Last year when the Hoyas thumped Notre Dame at the Verizon Center, it was the outside shooting that combined with Roy Hibbert's dominate performance to dispose of the Irish. This year, Big Roy did it largely by himself. Particularly in the first half, when the Hoyas threw up brick after brick, Roy was the focus of the offense. He scored at will against Notre Dame's slower, shorter big men, and passed out of double and triple teams beautifully. Roy ended up with 5 assists and 21 points on 7-11 shooting in only 26 minutes. Outstanding.
Jessie also had a nice game, hitting nicely from the outside--although he did have way too many turnovers. Freeman was his usual efficient self, hitting threes and finishing in traffic. And I thought that Summers was appropriately aggressive, pulling down a double-double.
I was really pleased with the minutes the Hoyas got from Macklin. He hit both of his hook-shots and pulled down some rebounds. Unfortunately, free throws continue to be a problem.
Finally, Wallace remains stuck in his shooting slump. I was watching him during warm-ups and he was missing a significant number of outside shots then too. His motion still looks fine; I can't tell what is going on.
One disappointment was that Nikita did not get into the game. It was over half-way through the second half, and even Jansen got burn. Nikita has a fantastic stroke and looked strong in Kenner League play. Why can't he get into garbage time, Coach? I have a feeling that Nikita could be an important part of the Hoyas in the future and I hate to see him wasting on the bench his entire first year.
Another disappointment from the game was the behavior of the students in the upperdeck. The Verizon Center should have security up there to prevent such incidents in the future. The students managed to embarrass themselves and the University. I hope we don't see that again.
All in all, though, the Hoyas bounced back nicely from their flat performance against Pitt. Now, let's crush the Orange on Monday!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Diamond, I agree with your assessment. Roy looked like a beast out there. He was efficient and effective. Also, his free throw shooting was much improved. No reason that Roy should have to log more than 26 minutes to put up nice stats and put people away.
Summers looked good out there. I was particularly fond of his 2 straight offensive rebounds and putback in the first half. He basically had his way under the hoop. He seems to be developing quite nice. Freemen also had a solid game. He quietly put up 14 or so point (not sure of the total as I needed to tend to Jonah in the last few minutes of the game).
What happened in the upper deck? Also, was it just me or did Ewing Jr see very limited PT?
While I can't vouch for the quality of ND as an opponent, today was a solid victory. They put ND away early and never let up on the beatdown. As far as Syracuse, you all know how I feel about the 'Cuse.
Post a Comment