re: Tide Hoops | 31-6 (16-2)

You mean to tell me that your odds of winning a tournament with a field of 68 teams are under 50%???

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Nate said the reason he stuck with JQ is because he has played really well against UT in the past(which is true)…..but man after a while you gotta realize he ain’t got it that night and move on

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In Nate's defense, no other guards except Bradley were doing any better. We didn't have better options for a facilitator. I think Bradley had some success because he just bulls his way in and throws his body into the defender to the point today's refs think they HAVE to make a call.

Sears tends to defy conventional wisdom for smaller guards. He has a lot of success against bigger defenders because they tend to have less lateral quickness and because his strength is body control rather than explosiveness he is good at getting them out of position. He tends to struggle against guards like Zeigler who has the lateral quickness to cut him off before he can get downhill and, like every other midget guard to ever play in this league, gets to hand check on the perimeter with reckless abandon. He's basically Retin Obasohan with a better looking shot. Nothing at all wrong with that, but there are certain matchups where he's going to feast and certain matchups where he's going to struggle.

The thing that worries me about the tournament isn’t our ability- it’s that despite our ability we can really play low IQ basketball at times and lack situational awareness. Picking up a dribble in a corner, leaving your feet without a plan, opting for a wild or prayer pass instead of just looking at the official and calling timeout. Going under screens on a good shooter on the perimeter. We’ve got some players, namely JQ, that play each possession without a plan B. When he drives to the hole he is only looking for a layup. If he doesn’t beat his guy to the point he thinks he can force a shot, he is probably going to just keep dribbling in circles for the next 6-7 seconds. We just don’t make a concerted effort to retain the basketball when teams play a high on ball defense. Don’t get me started on the inbounds “plays” on the baseline.

Every March you see really good mid majors and low majors that just play a really high IQ game and knock down threes and I think someone like that would give us fits. The “elites” don’t worry me as much because for the most part you see upper echelon teams kind of getting into an our athlete vs yours style game and I like our chances in those. It’s those mid majors with 6’1” senior guards and savvy forwards that scare the shite out of me in March, because they don’t get to March at all by playing dumb basketball. I’m hoping for chalk results on our side of the bracket, but we are likely to be in a nail biter in the 8/9 game.

Can this team protect the basketball well enough against increasingly good competition for 6 straight games. Turnovers have been the story in all of our losses aside from Oklahoma where they just made a ridiculous amount of shots over expected value- and there isn’t a thing to be done about that. I never expected us to run the table in the SEC, but I’d feel better if our losses were just due to off nights shooting, missing open looks that usually fall. When everything looks extremely difficult on offense, it is worrying.

I also think it's easy to fixate on the flaws of your own team. Bama isn't perfect, for sure, and can lose games. But that goes for every team out there including the other top seeds.

I honestly am only worried about a very specific team type - the UConn/Tennessee/Houston physical, long defense that controls tempo in a game played with a swallowed whistle in which we never find our footing offensively.

Who fits that mold that we could see early or late?

- Oklahoma State (8/9 game)
- Northwestern (8/9 game)
- UCLA (S16/E8)
- Iowa State (S16/E8)
- Saint Mary's (S16/E8)
- Virginia (S16/E8)
- UConn (S16/E8)
- Houston (F4)


Teams that are the opposite of that (avg/bad def, fast tempo)

- Kansas State
- Xavier
- Miami
- Arizona
- Pitt

Oklahoma State is the only possible 8/9 team that would truly make me nervous. But they'd make me reaaaaaally nervous.

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I really don’t think Anyone in the country can beat Tennessee in Thompson-Boling when the Officials are being that lenient with Contact.

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I think you're probably correct. I think that level of physicality just makes players lose focus on things they need to do correctly and just lock in to trying to be more physical with everything they do on the court. The thing I loved last night and have for the past few games is the edge Pringle plays with. That dude is tough as nails and just plays his balls off for the minutes he's in.

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The game was called in a way that favored their style of play and what each team was allowed to get away with wasn't the same.

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This. I am still blown away that the play where Plavsic clubbed JQ across the face was not reviewed for a flagrant. I've seen plays reviewed ad nauseum for less than that.

A whole thread up about JQ...

They can see everything WRONG JQ does but they close their eyes when they FAVORITE player plays terrible.

I don't get it...

Gary Vee said...FEAR IS NOT AN OPTION/ He wished people write things on social media that he actually sucked.

JQ take on Gary Vee mindset and rise up like a phoenix and destroy all these haters.

No U Turns so let's get it!!

Sounds good till literally any player says something or does something to JQ and he immediately unravels.

Dude is in his mid-20s yet has the mental strength of a teenager. Smh.