UNCW

[Cougie Monster]

Okay so I rewatched the 2nd half and wanted to share a few thoughts in more of a long form setting than discord.

First that’s a great college basketball game and atmosphere. Hat tip to the UNCW fans and students. They brought energy, we’re loud and generally I find them the best basketball fans in the CAA (present company excluded).

Now to the meat of things. That was a very weird 2nd half with a lot if uncharacteristic mistakes by both really good player and coaches. The refs were bad all night but I thought it evened out. They bailed out Dalton on a bad shot around the 16 minute mark and then call 2 insanely quick fouls on Benny and Ante on the other end. Really touch fouls like 3 seconds apart.

During the 1-20 shooting stretch there were about 7 WTF shots, and they came from unlikely sources. Bolton banging the ball down low then forcing a bad shot and had some other bad possessions. But the biggest surprise for me was some super uncharacteristic plats by Ryan. He seems to have a 6th sense for pace and is normally able to project a zen over the team when he has the ball. But yesterday he forced some really tough shots when he didn’t need too and should have re set the offense. I was to reiterate that I think he’s been excellent this year. Again uncharacteristic. But there is redemption coming for both!

At about the 9:30 mark the refs missed an egregious moving screen call on W. Resulted in a miss shot but in the transition was the first Rae charge. It was a clear push off. Good call. Thought PR3 pressed a little bit and got stuck almost the trees. His down low game will not always work against an athletic team like W.

Redemption comes for dalton. He had 9 points when we really, really needed it. That’s was a senior leader does. The 3 he hit the quotes the crowd was pivotal. If he misses that, W has all the momentum and that place goes crazy.

But the last 4 minutes were when the really crazy weird stuff happened. Rae is called for his 2nd charge which I think was a bad call (they didn’t show the replay) but it begs the question of why was he in at that point? it clearly wasn’t his night.

W goes up 5 and Ante hits and enormous 3. Absolutely had to have it and he drained it. Huge. That was the start of the 6 point run to put us up 1 with Ryan’s redemption. He didn’t have a great night, but again this is what senior leaders do, he beats his guy and finished the 3 point play

Now to the final 37 seconds. W down 1 and doesn’t go fit the 2 for 1. Would have been tough and opted to call timeout but they could have pushed the pace and gotten 2 possession. But ultimately didn’t matter. out if the timeout white shakes dalton with a nasty move and missed a good shot. We got the miss we needed! But Lampton tips the ball out!?! Ryan had an easy rebound. I don’t know why Chuck is in in that situation, but he tips the ball out to W and they call a TO.

Final possession, excellent defense by Scott on Phillips but for the life of me I don’t know why Siddle called an iso for Phillips and white didn’t touch the ball. They had 13 seconds and the ball didn’t move. Then the crazy last .6 seconds that never should have happened.

But man give this team credit. They didn’t play a very good second half but found a way. There is so much redundancy built into this group that they can survive stretches of bad play from even their best players. With so many really good players getting so many minutes somebody will come thru.

Rant over. Go cougars!

[sadaly22]

Great rant, Cougie. Agree with all your observations.

Glad you brought up the iso at the end with Phillips. I went to the UNCW board, and the entire discussion at the end of the game thread was what an awful decision that was. CAA should now be on notice about Jaylon Scott’s defense. Dude is in a league of his own as a defender which will be huge down the stretch… And I’m sorry, he’s not nearly the offensive liability the Towson announcers made him out to be… Go Cougs!