FSU Recap

That was frustrating. Incredibly, devastatingly frustrating. All year I've been optimistic about this team and where Coach Gregory is taking them, but I am pretty down on the crew after last night's game. We've praised them all season for the no quit attitude we saw last night, but I'm not going to do that here. Rather, I'd like to ask why we need to fight back in every game, seemingly. Aside from the Wake game, which was a complete anomaly, this team has dug themselves holes with poor early offense and rebounding.

We saw it last night as Tech went down 13-0 while racking up 4 turnovers and 1 measly rebound. During that time, FSU grabbed 3 offensive rebounds and all of the available rebounds on their defensive end of the floor. We saw this in the Clemson game, when Tech got dominated on the boards in the first half, giving their opponent second chances at the offensive end. Why can't these guys do the job from the beginning of the game? Is this a coaching/youth issue?

Tech took a timeout before their last offensive possession. There was roughly 42 seconds on the game clock, and a full 35 on the shot clock. I briefly thought that Tech might try to go 2-for-1, but there was was too little time for that. The logical conclusion from there would be to run as much clock as possible and get a good look at the rim for one of our starters with 5 or fewer seconds left on the shot clock, leaving FSU roughly 7-12 seconds to operate on the other end. Instead, Mfon took a contested, slightly off balance 3 point shot with 33 seconds left in the game and more than 20 seconds left on the shot clock. Was this a botched 2-for-1? A player getting himself in the air and forcing his own hand? There is no way that could have been the play CBG drew up, right?

What is the deal with ACC referees this year? A friend and I were trying to figure out why the level of officiating seems to have dipped so much this year. We were talking about this near the beginning of the second half, when there seemed to be a pretty even amount of bad calls on both teams. Sadly, the officiating got worse towards the end of the game, as the refs called an inexplicable foul on FSU when Mfon tripped from seemingly incidental contact while playing defense. The refs then used the TV timeout to overturn the original foul call and award the foul TO Mfon for tripping. I watched the replay several times and couldn't find anything that could possibly have been a foul on Udofia. Then there was Kam being called for a foul after absorbing an elbow in the lane. Oh, and the last play. I feel that the referees will actually be commended for their performance, though, since the number of fouls called on each team was even. It has seemed at times this year that the referees are overly conscious of the foul count, and officiate based on the "evening it out" principle rather than what they are actually seeing on the floor.

Feel free to vent your frustration with me in the comments.