The IPB will probably want to weigh in with his own thoughts later. I think we performed adequately and beat a bad team the way we should have. The first half was probably as bad as we've played all season. We had 15 turnovers -- probably 10-12 of which were totally unforced. It looked like someone slipped the team codeine before the game. The second half we looked strong and tore apart Providence. Every time they made a charge, we answered. We definitely seem to be a second half team, the Vandy debacle aside. I hope that we can limit the long stretches of ineffectiveness though. As for the players, Roy looked horrible in the first half and sharp in the second half. He pulled down monster boards and had some nice blocks. Brandon also had a double-double in what was probably his strongest performance of the year. I only counted two "Bad Brandons" and saw many "Good Brandons." Ashanti made a bunch of huge plays and sparked the second half run but he was also largely responsible for the first half deficit. JW also had a pretty good second half, hitting some key shots. Green was MIA for most of the game. He never makes mistakes and tends to contribute in small ways but he's still not asserting himself like he did last year. Roy is now the focus of the offense and that seems to have really taken him off of his game. That said, he hit two big free throws down the stretch to secure the lead and pulled down a couple of monster boards. We didn't see much from the freshmen. Egerson didn't have a great game; Sapp played okay. As a side note, the refs were horrible again. One, in particular, was just embarrassing, but the bad calls went both ways.
St. John's is a must win, like this one was. We can't afford losses against the bottom of the league. Hopefully, Italian and Jeff will give us a post-game.
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I think it is generous to call us a "second-half team." I'm a bit concerned with our tendency to be extremely slow getting out of the blocks--we had the same problem last year. While we can collect ourselves and comeback against the Providences of the league, that isn't going to fly against the Novas, the Louvilles, or, apparently, the Marquettes.
I'm also a little disappointed by Green's play. He was such a dynamic force last year and he seems to have been MIA for pretty much the whole season. I know he's doing a lot of little things right and contributing in that way. But he's not making the kind of impact that he should be; an impact like he made last year. Diamond pointed out that Roy seems to be having some trouble dealing with the pressure of being the focus of the offense. I'd posit that Green is having more of a problem not being the focus. He needs to figure out what his role is going to be and assert himself!
I basically agree with all that. I think the IPB is overstating it a bit on Green. He doesn't look awful; he looks absent. He isn't impacting the game the way he used to. In other words, I don't think his game has regressed; he simply hasn't been integrated into the offense properly. Roy took his spot down low and Brandon was effective in the high post.
Providence came within a whisper of beating Pitino today. They might be better than we think.
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