Friday, March 21, 2008

Crushed

There's a few other choice words to describe it....disappointed, angry, saddened, but none of these feelings change the fact that we simply came out flat, and it killed us in the end.

Now credit Siena to a certain extent, they were red hot at the beginning and smacked us in the mouth from the get-go. Tay Fisher going 6-6 from behind the arc is absolutely absurd. Kenny Hasbrouck was also phenomenal and dominated everyone who was on him (as Seamus would say, the slashing guard is our weak point).

But the fact of the matter is that from the get-go this was not our day. We were an uncustomary 4 for 20 on threes and shot just 41% from the field. Siena gave us a shot to get back in it in the second half when they cooled off, and we just could not capitalize. Gordon and Beal had terrible games, and Foster was silent in the second half. When the ball just isn't falling and the other team lights it up, you're in trouble. Even with the disappointing loss, props should go out to Ross, AJ, Keegan Bell, and Jamie Graham, who I thought all played very well.

A couple of final points and observations about the game and our future:

  • Siena had no players who were over 6'9". We had a clear advantage in the post with one of the best post players in the SEC. Down the stretch, when we were chunking up desperation threes we should have been taking advantage of Siena's cold stretch and their lack of size by feeding Ogilvy the ball. He finished with 18 points and was the only reason we stayed in the game for as long as we did. I don't know what it is that makes Stallings take him out of the game, but he'd better be doing suicides all off-season to get his endurance up because we are going to need him to be "the guy" next year.
  • Yeah I'm playing the referee card. A couple of the calls were absolutely terrible. If I were in Stallings shoes, I would have gotten a technical for yelling at the ref on that and-1 by Hasbrouck too. Couple that with some of the ridiculous hacks on Ogilvy down low and you gotta wonder. It wasn't enough to explain everything, but there were some bad calls.
  • While this loss hurts pretty bad, there's still no dispute that Vandy basketball is on the rise. Next year we lose a lot with Foster, Gordon, and Neltner gone, but I have a lot of faith in the incoming crop. Lance Goulbourne will fill that swingman role at some point and Steve Tchiengang will no doubt provide quality post play for us. We've got recruits coming in and our own current players developing. The future is bright for Vandy basketball, assuming Indiana doesn't come knocking on Stallings door to steal him away from us

11 comments:

Old Prospector said...

It was actually Chuck Moore's brother - at least I think you are refering to the Moore on Siena. Whoever he was, he made Keegan Bell look silly on several occasions.

Stanimal said...

My bad, I stand corrected. I still say he blows.

Aaron said...

I dont blame the refs. I blame Kevin Stallings, all year he has not been able to get this team motivated for road games and he has allowed this team to play down to the level of our opponents. We lost to Siena! BY 21!!! That is the worst loss of the year, what a complete disappointment this season is now.

Will Gibbons said...

If they do pick up Stallings, David Williams needs to call Rick Byrd over at Belmont.

Anonymous said...

I like Rick Byrd, but coaching an entire year in the SEC is a whole different ballgame than what Belmont plays.

Today, West Virginia showed that Duke turned out to be "not all that" anyway...not to take away from Belmont who played their hearts out.

You know what else is "not all that" ? - american idol which still sucks bigtime.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it baseball season? Why are people talking about basketball?

Anonymous said...

after the best home season i've ever witnessed that's how we go down. the end of the season, beginning w/ the first arkansas game, was a disappointment.

Anonymous said...

We sucked we have sucked all year. Shan is not going to get drafted, he is not that good, AJ is not going to leave, HE IS DEF. NOT THAT GOOD!!!!

Anonymous said...

And don't forget that Stallings was outcoached by a dude named "Fran." Isn't that like a chick name?

Anonymous said...

After witnessing the worst play all season by our boys here in Tampa I am left with three points: 1) When Shan started to heat up and connected on three straight shots in the first half, why did Stallings take him out? 2) After the tremendous spark out of Jammie Graham in the first half (single handedly shut down Sienna's 3-point threat) why did he not come in until it was way too late? After his first half performance Jammie earned a start for the second half and he got screwed over. And finally 3) we didn't lose the game because of the refs but they sure as hell didn't help anything. We were getting abused in the paint and they weren't calling a thing but if so much as breathed on Sienna while they were driving we would get called for the foul. Like I always say, "I dont' care about the refs call as long as it's consistent on both sides of the ball!"

Anonymous said...

There's only one thing left to do...cheer for Davidson!