I hope nothing like this ever comes to Clemson. No fan deserves or (human being for that matter) deserves to be beaten while in the defenseless fetal position. Cops deserve the respect they are owed but these bad apples reflect poorly on the entire law enforcement profession. This makes my blood boil because if Clemson had beaten Duke I would have been skipping in the street. Shoot if I was there I would have too...who wouldn't be happy seeing Singler lose(even to Greivis)??
Showing posts with label Greivis Vasquez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greivis Vasquez. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Monday, 8 March 2010
T Booker Is First Team All-ACC
That's right its Scheyer, Delaney, Greivious Vazqueaez, Singler, and Booker. Smith is on the second team. I think this is about right actually--I don't think Aminu deserved it although he took it to a lethargic Booker at times. Just thought I would pass on the word. Will post a link when I find one--silly slow local media...
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
A Tale of Two Halves: Rants and Raves
Well we started the game hot and shot lights out from three point land in the first half. Noel Johnson, Andre Young in particular. Grant got some bogus foul calls but Booker played really awful in the second half--why did he take 3, 3-pointers in the second half? I think our real problem in this game is the same problem we have had all year, mind numbing turnovers. How many times do I see Stitt dribble the ball off his own foot or try to split the D and lose his dribble. It is simple fundamentals. Smith had another awful game and we went away from the inside play too quickly in the second half. It is a shame to see what Clemson can be this year, their potential finally coming through, with the first half and then see what they really are in the second half.
Now playing at Maryland isn't easy but it is not like Maryland is this amazing team. The way the announcers on the Clemson network were calling it, Maryland was like a final four contender or something. We got burned on a ton of Maryland offensive sets, they caught us backdoor like eight times and let Vasquez become the assist man. Gary had a good game plan offensively. The press got shredded and in the span of four Maryland possessions we went from being tied to down by ten. I liked OP's use of the timeouts but once again we folded and didn't have the mental toughness. Disappointing loss and we now need to win 2/3 to feel good about an automatic NCAA bid.
Now playing at Maryland isn't easy but it is not like Maryland is this amazing team. The way the announcers on the Clemson network were calling it, Maryland was like a final four contender or something. We got burned on a ton of Maryland offensive sets, they caught us backdoor like eight times and let Vasquez become the assist man. Gary had a good game plan offensively. The press got shredded and in the span of four Maryland possessions we went from being tied to down by ten. I liked OP's use of the timeouts but once again we folded and didn't have the mental toughness. Disappointing loss and we now need to win 2/3 to feel good about an automatic NCAA bid.
Monday, 22 February 2010
Maryland Preview
Clemson vs. Maryland, 02/24, 9:00pm, Comcast Center
A couple of days ago I outlined Clemson's needs approaching the final four games of the season. They probably need two wins to be absolutely sure of an NCAA tournament bid that will likely land them, assuming a single win in the ACC tournament, a 7 seed in the tournament. As an aside, most "bracketologists" I've seen are putting six ACC teams in the tournament, but only Duke is ranked higher than 6. It's absurd.
Perhaps no team is getting burned as badly by bracket gurus than Maryland. On paper, I see this as a 3/4 team right now. Not much room to improve nor much of a threat to reach the elite eight, but still a lot better than the present perception. On the other hand, Clemson fans can be forgiven for doubting my assessment given Maryland's absolutely pathetic performance at Littlejohn a scant 3 1/2 weeks ago. Normally I would try to point out the kind of adjustments I would expect the two teams to make based on their first meeting, but since both teams played well beneath their abilities I have a feeling both coaches will more or less throw the tape in the garbage and draw a plan for this game based on an updated version of the first game.
In other words, I feel the same way I did before the last game--Maryland is a good team that poses matchup problems for us. In addition, it's going to be difficult to go into one of the more hostile environments in the league in front of re-energized fanbase and pull off the upset. Maryland is a team with a balanced offensive approach. They particularly excel at shooting the three and not turning the ball over. There only weakness is an inability to get to the line, but when they do get there they shoot at a 71% clip. Their defense, while not among the ACC elites, is still ranked 25th in the country by Kenpom.com. Most of their strength on defense is derived from holding opponents to a 40% 2-point FG%. Clemson can score points against Maryland by doing two things: 1) knock down some three pointers (Maryland is about league-average in defending the three) and 2) crashing the offensive boards. I talked about this before the last game, but Gary Williams has never been too concerned with giving up the occasional offensive rebound. Jerai Grant, we'll need you tonight.
The good news is that because we are clearly the underdog tonight, there's not a whole lot on the line for Clemson. We have to get a road win at some point, but we'll have better chances later on at both FSU and Wake Forest. I expect Purnell to instruct his players to be a little more aggressive in the early going, overplay on defense by trying to jump passes in the half-court while trying to get Tanner Smith to knock Vasquez off his game again. On offense, we might see a barrage of early three pointers if we're getting even semi-open looks. If we create a few breaks, it could keep us in the game going into the final five minutes. If we don't we'll be down 15 points in a game we were supposed to lose and the freshmen will get some valuable playing time. Either way, GO TIGERS!!!!!
A couple of days ago I outlined Clemson's needs approaching the final four games of the season. They probably need two wins to be absolutely sure of an NCAA tournament bid that will likely land them, assuming a single win in the ACC tournament, a 7 seed in the tournament. As an aside, most "bracketologists" I've seen are putting six ACC teams in the tournament, but only Duke is ranked higher than 6. It's absurd.
Perhaps no team is getting burned as badly by bracket gurus than Maryland. On paper, I see this as a 3/4 team right now. Not much room to improve nor much of a threat to reach the elite eight, but still a lot better than the present perception. On the other hand, Clemson fans can be forgiven for doubting my assessment given Maryland's absolutely pathetic performance at Littlejohn a scant 3 1/2 weeks ago. Normally I would try to point out the kind of adjustments I would expect the two teams to make based on their first meeting, but since both teams played well beneath their abilities I have a feeling both coaches will more or less throw the tape in the garbage and draw a plan for this game based on an updated version of the first game.
In other words, I feel the same way I did before the last game--Maryland is a good team that poses matchup problems for us. In addition, it's going to be difficult to go into one of the more hostile environments in the league in front of re-energized fanbase and pull off the upset. Maryland is a team with a balanced offensive approach. They particularly excel at shooting the three and not turning the ball over. There only weakness is an inability to get to the line, but when they do get there they shoot at a 71% clip. Their defense, while not among the ACC elites, is still ranked 25th in the country by Kenpom.com. Most of their strength on defense is derived from holding opponents to a 40% 2-point FG%. Clemson can score points against Maryland by doing two things: 1) knock down some three pointers (Maryland is about league-average in defending the three) and 2) crashing the offensive boards. I talked about this before the last game, but Gary Williams has never been too concerned with giving up the occasional offensive rebound. Jerai Grant, we'll need you tonight.
The good news is that because we are clearly the underdog tonight, there's not a whole lot on the line for Clemson. We have to get a road win at some point, but we'll have better chances later on at both FSU and Wake Forest. I expect Purnell to instruct his players to be a little more aggressive in the early going, overplay on defense by trying to jump passes in the half-court while trying to get Tanner Smith to knock Vasquez off his game again. On offense, we might see a barrage of early three pointers if we're getting even semi-open looks. If we create a few breaks, it could keep us in the game going into the final five minutes. If we don't we'll be down 15 points in a game we were supposed to lose and the freshmen will get some valuable playing time. Either way, GO TIGERS!!!!!
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Maryland Preview
Maryland at Clemson, 1/31, 5:30pm, Littlejohn
Two teams have been pegged in the early going as ACC surprises: Maryland and Virginia. While Virginia is improved from last year (not too hard considering they were the worst team in the league), they have been the beneficiary of a soft early schedule (with a notable victory of Georgia Tech at home). Maryland, on the other hand, looks like its the real deal; I expect them to be battling with Duke for the championship come season's end. It certainly didn't appear to start that way--losses on neutral courts to Wisconsin, Cincinnati, and Villanova don't seem too bad now, particularly given the way Villanova and Wisconsin have played since and given that the games were closer than the scores might indicate. But the home loss to William & Mary on December 30th put the Terps in the back of my mind when it came to sorting out ACC contenders at the beginning of the ACC season.
Since then, however, Maryland has been on a tear; losing only a tough road game to Wake Forest in overtime by two points. There statistical profile is insanely strong right now, as a team they have very little in the way of glaring weakness, playing defense and offense on par with some of the best teams in the country. Its easily the best squad Gary Williams has fielded since 2007. How did this happen?
I point to three reasons: 1) the continued development of Greivis Vasquez, 2) the emergence of Sean Mosely, and 3) the underneath play of freshman Jordan Williams. Vasquez continues to shed the label of overhyped Terrapin by logging his fourth consecutive improved season. He's always been a good passer and decent shooter, but his first two years he constantly turned the ball over. This year he's retained the reduction in turnovers that we noticed last season. At the same time, he's shooting the ball better from behind the arc than ever in his career (~39% vs ~32%) and he's playing better defense. Meanwhile, Sean Mosely has turned into a scorer this season, a guy who drives to the basket without turning the ball over, makes shots, picks up fouls, and has a decent three-point stroke to boot. Jordan Williams has anchored an inside defense that ranks #6 in the country in defending the two-point shot (could be a long night for Trevor Booker).
This is a tough matchup for Clemson. Maryland does not turn the ball over and they hold opposing offenses to a low FG% against--two of the team traits that I think gave Clemson real problems against Duke. If Clemson wants to win, they will have to rely on their halfcourt defense to slow down the Maryland offense, which is probably too much to ask given the points Maryland is going to rack up in transition against the press. That means they'll have to play better on offense. They will need to make some three-point shots (Maryland's FG% against is driven almost entirely by their defense against the two-point shot) and then crash the boards. Maryland's one weakness is giving up too much height on the frontline after Jordan Williams, which can lead to a lot of offensive boards. I expect the game to be close, but Purnell will have probably need to ease off the press early on to make sure we don't dig ourselves into an insurmountable hole. And if the threes aren't falling again...
On top of all of this Clemson has to deal with Gary Williams. This is the coach that broke down our defense for the whole league to see last year, so I'm not eager to see what he's got this time. It will be interesting to see whether he opts to apply some token pressure like GT and BC to eat up Clemson's game clock on offense to reduce the already long amount of time we need to find a halfway-decent look at the basket.
Goes without saying, Tigers need to win some games people aren't expecting them to win. Kenpom has us projected for an 8-8 finish, which I think is a little optimistic--I might lean towards 7-9 right now. Either way, that's good for about an 8th place finish in the league--and there ain't gonna be 8 ACC teams in the tourney. LET'S GO TIGERS!!!
Two teams have been pegged in the early going as ACC surprises: Maryland and Virginia. While Virginia is improved from last year (not too hard considering they were the worst team in the league), they have been the beneficiary of a soft early schedule (with a notable victory of Georgia Tech at home). Maryland, on the other hand, looks like its the real deal; I expect them to be battling with Duke for the championship come season's end. It certainly didn't appear to start that way--losses on neutral courts to Wisconsin, Cincinnati, and Villanova don't seem too bad now, particularly given the way Villanova and Wisconsin have played since and given that the games were closer than the scores might indicate. But the home loss to William & Mary on December 30th put the Terps in the back of my mind when it came to sorting out ACC contenders at the beginning of the ACC season.
Since then, however, Maryland has been on a tear; losing only a tough road game to Wake Forest in overtime by two points. There statistical profile is insanely strong right now, as a team they have very little in the way of glaring weakness, playing defense and offense on par with some of the best teams in the country. Its easily the best squad Gary Williams has fielded since 2007. How did this happen?
I point to three reasons: 1) the continued development of Greivis Vasquez, 2) the emergence of Sean Mosely, and 3) the underneath play of freshman Jordan Williams. Vasquez continues to shed the label of overhyped Terrapin by logging his fourth consecutive improved season. He's always been a good passer and decent shooter, but his first two years he constantly turned the ball over. This year he's retained the reduction in turnovers that we noticed last season. At the same time, he's shooting the ball better from behind the arc than ever in his career (~39% vs ~32%) and he's playing better defense. Meanwhile, Sean Mosely has turned into a scorer this season, a guy who drives to the basket without turning the ball over, makes shots, picks up fouls, and has a decent three-point stroke to boot. Jordan Williams has anchored an inside defense that ranks #6 in the country in defending the two-point shot (could be a long night for Trevor Booker).
This is a tough matchup for Clemson. Maryland does not turn the ball over and they hold opposing offenses to a low FG% against--two of the team traits that I think gave Clemson real problems against Duke. If Clemson wants to win, they will have to rely on their halfcourt defense to slow down the Maryland offense, which is probably too much to ask given the points Maryland is going to rack up in transition against the press. That means they'll have to play better on offense. They will need to make some three-point shots (Maryland's FG% against is driven almost entirely by their defense against the two-point shot) and then crash the boards. Maryland's one weakness is giving up too much height on the frontline after Jordan Williams, which can lead to a lot of offensive boards. I expect the game to be close, but Purnell will have probably need to ease off the press early on to make sure we don't dig ourselves into an insurmountable hole. And if the threes aren't falling again...
On top of all of this Clemson has to deal with Gary Williams. This is the coach that broke down our defense for the whole league to see last year, so I'm not eager to see what he's got this time. It will be interesting to see whether he opts to apply some token pressure like GT and BC to eat up Clemson's game clock on offense to reduce the already long amount of time we need to find a halfway-decent look at the basket.
Goes without saying, Tigers need to win some games people aren't expecting them to win. Kenpom has us projected for an 8-8 finish, which I think is a little optimistic--I might lean towards 7-9 right now. Either way, that's good for about an 8th place finish in the league--and there ain't gonna be 8 ACC teams in the tourney. LET'S GO TIGERS!!!
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