Pitino stops the obvious trapping

[DJessen33@aol.com]

A nice win by the C's. Part of the reason we won is that we match up well 
with them. The other reason was that Pitino quit his obvious trapping in the 
half court. We can't forget two calls that we got with about a minute left in 
the game that normally goes against us---Walker fouled LaFrenz shooting a 
three and they didn't call it and they called a foul against McCloud on 
Walker who was going for a offensive rebound...Now against Denver, we can get 
away with starting Walker at the big forward spot. They are weak defensively 
inside. I would prefer Walker at the big forward even against teams like 
Denver since we will have to play big against the big teams and I believe in 
a steady rotation. But Pitino stayed with his same pattern, albeit, reduced 
time for Barros, Griffen and Williams. I really hope Pitino's plan for 
Fortson is NOT as a backup center....I don't know why Pitino's continues the 
Cheaney experiment. Griffen also got reduced time tonight because of it. It 
doesn't make any sense to sit Griffen for Cheaney...Anderson has started to 
force his offense. I hope he stops it....Walker missed some bunnies but some 
other spectacular shots around the hoop so I guess  it evens out. He still 
made some dumb plays and a couple of ill-advised threes. Nice job of 
rebounding tonight for him also. Walker and Pierce worked well together 
during the game, each taking turns as the hot man....Pierce reminds me of 
Glen Rice with his pretty pullup jumper. Pitino has been putting him on the 
box posting up. Great decision and he really reaped the benefit of it 
tonight....We got to see some of the greatness of Fortson tonight in limited 
minutes. We also saw some of the downside. He made a really stupid foul on a 
guy by just pushing him after the guy already had the rebound. Dumb! But he 
had some nice, soft shots around the rim. He really knows how to use the pump 
fake to make up for his lack of hops. And when he sets a pick! I saw Mercer's 
knees rattle after he ran into Fortson once. I don't know why Pitino 
continues to play him at center. For a time Pitino had Fortson at center and 
Walker at the power forward spot. This time it didn't hurt so bad since 
Denver is also small. Clark was able to score over him easily however. There 
was also a short time when Fortson was at center and Williams was the power 
forward. Pitino go figure???....Battie totally shut down McDyess and Clark 
when he was in there. (Walker did a nice job also.) You see, Battie can play 
good defense on power forwards. It is just that big centers can beat him up 
and that is where Pitino plays him a lot...The key to this game is that 
Pitino did not do the obvious trapping of the ball. They trapped once in a 
while just to keep them on their heels. VP got burned on the one-on-one 
defense but they got him to stop the Mournings and Mutombos, not the 
McDyesses of the league. The one surprising thing was that early in the game, 
if a player got beat on the wing, no one came to help out. I think they were 
taking the no trap thing too serious. You still have to help out when a guy 
has a clear path to the hoop. Later on, they got their heads back on. All in 
all, it is nice to get a win and it looks like Pitino is heading in the right 
direction....

DJessen33