TSpoke said:
Jeez. We are already done with this team and coach huh? That was quick. Just a week ago we were talking about competing for a championship. I watched every second of that ugly game and was as mad/frustrated as I've been in a long time but I still believe in this team. Its hard to win when we shoot like that at one point in the second half James and Dalton were a combined 2-21 from the field. That's amazing. James came around and started getting some baskets late in the game. Dalton should have been pulled. He couldn't hit a shot and wouldn't do anything other than launch up 3 after 3.
Thought early in the 2nd half we did a decent job attacking and getting fouls on them. Then we got them to the double bonus and stopped attacking the rim and started jacking 3's again. If we had kept attacking when we pulled it close we could have still pulled it out despite our shooting.
I am fine with shooting 3's being a major part of our offense but we have to have a plan when things are not falling. I guess shooters always believe the next one is going in so when we kick it out and they are open they will shoot even when they aren't hitting them. I think the team can learn from this moving forward. If I remember correctly we always seem to have our worst shooting nights playing in that hockey arena.
The rebounding stats look bad but I'm not as concerned as I could be. They had 21 TO's which is a good thing but it takes away Dreb opportunities if we are looking at those stats. Plus we shot MUCH worse than they did which gave them more Dreb opportunities than we had. I would like to see us go for more offensive boards but that has been a thing since the Shyatt days and now we at least try a little bit compared to back then.
One positive from this game I can see is we only had 5 turnovers. Early in the year we were very sloppy and this game they seemed to get that figured out. Hopefully that sticks.
I was as angry after that game as anyone but its a long season and I am not giving up on this team or coaching staff anytime soon. We have some weaknesses(interior defense vs big bodies) but I still think we can do some god things this year and will be fun to watch.
In terms of this year, it kind of depends on what the goal was. In terms of an at-large bid to the NIT (or NCAA), than this year is over now. This team was never going to compete with Nevada for a regular season title either way, so the top end goals are basically done.
Every game counts, so there is still plenty to play for, but I think in general when you have a veteran squad with 4 seniors (and 2 juniors) in your top 7 players, you should at least be targeting a NIT berth.
We aren't the type of program that is going to compete for a NCAA berth every year, but I think we need to be on a cycle where we compete every 3-4 years as a group develops and becomes upperclassmen. We saw it in 2014-15 with the Nance/Adams group. That group wouldn't have earned an at-large bid, but they were definitely competing for one until Nance got Mono (and of course, they came though and won the MWCT).
We had rebuilding years in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and should have seen things move forward this year, but it just hasn't happened. Still a lot to play for, every game counts and we could still at least have a winning season if we improve, but from a big picture perspective not sure where this program is really headed.
Schroyer taught us that things could always be worse, so I appreciate the relative competitiveness of the current team, but was hoping for more.