NC Central from da'Couch in MD .......

[Taj79]

... a tale of two halves that is a certainty.  Most of my comments lie in the GDT but to reiterate, this team needs to speed things up.  The second half, the two man press of Goodwin and Thatch brought us back from the brink in that game.   It also demonstrated, I think, the very essence of my question of why  we don't attack when we break those bullshite presses.  When Goodwin and Thatch and later Isabell made steals, they went straight at the basket for dunks by French and Goodwin, and the layup by Isabell (before the block).  This is what Ford is preaching when he says turning our defense into offense.  Maybe that's the difference -- maybe the guys think well, we inbounded the ball and brought it up and therefore this is not defense going offensive.  I don't know but the immediate results surely showed all the way forward for this team.  The dunks were great but the overall style allowed for open threes from Bess and Goodwin and then led to an and-1 by Goodwin along with multiple offensive rebound chances by others.  Without static, stand up shooters, our ability to convert while moving gives us the best chance possible going forward. 

Notes:  as I said last night, I found Ford's insertion of Jacobs over Isabell interesting when thatch got his fourth foul.  But later, when Isabell did return, he was right in the thick of things with scoring, driving, assisting and stealing balls.  Can helter-skelter work to our advantage and hide some individual defensive weaknesses in Jacobs, Isabell, Wiley and maybe Gordon?  Gordon remains a slick shot blocker as does French.  So I am not too concerned there.  I thought the second half would hinge on NCC's ability to keep shooting it from downtown.  That obviously didn't happen.  But many times, a lot fo energy is expended in playing catch up and a natural letdown and relaxation occurs when the score gets evened.  We didn't see that last night until we went up by 11 or so.  Then NCC went on a 6 or 8 to 0 run and closed to five or so.  After that, the runs were done and the final just played itself out.  Kudos to NCC for keeping it as close as they did but the superior talent won out.  The balanced scoring shows also what this team can do when the cylinders are firing.  Four guys in double figures with Foreman just one of four missed free throws short of that.  As always, 42% from the line won't cut it in bigger games.  Goodwin and Foreman have to clean their acts up from the charity stripe. 

I don't know when the rules changed to make every lowering of the shoulder a charging foul.  If that were the case, where were those calls last Sunday when Jarreau was barreling into Billikens left and right down in Houston?  I don't understand how ticky-tack touches rule today's college basketball.  I think we pretty well know what to expect going forward with this team -- succinctly said, it will be that play sto the level of its competition.  That will be okay for the most part but will lead to some anxious moments against what is becoming a dredge year for the A10 (see the A10 December thread later) when we see a whole bunch of national bottom feeders there.

Shifting gears ....... I am not getting pulled into any back-and-forth on the Big East anymore.  But for the sake of news, I wanted to share an article from VUHoops from my high school buddy, a season ticket holder for the "Cats for 20+ years now. 

https://www.vuhoops.com/2018/12/19/18148005/villanova-basketball-arizin-news-big-east-antoine-robinson-earl-jekot-uconn

On to Florida!

 

 

[White Pelican]

Thanks for posting the link. Interesting. And yeah, the whole BE thing wears me out too.

[SLU_Lax]

2 hours ago, Taj79 said:

I don't know when the rules changed to make every lowering of the shoulder a charging foul.  If that were the case, where were those calls last Sunday when Jarreau was barreling into Billikens left and right down in Houston?  I don't understand how ticky-tack touches rule today's college basketball. 

I hate it so much and it is going to lead to a lot of flopping.  On one of the plays, Jacobs made contact with one of their big men while pivoting who then fell backwards like a kid that is 65 pounds of more lighter than him just cleaned his clock.

I think the rule should be the initial contact is okay (especially as the contact happens to make space as you then cut backwards versus continuing to barrel over the top of someone), but if they ever see your hand or forearm extend out to maintain that contact or push the guy away it would be a foul (hope that makes sense).  Either way....watching bad refs trying to manage that call made it tougher to watch, but I really, really hate that rule and I do not understand it.

On another officiating note....its a minor miracle that the officials did not completely lose control of that game and the players in the second half.  Outside of random bad calls, they had terrible game management.

[Cowboy]

-I had a lower level college ref tell me their definition of a foul includes doing something that gave an unnatural advantage, putting your shoulder into a defender's chest to me meets this getting and advantage criteria but so does hand checking and it is by definition legal

-since talking rules one area I would either enforce or change is diving on a player in an attempt to get the ball/get a jump ball call as this isn't rugby and someone will get hurt if this hasn't already happened and if the same thing happened while on their feet it would in most instances be called a foul

[cheeseman]

59 minutes ago, SLU_Lax said:

I hate it so much and it is going to lead to a lot of flopping.  On one of the plays, Jacobs made contact with one of their big men while pivoting who then fell backwards like a kid that is 65 pounds of more lighter than him just cleaned his clock.

I think the rule should be the initial contact is okay (especially as the contact happens to make space as you then cut backwards versus continuing to barrel over the top of someone), but if they ever see your hand or forearm extend out to maintain that contact or push the guy away it would be a foul (hope that makes sense).  Either way....watching bad refs trying to manage that call made it tougher to watch, but I really, really hate that rule and I do not understand it.

On another officiating note....its a minor miracle that the officials did not completely lose control of that game and the players in the second half.  Outside of random bad calls, they had terrible game management.

I agree I just don't know what is a charge anymore or not.  I think a player who is dribbling naturally has his shoulder lowered - who dribbles standing straight up - the contact should at least be egregious.

[SLU_Lax]

59 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-I had a lower level college ref tell me their definition of a foul includes doing something that gave an unnatural advantage, putting your shoulder into a defender's chest to me meets this getting and advantage criteria but so does hand checking and it is by definition legal 

-since talking rules one area I would either enforce or change is diving on a player in an attempt to get the ball/get a jump ball call as this isn't rugby and someone will get hurt if this hasn't already happened and if the same thing happened while on their feet it would in most instances be called a foul 

Diving for the ball is exactly how Cody Ellis separated and trashed his shoulder (his sophomore year?).  He dove for the ball and a UMass? player dove on top of his shoulder.