On all cylinders !!

[Murffieus]

Effort similar to the high effort of the Duke game -----particularily on defense-----doubling Gray-----hustling out taking away treys. DJ was outstanding (10 assists with better shot selection)------ditto for Mathews and Cubilan. Great move by TC to insert Kinsella (always felt he could be our answer at #4 this year, but his injury slowed down his development)-----when you think about it the unusual nature of hs 2 treys were the margin of victory.

A key element in the first 3 quarters was forcing Gray out away from the hoop on defense------he started out on Haywood with Kendall on Barro-----the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half Gray was on Barro-----Barro goes out to the arc to set picks and Gray follows -----puts a "hedge" on Mathews driving off Barro's screen and picks up a foul-----a few miutes later puts a "hedge" on DJ driving offf a Barro screen and picks up another foul-----"hedging" with Gray is the dumbest thing I've seen in a long time in Div 1 BB-----I thought we could have taken more advantage of the Gray "hedge" in a couple of different ways-----but that's a mute point as things turned out alright.

The smartest thing Dizon did was go to a 2-3 zone down 17 points with 10 minutes to go-----had he done that at halftime, they may have won. We just don't play as well against zones as against man defenses generally as we don't get inside as easily-----they force us into a perimeter game (treys). We need "points in the paint" to win in most cases.

Pitt trys to work and inside/outside passing game off Gray against our zone
but most of the time he wasn't in position to get the ball (either high or low)-----and when he did get the ball his kickouts were very weak giving our guys time to cover the trey-----contrast that with DJ's strong/crisp passes for the catch & shoot trey!

[TVDirector]

you are correct on all accounts, sir.

all things considered, this may have been the best team effort all year.

[augoman]

Murff, you nailed it:  I yelled to Gray after his third foul that he should at least yell "duh" when he stepped out.

[MilTown]

I understand the Syracuse is one of the few zone only teams that are out there, but I'm still surprised that teams fail to play zone against us for larger portions of the game. It's no secret that we are significantly worse against against the zone. Are coaches stubborn, or do they really not teach and practice zone D?

[77ncaachamps]

I'm sure ALL teams who scout properly will start playing zone.

Unless they fear our "three".