Thursday, November 23, 2006

Wake Post-Mortem

First off, Happy Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Commodore Nation does not have much to be thankful for after our dreadful 0-2 start.
The Wake game was bad all the way around. As was the heading and subject of a previous post, the points in the paint is a serious problem. This is exacerbated further with Metcalfe expecting to miss 6 weeks with a fracture in his foot. Metcalfe's absence all but ensures that Skuchas keeps his streak alive and fouls out of every game this season. Teddy committed 5 fouls in 10 minutes of action. 10 MINUTES. Ross Neltner is not much better as he fouled out after playing just 17 minutes. As I said during the game, as talented as he might be, that is irrelevant if he's on the bench.
As RWilliams pointed out, Vanderbilt is giving away too many points at the free throw line (and not converting on our chances). The fact that Vanderbilt only went to the line 22 times shows that this team is content staying on the perimeter. That is not a formula for success, especially when your opponent is getting 34 shots and scoring more points than free throws you are attempting.
It is time to start Red. Beal is not getting it done. He will, but he is not now, and with an 0-2 start, this team needs to turn it around quickly.
Finally, Kevin Stallings has got to start adjusting to the flow of a game. If a team is penetrating too much, switch to zone; if you aren't shooting the ball well, or not getting enough shots from the charity stripe, look to create. But do something to try and turn things around.
This is not the start this team was looking for, and after Georgia Tech put up 62 on Memphis in the second half to pull out a victory in Maui, there is no reason to be confident about that game either. At this point, we will be lucky to go into conference play 11-3.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say I've been checking out this blog, and I think you have something good here.

Who knows what's going to happen with this basketball season. We have yet to show any consistency or ability to establish an offense. Our defensive struggles may be tough to gauge after Georgetown and Wake Forest. But when we have the ball on offense, we should be running plays that we've been working on for months in the off season. So far, it looks like a Hail Mary offense that doesn't really have a prayer.

Stanimal said...

A very simple point that perhaps only seems pertinent to me. I would be EXTREMELY happy to go into conference play 11-3. That would mean that we win games against the teams we SHOULD beat.