I'll take the bzzout bait and offer an alternate perspective on today's loss for at least the sake of (civil) discussion. I am as disheartened as anyone with today's effort at the Joel but I'm not convinced the season is now at best a wash. I'm choosing to believe that today was a learning milestone for our players who continue to show progress at an age-appropriate rate. [Redacted] deserves the flack for today's loss but that doesn't negate the fact that his sophomore led team has made huge strides and largely has looked like a good basketball team.
Brian Gregory said it best in his post-game interview--our team was "hungover" from the loss to Syracuse Wednesday night and did not play like the team they had seen on film. The deacs sans Travis looked like a team of sophomores today. Youth is not an excuse but that's how we played today--immature and emotionally drained. Georgia Tech was the perfect trap game with the battle at Cameron coming up next week. My bet is the team viewed today's game as a cool down from Syracuse rather than a warm up to Duke. That is part on the coaching staff and part on the players. Either way, we looked like a team who was running on empty physically and mentally. We did not look like the Deac basketball team of late.
I also think we lost because Gt matched up well with our weaknesses: we don't have a true center (GT does) and we don't have a consistent threat behind the arc. It also didn't help that GT's guards were unconscious from behind the arc in the first half and we were stone cold. Combine our poor shooting with losing Codi to the ankle turn and Devon disappearing behind the ACC's best post defender (Miller) and there you have it--no inside presence and barely an outside shooting threat--we lose.
I'm not giving up on this team yet. After seeing Syracuse against Duke tonight, I'm more impressed with our performance of Wednesday night. IMO how the Deacs respond to the loss today will be more telling than how we responded to the Syracuse loss. I'll be cheering for a victory against Duke for our sophomore led team. They've done enough thus far in year two to earn my support beyond one eye-rolling loss.
Brian Gregory said it best in his post-game interview--our team was "hungover" from the loss to Syracuse Wednesday night and did not play like the team they had seen on film. The deacs sans Travis looked like a team of sophomores today. Youth is not an excuse but that's how we played today--immature and emotionally drained. Georgia Tech was the perfect trap game with the battle at Cameron coming up next week. My bet is the team viewed today's game as a cool down from Syracuse rather than a warm up to Duke. That is part on the coaching staff and part on the players. Either way, we looked like a team who was running on empty physically and mentally. We did not look like the Deac basketball team of late.
I also think we lost because Gt matched up well with our weaknesses: we don't have a true center (GT does) and we don't have a consistent threat behind the arc. It also didn't help that GT's guards were unconscious from behind the arc in the first half and we were stone cold. Combine our poor shooting with losing Codi to the ankle turn and Devon disappearing behind the ACC's best post defender (Miller) and there you have it--no inside presence and barely an outside shooting threat--we lose.
I'm not giving up on this team yet. After seeing Syracuse against Duke tonight, I'm more impressed with our performance of Wednesday night. IMO how the Deacs respond to the loss today will be more telling than how we responded to the Syracuse loss. I'll be cheering for a victory against Duke for our sophomore led team. They've done enough thus far in year two to earn my support beyond one eye-rolling loss.
