Photo Attribution: USATSI
The Cowboys took care of business early tonight in Ft. Worth by burying lowly TCU late in the first half and not letting them come up for air throughout the second. Le’Bryan was career-high fantastic, Marcus Smart did Marcus Smart things, and everything is setting up nicely for next week. 10 thoughts on tonight’s game…
1. Le’Bryan, wow. Outside of one or two shots, he honestly tried to get inside the lane every chance he had. It’s amazing1 what that will do for a guy who’s built like him. OSU’s going to sniff the Final Four if he turns 12-16 from the field into any kind of regularity (yes, I know it’s TCU). Also, the announcers pointed this out, but how does he only have three blocked shots on the season?!
2. Tell me Markel hasn’t been watching tape on Kobe’s fadeaway. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Send me an email. Tweet me, whatever.
3. The last 1:20 of the first half was just a clinic in putting away a bad team on the road. It’s not like OSU was struggling per se, but if you go to the locker room only up four or five (it was 31-24 with 1:21 left) then maybe it creeps into your head a little bit. Then Smart hit a three, BWill got an and one and a dunk and you’re not coming back on OSU when they’re up 38-24 at halftime of a conference game.
4. Has Jurick added to his tattoo collection this year? These are the things you wonder during TCU basketball games I suppose.
5. Matt Doherty said Marcus Smart was in Magic Johnson’s league “in terms of emotional leadership.” I think the blowout was getting to him.
6. TCU went 28% of the game without scoring a point — from the end of the first half to about six minutes through the second. 28%!
7. Not sure if you guys caught it but early in the first half Travis Ford started running at somebody on TCU who had an open three. He screamed “shooter” and stuck his hand out. I thought for a split-second we were going to have a Woody Ford on our hands.
8. Forte’s splits after tonight..
Home – 42%
Neutral – 50%
Road – 16%
Conference – 29%
I love Forte, love him. I think ultimately he will be better than Keiton ever thought about being. But he’s not getting it done right now. He’s a terrific player but he gets a lot of playing time because he’s a fantastic shooter and that singular skill isn’t translating at all. I’ll be interested to see how Ford uses him down the stretch. I think we’re beginning to see Brian Williams as the new sixth man of this team.
9. The disparity in Smart’s stats between the top Big 12 teams and the bottom Big 12 teams is pretty incredible. He’s paced his exertion this year so well — never expending too much against the TCUs and Texas Techs of the world and emptying the tank against KU and OU. 5th year senior maturity stuff. Also, not to put a damper on things, but it’s kind of telling that Nash’s career high was in a throwaway game against TCU and Smart’s was in a monster Bedlam matchup, no?
10. I’ve gone from “I don’t trust this team much at all even though I like them a lot” a month ago to “would trust them with my life on the line against an inferior team on the road.” The transformation has been really amazing.
Texas in GIA on Saturday.
- No, really, it’s not that amazing. ↩
We’ve heard how much Forte is always at the gym. I wonder if that has any correlation to how he is playing. Maybe his mind is too much on the game at the moment and needs to scale back a little bit.
I was thinking the exact same thing as your point #9 while I was watching the game. It’s interesting that Nash has monster games against inferior competition, but disappears against teams with similar athleticism.
Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to see Nash be aggressive. I hope this is a sign of things to come in March and April.
I don’t like Nash’s effort from game to game and even periodically within games (especially on defense), but Nash was huge in our big win against OU. Pick and choose all you want but he had 26 in that game. Sure, Smart had 28, but we don’t win that one without the way Nash played. The problem is always the next game where he just dissappears like against KU.
Nash’s interview at the end of the game kindof annoyed me. Maybe it was a lack of humility, or maybe it was just me. “Nobody can stop you when you go to the hole.” Then why do you suck so much half the time, and like Fraschilla mentioned only have 1 or two moves. That is fine in high school but you have to develop more of your game at this level. It makes me feel like he isn’t developing as he doesn’t feel he needs to. Maybe I read too much into that, but it just made me think he doesn’t get it and perhaps that he thinks he is still 1st round NBA material.
Ummm Nash had 26 in Bedlam and his previous career high was against #2 Missouri… Pretty weak argument there. I know it kills you when he plays well after trying to say for weeks he isn’t any good.
Always knew he was talented. It was the mental and coaching aspect that needed improving.
This needs refreshing but…not pretty.
http://www.pistolsfiringblog.com/is-lebryan-nash-good-against-top-25-teams
Ford should bench Nash every time he shoots one of those fade-away shots. He’s dead-on when he drives to the board. Maybe he’ll see that now.
have to agree with Nate on this one. Nash did not have a good game either time we played lowly Tech (9 & 6 i think?) but he had a monster games against #6 NC State (he had 23 and Smart had 20) and OU. Sporadic? yes. But only against weak competition? no
Ah good one. Forgot about the NC State game as well. He was a monster in that one.
And how much does Matt Doherty sound like Bob Knight?
I agree with you that nash is talented and always has been. I think this is much more of a mental problem than a coaching problem (see the improvement of markel, cobbins, williams). I will agree HCTF isn’t a good situational coach, but I do think he is a good motivator and appears to be good at developing players so far. I think nash is good when nash tries to be good.
I really think it is important to get LB involved early. If he makes his first couple shots it usually translates into a good game for him. If he doesnt touch the ball early or if he is ineffective when he does he seems to disappear. Especially if he drives to the bucket and makes contact but doesn’t get the call. It is all about confidence. Also we dont win at KU if LB doesn’t hit a couple of clutch shots in the second half.
Time to give props where it is due for this game. Great job Nash! May he continue to play with this type of assertion and aggression going forward. Smart has saved Ford’s job, Markel has been most consistent, and/but it’s Nash that can take us to next level. We will be a tough out if he can somehow get fired up enough to play like this regularly.
Regretfully left out the excellent play of Cobbins too. Team much improved with him in there. I also like the defense and hustle you get with Williams.
Forte needs to not shoot unless his body and feet are squared up to the basket. He seems to rush his shot too much to me.
Agree with you. I thought about this while watching the game, but he just doesn’t take very many good shots. It seems every shot is deep and/or contested. Yeah he isn’t shooting it well right now, but if he improved his shot selection (*cough coaching *cough), his percentage would go up.
I really think Ford has told Forte that any shot from anywhere is OK.
Fadeaways are hard to block. Nash shoots a majority of fadeaways, therefore I believe that is why he only has three blocked shots.
he has only BLOCKED 3 shots. as in – he doesn’t hustle/try on defense like he should
They meant he has only blocked 3 shots on defense…
for comparison – Brian Williams also has 2 blocks this season (ESPN shows Nash has 2 – not 3) but B Will has only played 123 minutes total. vs Nash’s 861 minutes.
I hope he’s not watching Kobe we want him to be getting better.