My Fiver on WVU's loss to Louisville yesterday in the Battle of Atlantis semi's....
1. WVU had 29 total fouls to Louisville's 15. Louisville finishes 24-33 from the line, while WVU finishes 9-12. There's your ballgame. The refs had a completely different whistle during the 2nd half, which was far tighter and was completely unreasonable. At one point, there were 7 straight defensive possessions where WVU was whistled for a foul. No one is tuning in to the game to watch these officials blow their whistles.
2. -7 on the glass overall, -5 in offensive rebounds, and I thought the killer were the offensive rebounds that Louisville was able to snag off of their missed free throws, which occurred a staggering 6 times. A particularly bad one was where WVU took a 28-17 lead, then gave up a three and fouled Chucky Hepburn on the shot(Yesufu). Hepburn missed the FT, but UL snagged the rebound, and ended up with a dunk. So, a possible 4-point play turned into a 5-point possession and WVU's momentum was shut down fairly quickly.
3. Javon Small was unstoppable again, and Chucky Hepburn was unstoppable for UL. They canceled each other out essentially. And I thought that Louisville's surrounding cast just did better than WVU's. Amani Hansberry had a very good game, but Tucker DeVries just wasn't effective enough while Sencire Harris's defensive prowess was negated by the tight whistle. BTW, at 1:20 left in regulation, with WVU clinging to a 60-59 lead, we ran a good set with DeVries having a wide open look from the elbow...but it clanged off the back of the rim. He has to make that one.
4. I cannot believe we did not get a shot attempt on the final possession. That is beyond frustrating, and for a well-coached WVU team, was shocking. 31 seconds with a 1.8 shot clock differential. I don't mind not calling a timeout there, but we have to do better.
5. Well we're 1-1 with an OT W vs. Gonzaga and an OT loss vs. Louisville. Who saw that coming? That said, we have another tough game today with Arizona, who we'll now face three times this year. Because, you know, West Virginia and Arizona should obviously be playing three times due to our geographical proximity (college sports are getting pretty fvcking stupid). Anyhow, I worry about our lack of depth catching up to us today. Small, DeVries and Hansberry have played a ton of minutes, and Sincere has spent a lot of time crashing into the hardwood. We need to get better minutes from Yesufu, Tenner, Andre and Powell. Hope these guys have the legs for one more good run today.
1. WVU had 29 total fouls to Louisville's 15. Louisville finishes 24-33 from the line, while WVU finishes 9-12. There's your ballgame. The refs had a completely different whistle during the 2nd half, which was far tighter and was completely unreasonable. At one point, there were 7 straight defensive possessions where WVU was whistled for a foul. No one is tuning in to the game to watch these officials blow their whistles.
2. -7 on the glass overall, -5 in offensive rebounds, and I thought the killer were the offensive rebounds that Louisville was able to snag off of their missed free throws, which occurred a staggering 6 times. A particularly bad one was where WVU took a 28-17 lead, then gave up a three and fouled Chucky Hepburn on the shot(Yesufu). Hepburn missed the FT, but UL snagged the rebound, and ended up with a dunk. So, a possible 4-point play turned into a 5-point possession and WVU's momentum was shut down fairly quickly.
3. Javon Small was unstoppable again, and Chucky Hepburn was unstoppable for UL. They canceled each other out essentially. And I thought that Louisville's surrounding cast just did better than WVU's. Amani Hansberry had a very good game, but Tucker DeVries just wasn't effective enough while Sencire Harris's defensive prowess was negated by the tight whistle. BTW, at 1:20 left in regulation, with WVU clinging to a 60-59 lead, we ran a good set with DeVries having a wide open look from the elbow...but it clanged off the back of the rim. He has to make that one.
4. I cannot believe we did not get a shot attempt on the final possession. That is beyond frustrating, and for a well-coached WVU team, was shocking. 31 seconds with a 1.8 shot clock differential. I don't mind not calling a timeout there, but we have to do better.
5. Well we're 1-1 with an OT W vs. Gonzaga and an OT loss vs. Louisville. Who saw that coming? That said, we have another tough game today with Arizona, who we'll now face three times this year. Because, you know, West Virginia and Arizona should obviously be playing three times due to our geographical proximity (college sports are getting pretty fvcking stupid). Anyhow, I worry about our lack of depth catching up to us today. Small, DeVries and Hansberry have played a ton of minutes, and Sincere has spent a lot of time crashing into the hardwood. We need to get better minutes from Yesufu, Tenner, Andre and Powell. Hope these guys have the legs for one more good run today.
