Given our season, this was an appropriate loss. To wit:
-James showed once again that he is a great floor general, but he can't shoot to save his life. I hope he's studying hard cuz he aint' going pro without being able to shoot the midrange jumper, let alone the 3 pointer.
- We got jobbed by the refs. The dual technical on their coach was amazing. I was thinking it was a good way to make up for a season of watching the other team go to the freethrow line in a Higginsesque world. How wrong I was. Looking at the Lopez boyz was a foul in the second half. The bonus by 13:00 to go? 14-5 fouls at one point? It was 5 on 8 in the second half.
- Ous was Ous. Has anyone in recent memory gotten more ticky tack BS calls? He would be better if you could catch the ball. Kudos to him, though. He took a lot of crap from this board and he deserved to start all year. He was an important defensive presence (when he was getting called for touching people).
- McNeal got better and better all year and he was at his best today. Too bad he didn't get the respect that the Lopez boys got. The refs shoudl realize everybody who got this far deserves their respect.
- We need a big man. We haven't had an offensive threat down low since Robert Jackson, and that was just one year. Before that it was Lovette. Great guards can take you far, but add a big man and you have a Final Four team.
- Crean needs to work the refs. I can't help but think that Crean could stop the lopsided foul call bleeding if he would work the refs a lot more. You see it in other games. A coach calls a ref over after a controversial call, calmly explains his position and his team gets the next call or two. Give a try, Tommy.
- It was a great year, but this is another in a string of tough to swallow games: Duke, ND, G-Town and now Stanford. If we get our share of calls, we win most if not all of those. Then again, Louisville and UConn show we're not perfect.
All fair points, lets hope James comes back because we can make one hell of a run next year. With that said, I think we are one scholarship over so someone must be moving on.
Quote from: Discombobulated on March 22, 2008, 09:10:08 PM
Crean needs to work the refs. I can't help but think that Crean could stop the lopsided foul call bleeding if he would work the refs a lot more. You see it in other games. A coach calls a ref over after a controversial call, calmly explains his position and his team gets the next call or two. Give a try, Tommy.
Trust me. Crean calls the refs over during games. During the Big East Tournament he called the refs over several times after questionable calls. The difficult part is, however, actually getting the refs to come over. Sometimes when Crean called them over they just responded with an "I hear ya" and went their own way.