** I will start by keeping this simple. Congrats to our Panther players! They haven’t quit, and they are showing plenty of pride, especially in the wake of two demoralizing losses. They are working hard and playing hard. They deserved this one. I’m really happy for them.
** I’m happy for me too. I’m tired of walking out of the Pete with disgust.
** But I’ll try to be real about this game as well. It doesn’t bring me any real new promise for this season. Nothing we watched tells us the Panthers are ready to take any notable steps forward.
** But this much I will say. At the very least, during the last three games we have played the only kind of game we can to have any kind of success at all. Nothing is going to come easy, so we will have to defend every shot, scrap for offense, keep it close, and find a way to win at the end.
** I will also say this. Had we played the way we did tonight against the Citadel, that game might have come down to the final possession also.
** And there are two significant differences between the Panthers against the Citadel and the Panthers against Colgate – the return of Burton and the emergence of Eze. Both have made our perimeter defense noticeably better.
** We really can’t give Eze enough props for this play. He’s just so physical on defense, and I think it helps set a tone that the rest of team feeds off of, The offense that he provides is a special bonus.
** This isn’t to say that our perimeter defense was good tonight. Let’s go with “OK.” But more often than not, the Panthers were able to rotate enough to find shooters. The Panthers didn’t do that against the Citadel at all. In that game, the Bulldogs shot 36 threes, as opposed to the 23 Colgate shot tonight.
** We also had some really troubling moments guarding the pick and roll, and Noah has some real work to do to improve in this regard.
** On the offensive end, the team is now doing a better job purposefully running the offense through Big John. And for moments in the second half our offense actually looked … well … pretty good even.
** But there are still so many things that really trouble me about our offense, mostly that our dribble drive penetration almost never results in any looks on the perimeter, let alone any good looks at the basket.
** I also wish we looked to get more in transition. All but one of the fast break buckets we got tonight were from completely clear run outs from steals. We also exhibit no offense from the secondary break, although that usually means finding three point shooters and we really don’t have any of those anyway.
** Nonetheless, it’s fair to give props to Mo for his outstanding drive and draw to even the game when it looked like our Panthers had meant their endpoint.
** And props also to Nate, Will, and Jamarius who found some success with the midrange. All of this added up to what was the best overall offensive performance by the Panthers this year.
** For those who think this is offering far too much praise to a 3 point win over Colgate, that is not my intention. I also realize how ridiculous it sounds comparing our performance against Colgate to our performance against the Citadel.
** We are all well aware the both are performances from a team that is likely to end in the cellar of the ACC.
** But if one is going to follow the Panthers this year, I do see at least see some virtue in enjoying whatever there is to be enjoyed. There may not be all that many opportunities to do so.
** And tonight I enjoyed watching the Panthers. Congrats guys on the win.
