hoops123
Freshman
Posts: 97
Age: 53
Reg: 12-14-16
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02-13-17 03:29 PM - Post#221730
In response to GoBigGreenBasketball
Sorry guys. Had to watch the replays. Vacation in Puerto Rico with the family. OK. Had to weigh in on the Fleming/Barry debate. Where was our team at Yale? Fleming 5 points, 2 assts, 1 steal, 1 T/O in 22 mins! Barry 0 pts and 2 steals in 17 mins! What?? I am too sunburned to go through each player so I'll be general. Our defense was fair to poor all game at Yale. Our team is awful at keeping their body between the man and the basket. Our foot speed on defense is deathly slow for ALL players. The worst defenders are Sistare and Fleming. Barry is in a close race to tie for first. If we had a Linda Ronstadt stats category(for you non-golfers, a Linda Ronstadt is a Blue Bayou (Blew By You...as in my shot blew by you) her greatest hit as a singer. I am convinced Fleming and Sistare lead the league in Linda Ronstadts. Their feet look glued to the floor at both Yale and Brown. Opposing guards must be licking their chops when they see Fleming guarding them. One crossover or power dribble and Fleming is chasing his man as he makes a layup. Now to be fair, Fleming outplayed Barry this weekend. Fleming had the game of his life Saturday, and I give credit where credit is due. Barry was a no show all weekend. But Fleming's Brown game raises a point that has troubled me and many board members all year: Where was that scoring the other 20 games of the year, or the other 40 combined games of Fleming's Junior (1.9ppg season avg) and Freshman year (2.3ppg season avg)?? I'm thrilled he had his second career high of the season. Without it we don't beat Brown. Again, hat's off to Fleming. But where was it at Yale, or the 4 games this year when Fleming scored ZERO points?? If you watch the tape of the Brown game (I did...twice) Fleming gets blown by his man and our defense has to make up for the fact that he cant keep his man in front of him. So his plus/minus for the game (counting the numbers of time he fouls or his man beats him and scores or causes our defense to help)must be close. SO he scored 17 points but his lack of defensive presence killed us many times. Watch the end of the game (last two mins) when we need to get a stop. Fleming has no idea where he is at the top of the key, allows himself to get slightly picked, and his man makes an uncontested layup. Fleming throws up his hands like "I just got beat like I have all game, why didn't you guys stop him?". Sistare has equally slow foot speed. Watch him trying to guard Spieth. He put him on the line twice in crunch time and Spieth made all 4 foul shots. Spieth went to the basket at will. The real question is why did Mclaughlin think that would work (slow against fast, pretty easy call) and when it didn't, why didn't he fix it?????? Put Cam Smith on him!! Sistare was guarding Spieth at the end of the game! The reason we won the Brown game is we finally had multiple guys step up and hit shots. Our leading POY candidate Boudreaux got his 11th double/double, had 21 and 13 against Brown, and is always the picture of consistency (even against Yale he was game leading scorer with 15 pts). Smith (who played great defense on Spieth btw) and Wright finally came alive in the second half to put points on the board. Wes Dickinson has really upped his game and is a much stronger presence inside. His length alters shots and he can dunk almost every time he gets the ball. Clearly the most improved player on the team. Fleming hit good shots, but he and Sistare easily could have lost the game for us as their defense was so poor. We were very lucky to win the Brown game. On to Mclaughlin: very concerned about his in game adjustments (can't put an offense together to play/score against a zone - STILL). Game plan against Yale was poor. Brown ok. Substitution patterns are all over the map. Pretty sure his plan is "when a player makes two shots in 4 mins, take him out and rest him", cause he ALWAYS takes out guys on a roll/when they are on fire. WHY?????? Sure coach, let's ice our guys so the other team doesn't have to do it. Ok, gotta get to the pool with the family. Had to vent a bit. Fleming (only because he isn't turning the ball over) should stay our starter (and not because he happened to get 17 points.) It's only the second time he's been in double figures in 61 career games played. The whole team needs to step up, up their games, make their shots, and PLEASE PLAY DEFENSE! And we MIGHT get lucky and contend for the 4th spot. Sorry for all of you in the Northeast with the blizzards. I feel for you. Now where did I put that sunblock...
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