Closing a game (was [NU Sports] Ouch)

[Roy S. Lamberton]

I think the inability to close tight games is the most irritating about
Carmody's Cats over the years.

Too many times we come into the last few minutes with a lead and watch
someone on the other team get hot and chip away to beat us at the end.

At times it is usually one player who gets hot and lights up the Cats 1-3-1
with spectacular outside shooting. Other times it’s a big guy who turns it
on underneath at both ends and takes over.

So, is the issue passion? BC seems awfully excited at the end of every game.

Or is it our defense? I'm not enough of an X/O basketball guy to take NU
defense apart, but it seems that at the end of a game when we have a lead we
pull back inside the arc - giving the shooters room to make the shots.

It seems that we're still not really a team that can play man to man
effectively for 3 or 4 minutes. The big question is talent - and the ability
to recruit it effectively.

To BC's credit he's gradually improved the talent on the team. We suffered a
drop off when Robinson, the recruiting "guy" left, but Hardy seems to have
reopened the link to the Chicago suburbs, and maybe even the city.

To Carmody's defense, I once listened to Duke come back on a very good
Maryland team on the radio. The Dookies scored 10 points in less than a
minute using every trick in the coach's book and won. Even the great Gary
Williams couldn't figure out how to deal with the well executed attack.

rsl
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.
Computer Applications & Support Associates
-------------------- Also ----------------------
"Commissioner" Delaware American Legion Baseball
Retired Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician [R]
Northwestern University - Speech 1974 - 
Chi Phi: Pi 1974, KD 1968
Publisher Emeritus: Purple Reign (Fox Sports)
==========  Go Cats -  Beat 'em All  ===========

Congress '06 - Unemployment: 4.3%  Gas: $1.75
   Obama '08 - 6.5% $2.25
      Depression '10???? - 10+% $2.75

Don't re-elect nobody, not even yo mama!
================================================

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of SjT (Stephen J. Truog)
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 12:06 AM
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com; cherron604 at aol.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Ouch

> There are at least 4 coaches who have done a far superior
> job than BC (probably more)
>  
> - Tom Izzo (of course)
> - Bo Ryan
> - Thad Matta
> - Matt Painter

Not trying to shout you down there, Chuck, but ARE YOU SERIOUS???:)

The only name on the list above clearly ahead of Carmody at this point is
Ryan, and that's because the Badgers are constantly underrated despite his
performance the last decade.

Painted had a preseason top 5 team and has fizzled out ... Matta has the
league's marquee star but an inconsistent team ... and while Izzo is the
master, this team is not the dominant final four surefire bet we all
expected this year.

It's a long season - give it a few more weeks and we'll see. But right now,
Carmody is right there in the mix.

And in response to the initial post - thoughtful analysis and I would mostly
agree. I DO have confidence Carmody's teams will play well, compete and give
it their all on the road ... until those final few minutes. That's what I
need to see out of Carmody - a crunch-time coach. We've had a lot of cases
these last few years -- home and away -- where we dominated a game or had a
good lead on the road and fell apart late.

It's a heck of a lot closer than most other times in NU hoops history - but
it still needs that "closer" step.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!



      

_______________________________________________
nwu-sports site list
nwu-sports at tssi.com
http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports