I think this was the best showing this team has had vs anyone of circumstance, but this is why you can't afford to drop a game like we did to KSU.
I don't buy our circus shot on Iowa State. If we can beat them @Ames, then I will be a believer.
Tommy lost control of the game around 7 minutes to go or whenever that cheap foul was put on Henri to get Henri and Awaka both at 3 fouls.
Tommy played it scared. We had all the momentum and all the vibes with Henri out there. He had an extra Timeout to attempt to stop Houston's run after they went about 5-0 and we were still up by 2 points. Enough to get everyone a breather and reset things where drawing up a "gotta have it" type offensive play would have been easier. Then we maintain the momentum and they still chase us.
Tommy really should have rode Henri into the ground. Houston would have kept coming at him inside and we would have known exactly how to defend them. Sure, there were some calls we didn't get. We missed too many clutch FTs down the stretch, but we can't expect to be perfect from the stripe every game. We "had this" and let is slip away.
I think Tommy should learn from this one. It is too easy of a lesson this time. Houston made some clutch buckets and we just went completely cold. In fact, Carter Bryant was basically the "Brave One" on Offense down the stretch and he didn't get enough actions drawn up to get his 3ball corner pocket. He is the 1 guy who doesn't really need to be open to make a shot. Elite Length. I respect him for being a very good teammate. I don't see how he doesn't go Lottery, but I hope he stays next year just to watch his game and I hope Henri stays too. We have something special brewing in the desert.
That said, we probably lost the Conference Banner today, but we played about as well as we could, until we didn't.
Didn't like Love's shot selection at all in the 2nd half. Yes he was playing good defense, but if Love (in THIS particular scenario) was just going to chuck random deep balls, then Tommy might has well taken him out for a few minutes and went with Bradley, Lewis, Townsend, Carter, and Henri. Love was actually making all the same floaters that Houston made against us down the stretch in the first half. I don't know why he stopped. Even if they clogged the lane on him, he could have found an open shooter.
A team with No Confidence... that is what I saw once Houston closed that 7pt lead.
Tobe Awaka really wasn't "in the game" mentally vs that "Dale Davis NBA looking 90s PF"
Just needed to be Beefy in this one. Obviously Houston has some guys that I would want to check their Birth Certificates.
They look 32 years old with 2 kids and a Mortgage..
However, Henri was Mean Enough for this one. Even if he fouled out with 5 minutes to go it would have been worth it and the way the Refs were calling (and NOT calling fouls), I don't think they would have put a 5th on Henri over Houston just barreling into him. Tommy could have mitigated it by taking Henri out of the lane and letting Carter guard that 32 year old man in the low post with Lewis/Bradley hedging to steal the ball or tie it up.
Many ways to navigate that Coaching scenario. Tommy will want it back. I think he knows he didn't make the right calls.
I think there are a lot of positives from this performance even if I didn't write much about them.
They played great defense. This was an Elite 8 level game or a Final 4 style game. Can't blame Arizona for folding. This is what we do most of the time.
If no one wanted to step up and even try a 3 besides Carter (and "Chuck" Love), then I think we have a bigger TEAM-wide problem to explore. Even Henri could have taken a 3. They dared him. Townsend made one. Del'Orso again sort of disappeared when we had leads. That's when he should be getting in and trying to take a 3 for a heat check and if it's not there, put him back on the bench. Tommy has to be willing to use his tool belt and not just accept that a team is "coming back" against what we are doing, but "we should probably level out and punch back".
We didn't punch back. I think it was a 16-2 run before we had a little punch back. Tommy has to call Timeouts and stop those runs before they get started.
The best Coaches never let it get out of hand. Sampson never panicked, but if our 7pt / 9pt lead became 12pts I guarantee he would have called multiple timeouts and gotten his guys right. He wouldn't have waited for us to get from 12pts to 18 nor 20 without at least 2 timeouts.
Classic experience (Kelvin) vs inexperience (Tommy)
Again, I think this particular game was one that Tommy can look at, dissect pretty easily and be able to move forward with our New Found "Defensive" mentality which is a bright spot and very good thing to lean on down the stretch.
I also want to add that I think Houston got away with a TON of hacking today and probably at least 10 Moving Screens by their 2 "PFs". Almost every play they were blatantly hip checking us while sliding or even when set. I don't understand how it wasn't called at all for a whole game.
Tommy has to recognize that and call for someone to "flop" a bit if they won't call it. Houston flopped around a lot today. Reminded me of how Cronin coaches UCLA at times.
Sampson is smart.
Tommy has to learn.
Quote from: arxpert on February 15, 2025, 02:28:27 PMI think this was the best showing this team has had vs anyone of circumstance, but this is why you can't afford to drop a game like we did to KSU.
I don't buy our circus shot on Iowa State. If we can beat them @Ames, then I will be a believer.
Tommy lost control of the game around 7 minutes to go or whenever that cheap foul was put on Henri to get Henri and Awaka both at 3 fouls.
Tommy played it scared. We had all the momentum and all the vibes with Henri out there. He had an extra Timeout to attempt to stop Houston's run after they went about 5-0 and we were still up by 2 points. Enough to get everyone a breather and reset things where drawing up a "gotta have it" type offensive play would have been easier. Then we maintain the momentum and they still chase us.
Tommy really should have rode Henri into the ground. Houston would have kept coming at him inside and we would have known exactly how to defend them. Sure, there were some calls we didn't get. We missed too many clutch FTs down the stretch, but we can't expect to be perfect from the stripe every game. We "had this" and let is slip away.
I think Tommy should learn from this one. It is too easy of a lesson this time. Houston made some clutch buckets and we just went completely cold. In fact, Carter Bryant was basically the "Brave One" on Offense down the stretch and he didn't get enough actions drawn up to get his 3ball corner pocket. He is the 1 guy who doesn't really need to be open to make a shot. Elite Length. I respect him for being a very good teammate. I don't see how he doesn't go Lottery, but I hope he stays next year just to watch his game and I hope Henri stays too. We have something special brewing in the desert.
That said, we probably lost the Conference Banner today, but we played about as well as we could, until we didn't.
Didn't like Love's shot selection at all in the 2nd half. Yes he was playing good defense, but if Love (in THIS particular scenario) was just going to chuck random deep balls, then Tommy might has well taken him out for a few minutes and went with Bradley, Lewis, Townsend, Carter, and Henri. Love was actually making all the same floaters that Houston made against us down the stretch in the first half. I don't know why he stopped. Even if they clogged the lane on him, he could have found an open shooter.
A team with No Confidence... that is what I saw once Houston closed that 7pt lead.
Tobe Awaka really wasn't "in the game" mentally vs that "Dale Davis NBA looking 90s PF"
Just needed to be Beefy in this one. Obviously Houston has some guys that I would want to check their Birth Certificates.
They look 32 years old with 2 kids and a Mortgage..
However, Henri was Mean Enough for this one. Even if he fouled out with 5 minutes to go it would have been worth it and the way the Refs were calling (and NOT calling fouls), I don't think they would have put a 5th on Henri over Houston just barreling into him. Tommy could have mitigated it by taking Henri out of the lane and letting Carter guard that 32 year old man in the low post with Lewis/Bradley hedging to steal the ball or tie it up.
Many ways to navigate that Coaching scenario. Tommy will want it back. I think he knows he didn't make the right calls.
I think there are a lot of positives from this performance even if I didn't write much about them.
They played great defense. This was an Elite 8 level game or a Final 4 style game. Can't blame Arizona for folding. This is what we do most of the time.
If no one wanted to step up and even try a 3 besides Carter (and "Chuck" Love), then I think we have a bigger TEAM-wide problem to explore. Even Henri could have taken a 3. They dared him. Townsend made one. Del'Orso again sort of disappeared when we had leads. That's when he should be getting in and trying to take a 3 for a heat check and if it's not there, put him back on the bench. Tommy has to be willing to use his tool belt and not just accept that a team is "coming back" against what we are doing, but "we should probably level out and punch back".
We didn't punch back. I think it was a 16-2 run before we had a little punch back. Tommy has to call Timeouts and stop those runs before they get started.
The best Coaches never let it get out of hand. Sampson never panicked, but if our 7pt / 9pt lead became 12pts I guarantee he would have called multiple timeouts and gotten his guys right. He wouldn't have waited for us to get from 12pts to 18 nor 20 without at least 2 timeouts.
Classic experience (Kelvin) vs inexperience (Tommy)
Again, I think this particular game was one that Tommy can look at, dissect pretty easily and be able to move forward with our New Found "Defensive" mentality which is a bright spot and very good thing to lean on down the stretch.
That's a good and extensive breakdown. I think it's much simpler than that, though.
I've said over and over, too many 3's. If we had only taken ten 3's we'd have probably made 2 instead of 5. We'd have had 15 more 2's and, based on our 2 pt shooting %, made 7. That's an 8 point increase. Use the same math against KSU and it was a 12 point increase. Of course, there's no way to know exactly how the points and the flow of game work out in reality, but reality has shown that we're awful from outside the arc and very good from inside it. If we're going to give away 8 & 12 points a game by playing to our weakness, then we aren't going to beat most good teams. This is a potentially excellent team, but they need to know who they are and just as importantly, who they aren't. They have surprised me by figured out that they are a hard nosed, tough defensive team. They have figured out that they get the ball inside well, but they still haven't figured out that they suck from 3. Until they figure that out their ranking will be 15 or lower. If they do figure it out the sky is the limit.
It's simple. Our shooters took selfish threes during the critical moments of the game. KJ lowered his head after attempting the bad jumper and Love continues to try and dig himself out of massive hole from behind the arc.
The game was well executed by the staff but a few players lost track of the game plan, which involved physical basketball inside the paint. It worked for 35 minutes.
Watching ADO and Trey attempting to defend a pick and roll together was simultaneously frustrating and hilarious. If anybody has the inside scoop as to why Tom continues to play them at the same time, I would love to hear it. Dude is setting both of them up to embarrass themselves repeatedly. Just because it hasn't backfired spectacularly every single time does not mean it isn't an irrational coaching decision every single time.
We shot 13 of 17 from the line. Better than I thought but the 1 for 1 stretch we went on late in the game killed us. Also Awaka only played 15 minutes, had 3 fouls and zero shot attempts. Lloyd should have let him foul out in an attempt to get some shots in the paint. Awaka can hit his free throws. I don't think Carter is a lottery pick just yet. So far he is a spot up 3 point shooter. I would blame this loss on air balls and poor shot selection down the stretch. We were the better team for most of the game, hopefully it's another lesson learned for March. Jaden is having a mid season slump, I expect him to pop out of it soon.
Quote from: CatInFL on February 15, 2025, 08:43:10 PMQuote from: arxpert on February 15, 2025, 02:28:27 PMI think this was the best showing this team has had vs anyone of circumstance, but this is why you can't afford to drop a game like we did to KSU.
I don't buy our circus shot on Iowa State. If we can beat them @Ames, then I will be a believer.
Tommy lost control of the game around 7 minutes to go or whenever that cheap foul was put on Henri to get Henri and Awaka both at 3 fouls.
Tommy played it scared. We had all the momentum and all the vibes with Henri out there. He had an extra Timeout to attempt to stop Houston's run after they went about 5-0 and we were still up by 2 points. Enough to get everyone a breather and reset things where drawing up a "gotta have it" type offensive play would have been easier. Then we maintain the momentum and they still chase us.
Tommy really should have rode Henri into the ground. Houston would have kept coming at him inside and we would have known exactly how to defend them. Sure, there were some calls we didn't get. We missed too many clutch FTs down the stretch, but we can't expect to be perfect from the stripe every game. We "had this" and let is slip away.
I think Tommy should learn from this one. It is too easy of a lesson this time. Houston made some clutch buckets and we just went completely cold. In fact, Carter Bryant was basically the "Brave One" on Offense down the stretch and he didn't get enough actions drawn up to get his 3ball corner pocket. He is the 1 guy who doesn't really need to be open to make a shot. Elite Length. I respect him for being a very good teammate. I don't see how he doesn't go Lottery, but I hope he stays next year just to watch his game and I hope Henri stays too. We have something special brewing in the desert.
That said, we probably lost the Conference Banner today, but we played about as well as we could, until we didn't.
Didn't like Love's shot selection at all in the 2nd half. Yes he was playing good defense, but if Love (in THIS particular scenario) was just going to chuck random deep balls, then Tommy might has well taken him out for a few minutes and went with Bradley, Lewis, Townsend, Carter, and Henri. Love was actually making all the same floaters that Houston made against us down the stretch in the first half. I don't know why he stopped. Even if they clogged the lane on him, he could have found an open shooter.
A team with No Confidence... that is what I saw once Houston closed that 7pt lead.
Tobe Awaka really wasn't "in the game" mentally vs that "Dale Davis NBA looking 90s PF"
Just needed to be Beefy in this one. Obviously Houston has some guys that I would want to check their Birth Certificates.
They look 32 years old with 2 kids and a Mortgage..
However, Henri was Mean Enough for this one. Even if he fouled out with 5 minutes to go it would have been worth it and the way the Refs were calling (and NOT calling fouls), I don't think they would have put a 5th on Henri over Houston just barreling into him. Tommy could have mitigated it by taking Henri out of the lane and letting Carter guard that 32 year old man in the low post with Lewis/Bradley hedging to steal the ball or tie it up.
Many ways to navigate that Coaching scenario. Tommy will want it back. I think he knows he didn't make the right calls.
I think there are a lot of positives from this performance even if I didn't write much about them.
They played great defense. This was an Elite 8 level game or a Final 4 style game. Can't blame Arizona for folding. This is what we do most of the time.
If no one wanted to step up and even try a 3 besides Carter (and "Chuck" Love), then I think we have a bigger TEAM-wide problem to explore. Even Henri could have taken a 3. They dared him. Townsend made one. Del'Orso again sort of disappeared when we had leads. That's when he should be getting in and trying to take a 3 for a heat check and if it's not there, put him back on the bench. Tommy has to be willing to use his tool belt and not just accept that a team is "coming back" against what we are doing, but "we should probably level out and punch back".
We didn't punch back. I think it was a 16-2 run before we had a little punch back. Tommy has to call Timeouts and stop those runs before they get started.
The best Coaches never let it get out of hand. Sampson never panicked, but if our 7pt / 9pt lead became 12pts I guarantee he would have called multiple timeouts and gotten his guys right. He wouldn't have waited for us to get from 12pts to 18 nor 20 without at least 2 timeouts.
Classic experience (Kelvin) vs inexperience (Tommy)
Again, I think this particular game was one that Tommy can look at, dissect pretty easily and be able to move forward with our New Found "Defensive" mentality which is a bright spot and very good thing to lean on down the stretch.
That's a good and extensive breakdown. I think it's much simpler than that, though.
I've said over and over, too many 3's. If we had only taken ten 3's we'd have probably made 2 instead of 5. We'd have had 15 more 2's and, based on our 2 pt shooting %, made 7. That's an 8 point increase. Use the same math against KSU and it was a 12 point increase. Of course, there's no way to know exactly how the points and the flow of game work out in reality, but reality has shown that we're awful from outside the arc and very good from inside it. If we're going to give away 8 & 12 points a game by playing to our weakness, then we aren't going to beat most good teams. This is a potentially excellent team, but they need to know who they are and just as importantly, who they aren't. They have surprised me by figured out that they are a hard nosed, tough defensive team. They have figured out that they get the ball inside well, but they still haven't figured out that they suck from 3. Until they figure that out their ranking will be 15 or lower. If they do figure it out the sky is the limit.
I'll just say that on paper, your math MAY math, but in practice in-game, those 2pt attempts are much harder to make vs Houston than a 3pt shot on a close out.
The only extra 2pt shot I saw that was excellent was a Miss. Jaden Bradley had a WIDE OPEN step in shot from the corner pocket area, not a 3pt'er, but a 2pt attempt like 4 feet inside the arc. He missed the shot, but it wasn't defended. It was a great look though because it was setup by ball movement and in the end impossible to defend. So it become "make or miss" and I believe that happened when we had the lead going 1st half. We needed more of that. Higher % looks over forced quota 3's.
---->
So, what I would think this should say is we need to eliminate Caleb Love's stupid "chucks". Those are turnovers. If you eliminate those faux-turnovers, we get more chances to score even if it is a 3pter, its not a 2 or 3 player defending Love fading away 3. We shouldn't be Forcing the 3 from anyone. There are a couple "heat check moments", but that's why I said when we are up 7 or 9, Tommy could call for a foul on someone with 0 fouls and get Del Orso and/or Townsend back into the game and have some plays drawn up for them on offense, try to let them hit the 3 / shot as the least likely to bet heavily guarded on the court compared to the others out there.
I mean, Del Orso was 2/3 from the field and 1/2 from 3 i believe? something like that... rather than giving him 15 minutes, how about he takes another 2 shots from 3pt range and if he is missing them, send him to the bench, but he could have had a stand-out game with some drive and dish action.
Tommy is "Under-coaching" when we have things rolling and it allows the good coaches to make adjustments. Sometimes you have to take a short term risk and try to blow the game more open. If we got to up 15 in that game it would have been much tougher for Houston to get back into it. We had like 3 times up 7, 9, 7... couldn't get to that next level.
So in summary, I sort of agree, but I think we just need to eliminate the "we're up 7 or 9pts so let's chuck some bad 3's" and instead lets look for a good shot wherever it is on the court.
Quote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on February 16, 2025, 01:28:02 AMWatching ADO and Trey attempting to defend a pick and roll together was simultaneously frustrating and hilarious. If anybody has the inside scoop as to why Tom continues to play them at the same time, I would love to hear it. Dude is setting both of them up to embarrass themselves repeatedly. Just because it hasn't backfired spectacularly every single time does not mean it isn't an irrational coaching decision every single time.
They don't need to be played together, but I would like to see Caleb Love's minutes reduced by 10 minutes per game and Orse + Townsend give those minutes 5/5 or based on the flow of the game. Love chucking away our hopes and dreams is pissing me off.
I sincerely doubt a lineup of Bradley, Tony Taco, Lewis, Carter, Henri is going to see much defensive attention on Tony Delly. Not more than Love is getting at least. Tony can perhaps utilize that disrespect and snap an 3pt'er or two in the 2nd half where Tommy can micro manage and get Tony his look then Tony can foul someone and sub out Offense for Defense so as to not burn a timeout.
Same goes for Beefy Townsend. He hit a 3 in this game. Sometimes Tommy needs to go with the ole Trojan Horse and put someone out there that isn't expected to do much, but they surprise all and rise to the occassion.
We didn't get to the Bonus until pretty late in this one. The refs let Houston set screens on roller skates and hip check us into the boards like this was Hockey.
I am impressed we hung tough overall though.
Quote from: Naterade on February 16, 2025, 08:31:11 AMWe shot 13 of 17 from the line. Better than I thought but the 1 for 1 stretch we went on late in the game killed us. Also Awaka only played 15 minutes, had 3 fouls and zero shot attempts. Lloyd should have let him foul out in an attempt to get some shots in the paint. Awaka can hit his free throws. I don't think Carter is a lottery pick just yet. So far he is a spot up 3 point shooter. I would blame this loss on air balls and poor shot selection down the stretch. We were the better team for most of the game, hopefully it's another lesson learned for March. Jaden is having a mid season slump, I expect him to pop out of it soon.
Bradley played a bad game and we were right there in it.
The 1 and 1 thing you mentioned was a strategy. Sampson coached the team to make sure that instead of letting us get up a high % 2, just force foul us and make us have to hit 2 shots to get 2 points.
Yes we were 10-10 at one point, but then we regressed more to the mean. I don't blame the loss on the missed FTs although making those 4 that we missed would have meant OT.
Sampson simply outcoached Tommy down the stretch. Both teams were playing similarly. We made the shots in the 1st half. Houston made those same runners in the 2nd. Houston hit a couple swirly 3's down the stretch, Carter responded, but no one else had the confidence left in them. Maybe Henri should have taken a top of the key 3.
Here is the real problem with our 3pt shooting and Caleb Love especially ---> He continues to take the shots when we are in transition or when we are running weaves on the perimeter with our bigs and they haven't slipped yet. Maybe he is assuming they will slip to the rim, but the worst individual part about a Caleb Chuck is missing it obviously... the 2nd worst part is the fact we have absolutely ZERO chance at an offensive rebound.... and because of having to chase our way in, there are times Henri, Awaka, or Carter get called for dumb fouls trying to race to get inside and contest off a goofy bounce.
That part hurts the TEAM more than the miss in the overall.
Quote from: arxpert on February 16, 2025, 01:22:25 PMI think we just need to eliminate the "we're up 7 or 9pts so let's chuck some bad 3's" and instead lets look for a good shot wherever it is on the court.
Yeah, this. There have been a lot of games this year (fewer of late) where it has felt to me like the group consciousness has been, "we worked hard, we proved we're good, let's take it easy now".
Agreed that Love's minutes should be reduced by ~10, unless he plays like he did in the first half. 5 of 7 from inside the arc is stellar. It also led to some nice kick-out opportunities.
If he loses minutes, they should go to Awaka and Martinez. As much as I love Townsend, he's a defensive liability and hasn't been the same since conference play began.
The staff drew up a nice game plan for Saturday. Arizona came out with open looks against arguably the best defensive team in the nation but in the second half, guards starting throwing up prayers. The good news is that this team won't shoot 20% from deep forever.
Make 1-2 more shots in each of the past two games and we would have been in great shape to win a deep Big-12. Bummer...but at least we have the postseason.
Quote from: KansasCityCats on February 16, 2025, 04:27:14 PMAgreed that Love's minutes should be reduced by ~10, unless he plays like he did in the first half. 5 of 7 from inside the arc is stellar. It also led to some nice kick-out opportunities.
If he loses minutes, they should go to Awaka and Martinez. As much as I love Townsend, he's a defensive liability and hasn't been the same since conference play began.
The staff drew up a nice game plan for Saturday. Arizona came out with open looks against arguably the best defensive team in the nation but in the second half, guards starting throwing up prayers. The good news is that this team won't shoot 20% from deep forever.
Make 1-2 more shots in each of the past two games and we would have been in great shape to win a deep Big-12. Bummer...but at least we have the postseason.
I think of 10min, 3 can go to Del Orso, 3 to Carter, 3 to KJ Lewis and maybe 1 to Townsend
It is more so, I don't want to see 4-12 from the field. I would prefer to see 4-8 and those other 4 shots spread out 1 to each of whoever is actually open.
If Love is under 10 shots or at a max of 10 shots a game, the damage he can do to us offensively is limited. If he is hot, he can chuck them quickly.
Quote from: CatInFL on February 15, 2025, 08:43:10 PMQuote from: arxpert on February 15, 2025, 02:28:27 PMI think this was the best showing this team has had vs anyone of circumstance, but this is why you can't afford to drop a game like we did to KSU.
I don't buy our circus shot on Iowa State. If we can beat them @Ames, then I will be a believer.
Tommy lost control of the game around 7 minutes to go or whenever that cheap foul was put on Henri to get Henri and Awaka both at 3 fouls.
Tommy played it scared. We had all the momentum and all the vibes with Henri out there. He had an extra Timeout to attempt to stop Houston's run after they went about 5-0 and we were still up by 2 points. Enough to get everyone a breather and reset things where drawing up a "gotta have it" type offensive play would have been easier. Then we maintain the momentum and they still chase us.
Tommy really should have rode Henri into the ground. Houston would have kept coming at him inside and we would have known exactly how to defend them. Sure, there were some calls we didn't get. We missed too many clutch FTs down the stretch, but we can't expect to be perfect from the stripe every game. We "had this" and let is slip away.
I think Tommy should learn from this one. It is too easy of a lesson this time. Houston made some clutch buckets and we just went completely cold. In fact, Carter Bryant was basically the "Brave One" on Offense down the stretch and he didn't get enough actions drawn up to get his 3ball corner pocket. He is the 1 guy who doesn't really need to be open to make a shot. Elite Length. I respect him for being a very good teammate. I don't see how he doesn't go Lottery, but I hope he stays next year just to watch his game and I hope Henri stays too. We have something special brewing in the desert.
That said, we probably lost the Conference Banner today, but we played about as well as we could, until we didn't.
Didn't like Love's shot selection at all in the 2nd half. Yes he was playing good defense, but if Love (in THIS particular scenario) was just going to chuck random deep balls, then Tommy might has well taken him out for a few minutes and went with Bradley, Lewis, Townsend, Carter, and Henri. Love was actually making all the same floaters that Houston made against us down the stretch in the first half. I don't know why he stopped. Even if they clogged the lane on him, he could have found an open shooter.
A team with No Confidence... that is what I saw once Houston closed that 7pt lead.
Tobe Awaka really wasn't "in the game" mentally vs that "Dale Davis NBA looking 90s PF"
Just needed to be Beefy in this one. Obviously Houston has some guys that I would want to check their Birth Certificates.
They look 32 years old with 2 kids and a Mortgage..
However, Henri was Mean Enough for this one. Even if he fouled out with 5 minutes to go it would have been worth it and the way the Refs were calling (and NOT calling fouls), I don't think they would have put a 5th on Henri over Houston just barreling into him. Tommy could have mitigated it by taking Henri out of the lane and letting Carter guard that 32 year old man in the low post with Lewis/Bradley hedging to steal the ball or tie it up.
Many ways to navigate that Coaching scenario. Tommy will want it back. I think he knows he didn't make the right calls.
I think there are a lot of positives from this performance even if I didn't write much about them.
They played great defense. This was an Elite 8 level game or a Final 4 style game. Can't blame Arizona for folding. This is what we do most of the time.
If no one wanted to step up and even try a 3 besides Carter (and "Chuck" Love), then I think we have a bigger TEAM-wide problem to explore. Even Henri could have taken a 3. They dared him. Townsend made one. Del'Orso again sort of disappeared when we had leads. That's when he should be getting in and trying to take a 3 for a heat check and if it's not there, put him back on the bench. Tommy has to be willing to use his tool belt and not just accept that a team is "coming back" against what we are doing, but "we should probably level out and punch back".
We didn't punch back. I think it was a 16-2 run before we had a little punch back. Tommy has to call Timeouts and stop those runs before they get started.
The best Coaches never let it get out of hand. Sampson never panicked, but if our 7pt / 9pt lead became 12pts I guarantee he would have called multiple timeouts and gotten his guys right. He wouldn't have waited for us to get from 12pts to 18 nor 20 without at least 2 timeouts.
Classic experience (Kelvin) vs inexperience (Tommy)
Again, I think this particular game was one that Tommy can look at, dissect pretty easily and be able to move forward with our New Found "Defensive" mentality which is a bright spot and very good thing to lean on down the stretch.
That's a good and extensive breakdown. I think it's much simpler than that, though.
I've said over and over, too many 3's. If we had only taken ten 3's we'd have probably made 2 instead of 5. We'd have had 15 more 2's and, based on our 2 pt shooting %, made 7. That's an 8 point increase. Use the same math against KSU and it was a 12 point increase. Of course, there's no way to know exactly how the points and the flow of game work out in reality, but reality has shown that we're awful from outside the arc and very good from inside it. If we're going to give away 8 & 12 points a game by playing to our weakness, then we aren't going to beat most good teams. This is a potentially excellent team, but they need to know who they are and just as importantly, who they aren't. They have surprised me by figured out that they are a hard nosed, tough defensive team. They have figured out that they get the ball inside well, but they still haven't figured out that they suck from 3. Until they figure that out their ranking will be 15 or lower. If they do figure it out the sky is the limit.
@CatInFL.. I love your point you made about taking 10 less 3s, but instead we should be driving the basket, or even shooting it from inside the arc, where we actually have a edge..Good stuff Champ! 🏆