That being said, Green was a relative stinker last night. His final line wasn't bad (12 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists -- he led the team in the latter two categories), but he definitely seemed to lack something. Roy was not very good either -- though he did have a beautiful move in the low post, and showed flashes of assertiveness on several occasions.
The media reports imply that Green and Hibbert's lack of production is not a problem. They focus instead on the way everyone else is stepping up. I agree. It's nice to see a balanced attack again. That's the way our offense is designed to work and we are much more effective when that happens. I am concerned, however, that Jeff and Roy aren't stepping up against relatively weak opponents. Undoubtedly, teams are gunning for our two men. But great players have to find a way to fight through that. If they can't do it against the Towson's of the world, they aren't going to do it against Pitt.Still, I am happy with the rest of the team's progress. Summers is definitely the real deal. Is there anything he can't do? He scored a team high 18 points (7 for 9), which included a 4 for 6 performance from behind the arc. Crawford also showed that the shooting clinic he put on at McDonough against Winston-Salem was no fluke. He shot 2 for 3 from three-point land. It looks like everyone was right about his shooting ability. And Wallace returned to his early season shooting form; he was 4 for 4 from behind the arc.
Sightings: Ashanti Cook stopped by to catch the game on his way back to the West Coast from his current home in Germany. When they showed him on the jumbotron he got the loudest ovation of the night (that's not saying much since the crowd was tiny). It was great to see Ashanti, but the team's recent shooting is almost making me believe that we can get on with out him.
Apologies: For the first time this season I have to agree with the idiots in the row behind me. Their basketball IQ is very low, and they are constantly saying the stupidest things I've ever heard. But even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. Their attacks on Rivers have been relentless. Last night they had a reason to attack him. He was definitely the worst player on the floor. In the span of about two minutes he had a three pointer completely blocked and air balled a second one. Plus, he looked slow on defense. I'll cut him some slack because he's a frosh and it can be hard to come back from a badly twisted ankle. But it was really pretty embarrassing.
4 comments:
I feel bad for Rivers. He was just getting into the flow of things when he got hurt. I hope we can use him a good deal more against Navy. He will be important this year and beyond. Summers is a stud. He looks like he can be a big part of the team this year. I've been disappointed in Macklin. Everyone said he was raw, but he's really ineffective right now. His athleticism is beyond belief so there is at least no reason why he can't get position against smaller teams.
Jeff and Roy were asleep again. I don't know what to say about these guys. They were getting tripple teamed. I hope they will be more effective against Big East competition where they won't get triple teamed because by then the word will get out that we can shoot from the outside.
The only good thing about Jeff's drop-off is that he is very quickly sliding down the charts of what is shaping up to be a star-studded 2007 NBA draft. If he keeps this up, he may well have reason to stick around another year.
As for Rivers, ankle injuries are notoriusly difficult to bounce back from, especially because you have to essentially remain inactive while allowing them to heal. This breeds poor conditioning and the loss of rhythm etc.
There may be something more to his string of injuries, however. Often these ankle problems are mere bad luck but sometimes they result from poor conditioning and lack of stretching and lack of care. Al Jefferson of the Celtics repeatedly suffered ankle injuries last year because of poor conditioning and a reluctance to use heavy tape.
Rivers moved very slowly and also looked a lot pudgier to me. I suspect it's going to take him more than the next game to develop any flow, if he can regain it all this season.
Agreed re: Macklin. He looks terrible to me most games and is absolutely lost (he is the one guy on the team who seems to have no knowledge of our plays). It is mistifying to me how he and Summers could have started at the same time. Difference is night and day. Athleticism means nothing unless you have the court smarts and awareness to go with it. Kendrick Brown was the most freakish pure athlete on the Celtics under Jim O'Brien and he's now out of the league.
Big props to Summers. He has been by far the most pleasant surprise this season and while he occasionally makes a freshman mistake (well actually Bowman made those types of mistakes for 4 straight years but he's an exception), he shows trememdous poise on the court. Hats off to him.
I would argue PE Jr. had his best game as a Hoya last night, which isn't saying much, but does count for something.
I would argue that PE Jr.'s six points with zero fouls is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
Thanks to Waxman, author of the WaxWorks Blog and avid Van Buren Boys reader, for pointing me to this Wikipedia article on "point forwards."
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