Comments….from the second level. The Camera Side of the high rollers was decidedly empty. Probably on 75% ( HATE THE NUMBERS IN THIS FONT). The side (bench) that the camera shot was better. I suspect that we let some folks into this normally sacred land to fill the empty seats. AD says it is getting better. I am not convinced until I see the hard data from the ticket scanners.
Vandy was a NO SHOW tonight. He was out of sync. He was never in position for a rebound. Even with Lewis in there, he was not ready for a run and an Alley Opp. Maybe he has the flu?
Cat was interesting. He has so many great skills, but passing the ball to a team mate is not one of them…I started to capitalize that and try for bold. He is quick and he can, like his namesake, sprinkle a little litter and quickly cover his Uh-Oh’s. He had a few of them tonight. He was the victim of some inconsistent whistle.
TJ was like a man on a mission. Only problem was that he ran out of gas about mid 2nd quarter; Coach Haith also put more defenses on him than the Secret Service does on His Majesty. During the post game, Coach Gott commented on that.
The HULK was so-so. He was obviously tired from the subbing for Vandy ad it showed. He was not able to score on his monster blocks. But when he did block and got a little aggressive, the shooter picked himself up and said, “Did anyone get the number of that truck?”.
Turner for all the less-than-glowing comments was really the only thing that kept it a game. His poor form ad poor shot selection treys, that went in, saved us from a bigger margin.
We (the team) was out of sync at the end. Reminded me of a few games last year. However, we did show some flashes of brilliance. Vandy had one rebound and decided to make a monster throw….right into the hands of a player year MO garb.
The officiating was inconsistent. No question about that. However, the fouls were way under the average this season. I did not look up the ref’s to see what their averages were, but most are in the high 30′ or low 40’s. I kept a mental count and suspect that there were less than 30 whistles and that is between 25 and 33 % less that the norm. We can NOT control the zebras.
It was an exciting game. What you did not hear at home due to the way the mikes are shielded was the very loud and vocal and well organized MO fans. They were much fewer in number than ECU, but almost as noisy. I was visiting the men’s facility and listening to the radio speakers in there. MO made a great play and Gary and Tony called it out. I knew it was a good play as I could hear the roar in there and they were not chanting GO PACK.
Finally, Tyler did play a little tentative tonight. He seems in a funk. However, Cat also gets that way and makes poor decisions. This is a Catch 22. If Cat matures and is brilliant down the stretch and the $$ marks are glowing in his eyes, then who will we have next year? If Tyler gets discouraged and decides to sit out a year and ply his trade elsewhere and Cat goes out early, then we will really be up feces tributary without our manual propulsion device (s). Coach G has a fine line. Barber needs to mature. Tyler needs some PT to spell Barber and also to play PG when Barber has to sit and get some love from the coaches for his misdeeds on the court. So, we should be thankful that we have depth.
Depth was one of the plus’ for us. It was also one of the negatives for Coach Haith and they won.
UNCG knocked off VT on the road….Monday night is no guaranteed bench clearing rout…
