Game Thoughts from Saturday

[WashDCWarrior]

Didn't have time to post over the weekend, but was at the game and had some thoughts.  I'll try not to rehash what's already been said.

First, Georgetown was clearly the better team on Sat.  I was thrilled being down 2 at half and having the game close with 7 mins left.  If we had continued to play that way we probably would have lost by 10.  Instead Crean decided to take a gamble and turn DJ loose.  The gamble didn't work and we lost by 18.  I agree with Crean's decision to try to win the game as opposed to make the score respectable.  After watching them, I expect them to win the BE and make some noise in the NCAAs.

Hibbert was much better than I realized.  I also thought he and Gray were on the same level, but after watching them both play in person this year, Gray's ceiling in the NBA is as a role player, 2nd stringer type.  Hibbert can be a perenial all-star.  Green was amazing, but that was expected.

Ready for a weird comparison? Barro offensively is reminding me of Novak as a freshman.  Defensively teams didn't focus on either as the primary or secondary thread.  They would touch the ball for less than a minute and could score 10+ points a game.  Going into the season, I was worried about our frontcourt being a huge liability, and it's become a slight asset.  Great to see Ooze's improvement.  Plenty of room for more.

Overall I thought it was a well coached game.  I would have liked to see some different substitutions however.  As well as Lazar played he got 14 minutes.  I would have liked 25.  Kinsella did a great job defensively, but you couldn't tell looking at the stat sheet.  The Georgetown bigs were consistently catching the ball 2, 3, 4 feet further out in the post vs. Kinsella than any of our other players.  That translated in to a lower shooting percentage.  I would have like more pt for him and would have liked to see him play alongside Barro.  Or Barro and Burke.  A 2 big man lineup hasn't been used much this year by MU, but has been effective when we have.

A dissapointing loss, but we needed our A+ game to win.  We had our B.  Our guards could have all played better today, but no one person lost the game.  Just like Providence had to play at the BC during Wade's retirement, we had to play during Georgetown's 100 year ceremony.  Two tough environments and two losses by the visiting teams.  Given that, there was a really good MU turnout which was great to see.

[Wade for President]

Agree with your evaluation...until I saw your grade for MU.

You're giving them a B?  Damn...I wish you were my Accounting professor.

I give them a C/C-...at best. 

DJ with a D/D-.  McNeal with a C.  Matthews C/Incomplete. 

[ecompt]

Giving DJ a "D" is kind. He didn't cost us the game (it was a team effort playing against a very, very good team) but he did absolutely nothing to help us. The only reason he wasn't 1-for-17 was a gift goaltending call on a play in which he picked up a charging foul.

[WashDCWarrior]

Agree with your evaluation...until I saw your grade for MU.

You're giving them a B?  Damn...I wish you were my Accounting professor.

I give them a C/C-...at best. 

DJ with a D/D-.  McNeal with a C.  Matthews C/Incomplete. 

Maybe I'm overrating Georgetown, but they were really tough today.  Our B game allowed us to be down 1 with 7 minutes left.  Against other BE teams, we'd probably be up.  At that point Crean decided to let James run the show and foul on D.  James made some bad decisions and we lost.  There have been other games this season where Crean used the same strategy, James was up to the challenge, and we won.

[Djgoldnboy]

I was looking over the box scores of the game this weekend, something kind of stood out....

http://216.203.30.88/cbk/boxscore.asp?gamecode=200702100229

GU's starters pretty much played the entire game, I didn't notice that when I was watching, but they don't appear to be a very deep team.  The highest guy off the bench only had 10 minutes.

Honestly I hope we get another chance at them this year, I feel with a full, healthy squad and if the team plays the way we are suppose to, we can beat them.  (Not to mention the nonsense the refs were callling)