First win at Davidson since 1966!! I hope this team can stay hot into the conference tournament

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

MG14 wrote:

So that guarantees us at least 7th place, right?

No worse than 7th   2 other teams (Duquesne and Mason) looking like they are going to get their 10th win tonight also, although Fordham can still catch Mason

 
Unable to watch except for the last 90 seconds. My son gave me a recap, specifically the JB Show.

Just goes to show the difference in coaching between CC and JC. It can be said that JC had more scoring options at his disposal too.

Congrats to CC and the team on an outstanding and surprising season (so far), with more games to be played!

I know Davidson is in a rebuilding year, but they are never an easy team to beat - especially at their place. What made this win more "satisfying" is unlike most wins this season we found a way to come out on top when the team was trailing for most of the game. You want to be playing your best basketball in March and for the first time in a very long time I think I can say we are. We won the rebound battle (a big key), committed just 5 turnovers, and were in pretty good shape with foul trouble minus the usual culprits.

The team finished what they couldn't in the Mason home game. While shots were not falling for stretches of either game, at no point did I ever think we were taking bad shots in either contest. JB takes a few more threes than I would like given his percentages but I think he's earned the right to take most of those shots. Give a lot of credit to Davidson with the way they guarded us - I think they've improved compared to last year on that end which is crazy to say. We were trying to break their zone early with Hunter as we usually do but they did a great job staying with their man forcing Hunter to be more consistently assertive than I'm sure he would like. I agree with Gwmayhem that I'd rather Dean miss a shot than have him constantly look to hand the ball off. It makes us harder to guard and I'm sure Hunter is having a lot more fun actually being part of the offense now.

Davidson moving back to man late allowed JB to carve them up which was probably a mistake on their part, but that's where you have to give credit to Max, BA, and JB for making threes down the stretch to force them out of the zone. Max has been making big shots all season. There was a stretch in the first half where I actually wanted him to be more aggressive but his poise has been very impressive and he's played a big role in our 10 conference game season.

The difference in the game came down to which team had the player who could better take over down the stretch. Again, credit Davidson for making us play more in isolation than we would like and making us play at their pace but there's no one in the conference I'll take over JB (and BA!) when it comes to closing a game. Time after time the opposition looks like they are too slow when JB is taking it to the hoop. I feel spoiled knowing that he is going to beat his man and make the shot. That pass to Ricky for the dunk where JB just stopped mid-drive and found him down low was one of the best plays I've seen all season.

On the other hand for Davidson while Loyer made a couple tough shots late he settled for too many jumpers instead of getting to the basket like JB. If you are playing 1-on-1 and one player is attempting mostly layups and the other is only taking jump shots who would you pick to win based on the expected shooting percentage of the shot?

I mentioned our recent issues from the FT line so it was really nice to see a 16/18 performance last night. If we were shooting sub-70% like we had been the previous three weeks of the season we may have been looking at another OT game. Credit to JB and BA for going a combined 10-10 from the stripe.

I honestly think BA never really got a shot to be a meaningful contributor last season. There is no doubt that he has clearly put in work during the offseason to improve his three point shooting but I think opportunity has played a role as well. He played plenty of minutes down the stretch last year but that team was pretty much the JB and Bamisile show with few shots available for anyone else. I am reminded of Armel from his last season under Mojo vs. first year under JC. Now injuries also played a role in Potter's first year but I always felt he was underutilized on that team. I think the same is true for BA last year. While you can point to games this year where JB and BA are taking most of the shots, look at the attempts by the starters last night - Hunter, Ricky, and BA all had 9 attempts (and went 4-9 coincidentally), Max had 7, and JB had 22. That's still a heck of a lot more balanced than anything we had last year.

Ricky is certainly the X-factor on the team though. I keep saying when he's engaged we are a different team and hard to beat. His offensive rebounding and finishes near the rim made a big difference in the game as were his usual efforts defensively. I think you have to take the good with the bad with him though. That early three he took from the corner was exactly how I didn't want the game to start but he settled in after that. Unfortunately I do also have to mention a play with two minutes left. I believe he got an offensive rebound off a JB miss and decided to go right back up with it. While the shot missed and I would have preferred him to pull it back out with us holding a narrow lead late in the game I could live with that shot. What annoyed the heck out of me though was the fact that the miss got to Ricky. He was strolling up the court while every player was already on the other side. Now Lindo did end up saving himself by knocking the ball out of Loyer's hands from behind to reset Davidson's possession but that lightly jogging up the court just cannot happen, especially at a crucial point in the game. I'm not sure there's been a more frustrating player to watch than Ricky the past few seasons. The talent is there and when he is playing with positive body language he's a lot of fun to watch. But then you have stretches like that.

Amir and Noel did their thing when in the game. Brown is capable of making an assisted basket near the rim now and Harris doesn't necessarily need to score to be impactful - he had a number of key passes and defensive plays last night.

Next up is the finale against VCU. I probably had lower expectations than I should have playing at Davidson but there is no team I dread/hate playing more than VCU in conference and it's not close. A two possession loss should hopefully be realistic. We did a good job with turnovers against the Wildcats, but they aren't an aggressive defensive team. When teams pressure us a bit, we've had the tendency to cough the ball up. Should the over/under be set at 20 turnovers on Saturday? At least the game is at home but hopefully we don't get another Duquesne performance. Overall year 1 under CC has been a big success regardless of what happens the last couple of games of the year.
 

Very proud of the team and how they are playing now. Just by cutting down on  the amount of unforced turnovers  does make a Big difference in wins and losses. The players are working as a  team and everyone is recognizing their strengths and weaknesses. Would really like to know how the assistant coaches are working with the players to improve the team. And it seems the players are buying in. Winning is a good medicine. And having a coach who knows how to coach is wonderful. CC is doing a great job as a first year coach. Thanks Gwmayhem and dmvpiranha for your great anakysis. 

Our 5 conference road wins ties us for the most since 2015-2016 (the only year Lonergan's teams won 5 conference road games).

Hobbs did it 3 times (05, 06, 11)