A few notes after Philly

[DJessen33@aol.com]

Before we issue the suicide watches, let's remember that we were within a 
couple of bad calls from beating Philly at home a week or so ago. That's 
seems like such a long time ago now and the team seems so different. What if 
the games were reversed?...Both Herren and Brunson's game has changed from 
their first couple of games. Brunson has become very tenative. He dribbles 
slowly, with not much confidence. He rarely looks to shoot and his defender 
sags off him in the offensive set. The worst thing is that he doesn't even 
threaten to take them on the dribble. I have no idea why Pitino was playing 
him so much. Herren also isn't playing the ball up the floor like he was 
early on. He is more slowly bringing the ball up the court, even he isn't 
pressured. One of his assets was his penetration but he gave that up to early 
after one Ratcliff swat. He has to do this to create offense in our offensive 
set, especially when it isn't going for Walker and Pierce...I predict that 
Walker was going to have a off-night after he missed his first shot. He 
seemed too tight. He was too determined to lead the team and get his shots 
in. Before it didn't matter because he was shooting well. When your shot is 
off, you have to contribute in other areas...Why isn't Pierce get it? Tommy 
has been ragging on him for quite a while and I guess I now agree. He also 
needs to contribute in other areas if things aren't going.....You have to 
admit that Battie has improved quite a bit...Why did Pitino stick with VP so 
long. Yes, he was clearing some space against the Philly reserves (and 
fouling) but Philly was driving it in at will without any viable shot 
blocker. VP has stone legs to match his stone fingers. You have to have 
someone in there who is a threat to block a shot. You can't expect Blount to 
do anything when he doesn't play for a couple games. We need to give up on VP 
and play Blount to improve our defense and let him develop....It was nice to 
see Pitino play Battie as Walker's backup for a time (instead of Walter). 
Miracles can happen...I think Erik Williams should receive the majority of 
his playing time only on home games. He is much more likely to get the calls 
at home than on the road and if he doesn't get the call, the other team is 
racing down the court on a break....Moiso could have used some of the garbage 
time in these last two games....

DJessen33