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Game Thread for NU vs. Wake Forest

This team just can’t win close games. Just finds ways to lose. They have to figure that out immediately if they want to be a good team this year.

That said, I like this team. I really do. Hard to say that after a tough loss, but they’re really close to being a 10-11 win team in conference.
 
In the end, just the same old story with this bunch. It'll be the same thing at Maryland. Find a way to lose. Oh, but then we'll come home and spank NJIT and Illinois Springfield and Prairie View, while losing to DePaul. LOL, except I'm crying.
 
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Robbie played decent D. Laravia just made a hell of a shot. Hard to fault Robbie there.

Tough game.
Beran can’t be blamed for that play. He guarded him well. He just made a tough shot. Maybe if Nance was on him. But that would mean Young would be on Walton and we know Young does not play with Nance… errr… never mind

Anyway I don’t see why Beran should have been out there. No one can say it would have made a difference, but an offensive rebound by Williams being there instead of Beran and we might have won. Williams had his best game at NU so far and was there at the end of regulation. Not sure what the logic was to get Beran in.
 
I was surprised Young got no playing time late. Beran’s defense on the game-winner wasn’t bad - Laravian just was that good on his 2nd or 3rd move, after he was denied previously.
 
This team just can’t win close games. Just finds ways to lose. They have to figure that out immediately if they want to be a good team this year.

That said, I like this team. I really do. Hard to say that after a tough loss, but they’re really close to being a 10-11 win team in conference.
I think you’re going to be disappointed.
 
When do we get over the hump. We should not have lost. There was a bit of homecooking. Missed a foul on Williams in regulation. Obvious foul yet will give Opie Laravia a and 1 if he just touches the ball
 
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Beyond frustrating tonite.These are games you have to win if you want to get to the dance.We are going to have a few of these in the BIG and somehow we have to come out on top.Well Sunday is another day.Let's see how they respond.
 
When Buie lost the inbounds pass, like so much of the rest of this game, he was trying to do much. A bit more understandable with 4.7 left, so we had to hurry - he just got caught trying to look up court before he had the ball.

Both he and Nance bounced back somewhat late - but the die really was cast by subpar performances during most of the game. The supporting cast were left to carry the team, and several did step up to keep us in it.
 
Just not clutch in any way.
Too bad, because they executed perfectly on what turned out to be the final NU field goal attempt of the game. But, as others have written, Wake knew exactly who they wanted to attack on the final possession.
 
Did we even get a FG in OT? We did a good job from the line, but I don’t remember a FG.

Was Buie’s layup on the inbounds play in regulation or OT?
 
For practical terms this game also means we are guaranteed no (somewhat) quality OOC wins. Unless we beat DePaul and they miraculously have a great season.
 
1) I agree with everyone who says this team just isn't clutch ... finds a way to lose ... etc. That's really what all these discussions are about, aren't they? All of us just digging for that something. And I'll agree CC did a lousy job trying to find it tonight.

2) You don't play Young AT ALL for the final 10+ minutes?!?! Are you kidding?

3) I was disgusted with Nance for the first 35 minutes of the game. Absolutely nothing. And how often did he get the ball smacked out of his hands?

I'm generally tired of the Nance thing. Five great minutes ... whoopee.

4) I want to be as annoyed with Boo as so many of you, but I got nothing else. There's at least four guys in that rotation that offer you nothing. Not much defense. Not much of a scoring threat. Just scraping by possession by painful possession, hoping good Buie shows up 50 percent of the time, or Nance is high on the mediocrity scale.

5) I'm done with Beran. Make him earn his way back.

6) This group is so soft. Weak under boards. Weak hands. Pretty soft in defense. It's my theory why every team lights them up from three.

7) Yes, I shouldn't type anymore post game.
 
I am past trying to figure out what CC is doing with the rotations.It is almost like he is allergic to play Nance and Young at the same time.I have never seen a team miss so many close in shots.You think some of those would go in by accident.We are just too inconsistent.Look terrific fore 5 minutes and then let Wake have 3 big runs in the 1st half.That is who we are.Very disappointing.
 
The lapse I saw that bugged me a bit at the end in overtime was when we were up, missed the layup and Berry (I think) grabbed a great rebound, but then tried an awkward layup with the basket already behind him. I'm pretty sure we had a fresh shot clock. Run 20 seconds off it man, we're ahead.

Nance seemed unprepared for the big men in the paint and should have had more points and drawn more fouls than he did. That's a bummer from an upperclassman team leader.

I really liked what I saw out of Williams. He has some problems, but unlike many of his teammates, he played better against this better competition. He seems a lot bigger on the court than he is.

I also liked what I saw out of Simmons. Again. I suspect this kid is going to be one of my favorite players going forward.

Boo needs to take some yoga or tai-chi or something. He's a good player, but this is the third game out of the last four I've seen him get really frustrated and start rushing everything. His game suffers when he plays angry.

We need more Young on the court imho.
 
The lapse I saw that bugged me a bit at the end in overtime was when we were up, missed the layup and Berry (I think) grabbed a great rebound, but then tried an awkward layup with the basket already behind him. I'm pretty sure we had a fresh shot clock. Run 20 seconds off it man, we're ahead.

Nance seemed unprepared for the big men in the paint and should have had more points and drawn more fouls than he did. That's a bummer from an upperclassman team leader.

I really liked what I saw out of Williams. He has some problems, but unlike many of his teammates, he played better against this better competition. He seems a lot bigger on the court than he is.

I also liked what I saw out of Simmons. Again. I suspect this kid is going to be one of my favorite players going forward.

Boo needs to take some yoga or tai-chi or something. He's a good player, but this is the third game out of the last four I've seen him get really frustrated and start rushing everything. His game suffers when he plays angry.

We need more Young on the court imho.
Williams looked good because he and Young work well together.
Simmons can play too.

Can't imagine what they did to get benched, but it cost us the game.
 
Williams looked good because he and Young work well together.
Simmons can play too.

Can't imagine what they did to get benched, but it cost us the game.
The lineups that Collins puts on the floor are puzzling for sure. For the last few minutes of regulation, we had no one on the floor capable of scoring. Why not go with a Nance and Young combo late in a game when neither is in foul trouble? Instead, Young is buried on the bench.
 
Got the box score play by play. Ran the numbers...
Our Points Scored vs their pts scored when each player was on court
PlayerOur PointsTheir PointsMinutes
Williams352519.9
Young292216.4
Greer484029.7
Roper514629.3
Berry454827.2
Buie576633.6
Nance445528.6
Beran385225.1
Simmons183115.2

For the second week in a row, the Ryan Young / Elyjah Williams was our top combo... 25-19
Pete Nance / Robbie Beran was horrible yet again... 34-49

Another loss due primarily to lineup choice.
 
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That said, I like this team. I really do. Hard to say that after a tough loss, but they’re really close to being a 10-11 win team in conference.
There were some bad turnovers in this game but the killer tonight was the inability to finish at the rim. We must have missed 10 shots within 2 feet of the rim, probably more. I think we’re better than people realize and as long as the team keeps fighting, the wins will come. But damn… we had this one.
 
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The lapse I saw that bugged me a bit at the end in overtime was when we were up, missed the layup and Berry (I think) grabbed a great rebound, but then tried an awkward layup with the basket already behind him. I'm pretty sure we had a fresh shot clock. Run 20 seconds off it man, we're ahead.
That was Roper, missed the bunny then fouls the guy (who make both FTs to tie the game).
How many wide open layups/putbacks did we miss?
 
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We missed a whopping 13 layups last night, though granted WF missed 10. Nance and Roper missed 3 each, Buie, Greer and Williams missed 2 each, Beran missed one. Extremely frustrating to not come away with the win last night.
 
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Some of those misses were pretty well contested on both sides, and some were just dumb efforts to do something, but both teams had at least a few gimmes and blew them badly. I think the WF guy who had the uncontested fast break and borked it had to be pretty darned embarrassed for example.
 
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