Ok, I will admit that Basketball is not my thing. I barely watch it, and when I do, it is either high school or college. I NEVER watch the NBA, all it is are dunks and 3 point shots, and they all act like defense has the plague like the Black Death!
However, I am a huge Greenville fan, and it bothers me to see Greenville being less than average every year. Greenville I believe has some outstanding teams in other sports, and I believe the football team will get better under the new coach and more players. The Girls basketball team has shown some real improvement, and I think they will continue to progress.
In other sports, Greenville is competitive, and that is due to good athletes and good coaching. But the basketball team seems to just stay parked in neutral. Why? I am not sure, but looking at some statistics may shed some light on the problem. Don’t take this as a criticism of the coach, but these are the facts and show a pattern that needs to be addressed and turned around.
So far this year Greenville has played 7 games, and they have won just one. Hmmm, why? Well, if you look at the game scoring by quarters you will see that Greenville gets totally outplayed coming out of halftime. Here are the average points per quarter so far this year:
OPPONENT GREENVILLE
1ST 14.85 12.29
2ND 14.29 12.00
3RD 18.43 10.10
4TH 13.57 11.29
OVERTIME 5.00 4.00
Greenville has been outscored by 58 points in the 3rd quarter and 15 points in the fourth.
What this means to me, and remember I am not a basketball guy, but it looks like Greenville comes out of halftime not ready to play. You Basketball folks, am I off base here? Does Greenville not make any adjustments, or are they already tired and can’t keep up, or is it something else?
I am sure Coach Hamilton knows these stats, and I wonder what he thinks? Something is wrong here, and I just think they don’t prepare as well for the 2nd half. This pattern seems to be consistent over the last few years, according to some people I talk to. I admit, I do not go to many games, but I think that Greenville should be more competitive in Boys Basketball.
Maybe I am just letting my Greenville pride speak like the hopeful fan, you know, like you Bengal fans! (cheapshot, I know….But I couldn’t resist! Sorry!) It seems that we start out pretty well, but come the 3rd quarter, things go south in almost every game. In Greenville’s lone victory this year against Troy, Greenville scored 26 points in the 3rd quarter and 16 in the 4th, well above their average! They can do it, but more often than not, they are flat after halftime.
Sports are a different animal for sure, a lot of times, things are hard to explain. How does one team play lousy, then after the half catch fire… or vice-versa? Sometimes it is because the coach made some small adjustments that worked; sometimes athletes catch on fire; and sometimes… well, it is just whatever!
I don’t know about basketball, all I know is you have to play offense and defense like most other team sports. It seems to me that Greenville loses something on offense after halftime, whatever it is! I hope that Coach Hamilton can figure it out so we can have some more victories like the one against Troy.
Greenville is lucky that, although we are a smaller school in a big conference, most of our teams and athletes are very competitive. I think the football team will get better with more players coming out, and I hope the boys’ basketball team can figure out their 2nd-half problems. Coach Hamilton, I wish you much luck, now, go figure out why the second half is our downfall!
That’s the way I see it… from the sidelines!
