An unemotional analysis of the game

[Statefan]

Just my thoughts. If you don't care to read them, it's perfectly alright

1. Definitely a stinger. Not uncommon for State to lose a tightly contested match up in the waning minutes, but it still hurts just as bad every time. Overall, I think we did a great job but costly mistakes towards the end definitely overshadowed how well we played earlier.

2. Baylor is a fantastic team. I'm not knowledgeable enough to endow them with Final Four status this early, but I believe that they will be highly ranked when the season ends. They have fantastic forwards that rebounded extremely well today, but they are also balanced with the talent they have at the guard positions. (I.e. Heslip). I am by no means pardoning our loss by using their talent as an excuse, but this is probably the 2nd best team we will play all year, and I believe we competed effectively.

3. Defensively, I was astonished. Baylor was averaging over 70 ppg, and they have played some great competition up to this point. I thought we may be in a shoot out, but our players did a great job of contesting every single pass in this game. The baseline in-bounds dunk and final lay up were defensive mistakes, but overall I think our guys did a great job defending against a great team.

4. End game killed us. We missed some crucial free throws, and had those previously mentioned defensive lapses. I didn't have a problem with the foul call on Sidney, but the Technical was uncalled for in my opinion. Not calling the foul when Bost was tackled was also egregious, and it surprised me because the refs had been calling everything til then.

5. Sidney played decent. Not a lot of hustle, but was effective when we actually completed the pass inside to him. I didn't agree with the call on his 3rd foul, but he made a dumb error to force his 4th foul. Definitely wished he had not gotten the technical, but I don't think that was a fair call in that situation.

6. Final play was perplexing. I know that we were trying to go to Bost, but I wish we had called a time out when the play floundered. Regardless, I think that Steele should have pulled up when he had the chance. Really tough position to put Hood in as a Freshman, but another great job by Baylor. I will say that Stans didn't do a good on that particular play, but <span style="font-weight: bold;">I also think it is unfair to say Stans was consistently out coached in this game based on the previous 39 minutes.</span> He did a great job shutting down Baylor's 3 point shooting in the second half. I know some will disagree with my assessment, but it is just my opinion.

7. Lastly, it should be obvious to everyone that we have a hell of a team on our hands. If we compete with this same fervor every night, we will be a menace in the SEC. Of course, we are going to get some hot shooting teams during some games, and we are going to play poorly at times. It happens when you play 30 or so games; however, when the team is amped and ready to play, they certainly have the potential to beat ANYBODY in the country. I think completely dismissing our chances of a Sweet 16 in premature... We are not seeing the finished product that we will have in March, and that is a scary thought.

 

[Rosebowl.sixpack]

There are way to many on this board that are pre-conditoned one way or another (hate stans or love stans) and therefore cannot make a reasonable analysis of a game. If we lose, we know C34 and his cronies will be here to point out every flaw. Then just as annoying, if we win, the Stans supporters are just happy they get to rub it in C34s face. We could have been 30-0 headed into that game and if we lost C34 would be have a million post talking about how we aren't good and have no chance to get anywhere with Stands. On the flip side, we could be 0-30 and win this game and there would be a 100 threads bashing C34 and praising Stans. <div>
</div><div>It is like dealing with damn republicans and democrats. Cannot come up with a thought on their own because they are too pre-conditioned to think a certain way. So thank you for analyzing the game for exactly what it was, 1 game, where we did some very good things and we did some bad things on both the coaching and execution front.<div>
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[She Mate Me]

did.

It was an exciting game between two very solid teams that came down to one basket. Simple as that.

 

[NewTweederEndzoneDance]

The foul on Sidney was a foul plain and simple. He got lazy and didn't help on the ball screen, didn't block out, and then threw his arm off to the side while trying to get the rebound. The guy didn't even come close to going over his back. If Sidney plays fundamental ball on that possession and does what he's supposed to do, we win that game. Instead he gets lazy, allows an offensive rebound, compounds it by fouling and then makes it ten times worse by mouthing off to the ref when it was his own lazy play that got him the foul on the first place. He infuriates me bc he has so much talent, but he has no work ethic that I can see.

Overall, I'm still excited about the potential for this team. That last possession was typical Stans though.

 

[She Mate Me]

The problem on here and in our government is that the extremist are allowed too much latitude to blather their extreme opinions and they muddy up the honest discussion. It is a real problem that I am not sure how to handle.

 

[Statefan]

Sidney still refuses to give it his all every time he touches the court, and a little more discipline may have stopped him from committing the technical. I know it is highly unlikely we see a Charles Rhodes-esque turnaround with him in the coming months, but he has been steadily improving each game. Hopefully he will be in a better position mentally and physically by the time the NCAA Tournament rolls around