AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2008 > February > 20
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Playing with ankle weights on the brain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I wasn’t at the Tech game Sunday. Took a rare game off to take my kids skiing for the first time. We went to Wolf Laurel in North Carolina, which is nothing special but very good for a first-time outing. We had a blast.
I know the Jackets played poorly. I’m told Miami played poorly as well. The big problem was turnovers, even though Miami wasn’t really pressing or anything.
Even without seeing the game, my theory is this team is just tired. I don’t mean physically, but mentally. Just worn down.
Paul Hewitt doesn’t necessarily agree with me, based on a conversation we had this afternoon, but my theory is that all the time spent on the proverbial bubble — which the Jackets have slipped off of — was fatiguing.
I’m not excusing it, or accusing it, just stating my theory. I could be altogether wrong.
But the nature of that game last week at Clemson, and the idea of turning the ball over 22 times without seeing pressure defense leads me to believe there is a killer lack of attention to details. That’s laziness or fatigue. I don’t think this team is lazy, just deflated.
It’s not as simple as saying they don’t have chemistry. I don’t know that their chemistry is bad. I don’t sense that. But this team has to be on its toes to compete, and when the Jackets are not “on,” they’re way off because they have no singular sensation-type players to elevate everybody else.
I think as a group, this team has a short attention span, and when you throw into the equation the psychological duress they’ve operated under for some time, you end up with a team that appears intermittently lost.
