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Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Vanderbilt Falls to Missouri in OT 85-82
Tough loss for the 'Dores tonight who played valiantly in a tough road game. Though this game was within reach, this is hardly a "bad" loss. Missouri is a good team, and they just managed to get the last punch in. Congratulations to them on a battle well fought.
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16 comments:
This will definitely be a quality loss come March. Of course, if we could hit free throws worth a third of a damn, it could have been a quality WIN. It's maddening to see how easily we could have curb-stomped a top-20 team on the road if we'd had just an average night on the O-boards and at the free throw line.
Obviously can't blame a close loss on one play, but that turnover by Tinsley at the end of overtime was really hard to swallow.
Team wise, this was their best performance. Sucks in ended in a loss. Taylor played his best, full game with the team all year.
Really wish Walker had been available for ball handling at the end of the game...
Don't make Tinsley the scapegoat here. He didn't allow all the second chances in the game. Vandy lost this one on the defensive glass and at the line.
But regardless of that, they played their hearts out. This was a classic college basketball game, and it leaves a lot to be proud of with this squad.
Even in defeat, I feel 10x better about this team than I did at this point last year. Intensity in spades. There will be more losses, but I likely will never question their heart.
Free throws can be worked on, desire can't.
the second chance points are a direct result of the garbage missouri threw up all night. i've never seen worse shot selection.
Taylor failed to create the passing angle for Tinsley at the end, so the fault for the turn over is on both of them
We have a friend in Andy Katz Vandy fans:
@ESPNAndyKatz Missouri has become must-watch TV -- win or lose. Still high on Vandy. Impressed on Festus Ezeli's improvement.
Yeah this is a "good" loss but it is extremely painful when you outplay a team the way we did and can't shoot 60% from the line Or grab 1 of those 16 offensive boards....Whats the deal, were they just bouncing Mizzou's way? I think rebounding out of our zone is a huge weakness...did we need the zone there? Our man seemed to be just fine.
By the way...Loved AGlocks's analysis of Mizzous offense. They maybe took 15 quality shots out of 60. Makes the lost that much more frustrating.
Overall, I was impressed with everybody's play. If we play like that, BT and JT dont combine for 10 TO's and we shoot 75% from FT line we won't lose another game.
well this is a gift of a post. Really? don't want to mention the choking on the ft line or our need for a legit pg to run things? Best aspect of this game was watching Ezeli put the pieces together. That and-1 made me think "AJ Who?"
I finally got to see a game this year, and although disappointed we lost, I came away happy with the way we played. Here are a couple of my observations (trying not to duplicate what has already been said):
1. The defense was awesome. I can't remember any shots that mizzu put up that weren't challenged. The bad part of this was that since so many guys were challenging shots, they were out of position for rebounds.
2. Ezeli is my daddy. I found myself wishing they sold jerseys with names on them so I get one of his. It is guys like him that make me still follow vandy and feel proud of our team / coach / school.
3. The freshman. Both played very well, were aggressive, and did not look like freshman.
4. Foul on Taylor? There was a blocking foul called towards the end of the game where the contact was just above the foul line, then it seemed like at least a step or two more, and Missouri got the basket and foul. They never showed a replay, but I was shocked they counted the basket - anyone else remember this?
5. The bad. Foul shooting, ball handling, clutch shooting.
Overall, happy with the effort and think this team can be really good this year.
A good performance for sure.
The concern that continues to build for me is JT. There really is no excuse to miss 2 FTs 1 min. left in regulation for the win. Also the TOs, while limited, seemed to predominately be linked to JT in some way. As much as we try to excuse it or put a positive spin, something is off w/ that guy.
Obviously great game to watch. The dores are going to have a great season. Here are a couple frustrations:
1) Why would we not have a play to get someone other than Tinsley the ball for the last shot? He should be at least our third, maybe fourth option.
2) JT needs to take charge to help us finish off teams at the end...He's gotta make those free throws.
I think we win that game with Andre Walker, and I would much rather lose that game to Missouri than a road SEC game
Although I can see why some folks see this as a good loss -- it certainly proved we're a far more capable team than was generally thought -- I think this may turn out to be a terrible loss long term.
Why? Because we choked. All we had to do to secure the victory was not choke. But we couldn't do that. We just kept missing free throws and giving them rebounds until we found a way to lose. They tried to give us a game that virtually guaranteed an NCAA birth (assuming we don't collapse in the SEC) and we were too scared to take it.
If it's just a fluke of this particular night, than it's not a massive deal, but it's still a big one. Everyone here has been talking about how we "showed people" we can play with the big boys. Not really. People who saw the game will remember that for a few weeks but all most people will ever see is the L. Wins show you can play with the big boys.
But that's not really what I'm worried about. A loss like this can destroy a college team psychologically. How will JT or Tinsley (both of whom seem mentally delicate) feel next time he's shooting free throws late in a tied game? How much of his growing confidence on the line did Fez lose last night? (And if Fez loses all confidence on the line then he becomes offensively worthless late in games because other teams will just foul him as soon as he gets the ball.)
Hopefully none of this will come to pass, and then we'll be just fine because we're clearly a quality team. But nothing about last night was good.
Best case scenario: Team learns from the loss, goes back to the gym, works out the kinks, and improves after a good effort in a tough environment.
Worst case scenario: See doomsday post by Andrew
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