Reply To: Army – Game 16 (PL's 3rd)

[LU65Participant]

Allow me to add another observation. It’s a five letter word: Focus.

Our inexperience showed last night, but for the most part Army’s inexperience didn’t. As mentioned in my first posting far above, the teams’ experience levels were near equal – starters and subs. Army players remained disciplined (what you might expect from members of the cadet corp who also know how to play b’ball), our guys didn’t. Sitting two rows removed from the bench, it was quite obvious that Reed and Company was not pleased with what can be best described as random lacks of focus. It didn’t happen often but when it did happen, it lead to 2-4 minute / 4-7 runs by our opportunistic opponent and the events so well document above by Hoops00 and others.

From the looks of it, Army will be a team to be reckoned with this year and perhaps in the years to come. From a basketball purist point of view you had to love the way they moved the ball and took quality shots. Their hit rates (.484 FG% and .375% 3FG%) surprised me. I would have thought them to be far greater. What wasn’t a surprise, however, was their ungodly knack of putting the ball into their shooter hand. Witness: Assists/FG Made or 27/31 or .871%. Truly Impressive. Fun to watch had it not been for my loyalty to Lehigh.

Gohawks63 brings up one of – it not my most – favorite players: CS. He continues to impress and does it in such a business-like manner. In a private chat with one of the 4 players lost from last year’s team, I can tell you that CS was referred to as one of the two best pure shooters on the team. It’s no secret who the other one was. Anyway, I’m sure he’s making his coach/Dad Dennis proud back home in Iowa.

When it comes to knocking down the shot, take a look at the 16-game stat totals below for both the backcourt and forecourt.

Player / Overall FG% / 2FG% / 3FG%
CS / .465 / .512 / .383
AP / .413 / .405 / .376
MM / .406 / .440 / .339
MS / .390 / .469 / .111
SC / .313 / .000 / .385

JG / .818 / .818 / NA
TK / .516 / .516 / NA
SW / .449 / .467 / .250
JC / .414 / .459 / .364