FSU 76 Louisville 90 The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good
Offensively the Seminoles did quite well shooting 53% from the floor and 40% (8-20) from the arc.
As usual so far this season, Jamir Watkins and Malique Ewin were once again at the top of the offensive statistics. Watkins scored 25 on 9 of 15 shooting and tying a career high with 4 of 6 from distance. Ewin was also efficient connecting on 7 of his 11 shots finishing with 17. Just 3 rebounds though. But when the other team is not missing anything they put up, you are not going to have a lot of rebound opportunities. The Seminoles could have used a little more scoring support from the rest of the team however. There were numerous shots around the basket that inexplicably did not go down.
Actually Dequan Davis had a decent game. Starting his third consecutive game, the FR added 9 points and started off the FSU offense with two early three pointers.
Plays of the game: With the starting unit struggling for the most part on offense and defense, the second unit provided a spark. Chandler Jackson found Alier Maluk who had worked his way into the paint for the quick turnaround jumper plus the foul, 16-15, UL. Ewin with the nice pump fake in the lane to have a clean look for his jumper, 24-19. Watkins sees the defender back off a tad allowing the SR to connect on a 30 footer, 32-27. Jerry Deng with the tap away steal that Watkins corrals taking it coast to coast for the fast break slam dunk right before intermission, 36-34. It was the closest FSU would be the rest of the game.
The Bad
FSU's record falls to 9-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play. Extrapolating that current ACC record to project the final wins and losses, we (meaning me) calculate that the 'Noles are on a pace to finish 0-20 in the ACC. The loss today also brings FSU's record against comparable competition (meaning P4 teams) to 0 (as in OMG!!!) and 4. As well as the team played against Winthrop, this was a complete opposite. At least on defense.
This one is a troubling loss IMO. UL was down two starters and a bench player due to injury. UL HC Pat Kelsey did a remarkable job managing his roster and frankly they outplayed the 'Noles. The Cardinals were the more energetic team out there. There were also spots where the Seminoles looked slow in particular the first four or five minutes of the game. By the first TV timeout, UL led 16-10 shooting 71% compared to only 29% for FSU.
The Seminoles led just once in the game, 3-0. You might as well say they trailed the entire game given how the rest of it played out. An 11-0 UL run quickly made the score 14-5. FSU did close it to just two at intermission. It did not last long however as Louisville rattled off back to back threes early in the second period forcing Leonard Hamilton to call a timeout just 1:59 into it.
Ewin makes what looks like a clean block and instead is called for a foul putting the Cardinal player at the stripe for three freebies. That was a foul? Okaaaaaaaay.
One of the more egregious lapses in defense, and there were many others, was Chucky Hepburn (not to be confused with Kathrine or Audrey) driving past not one but two FSU defenders. What made it even worse was the play started waaaaaaaaaaay out high on the left wing. After he reached the FT line, it was clear sailing to the rim. And not one other Seminole bothered to step in front of the ball. Or at least reach for the dadgum thing. Any kind of attempt would have been nice IMO. The easy lay up gave UL an 83-71 lead with just 2:07 left. That effectively was the end of the game for FSU.
The Ugly
Hamilton said after game that in practice this week, a focus was defending the arc as UL likes to take a lot of threes even though they had not been making a lot of them. In fact, UL was averaging 28% in three point shooting. That is good for 341st in the country. FSU coming into the game was 7th in the country in three point defense (26.5%). Tonight ............ UL was 15-29 (52%) including 10 of 15 in the second half (at one point after yet another three, UL was 8 of 11). I'd say a tad more focus was in order. Either that or when Leonard said during that timeout that the team needed to guard the arc better, the team heard something else like, don't worry about defending them better, they will start missing them. It sure looked like it as numerous times the dribble drive penetration and kick out to the shooter found that shooter standing there totally unguarded.
Reyne Smith. That's the guy who benefitted the most from a struggling defensive effort. Smith (11.9 ppg) came off the bench to score 25 most of which came from the arc (6-9). He contributed greatly to the scoring support from UL's bench. In fact, he was the bench as just eight played with only one other Cardinal off the pine adding just one point.
And if it wasn't wide open threes, it was a defense that was, shall we say inconsistent, in stopping the ball. Particularly poor was the Seminole defense not getting back to guard. All too often, say after a made basket, UL was off to the races immediately and the 'Noles were slow to react to that and get back (not the tune by the Beatles).
Man, I would have liked to have been in those seats right behind the Seminole bench to hear the conversation (if you want to call it a conversation .... me, I call it an old fashioned butt chewing out of the first order) Leonard and Justin Thomas were having. I am guessing Justin did something not exactly to Leonard's liking. To watch Justin try and explain his case was fascinating as that only caused further chewing out.
Up Next
In something unheard of in scheduling at this time of the year, Florida State has two weeks off before hosting Syracuse on Jan 4 at 6:30 PM and to be televised on the ACCN. Meanwhile the 5-6 'Cuse who lost to Maryland today, 87-60, will play two more games before meeting up against the Seminoles. The 'Noles according to Hamilton will be practicing individually working on their three point shooting (where they shoot well in practice don't you know).
The Good
Offensively the Seminoles did quite well shooting 53% from the floor and 40% (8-20) from the arc.
As usual so far this season, Jamir Watkins and Malique Ewin were once again at the top of the offensive statistics. Watkins scored 25 on 9 of 15 shooting and tying a career high with 4 of 6 from distance. Ewin was also efficient connecting on 7 of his 11 shots finishing with 17. Just 3 rebounds though. But when the other team is not missing anything they put up, you are not going to have a lot of rebound opportunities. The Seminoles could have used a little more scoring support from the rest of the team however. There were numerous shots around the basket that inexplicably did not go down.
Actually Dequan Davis had a decent game. Starting his third consecutive game, the FR added 9 points and started off the FSU offense with two early three pointers.
Plays of the game: With the starting unit struggling for the most part on offense and defense, the second unit provided a spark. Chandler Jackson found Alier Maluk who had worked his way into the paint for the quick turnaround jumper plus the foul, 16-15, UL. Ewin with the nice pump fake in the lane to have a clean look for his jumper, 24-19. Watkins sees the defender back off a tad allowing the SR to connect on a 30 footer, 32-27. Jerry Deng with the tap away steal that Watkins corrals taking it coast to coast for the fast break slam dunk right before intermission, 36-34. It was the closest FSU would be the rest of the game.
The Bad
FSU's record falls to 9-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play. Extrapolating that current ACC record to project the final wins and losses, we (meaning me) calculate that the 'Noles are on a pace to finish 0-20 in the ACC. The loss today also brings FSU's record against comparable competition (meaning P4 teams) to 0 (as in OMG!!!) and 4. As well as the team played against Winthrop, this was a complete opposite. At least on defense.
This one is a troubling loss IMO. UL was down two starters and a bench player due to injury. UL HC Pat Kelsey did a remarkable job managing his roster and frankly they outplayed the 'Noles. The Cardinals were the more energetic team out there. There were also spots where the Seminoles looked slow in particular the first four or five minutes of the game. By the first TV timeout, UL led 16-10 shooting 71% compared to only 29% for FSU.
The Seminoles led just once in the game, 3-0. You might as well say they trailed the entire game given how the rest of it played out. An 11-0 UL run quickly made the score 14-5. FSU did close it to just two at intermission. It did not last long however as Louisville rattled off back to back threes early in the second period forcing Leonard Hamilton to call a timeout just 1:59 into it.
Ewin makes what looks like a clean block and instead is called for a foul putting the Cardinal player at the stripe for three freebies. That was a foul? Okaaaaaaaay.
One of the more egregious lapses in defense, and there were many others, was Chucky Hepburn (not to be confused with Kathrine or Audrey) driving past not one but two FSU defenders. What made it even worse was the play started waaaaaaaaaaay out high on the left wing. After he reached the FT line, it was clear sailing to the rim. And not one other Seminole bothered to step in front of the ball. Or at least reach for the dadgum thing. Any kind of attempt would have been nice IMO. The easy lay up gave UL an 83-71 lead with just 2:07 left. That effectively was the end of the game for FSU.
The Ugly
Hamilton said after game that in practice this week, a focus was defending the arc as UL likes to take a lot of threes even though they had not been making a lot of them. In fact, UL was averaging 28% in three point shooting. That is good for 341st in the country. FSU coming into the game was 7th in the country in three point defense (26.5%). Tonight ............ UL was 15-29 (52%) including 10 of 15 in the second half (at one point after yet another three, UL was 8 of 11). I'd say a tad more focus was in order. Either that or when Leonard said during that timeout that the team needed to guard the arc better, the team heard something else like, don't worry about defending them better, they will start missing them. It sure looked like it as numerous times the dribble drive penetration and kick out to the shooter found that shooter standing there totally unguarded.
Reyne Smith. That's the guy who benefitted the most from a struggling defensive effort. Smith (11.9 ppg) came off the bench to score 25 most of which came from the arc (6-9). He contributed greatly to the scoring support from UL's bench. In fact, he was the bench as just eight played with only one other Cardinal off the pine adding just one point.
And if it wasn't wide open threes, it was a defense that was, shall we say inconsistent, in stopping the ball. Particularly poor was the Seminole defense not getting back to guard. All too often, say after a made basket, UL was off to the races immediately and the 'Noles were slow to react to that and get back (not the tune by the Beatles).
Man, I would have liked to have been in those seats right behind the Seminole bench to hear the conversation (if you want to call it a conversation .... me, I call it an old fashioned butt chewing out of the first order) Leonard and Justin Thomas were having. I am guessing Justin did something not exactly to Leonard's liking. To watch Justin try and explain his case was fascinating as that only caused further chewing out.
Up Next
In something unheard of in scheduling at this time of the year, Florida State has two weeks off before hosting Syracuse on Jan 4 at 6:30 PM and to be televised on the ACCN. Meanwhile the 5-6 'Cuse who lost to Maryland today, 87-60, will play two more games before meeting up against the Seminoles. The 'Noles according to Hamilton will be practicing individually working on their three point shooting (where they shoot well in practice don't you know).
