- Third conference road win with three remaining. Not bad. If we could win just one more to go 4 - 5 away in conference it would be darn respectable.
- To win a game on a lane violation is oh so rare and oh so sweet. To have their best player play 1 second half minute without being in foul trouble for disciplinary reasons is huge. These are the types of breaks from the big guy I expected when I started following a catholic school.
- With 1:29 left in a real squeeker JB1 is fouled and we successfully pull off the old bait and switch as Hilton goes to the line to shoot the 1 and 1 instead of Justin and the refs don't catch it. I could of course see trying this with Hardy boyz and anybody but Paris has a lower FT % than Burrell so it was surprising we attempted this gamesmanship with these two. As with all of Hollywood's coaching moves lately it worked as Hilton made the front end of the 1 and 1. I've seen this happen often at Cyo games with one ref but in a D1 game with 4 refs it's shocking.
- Great shooting night, 7 - 9, for JB2 but it might just be time for him to shelf that behind the back in the lane in traffic move.
- My favorite plays were;
1) the three almost consecutive 2nd half perfect baseline bounce passes to cutters going right at the hole. I think we only scored on one, Hardy, but just about the three prettiest passes I've ever seen from MalikII. Good stuff.
2) The Mans man rebound by JB2 with 8 seconds left to seal the deal. He went up with every ounce of leap he had against the Cincy towers and it was only enough to keep it alive tapping the ball forward then he went after it like a rabid dog outhustling/outfighting a couple of bearcats to secure it in traffic. Didn't get called for the elbow swinging and was fouled to end it all.
- Malik II making some nice passes (see above) and impressive 2 to 1 Ass/TO ratio on the season makes his sr. year his best year ever at the point. If only he didn't come into the game every night so reved up and looking to foul. A little more defensive composure is warrented from him. He just might have surpassed Dele as the Johnny most likely to commit a stupid foul ( personals not flagrants/techs - Dele still dominates that category with JB1 in second place.) Another poster made a good point. He's 5' 8" yet Never gets posted up? It's quite remarkable really.
- I now understand Hollywood's plan to stubbornly stay with the trapping matchup zone mad scramble defense through tough times early in the season (Fordham etc.) when going man might have prevented some three's and gotten us a coupla more out of conference wins. It was worth it for the tenacity, confidence, buy-in and commitment from the team we're playing it with now. Effective as heck and absolutely flying to the ball today and against Ucan't. Fun to watch and h*ll for the other team to play against. We're looking like Richardson's Razorbacks out there lately.
- We desperately needed this one as we're definitely going to be 7 - 6 after the next one and possibly 7 -7 after the next two.
Go St. Johns!