I got straight up criticized on here for saying that my biggest concern was when Miller had an off night, we were eventually going to lose, and that the offense had been going backwards. People kept pointing to games early in the season, or the Georgia game as reasons why this wasn’t true.
I didn't feel that way at all this year for the most part. We were very balanced offensively all throughout the year, and had a ton of different options. Our biggest problem at the end was we just had multiple guys go cold at once.
The criticism was in regards to the argument that the team was dependent on Miller. It wasn't. So criticism was justified.
But by the end of the season, the team was dependent on Miller, he went cold against SDSU and we went home.
I posted in here before the SDSU game that any team left in the tournament could beat us if we had an off night. Was very worried about it. Everyone in here acted like that was nonsense. It happened to us several times this year. We were able to overcome some less talented teams on pure talent and length. But I felt like we were cruising towards this happening against a good defensive team
He was cold all 3 games. The team was not dependent on him. That's just asinine. It was a very well rounded team that had a game where nobody could shoot and was in a single possession game in the final minute to a team that is now in the Final 4.
By the time you make it to the Sweet 16, unless (1) you are clearly the elite team in the country by far; or (2) you get a matchup with a team that has pulled some upsets and doesn't "deserve" to be there, any team can lose if they have an off night. That's just life.
No. It's asinine. It was a team that played elite defense and had multiple players who could go off and take over a game. That team was not, and never was, dependent on one player to be very good.
Another issue I've seen discussed several times is that we were a young team and SDSU was a much older team. Not sure how much that played into us losing.
We can agree to disagree that’s fine, and he was cold all 3 games, but using that as part of your argument when we beat an abysmal Maryland, and a directional school that we should’ve beat regardless is silly. I’ll say you guys tend to forget games like South Carolina where he single handedly had to put the team on his back, sometimes it’s just arguing for the sake of arguing.
Him putting the team on his back in a single game doesn't come close to proving your point anymore than beating Corpus Christi without him defeats it.
Behind Miller we only had one guy average double digit points a game and that was Sears at 12.8. 3rd leading scorer was Clowney with 9.9. Then JQ averaged 8.7.
Right but how often did that happen down the stretch? Everyone here could see that we were going backwards and it was discussed regularly.
We had guys comparing this team to the Syracuse team that won it all, but people forget McNamara averaged 13, and Warrick averaged 14, even tho Melo was the star.
Arkansas had 5 guys average double digits in scoring. Houston had 5. Gonzaga 4. Baylor 4. Miami 4. Stopped looking but there are plenty more. There were definitely games where we looked vulnerable offensively. We definitely relied heavily on one or two guys. Kem Pom had us 20th in adjusted offensive rankings. We were definitely good offensively. But beyond Miller I don't feel like we had a consistently reliable offensive threat. Thankfully we had games where other guys stepped up. But it was never typically the same guy stepping up.
Complimentary scoring (and especially 3pt shooting) outside of Miller was an issue all year, but it was usually easily overcome by absolutely elite defensive play. However, against SDSU even the elite D couldn't overcome an offensive performance that horrid.
Rylan Griffen, for instance, scored 13 points against an awful UGA team. In the final10 games after that, he scored more than 3 points just twice. 9 against A&M and 5 against A&M-CC. We had a few guards like this that played a lot of minutes
In Jan-Feb Griffen shot ~45% from 3 on 62 attempts. He shot 13% in March (7 of 41). Again, not singling him out but we had a few guys like this.
There’s a difference in Miller having an off night and him playing his absolute worst game of the season. He was so bad against SDSU. Didn’t he have 6 TOs? But it’s not a hot take to say we were vulnerable to be beat if our best player played like shit. Everybody knows that.
It's more like we were pretty streaky offensively and we had no consistent second option. We were able to beat some teams in defensive slugfest games by just being more talented and athletic. But we didn't have a roster full of reliable scorers.
it's true we didn't have a consistent 2nd option but most of the time at least one of Clowney, Sears, JQ, or Chuck stepped up. That doesn't include streaky performances from Griffen, Burnett, Pringle, & Bradley. We had a night where nobody stepped up offensively.
Got to love a sport where you can drink beer professionally , crush the Chinese buffet every night, and still be considered an elite athlete.
National Champ, multi-millionaire, married to a babe, playing in the XFL, and owns the most exclusive sushi joint in Alabama. L I V I N G
An actual tattoo of Saban's hand print on your ass would be magical although noone but the posters in here would understand the meaning.
We better beat the shit out of LSU this year. I'm still embarrassed that we lost to that mediocre team. And they bullied us