Reply To: Game 13: VCU

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Game 13: VCU Reply To: Game 13: VCU

#8753

lehigh90
Participant

Tough game.  I’ll give some thoughts from being inside the Siegel Center.  Great, great arena and atmosphere for college basketball.  Fans are totally in to Ram basketball, great band and super loud.  Last 5 minutes the arena was crazy loud.  That is a very difficult place for a road team to win especially with the constant full court pressure.  Definitely jealous of that whole game day experience as a Lehigh fan.

VCU dictated everything with that pressure.  MM was generally lost.  He thought he could beat 1 on 1 pressure, but handled the doubling very poorly.  I thought CS did an awesome job handling the pressure.  His handle is really good.  Thought HG handled himself well also.  Critical to have a big guy handle pressure.  While VCU dictated with pressure, they have 2 fatal flaws, in my opinion.  First, they have zero, zero, zero bigs.  For a program of that magnitude, they have no impact bigs.  Second, they foul too much.  We got into the one and one and double bonus very early in the first half and that kept us in the game.  VCU pushed to first half lead to about 8, but we were able to keep within distance with foul shooting.  So, I like Havoc but the fouling hurts VCU.  By the way, VCU shot poorly, but deadly at the line.  Lehigh missed enough free throws that it became a bit of a factor.

On CJ, I couldnt see the play where he got injured.  But, he was really being hawked in his time on the floor.  He looked a bit limited in the warm ups.  I watched him pretty closely and he missed almost every jump shot in the pregame.  My son even mentioned it to me and it looked like he didn’t have his standard lift on the jumper.  So, I’m not sure if this is a brand new injury or an aggravation of his prior problem.  A lot of people think on the Board, that with CJ, Lehigh runs away in second half.  I have to disagree.  He got virtually nothing done in his minutes on the floor.  He looked to struggle all day with that pressure.  He was burning so much energy breaking the press that he looked tired when they finally got to their sets.  He was having a tough time working off the high pick as VCU guards really hawk the ball.  Generally, CJ will jump over his man to get his shot off, but VCU was too athletic for that.  I was hopeful that he could develop a rhythm at the line, but then he got hurt.  I thought Lehigh did a poor job of getting him started in the first 5 minutes, got very few touches, but I think he was off from the get go.

Last point on CJ, I think he was a little exposed in that game.  He projects to the PG position in the NBA, but his handle was a little questionable in the VCU game.  I sat next to an NBA scout, who was feverishly taking notes on his iPad while texting, tweeting and talking on his cell phone.  I spoke to him pregame at the half and after the game.  He told me that this was the game scouts wanted to see for CJ.  They wanted to see him handle full court pressure against a team that really pressures.  He actually was the one who told me CJ had a broken foot early in the second as nobody in the arena knew.  At the half I talked to him for 5 minutes and he said that in his opinion CJ cost himself some money.  I said, because of injury, and he said no, more so because he didn’t answer the question as to whether or not he can play the point at the next level.  He said everybody likes his medium range and 3 point shooting, people like his ability to score and like his long arms for rebounding at the guard spot.  But he needs to handle pressure with the ball in his hands.  So, that was an interesting assessment.

CJ has played a ton of basketball over the last couple years and I remember commenting earlier this season about how he had such a healthy career.  It’s a shame this happened.  If indeed the foot is broken, it is going to be tough.  I would think a decision would be made quickly as to whether this is just immobilized in a boot or cast or whether they go a bit more aggressively n but doing surgery alulu putting a screw in to speed healing.  Best case in probably a 6 week injury if fractured, which puts him at mid March.  Maybe he could play PL tourney time, but maybe not.  Also, with his long term projection there is a lot more to consider.  I can’t see him rushing back and risking not being healthy come NBA workout time.  It is just a shame all around.  However, I think Lehigh still does pretty well even without CJ.

Final game thoughts.  Lehigh wings did a great job on Daniels.  I credit AD, CS, SC, BB and others.  We limited him all day, but he did hit the critical triple late.  Rams couldn’t buy a consistent shooter all game, but our guys worked really hard defending the perimeter.  If anything, we lost a little bit on the perimeter by allowing penetration.  But, we defended well, holding them under 60.  AD played really well, CS was great.  HG was player of game. Gritty gritty effort from HG in all phases.  MM as discussed, very poor game, he is not really progressing.  Turnover city, but pressure was tough.  GK needed to stay out of foul trouble with CJ off floor, and too many ticky tack fouls.  CB, brutal, hands of stone.

Coach did a nice job, had team ready to play, kept them focused without star.  Good gameplan against pressure.  All around good job from staff.  Tough game, but Lehigh represented well.

 

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