Just finished watching the game. Pissed I missed all the fun on this game thread
Congrats to the team and big props to dom for making a bunch of huge plays including the game winner. Team showed real toughness coming back.
Unfortunately I still hold on to my beliefs that Lavin coaches this team poorly and our team plays very dumb. Whether that is due to his coaching or not does not make it any less bothersome. Twice during the last minute up by 4 points and two points respectively, lavin had a chance to put his PG (no not phil greene) into the game but chose not two. Unsurprisingly both of those possessions ended poorly.
Lets go get one in Virginia!
"Poorly coached and dumb", yet we just beat a higher ranked team at their home stadium, who has a better record, in the post-season, who is coached by a pretty good coach, without our All-league shooting guard, with a team that can't shoot.
Say what you will, but our biggest problem is really our shooting ability. Part of that is related to the fact that we electively left 18-40ppg in D'Angelo Harrison to be a spectator. Even without him, we advanced to the second round. Cant be as dumb or poorly coached as being made out to be. Time for all to just start supporting this team. Time for the second round.
MCN I havn't, nor will I ever stop supporting this team. Maybe you missed the part were I gave the team credit and congratulated them on a quality, gutsy win.
If you don't think this team is poorly coached than we just have a difference of opinions. Ive known that for a while though. Way to many bone headed lazy passes and to often careless with the ball. Maybe someone should tell Obkepa to stop holding the ball with one hand and to get back on defense instead of attempting to steal the ball 90 feet from the rim.
Again, our coach is coaching a team that can't shoot for beans to a road win against a higher ranked team in the post-season. Coaching can't be all that bad considering how we shoot it.
One of the problems with being an unquestioning, rose colored glasses wearing fan is that when you're right about something, no one believes you and you dont even know why you're right.
For all the crazy in-game stuff Lavin did last night- continuing his quest to lead the country in timeouts before the 16 minute media timeout, his early burning of timeouts in general, having Garrett on the floor at the end of the game instead of Branch- he actually did the one thing that helped us win tonight: he ran a different offense.
No weave. No high pick and roll. Just a pretty basic 1-4 offense. Ball movement instead of aimless dribbling. More entry passes to the post than in all our other games combined. Sure, between Christian Jones and Obekpa it resulted in some of the ugliest post moves you'll ever see. But it also forced the defense to move, to collapse (or should I say collapse even further, because St Joes wouldnt defend anyone except Marco more than 15 feet from the basket despite the fact they were in man almost the whole game) and resulted in some easy buckets and even a few dunks!
So last night, Lavs deserves some credit for the victory. But just because they won doesnt make the previous criticism of him invalid...in fact it makes it more valid. If your team doesnt shoot it well, you dont throw your hands up and say oh well I guess we cant score. You certainly dont do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Last night- FINALLY- they changed the offensive scheme to better fit the talent and the competition. Even as we give Lavin credit for the change, I think its very fair to ask "what took you so long??"