Now we know why Rick Pitino looked so concerned before the game, probably saw it coming.
Reality checked in for real against Dayton, making it dawn on fans that this is not the U of L team they were expecting to see this year. Should have known challenging times were back when the Cards struggled to get points against Miami.
You can only rationalize the losses of David Padgett, Juan Palacios, George Goode and Clarence Holloway for so long. The Ville is Thinville again, relying heavily on four sophomores, one flashy but erratic junior, one hardworking freshman, and a scrappy senior who plays good defense but can’t hit either field goals or free throws.
My how the outlook has changed since the first game against Hartford, the Cards tossing in 22 three-pointers in that one. Won’t be long before the detractors emerge again. They haven’t had much time to recuperate since football, you know.
All is not lost, however. It’s obvious that U of L has significant talent on this team. Equally obvious is that some people are not playing up to their potential. Derrick Caracter comes to mind, shrugging his shoulders when he doesn’t get the ball, fouling instead of playing defense.
Pitino, ever the master motivator, knows he has his work cut out for him this season. All that early fan chatter about a final four was premature.
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guess I should have added the obvious– lack of assists
of course, as a friend pointed out last night, you can’t make assists if you can’t shoot the assists into the basket.
But lack of intelligent penetration and dish-off is killing us, and forcing us into just one-on-one Offense–which won’t get it done in the Big Dance
Problems — possibly in order (but these all stink too bad to properly rank)
defense–team and individual is incredibly poor, particularly with DC and Sosa. We’re not denying the ball or even location–short, slow guys are getting the ball way too close to the basket, etc.
turnovers — T Will, DC, Sosa –even E5 today…sheesh
poor ball movement–today’s was the worst in several games. Not making defense move and tire, much less getting open shots.
poor shooting…mainly because of items above–but we’re not knocking down open 3’s either or –importantly– making free throws.
weak rebounding… no one blocks out well. Particularly, we are not a good offensive rebounding team–which again leads to poor shooting
slow starts– finally our undoing today and will be for any tough teams
I have not noticed any real improvement in any of these things since Padgett went down…this is very disappointing to me–and RP said so too, in his very brief post-game interview
This is what is frustrating about today’s college game–any real talent only gets to mature to Soph or Jr level before going pro. I have to remember that Griff had T Will’s wildness thru his Jr yr–he became consistent only a Sr.
That’s why the college game is about Double A, compared to the Triple A quality of ball up thru mid 90’s.
This team is top 15-25 right now. Has big upside but I’m beginning to be concerned…
our 2004 team, with less raw talent, would beat this one right now by 5-10 pts