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Niagara
Jan 12, 2013 0:16:35 GMT -5
Post by oldtimer1 on Jan 12, 2013 0:16:35 GMT -5
Loyal...Chris Burke, Chris Burke, Chris Burke. Love to watch him play, good game or bad.
Just some random comments on tonight:
1) Most of the 2nd half Burke, Patterson and Desi were on the floor together. Shades of next year. Burke is already a player, Chazz is game by game becoming pne and Desi is Desi.
2) Pat Jackson had a very good game. I wouldn't get too excited yet as almost all of his shots were dunks and layups off good interior passing
3) Niagara was not small. They killed us off the offensive boards and had several outstanding shooters. Will be a contender for the MAAC Championship. As Cindy said the better team (unlike Manhattan).
4) Darius was much more active tonight like the Darius of old. Still can't elevate but looks good getting up and down the floor. Getting close to the guy we all remember.
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Niagara
Jan 12, 2013 0:27:25 GMT -5
Post by figgyprez on Jan 12, 2013 0:27:25 GMT -5
Old fashioned butt kicking. Niagara looks like SPU but has a better player probably at every position--at least tonight. Killed us on boards. We were totally outprepared I thought Mihalich did a great job of speedimg us up and their quickness killed us. Hope it was a break out night for Burke. Jackson was likely the strongest gut out there and used it well. 1st half we actually ran offense pretty well in fairness esp Ffrench but we could not hit a shot with many wide open. JD frustrated by failure of guys to take open looks in 1st half too. Players must decide whether yhe season will now go out of control or if they want to be relevant at all. At the end of the day we might just decide that we are not quite good enough overall. Competitive yes, but not good enough to win. The jury's still out but that could be the final verdict
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Niagara
Jan 12, 2013 3:18:31 GMT -5
Post by eport on Jan 12, 2013 3:18:31 GMT -5
As stated earlier, had the feeling we were going to bring our "A Game" tonight, only had the wrong team. Everything was falling for Niagara.....they couldn't do much wrong. Very few turnovers, fouls, great offensive rebounding and shooting, including 9-10 from the foul line. They played pretty close to a perfect game.....it happens. We'll see what our team is made of on Sunday. Hopefully, we'll come out with a vengeance and continue our winning streak over Siena. Despite their record, Siena is no pushover and will be flying high after their win over Canisius. Fortunately, Dunne has owned Siena the last few years. Can't afford to fall to 1-5.....we really need this one. One point from the foul line? Unbelievable!!!
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Niagara
Jan 12, 2013 3:29:57 GMT -5
Post by eport on Jan 12, 2013 3:29:57 GMT -5
Forgot to mention Jackson and Burke. Granted Jackson's points were all dunks and layups off of some nice passing, but I'll gladly take 14 points and 6 rebounds from Jackson every night. What the hell happened to Burke? Did he take some steroids tonight? Great all around game.....can't believe he was 5-7 on three's.....WOW! Now if we can only put it all together with the usual contributors we'll really have something. Still waiting for the perfect storm.
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Niagara
Jan 12, 2013 9:10:28 GMT -5
Post by oldtimer1 on Jan 12, 2013 9:10:28 GMT -5
Mistakenly posted a response under the Loyola thread. Perhaps it's best that I did because I took to task those who think Chris Burke can't shoot or just brings INTANGIBLES to our team.
Chris' skills and contributions are very real. As for shooting Chris is at .458 overall this year and Desi is at .391. Is Desi a poor shooter? Don't think so. Be happy to debate anyone who does not think that Chris is not a valuable player and not an important contributor. Happy for him last night. May not be the start of a trend and it's probably not a breakout but quite simply, like Blaise, the kid is a player.
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Niagara
Jan 12, 2013 9:19:28 GMT -5
Post by peacockblue on Jan 12, 2013 9:19:28 GMT -5
Glad to see Burke have a break out game from the perimeter but unfortunately the blueprint for beating SP has become quite clear. Pack in the zone, force Blaise to his left as much as possible (Raymond as well when he gets the ball), make him kick it out, and dare someone other than Desi to beat you from the perimeter. Tonight Burke was able to capitalize, but we still lost by 20 with Desi, Blaise, and Darius scoring only 17 points combined.
I was glad to see Jackson put up a nice stat line but as mentioned in previous posts, all the result of others creating and him being in the right place at the right time. I don't expect him to keep this up on a consistent basis.
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Niagara
Jan 12, 2013 10:08:08 GMT -5
Post by oldtimer1 on Jan 12, 2013 10:08:08 GMT -5
peacockblue...agree with your analysis again. We can all hope that Jackson has elevated his game. Like you, hopeful, but the jury is still out.
Blaise and especially Yvon will have trouble against a zone defense. Blaise can drive left as well as right (he does so quite frequently) not so Yvon but as you say they pack it in and converge on Blaise. Early on Blaise made some great decisions/passes to Jackson for dunks. Blaise is a great assist guy but needs our other players to convert. If so he'd have close to 10 assists per game. UInfortunately, not going to happen.
Conley ... looked real good running the floor (without scoring much). Think he's healed. Let's see if his scoring improves.
Burke...probably tired of me talking about him. Not going to throw up 17 everynight. I'd be happy with 8-10 with an occassional game like last night. Most upside on the team, period.
Chazz... outstanding defensive player with a pretty good shot. Glad he's getting needed experience. Will see a lot of minutes next year.
Tucker...decent offensive player (doesn't give the ball up much) but a liability on defense. Will see fewer minutes.
Elias...watched him in warm ups. Very good shooter for a big man. If Dominique can control the boards the way I know he can, I hope JD plays Elias more and allows him to drift outside on offense. Potential written all over him if he finds his niche,
Prescott...watched him shoot over 30 jumpers in warmups. Beautiful rotation and form but the ball just does not go in often enough. Looks good but little results. Chazz will get more playing time.
Spoke with figgyprez and he had some very positive observations on Dominique's shooting ability in warmups. Same as I saw in pickup. Still love his rebounding potential more but can put the ball in the hoop.
Niagara is a very good team.
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Niagara
Jan 12, 2013 13:08:37 GMT -5
Post by JohnGalt on Jan 12, 2013 13:08:37 GMT -5
Niagara plays no defense, certainly not last night. Aside from manning up on Desi and closing the middle to Blaise, all others were given space, which likely caused some numbers to inflate. As alluded to earlier, some appeared so astounded to be open that they failed to execute, bringing forth the ire of John.
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Niagara
Jan 13, 2013 11:25:19 GMT -5
Post by Peacock on Jan 13, 2013 11:25:19 GMT -5
Surprised that you failed to mentioned that were two teams that were not playing defense which should have been more cause to raise John's ire
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Niagara
Jan 13, 2013 11:50:06 GMT -5
Post by oldtimer1 on Jan 13, 2013 11:50:06 GMT -5
Don't need to start a controversy over some meaningless stuff. However, both teams played with intensity. Most of our players gave outstanding efforts. Yuvon was in his man's face all night...give our guys some credit. However, sometimes a team can have defensive intensity ( so JD is not upset) but the other team overcomes it. Don't know what I'd call it but our team did not lack defensive effort. I was there.
On Niagara part they played a 2/3 zone all game long and as johngalt said overplayerd Desi. Hard to evaluate the defensive intensity of a team playing a zone.
As I said, no disagreement with the above posts just wanted to clarify
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