** Old folks like myself don’t go out for New Year’s Eve anymore. Instead, the Wife, my Son and I planned to make this night our New Year’s dinner celebration plus entertainment. But my Wife’s brutal bout of bronchitis nipped those plans in the bud.
** So she watched this very fun game at home all alone, through her antibiotic laden condition. Walking out the Pete, I was thrilled to call and get her take. “So what did you think?” I asked. “By the end of the game, the Orange looked tired and beaten up,” she said. Even someone who coughed through two thirds of the game was able to gather this truth.
** When was the last time we watched the Panthers beat up an opponent down the stretch? When was the last time we appeared demonstrably tougher than our opponent? Tonight, we got both.
** The Panthers didn’t play very well tonight. Our offensive execution wasn’t nearly as good as we’ve seen this year. We didn’t shoot well.
** The Cuse deserved some credit for this, in that they did some things differently in their zone than we have been used to seeing over the year. Most notably, the Orange pinched together their two guards at the foul line to prevent the Panthers from operating as effectively from that spot as they have so well for most of this millennium.
** The Orange also did an excellent job of keeping the ball away from Mike Young, at least in any place where he could do any kind of damage in the context of the offense.
** All of this led to a tough offensive first half for the Panthers. That is a 30 point first half.
** So how did we turn that into a 42 point second half including 37 points in the last 13 minutes?
** Much of it was done with the aforementioned toughness, which often included offensive rebounding. That was actually the biggest overall difference in this game.
** Some of it was done with Dixon’s second half adjustment to attack the zone from outside of the pinched in guards, instead of from the foul line, and to look for space along the baseline.
** The rest was Jamel Artis.
** I could try to write a whole bunch about Jamel’s performance tonight, but I wouldn’t do him appropriate justice. Let’s just leave it at “brilliant!”
** Still, let’s also give a shout out to some of the other things Jamel did besides passing and scoring, which means defense and rebounding. No one is ever going to nominate Jamel as ACC defensive player of the year. But he’s night and day from last year. And the guy who seemed to almost forget to rebound against GW in the NIT game last year was all over the glass tonight.
** Last year, when a team focused on Mike Young the way the Cuse did tonight, he might have mustered 8 points. Tonight, he managed 15, and he earned each and every one.
** Methinks Sheldon Jeter might be learning how to play defense. There’s no doubt he knows how to finish on the break with serious flair!
** While I’m on a positive vibe, let’s give some other shout outs. First, to Jamie Dixon not only for his second half adjustments, but also giving spot substitutions to Mike Young and Jamel Artis. I wasn’t thrilled that he kept pulling them, but obviously our depth helped to wear down the Cuse.
** Second, to Cameron Johnson. When I first saw Slim at a summer game in Montour, I pictured him hitting one of his deep threes with his long arms over the Cuse Zone. Nice to finally see that come to fruition.
** Third, to the Oakland Zoo! Congrats for doing a great job filling your seats over the break, and bringing plenty of noise and energy.
** For me, the night’s only jeers go to referee Bryan Kersey. I can forgive Bri for a very questionable block call on Mike at the end of the first half. But a good veteran ref (which I though Kersey was) just goes into the tunnel at halftime. He shouldn’t chase down Ontario Lett (who was walking the other way toward his tunnel) to get into an argument. Booooo!
** It’s also tough for me to watch Syracuse and not see Jim Boeheim. Ever since I’ve been watching Pitt hoops – well over 30 years now – Jimmy B has been whining on the sideline.
** But it’s easy to let that go on this fun night. To me, this game clearly demonstrated all the wonderful differences between this year and last. That is, the ability to score points when not shooting well, and the ability to play defense when it is needed most.
** The Cuse aren’t a very good team this year. And they seem to be remarkably bad on the defensive glass. Still, our Panthers probably would have lost this game last year.
** So hopefully, my Wife will go into 2016 starting to feel a little bit better. That is, because I suspect she’s going want several more opportunities to watch the 2015-2016 Panther Hoopers in person.
** So she watched this very fun game at home all alone, through her antibiotic laden condition. Walking out the Pete, I was thrilled to call and get her take. “So what did you think?” I asked. “By the end of the game, the Orange looked tired and beaten up,” she said. Even someone who coughed through two thirds of the game was able to gather this truth.
** When was the last time we watched the Panthers beat up an opponent down the stretch? When was the last time we appeared demonstrably tougher than our opponent? Tonight, we got both.
** The Panthers didn’t play very well tonight. Our offensive execution wasn’t nearly as good as we’ve seen this year. We didn’t shoot well.
** The Cuse deserved some credit for this, in that they did some things differently in their zone than we have been used to seeing over the year. Most notably, the Orange pinched together their two guards at the foul line to prevent the Panthers from operating as effectively from that spot as they have so well for most of this millennium.
** The Orange also did an excellent job of keeping the ball away from Mike Young, at least in any place where he could do any kind of damage in the context of the offense.
** All of this led to a tough offensive first half for the Panthers. That is a 30 point first half.
** So how did we turn that into a 42 point second half including 37 points in the last 13 minutes?
** Much of it was done with the aforementioned toughness, which often included offensive rebounding. That was actually the biggest overall difference in this game.
** Some of it was done with Dixon’s second half adjustment to attack the zone from outside of the pinched in guards, instead of from the foul line, and to look for space along the baseline.
** The rest was Jamel Artis.
** I could try to write a whole bunch about Jamel’s performance tonight, but I wouldn’t do him appropriate justice. Let’s just leave it at “brilliant!”
** Still, let’s also give a shout out to some of the other things Jamel did besides passing and scoring, which means defense and rebounding. No one is ever going to nominate Jamel as ACC defensive player of the year. But he’s night and day from last year. And the guy who seemed to almost forget to rebound against GW in the NIT game last year was all over the glass tonight.
** Last year, when a team focused on Mike Young the way the Cuse did tonight, he might have mustered 8 points. Tonight, he managed 15, and he earned each and every one.
** Methinks Sheldon Jeter might be learning how to play defense. There’s no doubt he knows how to finish on the break with serious flair!
** While I’m on a positive vibe, let’s give some other shout outs. First, to Jamie Dixon not only for his second half adjustments, but also giving spot substitutions to Mike Young and Jamel Artis. I wasn’t thrilled that he kept pulling them, but obviously our depth helped to wear down the Cuse.
** Second, to Cameron Johnson. When I first saw Slim at a summer game in Montour, I pictured him hitting one of his deep threes with his long arms over the Cuse Zone. Nice to finally see that come to fruition.
** Third, to the Oakland Zoo! Congrats for doing a great job filling your seats over the break, and bringing plenty of noise and energy.
** For me, the night’s only jeers go to referee Bryan Kersey. I can forgive Bri for a very questionable block call on Mike at the end of the first half. But a good veteran ref (which I though Kersey was) just goes into the tunnel at halftime. He shouldn’t chase down Ontario Lett (who was walking the other way toward his tunnel) to get into an argument. Booooo!
** It’s also tough for me to watch Syracuse and not see Jim Boeheim. Ever since I’ve been watching Pitt hoops – well over 30 years now – Jimmy B has been whining on the sideline.
** But it’s easy to let that go on this fun night. To me, this game clearly demonstrated all the wonderful differences between this year and last. That is, the ability to score points when not shooting well, and the ability to play defense when it is needed most.
** The Cuse aren’t a very good team this year. And they seem to be remarkably bad on the defensive glass. Still, our Panthers probably would have lost this game last year.
** So hopefully, my Wife will go into 2016 starting to feel a little bit better. That is, because I suspect she’s going want several more opportunities to watch the 2015-2016 Panther Hoopers in person.
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