Hoops - Jackets Win Their ACC / Big 10 Challenge

Well, they finally had one. They finally had their first test to see if this year's edition could finish a game with a lead. Tonight the answer was................... yes................ barely...................... but barely counts. The Jackets beats Penn State 77-73. They never actually trailed in the 2nd half, but it got within a point a couple of times. They held tough and converted down the stretch, even as Penn State kept making shot after shot. Nice effort, but still a lot to work on.............


DEFENSE........... D
What is this defense you speak of? Is this some kind of new concept? ............... Honestly, you can't really know how good the defense was without watching the film, but we know this much. Penn State shot 57% overall and 50% from long range. They had a ton of easy layups and a bunch of open 3pt shots............ and they didn't miss them. On the flip side, the Jackets had 15 steals. That's a lot, and Penn State turned the ball over 20 times. That's a lot........... and they converted those turnovers into 33 points. That was the game right there folks. The rest doesn't matter much. However, we better get better guarding guys off the dribble.


REBOUNDING.........C
Here are the rebounding efficiency stats for the night:


Rebounding Efficiency
Penn State.....OR 30.4%...... DR 56.5%...... Win
UCLA............. OR 40.6%..... DR 81.8%..... Loss
Memphis....... OR 67.6%..... DR 76.7%...... Win
Purdue...........OR 58.6%...... DR 79.5%..... Win
Ga St..............OR 37.5%....... DR 79.3%..... Win
Jackson St.....OR 52.4%....... DR 70.3%..... Win
Elon................OR 54.8%....... DR 73.7%...... Win



Remember OR% is the percent of the time the Jackets grabbed their own miss.............. DR% is the percent of the time the Jackets grabbed a Penn State miss. Not a super night overall. They were outrebounded overall, both on the offensive and defensive glass. The rebounding efficiency stats don't look great. Work to be done here folks.


OFFENSE.............. B+
Folks, offense is not a problem on this team. We can score inside. We can score outside. Is A-Mo cold? No problem - give it to Clinch. Clinch cold? No problem - give it to Thad. Thad cold? No problem, let Javaris do his thing. Shall I go on? The team shoots 55% tonight, including 42% from long range. We had 15 assists on 28 buckets, which is ok, and only turned the ball over 13 times. That's not too bad. Lewis Clinch led the way with 20 on 8-13 shooting. A-Mo is starting to get his stroke back, as he scored 15, including 4-8 from long range. All-in-all, 4 guys in double figures (JC / JS the others)


I take it back. There is a problem on offense - free throw shooting. That is why I couldn't give an "A" rating. 11-19 from the stripe tonight. Broken record......................


COACH HEWITT COMMENTS
Notes from Coach Hewitt's post-game comments
- Offensively we handled their zone fine (90% of the defense they played)
- Defensively we didn't play well, particularly off the dribble. They had a couple of pet plays they like to run, and we let them happen anyway and that gave them some early confidence.
- We were off track guarding the ball. We were getting lost off screens
- Lewis (Clinch) was great offensively tonight, but he'll be the first to tell you that he was one of the guys missing assignments, particularly a key one down the stretch that gave them a wide open 3.
- Mario West, if he's not on the team, we don't win against Memphis, and probably not again tonight. We don't need guys to do what he does, but we need to play within ourselves better.
- Zach Peacock did a great job all night guarding off the ball. (Coach has said that Zach might be our best off-the-ball defender recently)
- Coach also thought Javaris did a nice job off the ball defensively and he also like how JC talked to his teammates tonight.
- We have time to work on the defense for the opening ACC game Sunday against Miami, but we will get it back.
- Thaddeus Young should play Sunday. He sat tonight mostly for precautionary reasons. Coach felt the season was long enough that the extra rest to Sunday would do some good (code - this is going to possibly be a nagging thing all year). Said Thad was already feeling better today.


LEWIS CLINCH COMMENTS
Lewis was interviewed by Wes right after the Coach. Here were his comments
- Defensively, a few of us had breakdowns, starting with me
- We have plenty of guys who can score 20 any night. Defense is the key.
- He has no problem with all the subbing that Coach does because everyone on the team is confident in each person's skills and what they bring. Not a problem at all.
- 'Rio is a tremendous leader for the team. Said - "truthfully, most of us are probably on the team based on our offensive skills", but Rio sets the example defensively. He's going to dig deep to play D, dive under the scoring table, etc. He gets us going because we don't want him to show us up being the only guy making things happen.


SUMMARY
So there you have it. Coach Hewitt's keys to successful basketball are defense and rebounding, and we probably had our worst effort of the season with both (or close to it)............. and we still won................ Go figure...... A quality win that represents the ACC well as part of our continued dominance in the ACC/Big10 challenge. The team moves to 6-1 with some real quality games so far. You can see the potential. I keep saying that, because it's still potential. But it's there and it's exciting.....................


GO JACKETS!!!!!