have even better numbers. Your PG, Wright, looks to be one of the best PGs in the country. Meanwhile, we have a kid who has played great for a few weeks. The Hoyas' strengths seemed to be mirrored by the Buffs. I hope we are going to see a competitive game.
Do Hoya fans think we have a chance? Yes, we think we have a reasonable chance if we keep playing like we have since January 30th. Could we lose? Absolutely.
If you want to check out our conversation about the game, you can find it here.
NCAA 2021: Georgetown - Colorado 3/20/21 Discussion | HoyaTalk
That’s what we do.hoyatalk2.proboards.com
Looking forward to an entertaining game.
Hoya Saxa! (which means ‘What Rocks!”)
Got it.
Buffs by 9.
Next.
Frenetic energy. Hmmm. We generally don’t see that. Closest would be Oregon. I would expect that to lead to a lot of fouls. This appears to be a 6 deep team, so drawing fouls could be a good approach. And learning how to relax and make free throws again.
Only question remains: does Colorado cover the 5 point spread?
Seriously, this is exhausting. I can't go through this level of introduction five more times this tournament.
Arizona State. Assuming they play with that frenetic energy, I can't comment, I didn't really see them this year, this will be a game of runs even more than usual, and I predict with 100% certainty that there will be a panic in the game thread if Georgetown scores 6 straight points at any time.
Lol... I just found out there are actually people out there mad that Belmont got "snubbed" from the NCAA tourney "despite winning 26 games."
They were 90th in NET with a 0-1 record in Q1/Q2 games (yes, they only played one Q2 game all year, which they lost), and were 104th on KenPom. They had somewhere around the 300th most difficult SOS all year.
If you're a small-conference team like Belmont, you better either schedule really tough and show out or win your tourney. Playing DeVry University 30 times and winning 26 of those is not an impressive resume.
They were 90th in NET with a 0-1 record in Q1/Q2 games (yes, they only played one Q2 game all year, which they lost), and were 104th on KenPom. They had somewhere around the 300th most difficult SOS all year.
If you're a small-conference team like Belmont, you better either schedule really tough and show out or win your tourney. Playing DeVry University 30 times and winning 26 of those is not an impressive resume.
jumped ship
Well-Known Member
eh, you're probably right, let's compromise and call it a soft press – takeaway being we need to slow them down and force them to score on us in the half-court, later in the clock
throwing some zone in there could also backfire, as I saw a few plays where their bigs really worked the top of the key well and found the open shooter
BuffLuke80
Well-Known Member
When do the play in games start, Thursday?
First tip is at 6:27 EDT on Thu. Drake vs Wichita St.
I have to give Hoya guy props for showing up. He loses points for making Mtn look like the very image of brevity though, and frankly I quit after about the 5th paragraph.
It is funny about the 10-4 since January 30th though. He should check our record over the same time, lol.
It is funny about the 10-4 since January 30th though. He should check our record over the same time, lol.
I keep hearing all the smart money is on the hoyas. To me the 5 point spread shows the opposite> I'd probably bet he Buffs win by 3.
I suspect it was hard for small-conference teams to schedule Big 6 games this season.
I’m confused by your assessment. There was one move from -4 to -5. The first smart bets were on Colorado. The dollars action has been even since. I think the line is super sharp. Most NCAAB sharps I know like the game to come down to the last 1-3 possessions, so 5 seems very sharp.
My stomach just clenched up thinking about that outcome. SO MUCH STRESS
Buffsbball
Well-Known Member
The key to this game in my eyes is Eli shutting down Jahvon Blair. Makes 2.7 3's a game and is a gunner. In the mold of the Alfonso Plummer, Jarod Lucas's that have bitten us in the past when they get hot. Just need to make him inefficient.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
Tennessee seems like a weird pick-this year's team isn't as good as they've been in years past. They're not a final four team, but I think they've got enough to hold off the fighting rodents. USC is a weird team, and I might be saying that because Tad has made Andy Enfield his bitch over the last three seasons. Georgetowns odds of losing by 20+ to us are about the same as the odds of an upset in my view. I'd argue the Gillespie injury got them past Villanova-that kid is that important to that team. Speaking of Villanova, I'm on the Winthrop train.
jumped ship
Well-Known Member
Serious cognitive dissonance in USC being a trendy final four sleeper pick while CU is a popular upset pick...but to your point, Buffs fans have a weird view of the Trojans.
Tennessee has talent, simple as that. Makes it tricky to predict how they'll do though as talent can be inconsistent.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
Naw. No cognitive dissonance needed on USC. They're an LA team with the #2 pick in the draft-of course they're a sexy Final Four pick. Whoever they get could give them trouble-Wichita State has wins over Ole Miss and Houston at home, and they took Cade Cunningham and Okie Lite to the wire. Drake won 25 games for a reason. That's a good team. That's before we talk about them against Kansas, Iowa, or even Gonzaga.
Oregon State isn't talked about as a trendy upset pick because they're not coached by Patrick Ewing. His tenure at Georgetown has been below average at best-Georgetown hasn't had a winning record in Big East with him at the helm, and they've had one NIT appearance until Saturday. The week lag between games only hurts them and Oregon State in my view (even though I think OSU was a lock to play in the condensed NIT). Another thing with them-They're not great defensively, and they were as low as 3rd to last in turnovers in the country in early January.
Johnny Juzang
Well-Known Member
ABC news already did a feature on Sister Jean. Lose early, Loyola.
Buffsbball
Well-Known Member
White Board Material for a player that lives of slights