or is it “she has a great personality”. I don’t know. I would really hate to be St Francis this year. They are not good. And that was my problem with this game. Tech should’ve scored more and St Francis should’ve scored less. I know the team is in transition but I felt like I was watching an intramural game. The majority (if not all) of Tech’s shots were created off of man-to-man matchups or putbacks. I saw no semblance of an offense that could generate points off of set plays. This will definitely not fly when it comes to facing good opponents that can overwhelm us in the man-to-man department. In the end, this will lead to forced shots and low field goal percentages. Is it fun to watch? Yeah. But you long for some structure. I’m hoping this is just Junior feeling out his guys during real game time and then he will settle into a rotation and set plays.
The good? The defensive hustle. The way the guys were flying around the floor, showing some full and half-court trap and generally harassing anyone with the ball gave some hope (although it seemed Tech had a LOT of leeway with the officials as far as reaching for and grabbing at the ball). One thing I was NOT impressed with, and something Knight would’ve benched somebody in an instant for, was Robertson (sp?) constantly trying the “let the guy past you and try to swipe the ball from the back” defense. I detest this to no end. We also were very lucky that we were playing a team that liked to shoot early in the shot clock or just swing the ball and take lots of jump shots. I still didn’t see anything that would make me think Tech would be able to match up well with a team like OU that will slow the pace down and pound you with Blake Griffin.
Overall though, the energy level was great and I’m wondering if that is one reason that Junior played so many guys. Maybe he would like to increase the rotation numbers and sub constantly to keep that energy level high. If the few glimpses of the defense presses mean anything, this seems to be where he is heading.
In closing, there was one thing that I saw regarding the players, even before tipoff, that definitely signaled the departure of Bob Knight and his philosophy. I don’t know if I’m real crazy about it and wondered if someone else can guess what I’m talking about. A hint that most surely will give it away: Fab Five. I’m hoping that this team doesn’t slide into what the Cowboys seem to be suffering from. The disciplinarian leaves and everyone talks about how much more relaxed it is, how much more fun they are having and you see scoring going up. But when situations arise that require a tough mentality, you see that the players really don’t have it anymore and tough discipline is not necessarily a bad thing. Here’s hoping….
1 – 0 baby! Go Tech!