Saturday, November 3, 2007

WD 40 Anyone?


It wasn’t pretty and it was still some of the same as last year. They couldn’t stop the high screen, didn’t make their free throws, shot the ball poorly, didn’t block out and had more turnovers than assists. The lessons learned from last year can be applied here that it is hard to judge what this team is when playing inferior talent. We know that they won’t get 27 offensive boards versus Big East teams.

The one glaring statistic is the field goal percentage. The guards shot 17 for 40. Not good, in fact horrible. Lets hope that this is just rust because if the guards can’t shoot then this is going to be a rough season. The big men did well but that stat is inflated because of the numerous put backs from the offensive glass that won’t happen with big boy competition.

Free throws, free throws, free throws. What is it about this team that makes them poor from the line? Marcus Johnson needs to step it up going 1 for 5. That’s worse than his .500 year long average last year. Adrien went 2 for 5, Robinson 0 for 1 and Hasheem went 1 for 3. But the most striking is Dyson’s 1 for 2. Its not the fact that he missed one but that he only went to the line once. He needs to drive and initiate contact. He should get to the stripe at least six to ten times a game.

The Swiss cheese defense let the Assumption get anything they wanted, shooting 40% from the field and 39% from the arch. Not good at all. The help defense needs improvement and the they haven’t solved the basic pick play yet, which gave them trouble last year.

A.J. showed up and saved this team, coming off the bench and demonstrated his overall game going 6 for 11 shooting, 9 boards, 22 points, 7 dishes, 1 turnover, 3 steals and a perfect 9 for 9 from the stripe. That’s a line and all that while coming off the bench for only 25 minutes. Contrast that to Dyson’s, ‘the best point guard on the team’, 7 for 15 shooting, 4 boards, 18 points, 2 dishes, 5 turnovers, 2 blocks, 5 steals and 1 for 2 from the stripe. Let’s put this mad point guard experiment to rest, A.J. is the point guard for this team.

Let’s hope this is just rust and that they will show another side of their game in the next couple of games because if they don’t shoot better and play a team defense then they better have their life jackets on. It’s a long way down the Big East standings. I don’t know what was worse, Uconn’s game or having to pay for it and watching it on my computer. It’s a wash.

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