What a great game last night. Once again it felt like Cole Field House. Usually a loss is a lot more disappointing than the 65 to 63 deficit against Wake. Sure we had an 11 point lead at one point. We did not have the horses to finish the deal. I think we lost the game because we missed 6 layups on the fast break.
Our manic defense is supposed to create our offense. We do not traditionally have a great half-court offense. It is incumbent upon the defense to get the ball and accelerate into a fastbreak offense. Much like a football team that passes the ball a lot, you have to catch the touchdown passes. In our case, you have to make the layups at the end of the fastbreak.
Two things happen when we miss the layups. One, we don’t score. Two, we are often out of position on defense. We are running full speed to score and then suddenly the other team has the ball. Neither is good. Meanwhile, back at the game, if we made a few more layups the game was ours. Oh, by the way, we only had two free throws in the game.
The View from the 13th Row
Up close and personal, Wake looks like the best team in the ACC. Best athletes and best front line. If they stayed together, in a year or two they should win the national championship. I know that they have 2 or 3 guys who are going to the NBA next year. So this is it for Wake. Win now and go their separate ways.
The crowd really loves Dave Neal. He is now nicknamed “the mayor”. The loudest the crowd got was when Dave buried a three pointer as the 1st half ended. During one of the timeouts, one side of the arena yelled ‘Dave’ and the other side ‘Neal’. Back and forth it went for a full minute. Hard to believe, we will really miss the Mayor as his time in College Park comes to an end.
Many folks really enjoyed the halftime show which was put together by a campus comedy group. You can check it out http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1902812
The second half started poorly. Wake went to a 1-3-1 zone. Eric Hayes was cold from the outside. Then as the game seemed to be slipping away, Dave Neal hit three long shots to get us back in the game. As Dave heated up, Greivis went cold, Hayes disappeared and there was no one else to help. It was at this juncture that Wake’s shot blocking ability was brought to bear.
Let us not forget the fabulous, mid-air, high flying poster dunk that future NBA’er Jeff Teague threw down late in the 2nd half. That is the best dunk in the 7 years of Comcast Center.
.