Costa Rican Gopher
Mind of a Scientist
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2008
- Messages
- 27,825
- Reaction score
- 6,023
- Points
- 113
- I hope we never play in this circus disguised as a basketball tournament again. It seemed like a big set-up to push guys into playing a NYC playground style game, where trash talking, one-on-one basketball and showboating was strongly encouraged.
- It affected Washington, Mason & Sexton the most. Multiple times IW jacked up 3 pointers or transition jumpers just to show boat. Multiple times he over-dribbled or turned easy passes into hard ones. He seemed more interested in putting on a good show for his NYC Instagram followers than winning the basketball game. The one on one, style seemed to play right into Sexton's strengths, as did playing from behind. Mason is the Senior who was supposed to be smarter than those guys though, but he ended up getting sucked into it more than the younger guys. His fake, then glance at Sexton, then 3 pointer, wasn't the first time he did that type of thing, just the first time it worked. Re-watch the game and you'll see he did that kind of thing on at least two occasions prior to that.
- On that note, the Bama fans sitting behind the announcers were instigating sh*t the whole time, talking trash to the players & injecting themselves into the game. It was clear that the players were responding to those fans with some of the things they were doing & saying. The refs should have stepped, early on. The whole NYC playground atmosphere, yuck!
- Bama clearly wasn't ready for how hard we came out of the gate. They're clearly used to be the alpha-dogs and found themselves in unfamiliar territory being over matched physically. Avery Johnson's 1st half T looked like he was trying to get his troops fired up. On his cue they got really chippy. A couple guys made runs at Lynch and just bounced off of him. They took Coffey down hard on a couple occasions. A couple times they tried on Murphy and he just fought through it like they weren't there. Then their guy hooked Murphy under the basket, elbowed him in the face and sort of tossed him to the floor. That was the 1st time where I thought "Ok, this is starting to get out of hand.". Avery Johnson must have gotten on them some more at half time, because in the second half they looked like they wanted to fight as much as play basketball. You could feel it in the air that something could pop off.
- I put much of this nonsense on Avery Johnson. His team was unprepared. He got angry, got a T and instantly his team started playing cheap to compensate. They came out after 1/2 playing cheaper still. He never reigned them in. In fact he seemed to be encouraging it. Watching his entire team come off the bench at the first sign of trouble was indicative of his leadership, imo.
- The hold against McBrayer wouldn't have been a big deal normally. The guy held him and just wouldn't let go. Given the tense atmosphere though, and McBrayer (imo) not wanting to look like a punk in front of the hometown NYC crowd, he shook loose and shoved back. The real problem started when #23 John Petty, who wasn't involved, came running at McBrayer with his hands up to fight, while McBrayer and the guy he'd tussled with were still jawing. Like in the NHL, 3rd man in should have been tossed & wasn't. The refs blew yet another call.
- Then the Bama bench did the stupidest thing I've ever seen. They ran onto the court, but didn't get into the scrap. Jesus, how stupid are those guys to jump off the bench and take 2-3 steps onto the court and stand there? Do they not understand that leaving the bench is an ejection? Who's been coaching these guys?
- Once we were playing 5 on 4 and 5 on 3, we could have gone full court press, we could have played run 'n' gun, we could have just pounded it inside over and over, but instead we hung around the perimeter and essentially played H.O.R.S.E. with them the last 10 minutes. It wasn't much fun to watch, but we got the W, didn't get anyone hurt & no more fights broke out.
- IW was absolutely abused by Sexton once Mason left. So much so, that we damn near lost a 13 point lead playing 5 on 3. Beating a dead horse, but while IW has tons of potential, he's so far away from being ready right now that it's a little scary. Still, if something happens to Mason, he'll have to shoulder much of the PG duties, so it's important he get the experience now. It's painful to watch him play right now, but it's all part of the process.
- It affected Washington, Mason & Sexton the most. Multiple times IW jacked up 3 pointers or transition jumpers just to show boat. Multiple times he over-dribbled or turned easy passes into hard ones. He seemed more interested in putting on a good show for his NYC Instagram followers than winning the basketball game. The one on one, style seemed to play right into Sexton's strengths, as did playing from behind. Mason is the Senior who was supposed to be smarter than those guys though, but he ended up getting sucked into it more than the younger guys. His fake, then glance at Sexton, then 3 pointer, wasn't the first time he did that type of thing, just the first time it worked. Re-watch the game and you'll see he did that kind of thing on at least two occasions prior to that.
- On that note, the Bama fans sitting behind the announcers were instigating sh*t the whole time, talking trash to the players & injecting themselves into the game. It was clear that the players were responding to those fans with some of the things they were doing & saying. The refs should have stepped, early on. The whole NYC playground atmosphere, yuck!
- Bama clearly wasn't ready for how hard we came out of the gate. They're clearly used to be the alpha-dogs and found themselves in unfamiliar territory being over matched physically. Avery Johnson's 1st half T looked like he was trying to get his troops fired up. On his cue they got really chippy. A couple guys made runs at Lynch and just bounced off of him. They took Coffey down hard on a couple occasions. A couple times they tried on Murphy and he just fought through it like they weren't there. Then their guy hooked Murphy under the basket, elbowed him in the face and sort of tossed him to the floor. That was the 1st time where I thought "Ok, this is starting to get out of hand.". Avery Johnson must have gotten on them some more at half time, because in the second half they looked like they wanted to fight as much as play basketball. You could feel it in the air that something could pop off.
- I put much of this nonsense on Avery Johnson. His team was unprepared. He got angry, got a T and instantly his team started playing cheap to compensate. They came out after 1/2 playing cheaper still. He never reigned them in. In fact he seemed to be encouraging it. Watching his entire team come off the bench at the first sign of trouble was indicative of his leadership, imo.
- The hold against McBrayer wouldn't have been a big deal normally. The guy held him and just wouldn't let go. Given the tense atmosphere though, and McBrayer (imo) not wanting to look like a punk in front of the hometown NYC crowd, he shook loose and shoved back. The real problem started when #23 John Petty, who wasn't involved, came running at McBrayer with his hands up to fight, while McBrayer and the guy he'd tussled with were still jawing. Like in the NHL, 3rd man in should have been tossed & wasn't. The refs blew yet another call.
- Then the Bama bench did the stupidest thing I've ever seen. They ran onto the court, but didn't get into the scrap. Jesus, how stupid are those guys to jump off the bench and take 2-3 steps onto the court and stand there? Do they not understand that leaving the bench is an ejection? Who's been coaching these guys?
- Once we were playing 5 on 4 and 5 on 3, we could have gone full court press, we could have played run 'n' gun, we could have just pounded it inside over and over, but instead we hung around the perimeter and essentially played H.O.R.S.E. with them the last 10 minutes. It wasn't much fun to watch, but we got the W, didn't get anyone hurt & no more fights broke out.
- IW was absolutely abused by Sexton once Mason left. So much so, that we damn near lost a 13 point lead playing 5 on 3. Beating a dead horse, but while IW has tons of potential, he's so far away from being ready right now that it's a little scary. Still, if something happens to Mason, he'll have to shoulder much of the PG duties, so it's important he get the experience now. It's painful to watch him play right now, but it's all part of the process.
