The first thing you need to take in account is that Gardner Webb was picked to finish last (10th) in the Big South Conference. So clearly the Runnin’ Bulldogs were overmatched by Florida State.
That occurred right off the bat, led by another outstanding performance by Chris Singleton who backed up his triple double with a double double (30 points, a career high; 12 rebounds). Most shots the Seminoles took were either uncontested or the Bulldogs were run over and around physically.
That is when FSU was on its game. More on that later.
Gardner Webb tried man defense, zone defense, and double teaming. Nothing worked. Especially the double teaming.
Early on the Seminoles just picked that apart and displayed what they can when this team focuses. The motion was definitely in the motion offense in those first eleven minutes where Chris scored 17 points. Probably the best I have seen out of this team.
A play to point that out was early on when a man guarding Xavier Gibson dropped down on Chris who had the ball. As soon as he turned his head Xavier was heading down the lane and Chris smartly got him the ball for the layup. That happened more than once in the game between those two.
Against the zone, passing was again decisive, such as the pass down on the block to Singleton for another two points. That was after working the ball around the perimeter, as you should versus a zone.
That all changed when Chris took a seat on the bench.
Where FSU got into trouble, when Gardner Webb made its run to close it to 41-35, was the result of not doing what it had been doing earlier in the game.
Certainly there were shots that did not go down. But players stopped moving, and why should they when ball carriers started playing Lone Ranger and trying to do too much on their own.
Gone was the moving without the ball. Gone was the great passing as well as the excellent screening. Instead what you got was players trying spin moves in the lane resulting in a turnover. Or when we did get out on the break we passed the ball to the wrong man. In particular was a three on two break, where the ball went to the left. The receiver was far too close to the defender and the result was a charge, aka a turnover.
My personal favorite was the behind the back pass that was attempted that ended in, of course, another turnover.
Singleton on the other hand I thought gave up the ball too unselfishly several times, when he could have taken the shot or taken it to the hole. But that’s Chris. He was trying to get his teammates involved.
And by the way, his stroke is much better. Working over the summer with the LeBron James, Durant, and the USA Select Team against the Olympic team has paid off.
As far as turnovers with this team goes (16 more in this game), I have given up hoping that the unforced mistakes will cease. I just don’t think they will. So just live with it and hope that they don’t burn us too badly.
I would not overreact to Gardner making a game of it. We got up so big so quickly we lost our intensity, plus remember this was our third game in five days. But coupled with players cemented to where they were standing and no longer looking for the open man, that is a big reason why it became a six point game.
I’m reasonably sure that is why the starters were still in the game so late in the second half (Chris did not come out until 1:25 remained and had a Bulldog player roll into his legs right before that, which fortunately did not result in an injury). Leonard was either making a point to the reserves about intensity for forty minutes or he was working an aspect of the game.
And one aspect he was definitely working was the switching man defense he used all game long. In my opinion it succeeded with modest results. More good than bad, but against better teams we would get burned. Better that we worked on it against a team like Gardner than against say Ohio State.
I know some will focus on how close the game was well in to the second half against a team FSU should have blown out (which they did). I would recommend to ignore that for the most part and assess this team when it plays back to back games against some very stiff competition.
Comments? Questions? Kudos?