Post by musicman on Jan 31, 2015 19:57:11 GMT -5
Here's my "abridged" report I filed earlier today with my editors:
Setup:
- Took me 2 hours to drive from my LI home to Riverdale. Friday evening NY rush hour will do that to you.
- Upon finding a FREE parking garage (that’s right I said FREE) we also found a FREE shuttle van waiting to whisk us to Draddy on a very scenic and hilly college campus.
- While in the van a Jaspers fan in his 20’s was giving an older woman Siena fan “the business” in a nice way, as I sat in the back row with my 3 boys waiting to pounce. The older woman politely countered “well I bet you don’t have a son playing in this game”, which gave me my opening. After commencing with the customary “Let’s Go Siena” shout, I then asked the lady “Really, you have a son on Siena’s team, who?”. She seemed hesitant to tell me, I think more out of humility than anything since her son was only a freshman and she thought I probably never heard of him. After more coaxing of her, she tells me Jimmy Paige. Whereas I then listed all the great things her son has done this season as a freshman – which of course took her by surprise that I would know her son’s game so well. She thanked me for the kind words.
- Got to our bleacher seats behind Siena bench about 5 mins already into first half. Had to push a few Jaspers students down my row into their own numbered seats. No fisticuffs needed. They were polite.
- But I had Siena fans surrounding me, and the entire 2 sections to my right were entirely Siena filled. I spotted all the usual die-hards who travel to away games, along with Steven Cruz. Mrs. Paige was sitting across the aisle from me, 1 row down, in the family section.
Game:
- It was obvious within a few minutes this was a Siena team that decided to show up. Very fiery in the huddles and on the court.
- Jaspers pressure was very intense, as our 22 TO’s can attest to.
- I told my neophyte kids to keep an eye on Marquis, Poole, and Lavon as the Siena players to watch.
- Marquis: made a few spectacular drives to the hoop slipping defenders. His usual ball-on-a-string moves. Had a few Jaspers fans within ear-shot of me “Oohing and Ahhing”. Impressive seeing him in person that close. He still had 7 TO’s himself, but most of that was the Jaspers D. I think the recent rise in TO’s we’re seeing over past month is him simply trying to do too much and putting this team on his back. But I did notice him being too careless a few times last night.
- Poole: his ankle is still hindering his mobility. Shot well. 7 of his 8 shots were from 3 line, where he made 4 of them. Clear last night his only role was to hit his outside shots. He was limited with what he could do with the pace of the game. Played almost the entire second half with 4 fouls. He had 4 fouls before any of the other 3 who eventually all fouled out. Hobbled player on a bad wheel + 4 fouls = not a recipe for success on the boards or on D.
- Long: PPC must have been happy. Career high with 20 pts, to go along with 7 boards & 3 assts. 6-8 from field. His lefty moves down low, and his push-shot bankers work more often than not. Has all around game. We all already know that. Only got in trouble last night when he tried to do too much against that Jaspers pressure D.
- JO: once we lost him to fouls with 10 mins left in 2nd half I knew we were in trouble. He was playing a fine game to that point. Was hoping WB could do something in his place, but got nothing in the 3 mins Jimmy gave him. Last 5 mins of game Jimmy rotated Hymes and WB on the Offense-Defensive possessions.
- Hymes: semi-good Evan showed up. 2-4 from 3, and 4-11 from field. Cheerleader on the floor and in the huddle. No complaints considering he usually gives us much less on the road.
* Bench:
- Jimmy Paige finished with career high 10 pts. 5-6 from field. Kid has game. Clear why Maurice White is not playing with Paige deservedly taking all of his bench minutes. My new friend Mrs. Paige must have been proud.
- Ryan Oliver. Nothing there. Very strange. Played 29 mins and was 1-2. Non-factor entire game. What the hell has happened to this kid? Like I’ve been saying all season to my posse, we need other kids to step up this year if we’re gonna have any chance, and Oliver is a zero. Do you realize he is 4th on team in minutes played? In front of Long, in front of Hymes.
- Maurice White. 0 mins last night. See above.
Epilogue:
- Not blaming the refs, but they were bad – at least equally bad. Getting screamed at by the entire gym, along by both coaches. Just one example, one bald ref called a foul from behind the play (ref had zero visibility) without being able to see that Lavon had all ball which should have been jump-ball. My entire side of the gym saw the play because it was right in front of us. 1 of the other refs had the better position, called nothing, and let the other ref keep his call. All very pathetic. But like I said, pathetic on both sides.
- The 2 T’s we got in the game (one on Quis and one on Evan) were because they were fed up with the poor refs. Can’t blame them, but Jaspers were able to control their emotions with equally bad calls. Just saying.
- Coach Masiello is funny. Whenever Jimmy was pulling over a ref to talk to him 1:1, Masiello would pull over his own ref and complain & point about what Jimmy was doing. Masiello very animated on the bench in his own way – but with less screaming than Jimmy. When a bad call was made he would bear hug & lift one of his own players to get his frustration out. On another bad call he walked to the end-line bleachers on his side of the gym and just stand alone in the corner to cool off. I liked his techniques to not get a T.
- Jimmy of course was constantly yelling at his players on the bench (nothing new I know), and I don’t know the asst coaches faces with their names, but he yells at one asst coach more than anybody. As if he’s telling him “I told you so”. But it was so loud in the place I couldn’t hear anything he said, even though I was so close to the bench.
All in all a good game. Glad I went. My 3 boys had a good time. Our ride home was half as long with no traffic, so it ended well.
Man, that was really great! Thank you for posting that story about you and kids' experience yesterday. It was really fun reading about it. Nice job, thank you. Go Saints!!