By and large, I'd say we UVA fans are a pretty fatalistic bunch. Whether more so than other fans, I couldn't say, but I'm sure Michigan fans don't have a Rule 2b, so there's that anyway. But pretty damn fatalistic, some of us very seriously and earnestly so. To varying degrees, UVA fans are convinced the refs have it out for us, the conference has it out for us, and the very fates have it out for us.
The events of Saturday can only make this fatalism worse - the difference, of course, is that for once, the fates have a benevolent side. Most of the action can be chalked up to big-time coaching from Tony Bennett, big-time shooting from the shooters, and big-time rebounding by the rebounders. Thomas Rogers - the senior we all forgot - hit a three-pointer, though, and right then it went from sanity to storybook.
The first thing I thought, after thirty seconds of gleeful laughter at the sight of the UVA bench going more totally apeshit than they had all season, was this: My lacrosse prediction is so screwed. It doesn't take a lot of prolixity to write the story now, not anymore. Senior Day, championship, scholarship, pandemonium.....it's so tailor-made for the fairy tales, just throw some conjunctions and stuff in between and you're all set. Rogers's shot didn't even hit rim. With the gods smiling on Charlottesville so, could there be any doubt how the lacrosse game would go? Syracuse, on both fields of play, played just well enough to let the Hollywood scriptwriters get their moment of tension in the movie that's surely coming out any day now.
Why, the day even moved Tony Bennett to sideline emotions. The man has two emotions on the sideline: stoic, and blind seething fury at jag-off refs. The latter is expressed with an eye-roll. The roof was already blown off the place and sailing toward the ionosphere and Tony sat in his crouch, watching the defense for any sign of a missed help or hedge, as if that was going to let Syracuse make up 19 points in as many seconds. Later his eyes glistened. Shortly after the horn. We all saw it - living proof that it means something to the guy to really and truly be able to follow through on the promise that brought his seniors to Charlottesville in the first place, one of them from three time zones hence.
As this very same stoic coach will remind his team fifty times a day between now and Saturday, there's still work to be done. The great part about this team and this coach is there's never a doubt the message will sink in. The other great part about this team and this coach is that we just had enough magic to last the next 30 years, and probably won't have to wait that long for the next batch.
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Further stuff.....
-- Along the same lines as the above, let me tell you this. Steve Yzerman - hockey fans know the name. Absolutely revered up here in Detroit. The man could drive a tank through a nunnery while firing live puppies out of the cannon and half of us would blame the nuns and the other half, the puppies. Living legend. He is to Detroit what, say, John Elway is to Denver, Larry Bird is to Boston, and so on. So it's with a small amount of pride that I say I was there the only time he was ever booed in Detroit, and furthermore took part lustily.
It was at his number retirement ceremony. Stevie Y got up there when it was his turn to speak, and because he's Stevie Y and shits more class and humility than anyone you care to name, talked about how it really wasn't his night, it was all thanks to his teammates. Right, Stevie. 692 goals, 1,063 assists, one each of the Conn Smythe, Selke, and Masterton trophies (this latter is for the player who "best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey"), 6th on the NHL's all-time scoring list, three Stanley Cups, and it had nothing to do with you. Whatever. Also, boooo.
This is how I felt listening to Tony say he "didn't deserve this" or whatever he told the sideline reporter lady. Listen, Tony. You da man. I know you're a God-fearing man, but if you don't deserve this, who does?
-- Tony's attacking of the zone was masterful. Syracuse started with heavy on-ball pressure and denial of wing-to-wing passes. Relatively heavy for a zone, at any rate. UVA was looking, however, to go inside, and did as much as possible. So much so that players were passing up fairly open looks at the three, and forcing it inside to what looked like a worse look. All else being equal, would you rather have an open Brogdon three-point attempt or the ball in Akil's hands, ten feet from the rim and right on the baseline, guarded by shot-blocker extraordinaire Rakeem Christmas?
I'll take the Brogdon three any day, but that wasn't the game plan; the obvious strategy was to force-feed the post and look for anything they could get from the free-throw line in. Jim Boeheim then made exactly the half-time adjustment Tony wanted: he tightened up his zone to deny the post, at which time the launch pad was open for business. UVA took five threes the entire first half; they needed just five minutes of the second half to take that many and finished with 11 in the latter 20 minutes. Generally you figure, when you play a zone defense you try and loosen it up with a barrage of threes so you can do the work you want to inside; UVA went the opposite and saw it work to perfection.
-- Occasionally something is made of the "unbalanced schedule" that UVA has. The schedule has been unbalanced since 2005, of course, and nobody decided to taint anyone else's championship with such accusations. In 2007, when UVA went 11-5 and shared the title with UNC, nobody seemed to mind that UVA played 10-6 Maryland and VT twice and UNC only once, but anyway that's beside the point. The point really is this. Pick any team you like among the contenders - Cuse, Duke, UNC, Pitt. Find all the instances of any of those teams playing each other twice. Let them replace one loss with a win against a scrub team. For example, Duke and Syracuse - we'll let them each take credit for the win against each other and wash away the loss. Still, none of them can catch UVA. Duke isn't 12-4 because of too many games against Cuse and UNC. They're 12-4 because they failed to take care of business against Clemson and Notre Dame.
-- Storybook Saturday was so compelling that it trashed preconceived notions of what the storyline would be.
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Let's talk lax. I said "show me" before the game. I consider myself shown. UVA won by dominating the stat sheet and letting the goals come. More than 3 out of 4 faceoffs, and almost 5 out of every 7 ground balls, went UVA's way. If the ball's on the ground, and you have a 5-in-7 chance of getting to it, you're going to get your way more often than not.
This is not the sort of thing that will happen every game, but we've now also managed to establish that UVA has a damn offense. You got two guys on pace for 50-goal seasons without even counting the tournaments. They're gonna need it, as they're getting no help from the defense and goalie in particular,
-- 32 is the new 6. James Pannell has 22 goals and is a damn sophomore. But what got Steele Stanwick comparisons running through my head was a goal he scored in (I think) the second quarter. While the announcers were all fired-up about his "question-mark dodge" which reminded them of his brother Rob, I was more interested in the shot itself, sort of a twisting jump shot that snuck into an impossible corner of the net. Stanwick announced his presence as a freshman with exactly that sort of otherwordly accuracy.
-- It's very, very difficult to assess a goalie's play on any individual shot, in real time. It's real easy to look at 5 saves and 12 goals and not be real happy with the result, but I got at least one chance to find a spot where Matt Barrett ought to have made a save. On one Hakeem Lecky shot, the ball would've flown straight into the pocket of Barrett's stick had he just stood there like a statue (not that I advocate this as a strategy.) Instead he flinched, moving his stick away from the shot, and by the time he recovered it was obviously too late. Maybe he's overthinking these shots; regardless of the cause, I think we're deep enough into the season to declare this a Problem.
-- Cornell is next. Whatever they're ranked when they enter the game, it'll be too high. They've played three really bad teams so far and struggled to put away all of them. There's a very good chance UVA will be 7-0 and match their win total from last season halfway through this one. With VMI yet to appear at Klockner, getting that Cornell win would clinch, at a minimum, "team that everyone hates for getting into the tournament with a lousy record" status.
-- Keeping in mind that you actually have to work to make the ACC tournament this year, that was a very big win. Theoretically two conference wins should do the trick. With this offense, it shouldn't be at all impossible to find one more in four more conference games.
Showing posts with label pannell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pannell. Show all posts
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
points of view
I fully intended to write anything at all yesterday, but then what happened is I spent the evening on chat support trying to get my phone to work again. I'm the absolute last person you'll see wigging out over being unconnected, but I do have this crazy fetish about getting the services I pay for, so it's nice that I can once again get text messages.
On the plus side, it gave me the chance to add the Maryland game to the stuff I was planning on, and things actually fall into place pretty nicely now. Inside my head are two competing viewpoints on two different sports, so let's see if we can't resolve some of this cognitive dissonance. Speaking in advance, before I even type this out, I am liking this idea so much that I might make it a weekly thing, if I can think of enough conflicting viewpoints on enough topics.
I said two sports, so let's start with lacrosse.
Point: ARRRRGHGHHGHGHGHGH.
We're basically screwed, right? Even though the team is 2-0, it's certainly not a happy 2-0 when it's just seconds from being 0-2. Choking away an eight-point lead against Loyola in just one quarter of action, and giving up 12 goals to upstart Richmond, these things do not support the preseason hypothesis that the defense would be a major strength. This is two games in a row we've seen the opponent go on huge scoring streaks; Loyola potted nine straight and Richmond seven straight, the latter to turn a 6-2 UVA lead into a 9-6 deficit.
Need I add any more anyway, when you win by one lousy goal over a team playing its first varsity game ever? Can you imagine the utter humiliation if the Spiders had won that game? It would be the lacrosse team's Chaminade. And we've seen this story as recently as last year; letting Mount St. Mary's and Vermont hang around for way longer than necessary foreshadowed the losing that took place later.
Obviously, this team has some major work to do. Two games in and it's obvious. Matt Barrett has debuted with a .342 save percentage, faceoffs are just a nose above .500, and opponents have gotten too many easy goals. Just wait til Duke gets a load of this; they're gonna be merciless.
Counterpoint: Actually, things are looking up.
Let's face it, Loyola is no shit team - there are still players there with a ring - and for three quarters there, plus overtime, UVA was absolutely serving notice. I had that team as the 10th-best offense in the country last year and the defense held them 100% scoreless for two straight quarters. That absolutely counts for something.
And remember, I had Loyola pegged as Ohio State's replacement on the schedule - they're roughly at the same level of quality - and we lost to Ohio State last year. So, replace a loss with a win, and we're already ahead of schedule.
The offense is finding its groove, too. The other ACC teams that played all demolished their opponents, none of them playing a team even remotely close to Loyola's quality and scoring either 16 or 19 goals depending on which ACC team we're talking about, and it was still James Pannell getting player of the week honors from the conference. For one, that's a totally new contributor from last year; Pannell definitely got a head start on living up to the tremendous praise he got from Dom.
UVA's midfield game, at least in the goal-scoring department, looks sharp, too. Greg Coholan and Tyler German made their mark, and overall five different midfielders have scored. And then finally, the defense has actually been all over the turnover map, and you have to give a nod to Joseph Lisicky, who leads the team in caused turnovers and ground balls** despite not even starting. Looks like a terrific find.
**Except for Mick Parks, which isn't fair since Parks is the faceoff dude.
Verdict: Punt.
In the end, neither side of the debate can be ignored. There's no reason to beat Richmond by any less than 10 goals, unless it somehow turns out Richmond is a surprise powerhouse. Motivation level may have come into play in that game, and that's still no excuse.
Besides, for every bad point I made there's a silver lining, and vice versa, too; for example, yay Pannell, but he did play two full games while the other teams' stars probably played three quarters at most. This team is full of new names and new combinations, and still gelling; it's too early to draw any conclusions beyond eliminating the most extreme expectations in either direction.
We've seen domination in both directions, and a team that's capable of dominating and being dominated usually moves in the dominating direction. Lacrosse is a very short, small-sample-size season, though, so it all depends on how much time they need. With Drexel on deck, there's another very good chance to get some more data points on this team; til then, and maybe for a couple more weeks, we'll have to sit with slightly bated breath.
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Point: The basketball team is slowly running out of steam.
It was probably inevitable, but 20-point blowouts have given way to a fair amount of drama during basketball games. Boston College - the same Eagles that are 6-17 and only ever beat Virginia Tech in conference play - took advantage of sloppy defense and forced Tony Bennett to leave his regulars in, when he was probably contemplating when to let the walk-ons get some time. And we were losing both the GT and Maryland games at halftime.
Really, it's the natural consequence of math, as well as simply being later in the season and having already expended a bunch of energy. UVA is regressing to the mean, that's all - it's no surprise that teams, having oodles of tape on UVA's systems and tendencies, have figured out a way or two to deal with them. Remember, this team was picked fourth in the conference, not first, so anything above sliding into the last double-bye spot in the tournament is overachieving.
Counterpoint: Pish-posh and fiddle-faddle.
In case you haven't noticed, most of those blowouts came against suckhole teams in the bottom of the standings with no hope of making the NCAA tournament (the lone exception being UNC, which was in a major rough patch at the time) - and by the way, BC and GT count as blowouts. I warned you that BC was capable of keeping it close with a run or two, and the fact that they hit a couple timely threes doesn't change that we were blowing them out of the water for 36 minutes.
GT's a similar deal. UVA went on a 22-1 run to finish the game and held the Jackets almost completely scoreless for 12 minutes. If that had happened at the beginning rather than the end, we'd all be talking about what a complete domination it was and how we gave ourselves the luxury of just coasting the rest of the game.
So when we finally play a halfway-semi-decent team like Maryland, and that team goes on a hot jump-shooting streak to start the game, there's no reason to panic. Everyone goes cold eventually, and if a team beats us because they shot 12-18 from three or something, you just tip your hat. Til then, this team is still playing its calling-card awesome defense, and that's going to make even Syracuse sweat.
Verdict: Quit whining.
That is, if there's anyone out there doing so. This one goes squarely to the counterpoint; if you'd said in November that in February I'd be complaining about no longer winning games by 20 points, I'm sure we'd all be a little bit happy about that. Fun fact: even with a full one-third of the ACC season left, UVA can finish no worse than the 9th seed, and if Wake Forest loses tonight to NC State, you can make it the 8th seed. In other words, we've literally already secured a single bye in the ACC tourney.
One more week of this winning stuff and you can write us into the Dance, too; I don't think we've quite reached the point where we could lose everything the rest of the way and still get invited, but we're on the cusp at worst.
Besides, is it really so bad to have to scrap for one every so often?
On the plus side, it gave me the chance to add the Maryland game to the stuff I was planning on, and things actually fall into place pretty nicely now. Inside my head are two competing viewpoints on two different sports, so let's see if we can't resolve some of this cognitive dissonance. Speaking in advance, before I even type this out, I am liking this idea so much that I might make it a weekly thing, if I can think of enough conflicting viewpoints on enough topics.
I said two sports, so let's start with lacrosse.
Point: ARRRRGHGHHGHGHGHGH.
We're basically screwed, right? Even though the team is 2-0, it's certainly not a happy 2-0 when it's just seconds from being 0-2. Choking away an eight-point lead against Loyola in just one quarter of action, and giving up 12 goals to upstart Richmond, these things do not support the preseason hypothesis that the defense would be a major strength. This is two games in a row we've seen the opponent go on huge scoring streaks; Loyola potted nine straight and Richmond seven straight, the latter to turn a 6-2 UVA lead into a 9-6 deficit.
Need I add any more anyway, when you win by one lousy goal over a team playing its first varsity game ever? Can you imagine the utter humiliation if the Spiders had won that game? It would be the lacrosse team's Chaminade. And we've seen this story as recently as last year; letting Mount St. Mary's and Vermont hang around for way longer than necessary foreshadowed the losing that took place later.
Obviously, this team has some major work to do. Two games in and it's obvious. Matt Barrett has debuted with a .342 save percentage, faceoffs are just a nose above .500, and opponents have gotten too many easy goals. Just wait til Duke gets a load of this; they're gonna be merciless.
Counterpoint: Actually, things are looking up.
Let's face it, Loyola is no shit team - there are still players there with a ring - and for three quarters there, plus overtime, UVA was absolutely serving notice. I had that team as the 10th-best offense in the country last year and the defense held them 100% scoreless for two straight quarters. That absolutely counts for something.
And remember, I had Loyola pegged as Ohio State's replacement on the schedule - they're roughly at the same level of quality - and we lost to Ohio State last year. So, replace a loss with a win, and we're already ahead of schedule.
The offense is finding its groove, too. The other ACC teams that played all demolished their opponents, none of them playing a team even remotely close to Loyola's quality and scoring either 16 or 19 goals depending on which ACC team we're talking about, and it was still James Pannell getting player of the week honors from the conference. For one, that's a totally new contributor from last year; Pannell definitely got a head start on living up to the tremendous praise he got from Dom.
UVA's midfield game, at least in the goal-scoring department, looks sharp, too. Greg Coholan and Tyler German made their mark, and overall five different midfielders have scored. And then finally, the defense has actually been all over the turnover map, and you have to give a nod to Joseph Lisicky, who leads the team in caused turnovers and ground balls** despite not even starting. Looks like a terrific find.
**Except for Mick Parks, which isn't fair since Parks is the faceoff dude.
Verdict: Punt.
In the end, neither side of the debate can be ignored. There's no reason to beat Richmond by any less than 10 goals, unless it somehow turns out Richmond is a surprise powerhouse. Motivation level may have come into play in that game, and that's still no excuse.
Besides, for every bad point I made there's a silver lining, and vice versa, too; for example, yay Pannell, but he did play two full games while the other teams' stars probably played three quarters at most. This team is full of new names and new combinations, and still gelling; it's too early to draw any conclusions beyond eliminating the most extreme expectations in either direction.
We've seen domination in both directions, and a team that's capable of dominating and being dominated usually moves in the dominating direction. Lacrosse is a very short, small-sample-size season, though, so it all depends on how much time they need. With Drexel on deck, there's another very good chance to get some more data points on this team; til then, and maybe for a couple more weeks, we'll have to sit with slightly bated breath.
******************************************************
Point: The basketball team is slowly running out of steam.
It was probably inevitable, but 20-point blowouts have given way to a fair amount of drama during basketball games. Boston College - the same Eagles that are 6-17 and only ever beat Virginia Tech in conference play - took advantage of sloppy defense and forced Tony Bennett to leave his regulars in, when he was probably contemplating when to let the walk-ons get some time. And we were losing both the GT and Maryland games at halftime.
Really, it's the natural consequence of math, as well as simply being later in the season and having already expended a bunch of energy. UVA is regressing to the mean, that's all - it's no surprise that teams, having oodles of tape on UVA's systems and tendencies, have figured out a way or two to deal with them. Remember, this team was picked fourth in the conference, not first, so anything above sliding into the last double-bye spot in the tournament is overachieving.
Counterpoint: Pish-posh and fiddle-faddle.
In case you haven't noticed, most of those blowouts came against suckhole teams in the bottom of the standings with no hope of making the NCAA tournament (the lone exception being UNC, which was in a major rough patch at the time) - and by the way, BC and GT count as blowouts. I warned you that BC was capable of keeping it close with a run or two, and the fact that they hit a couple timely threes doesn't change that we were blowing them out of the water for 36 minutes.
GT's a similar deal. UVA went on a 22-1 run to finish the game and held the Jackets almost completely scoreless for 12 minutes. If that had happened at the beginning rather than the end, we'd all be talking about what a complete domination it was and how we gave ourselves the luxury of just coasting the rest of the game.
So when we finally play a halfway-semi-decent team like Maryland, and that team goes on a hot jump-shooting streak to start the game, there's no reason to panic. Everyone goes cold eventually, and if a team beats us because they shot 12-18 from three or something, you just tip your hat. Til then, this team is still playing its calling-card awesome defense, and that's going to make even Syracuse sweat.
Verdict: Quit whining.
That is, if there's anyone out there doing so. This one goes squarely to the counterpoint; if you'd said in November that in February I'd be complaining about no longer winning games by 20 points, I'm sure we'd all be a little bit happy about that. Fun fact: even with a full one-third of the ACC season left, UVA can finish no worse than the 9th seed, and if Wake Forest loses tonight to NC State, you can make it the 8th seed. In other words, we've literally already secured a single bye in the ACC tourney.
One more week of this winning stuff and you can write us into the Dance, too; I don't think we've quite reached the point where we could lose everything the rest of the way and still get invited, but we're on the cusp at worst.
Besides, is it really so bad to have to scrap for one every so often?
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