CLEMSON GAME REPORT CARD by 001

Well we lost another close one to Clemson. Last year at Littlejohn, we lost 69-66 basically because of poor free throw shooting and the same thing happened last night when we lost 84-82 and primarily because of poor free throw shooting. However, there were other factors involved in this lost as you will see below. As always, your comments are welcomed.
OFFENSE C
Again we were slow getting off the mark in this game. But then, so was our opponent. It was all knotted up 9 to 9 at the 14:06 mark, and then again 13 to 13 at the 11:07 mark. Then Stans got hit with the “T”…Clemson jumped out to a 4 point lead with the foul and held the lead the remainder of the first half. This game held the same characteristics as the first with State shooting a poor 34.6%in the first half, improving to 50.0% in the second half and 43.8% for the game. Our guys made way too many mental mistakes in this game, losing the ball to Clemson. Three or four times, it was almost like they were passing the ball to Clemson instead of a team mate and they made us pay for it. Another factor was a flagrant foul towards the end of the game (1:45 mark) that allowed Clemson to claim two more points at the line. I felt that Clemson’s full court pressure stressed our guys more than it should have. We played much better in the second half, but still can’t get to where we need to be.
DEFENSE C
It was almost like our defense was left in the locker room when we started the game. It improved as the game went on, but I felt was sadly lacking for this team. We again had decent shot blocking with Varnado picking up 6 and Rhodes 4. However, we only had 5 steals to Clemson’s 9. And both teams were making baskets off of the steals. Defense by the bench players was more impressive, especially Brian Johnson. I think we’ll see more improvement by the bench players over the next several games, but it is the starters that will have to step it up.
ASSIST TO TURNOVER RATIO F
A big reversion here as compared to our previous game. We had almost twice the number of turnovers as we did assist. Ten assists compared to 19 turnovers. Three of our starters had 5 assists compared to 14 turnovers. The bench players in comparison had 1 assist 2 turnovers. These guys have to learn to protect the ball better and be more distributive with assist.
REBOUNDING B-
We finally get a decent rebounding margin 51 to 42 in loss. Our starters out rebounded the Clemson starters 38 to 32, our bench was 8 to 5 and team rebound was even at 5. There were some big bodies bumping each other for rebounds. Brian Johnson is coming along well in his role now that he is getting playing time. With 2 offensive and 1 defensive rebound.
3 POINT SHOOTING C-
I was somewhat disappointed in this area. We shot 2 for 11 for 18.2% in the first half and 5 for 13 for 38.5% in the second half. The poor 3 point shooting in the first half hurt us badly. We ended the games with 7 of 24 for 29.2%. I suppose the anxiety factor hit us in the first half because had we shot as well in the first half as we did in the second half, we could have won this game. The starters were 6 of 19 for 31.6% and the bench was 1 for 5 for 20.0%
FREE THROW SHOOTING C
This was the same thing that cost us a win last year at Clemson and was the primary culprit in last night’s loss. We were 19 of 31 from the charity stripe for 61.3% mark. There was very little difference in shooting between the 2 halves. Whereas Clemson was 28 of 38 which translates into 73.7%.....This is the range we need to get to in order to win close games.
OFFICIATING D
This is a new area on this report card. We had an ACC officiating crew consisting of Karl Hess (our old friend), Tom Eades and Mike Eades. They called a total of 50 fouls in this game. Twenty two against Clemson and 28 against us. I can’t see this because there were bodies hitting the floor all over the place. These bodies being our players. On three or four occasions, they allowed James Mays to use his elbow and shoulder to know our players down and make lay ups without a charging call. And by the same token was calling touchy calls against us. After they called the T on Stans, later in the game, they stopped the game and gave both Stans and Purnell warnings about being outside the coaches box. I would love to have heard Jack Cristil’s comments about the officiating in the game. They probably were hilarious.
OVERALL C-
The fast pace of the game is improving for us. It’s hard to play the other team and the officiating at the same time. It’ll kill you every time. I was happy to see the bench players add quality minutes to this game. We are still basically a young team that is improving with each game. We’ll do much better down the line because of the experience we picked up in this game.
PREDICTION State will beat UT-Martin by 24+