Mike Scott Leads Hoos Past Pirates
I'm not sure Mike Scott was the player of the game last night. Mac and Jim named Meyinsse (career high 9 points, 9 rebounds) as their player of the game. One could make an argument for Adrian Joseph (team high 19 points, 3 rebounds). But Mike Scott is the player I'm talking about the next morning and that tells me he was the player of the game.
Scott started last night for the first time in his career, stepping in for the injured Lars Mikalauskas and Ryan Pettinella (and Tunji Soroye who has been out for a while now). The 5 isn't really Scott's position, but the Pirates weren't exactly a big team on the floor last night.
It was obvious from our first possession that part of the game plan would be to get the ball inside. Scott was moving around trying to get position and the guards were looking inside. Looking, but not passing. It took a little while before the ball really got inside (in fact, Scott didn't have his first basket until just under 4 minutes remained in the first half). You could see, however, that the guards were feeling out Hampton and their defense.
Later in the game, Scott made 3 buckets (the first and second sandwiched around free throws from Jamil Tucker) in a 2 and a half minute stretch of the second half. That surge helped extend Virginia's lead further into double-digit territory, a margin they would only temporarily relinquish.
Today's Daily Press has some quotes from Scott talking about how he got after the guards, trying to get them to give him the ball. That takes some serious guts for a freshman to tell someone like Sean Singletary what to do. But it was the right move, and it paid off.
Having an inside game is a very important piece of the puzzle for this team. We can't always have the hot shooting hand. And sometimes we'll be guarded in ways that make shooting from the perimeter pretty tough. So Mike Scott's continued emergence is a very nice development.
Random Musings
- Singletary's stat line looks like he continues to struggle. And to some extent, he is. The turnovers are frustrating in particular, but sitting in JPJ I didn't realize he had that many turnovers. As a team I knew we had a lot. But I guess I didn't blame him for some that were credited to him. The one big difference with him this year compared to last, in my opinion, is that he's really moving the ball around. There were lots of times where I think last year he might have taken a contested three or drove into the lane trying to draw a foul. But this year he doesn't seem to need to. Joseph can knock down the threes. So can Baker. Diane some games too. Jones as well. Scott and Meyinsse can do some impressive things inside. So Sean just doesn't have to. A few of the possessions towards the end of the game where I was wondering if he would get double digits or not, he seemed content to just pass the ball around to his teammates and see what they could make happen together. That's the point guard's job, right? Nonetheless, he needs to work on those turnovers a bit.
- Jeff Jones spent much of the game looking a lot less comfortable than he did in the first couple games of the season. I'm curious about his apparent backwards step, but I don't think its much to be concerned with. On a couple occasions, Jones drove into the lane and took it to the basket. Not as clean of a play as I would have liked to see, but its nice to see a freshman take charge like that when his outside shot isn't falling.
- Diane did not have a great game, but, according to reports, it was the Pirates plan to eliminate him and Sean from the game. Looks like that plan worked, but Hampton didn't have a backup plan in place for Meyinsse, Scott and...
- Adrian Joseph. We got a glimpse of what he could do towards the end of the year last year. We knew he had ice in his veins when taking important shots. But seriously - did anyone expect what we've seen so far? I guess some people did. Regardless, Joseph continued to look good, notching a team high 19 points. He didn't get a double-double this time around (as he's done, I believe, 3 times so far this season), but with Meyinsse and Scott working the glass, he didn't need to.
- Our inbounds play needs to improve. It looks like we're trying to run some sort of play... but I can't tell at all what it is. A couple times we made really poor decisions. Scott passed the ball in to Singletary under our basket... but apparently didn't notice the Hampton player standing between them. On another play, Sean passed the ball in to Calvin, who passed it back to Sean a second later... only problem being that Sean hadn't come back inbounds yet. We can afford those mistakes right now. We can't afford them when we get into ACC play or into the dance, so I really hope it is somewhat of a point of emphasis during practice the next couple weeks.
- Does anyone else feel like we swing the ball around the perimeter pretty slowly? I watch games with other teams where they can't get the ball inside, so they just swing it around the perimeter until someone is open enough to shoot. Since we usually have 4 3pt shooters on the floor at any given moment, shouldn't we be able to do that pretty easily? It just seems like the ball moves much more slowly.
- The live blogging by Chris Graham and Scott German during the game (mostly the second half) is pretty entertaining and worth the read. I had many of the same thoughts (particularly about the fouls) from where I was sitting.
- It's really really really nice to see a Virginia big man catch the ball near the basket, turn and, with aggression, put the ball into the basket off the glass. And then do it again from straight in front of the basket and no glass just a minute later. Yay for inside games. I can't mention that enough.