ACC:2 FSU:3
On Wednesday evening, Miami did what good, experienced basketball teams do. They came back from a 12 point deficit in the first half only to be leading at the half. Down the stretch, held on as they missed three after three, relying on their play maker McClinton to get to the line to seal the victory. This is a good loss in the eye's of the tournament committee...we even went up in the RPI.
This afternoon, we travel to UVA to take on the Cavaliers.
Take a look inside for the preview and game thread.
N.B. An ACC road win is always a good thing. The final score is not indicative of what the game was like. We got lazy and tried to do to much in the last few minutes, allowing UVA to go on a run. We took the lead from the start and continued to have a great game, particularly in the first half. Toney Douglas and Chris Singleton each had excellent games and the Noles offense had some life to it. Now...it's time to see what we can do against UNC.
If you Google "how to finish basketball teams" you will get 798,000 results. Miami demonstrated how to hang on and finish a basketball game, despite disappointing shooting from the floor. Despite not scoring on their last three possessions, Miami won the game. How did they do it? They got to the free throw line.
Our young team is continuing to struggle to finish out basketball games or even finish out the first half. On numerous occasions, we have built large leads, only to see them slip away.
Check out the following examples:
Clearly, there are games in which we have led from the start and finished games, but if you read through the game threads, many of us start to get nervous as we sense the comeback starting and watching leads slip away.
This is a nice article at Statsheet.com (TNation's new favorite toy in generating charts) about calculating when a game is over. Interesting read that may or may not make us feel more comfortable as we watch our Noles.
On to the Virginia match up. Unfortunately, this is going to be quite short. Work has been way to busy and my boards are coming up. Plus, no offense to the UVA fans in the house...it's UVA. Going into the match up, UVA is 7-8 and 1-3 in ACC play, recently losing on the road to Maryland 84-78. Their lone ACC victory was against GTech, a close 88-84 OT victory.
Here is how their season has gone so far. Clearly, there are some sore thumb loses, but they have played a relatively difficult schedule. According to Pomeroy, their SOS is 35th in the country. Ours is 38th.
| Sun Nov 16 | (166) Virginia Military Inst | W, 107-97 | 90 | Home | 1-0 | ||
| Wed Nov 19 | (92) South Florida | W, 77-75 | 73 | Home | 2-0 | ||
| Fri Nov 21 | (199) Radford | W, 68-66 | 74 | Home | 3-0 | ||
| Tue Nov 25 | (147) Liberty | L, 86-82 | 70 | Home | 3-1 | ||
| Fri Nov 28 | (30) Syracuse | L, 73-70 | 71 | Away | 3-2 | ||
| Tue Dec 2 | (43) Minnesota | L, 66-56 | 64 | Away | 3-3 | ||
| Wed Dec 17 | (289) Longwood | W, 90-61 | 78 | Home | 4-3 | ||
| Sat Dec 20 | (76) Auburn | L, 58-56 | 68 | Home | 4-4 | ||
| Tue Dec 23 | (262) Hampton | W, 74-48 | 69 | Home | 5-4 | ||
| Sun Dec 28 | (103) Georgia Tech | W, 88-84 | 82 | OT | Away | 6-4 | 1-0 |
| Sat Jan 3 | (17) Xavier | L, 84-70 | 72 | Home | 6-5 | ||
| Tue Jan 6 | (279) Brown | W, 74-50 | 66 | Home | 7-5 | ||
| Sat Jan 10 | (72) Virginia Tech | L, 78-75 | 73 | Away | 7-6 | 1-1 | |
| Thu Jan 15 | (2) North Carolina | L, 83-61 | 74 | Home | 7-7 | 1-2 | |
| Tue Jan 20 | (53) Maryland | L, 84-78 | 71 | Away | 7-8 | 1-3 |
They kept it close with VTech on the road. And who did VTech just beat? The number 1 team in the country: Wake Forest. Does that mean anything? Probably not.
| Category | Offense | Defense | D-I Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adj. Efficiency: | 106.0 [89] | 96.6 [98] | 100.4 |
| Adj. Tempo: | 69.5 [86] | 67.2 | |
| Four Factors | |||
| Effective FG%: | 47.0 [230] | 47.9 [121] | 48.8 |
| Turnover %: | 18.8 [64] | 17.9 [309] | 20.9 |
| Off. Reb. %: | 36.4 [66] | 31.3 [102] | 33.2 |
| FTA/FGA: | 32.8 [250] | 34.0 [125] | 36.2 |
| Miscellaneous Components | |||
| 3P%: | 29.8 [304] | 33.2 [136] | 34.0 |
| 2P%: | 48.0 [166] | 47.0 [141] | 47.7 |
| FT%: | 74.4 [25] | 67.4 [114] | 68.6 |
| Block%: | 11.5 [302] | 10.8 [82] | 9.0 |
| Steal%: | 8.8 [86] | 8.0 [298] | 10.0 |
| Style Components | |||
| 3PA/FGA: | 29.7 [247] | 30.7 [95] | 33.1 |
| A/FGM: | 48.4 [295] | 53.6 [153] | 54.4 |
| Point Distribution (% of total points) | |||
| 3-Pointers: | 22.4 [290] | 25.8 [237] | 27.6 |
| 2-Pointers: | 57.0 [60] | 54.9 [80] | 52.1 |
| Free Throws: | 20.6 [156] | 19.3 [216] | 20.3 |
| Strength of Schedule | |||
| Components: | 103.1 [62] | 97.6 [35] | 100.4 |
| Overall: | 0.6532 [35] | .5000 | |
| Non-conference: | 0.5142 [169] | .5000 | |
| Personnel | |||
| Bench Minutes: | 32.4% [139] | 31.4% | |
| Experience: | 1.15 yrs [313] | 1.65 | |
| Effective Height: | +2.3 [37] | 0.0 | |
| Average Height: | 77.4" [52] | 76.5" | |
Their poor shooting and lack of ability to generate turnovers plays into our hands. We should and must win this one on the road. This team is almost the opposite of the Miami game. Miami, in general, was not a good shooting time around the basket, but they could drain the three...and that is what they did to get the victory. We defend the basket extremely well, getting inside is almost impossible against Alabi, Echefu, Reid and Singleton. Our guards limit penetration. We defend the three well, but not like we do inside. UVA cannot shoot from down town.
Here are our numbers for comparison:
| Category | Offense | Defense | D-I Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adj. Efficiency: | 101.5 [156] | 88.5 [21] | 100.4 |
| Adj. Tempo: | 68.4 [120] | 67.2 | |
| Four Factors | |||
| Effective FG%: | 48.1 [198] | 44.0 [32] | 48.8 |
| Turnover %: | 23.4 [288] | 23.1 [56] | 20.9 |
| Off. Reb. %: | 36.9 [53] | 34.6 [232] | 33.2 |
| FTA/FGA: | 43.4 [36] | 34.9 [145] | 36.2 |
| Miscellaneous Components | |||
| 3P%: | 32.5 [225] | 32.5 [104] | 34.0 |
| 2P%: | 47.8 [178] | 41.3 [13] | 47.7 |
| FT%: | 70.3 [112] | 64.4 [32] | 68.6 |
| Block%: | 6.9 [59] | 17.3 [6] | 8.9 |
| Steal%: | 10.1 [192] | 12.9 [20] | 10.0 |
| Style Components | |||
| 3PA/FGA: | 33.3 [157] | 36.1 [273] | 33.1 |
| A/FGM: | 52.5 [211] | 46.6 [23] | 54.4 |
| Point Distribution (% of total points) | |||
| 3-Pointers: | 25.6 [222] | 31.8 [51] | 27.6 |
| 2-Pointers: | 50.3 [226] | 47.8 [299] | 52.1 |
| Free Throws: | 24.1 [30] | 20.4 [170] | 20.3 |
| Strength of Schedule | |||
| Components: | 104.0 [34] | 98.8 [77] | 100.4 |
| Overall: | 0.6440 [38] | .5000 | |
| Non-conference: | 0.5412 [143] | .5000 | |
| Personnel | |||
| Bench Minutes: | 31.7% [162] | 31.4% | |
| Experience: | 1.22 yrs [297] | 1.65 | |
| Effective Height: | +5.0 [4] | 0.0 | |
| Average Height: | 79.0" [1] | 76.5" | |
(Game Plan)
| Date | Opponent | Result | Location | Record | Conf | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat Nov 15 | (100) Jacksonville | W, 59-57 | 69 | Away | 1-0 | ||
| Tue Nov 18 | (127) La Salle | W, 65-61 | 71 | Away | 2-0 | ||
| Thu Nov 20 | (233) Stetson | W, 79-77 | 73 | Home | 3-0 | ||
| Sat Nov 22 | (275) Coastal Carolina | W, 82-70 | 71 | Home | 4-0 | ||
| Mon Nov 24 | (288) Western Illinois | W, 67-55 | 62 | Home | 5-0 | ||
| Fri Nov 28 | (84) Cincinnati | W, 58-47 | 64 | Neutral | 6-0 | ||
| Sat Nov 29 | (30) California | W, 80-77 | 78 | Neutral | 7-0 | ||
| Wed Dec 3 | (43) Northwestern | L, 73-59 | 69 | Away | 7-1 | ||
| Sun Dec 7 | (39) Florida | W, 57-55 | 64 | Home | 8-1 | ||
| Sat Dec 13 | (261) Georgia St. | W, 62-57 | 54 | Away | 9-1 | ||
| Tue Dec 16 | (221) Tennessee Tech | W, 69-59 | 75 | Home | 10-1 | ||
| Thu Dec 18 | (314) Charleston Southern | W, 71-48 | 66 | Home | 11-1 | ||
| Sun Dec 21 | (3) Pittsburgh | L, 56-48 | 67 | Home | 11-2 | ||
| Sun Dec 28 | (126) Western Kentucky | W, 82-69 | 65 | Semi-Home | 12-2 | ||
| Sat Jan 3 | (189) Texas A&M Corpus Chris | W, 69-48 | 72 | Home | 13-2 | ||
| Sat Jan 10 | (1) Duke | L, 66-58 | 67 | Home | 13-3 | 0-1 | |
| Tue Jan 13 | (91) North Carolina St. | W, 78-65 | 67 | Away | 14-3 | 1-1 | |
| Sat Jan 17 | (58) Maryland | W, 76-73 | 78 | OT | Home | 15-3 | 2-1 |
| Wed Jan 21 | (34) Miami FL | L, 75-69 | 68 | Away | 15-4 | 2-2 |
Sorry for the formatting, but I can't figure out how to delete the bottom of the table above. FSUncensored, any help?
Here are the match ups:
F #31 Chris Singleton (9.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg; First career game vs. Virginia)
F #41 Uche Echefu (7.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg; 8 pts and 9 rebs vs. Virginia, Feb. 17, 2007)
C #32 Solomon Alabi (7.3 ppg, 2.0 bpg; First career game vs. Virginia)
G #22 Derwin Kitchen (7.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg; First career game vs. Virginia)
G #23 Toney Douglas (19.5 ppg, 2.1 spg; 19 pts and 6 stls vs. Virginia, Jan. 23, 2008)
F #32 Mike Scott (11.9 ppg, 8.9 rpg; 5 pts and 3 rebs vs. Florida State, Jan, 23, 2008)
C #5 Assane Sene (3.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg; First career game against Florida State)
G #13 Sammy Zeglinski (10.1 ppg, 3.7 apg; First career game vs. Florida State)
G #15 Sylven Landesburg (16.6 pg, 6.2 rpg; First career game vs. Florida State)
G #24 Mamadi Diane (4.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg; 21 pts and 5 rebs vs. Florida State, Jan. 23, 2008)
Slyven Landesburg is their stud. He has an ORtg of 112, he rarely turns it over for a guard, he draws fouls and touches the ball on almost 25% of their possession. Mike Scott is an effective player, but he rarely gets the ball. He is their go to guy in terms of rebounding and is actually one of the best rebounders in the country. Look for a great matcu up with Singleton. Sene barely plays and they typically go small. He is a 7-footer and will only be starting because of Alabi.
If we can contain and Landesburg and Scott, we should win this game. They are young and have yet to develop their rhythm. Atheltically, we are a better team. However, you never know what will happen with this Noles team. We all know that we play to the level of our competition.
The game will be on FSN. Look for live feeds on justin.tv and the radio feed may either be here or here.
Look forward to your thoughts on this one. Should be a good game and hopefuly a win on the road. Unfortunately, I will be on call and miss the game again. I'll have the typical preview up for the UNC game, which is on Wednesday night at the Tucker Center. Should be a good one.
Go Noles!