Completely agree on FSU

The frenzied pace they played with on defense at their place was in stark contrast to last night. They seemed to have very little desire to be in South Bend last night. What was just as odd was that Hamilton didn't seem to be all that engaged either. He reminded me of the losing coach in the state championship game in the movie Hoosiers....if you remember in the movie where the coach just sat back and smiled while Hickory was executing to perfection.

To me FSU is the classic example of a team loaded with talent and athletes who know they are good and will be good when they want to be good. That is a dangerous proposition. When you add how many guys are getting playing time, eventually Hamilton is going to have to make difficult decisions when the games become more important. I wonder how the chemistry of the team will be impacted by that.

And yes Vitale needs to take the Musberger route; however, it was nice that neither he nor the other guy felt the need to refer to a player by a nickname that only a homer would know such as XRM. That being said, if you were an FSU fan, you had to feel like the game was being called by a homer.

Opposing Coach in Hoosiers

Ray Crowe, legendary Indianapolis Crispus Attucks coach. Powerhouse teams of the mid 1950s.

Yes, but this is the third time it has happened this year

Boeheim and Pitino had the same look during the second half of their games earlier this season. It's the look of a coach who has warned his team about ND's offensive efficiency, watched film, practiced to stop it, but has no answer.

There appears to be an indredulity factor when facing Notre Dame. At the jump, the opponent's player looks at the ND player that he is guarding and thinks, "I'm going to woodshed this dude." One on one, in many cases, he would be right, but then the offensive efficiency and team play overwhelms him and his team like a tsunami wave.

Reminds me of Bookstore

The teams that always impressed me watching that were like the team I saw yesterday - not the biggest guys on the court, but three all-state players and two who just missed, who had played together for years and knew each other's game instinctively. Those teams didn't win the whole thing, but they made the final eight an awful lot. Put 'em in actual refereed games and they might win the whole shebang.

Yes, I Recall

Swoosh (Nike trademark) 1997 Bookstore runner up team. Loved the play of the point guard.

Agreed. Last night, at least ...

I'd guess that the FSU players were surprised at how well Notre Dame defended them.

We got beat off the dribble in the half court on occasion, but the majority of the time, we didn't let them dribble penetrate down the lane. They kept trying to "turn the corner" down the lane but we had great defensive position and didn't let them, for the most part.

I know we've improved defensively over the past few years, but that was one of the best games I've seen us play defensively.

I endorse this post. *

Your second sentence hits the mark. *