Did not see the same fire tonight as most of our games lately? And the fire was lacking from the kids and the coaching staff. I think this team has hit a wall and may have been reading their press clippings too.
Tired defense - saw less blocking out, less moving our feet. That is never good. And we did not work hard enough on the offensive glass like we have in past games.
Turnovers - too many easy giveaways tonight to a team that does not turn other teams over. Gotta get stronger with the ball dribbling and under the basket. Can't wait for Ish to get stronger and just go up and dunk the dam ball instead of going easy and getting stripped - he will learn.
Free throws - great first half, not so good getting to the line in the second and poor FT shooting when we did.
Coaching - why did we not press sooner in both halves? I brought a friend who really knows his hoops and at the 10 minute mark of each half he asked why we were not pressing more because we had the more athletic team. He was right especially in the 2nd half. Once we pressed it turned up the D and we got some stops and easy baskets. Was Willard thinking our guys were tired and did not want to press? And why wasn't he going crazy on the sidelines with so many questionable calls by the refs tonight? They seemed to get bailed out at the end of the shot clock a lot with little or no contact and our guards would get hammered and no call? And Coach did not give it to the refs until the game was over?
Offensive forgetfulness - Was it me or did Angel seem to have a mismatch all night and we did not get the ball into him at all. When we did good things happened. And will someone set a screen for Isaiah in the second half - he was hot as hell in the first he should have kept shooting. And did we forget how to hit a layup tonight? Signs of a tired team IMO.
Refs - we did not help our cause but the white guy with the short hair killed us all night. They would bump our players on the drive and play physically with no call and if we did the same the touch foul would be called. Rough whistle tonight.
This is a wake-up call to our guys to go back to playing hard. We came back but that resolve we have had in past games just wasn't there or wasn't consistent. We can beat Butler. They are very composed and play their game but we have to play ours too. To get to the NCAA all the games count in a huge way now. Our guys have to dig deep and work every second to get there. I believe they will.
Tired defense - saw less blocking out, less moving our feet. That is never good. And we did not work hard enough on the offensive glass like we have in past games.
Turnovers - too many easy giveaways tonight to a team that does not turn other teams over. Gotta get stronger with the ball dribbling and under the basket. Can't wait for Ish to get stronger and just go up and dunk the dam ball instead of going easy and getting stripped - he will learn.
Free throws - great first half, not so good getting to the line in the second and poor FT shooting when we did.
Coaching - why did we not press sooner in both halves? I brought a friend who really knows his hoops and at the 10 minute mark of each half he asked why we were not pressing more because we had the more athletic team. He was right especially in the 2nd half. Once we pressed it turned up the D and we got some stops and easy baskets. Was Willard thinking our guys were tired and did not want to press? And why wasn't he going crazy on the sidelines with so many questionable calls by the refs tonight? They seemed to get bailed out at the end of the shot clock a lot with little or no contact and our guards would get hammered and no call? And Coach did not give it to the refs until the game was over?
Offensive forgetfulness - Was it me or did Angel seem to have a mismatch all night and we did not get the ball into him at all. When we did good things happened. And will someone set a screen for Isaiah in the second half - he was hot as hell in the first he should have kept shooting. And did we forget how to hit a layup tonight? Signs of a tired team IMO.
Refs - we did not help our cause but the white guy with the short hair killed us all night. They would bump our players on the drive and play physically with no call and if we did the same the touch foul would be called. Rough whistle tonight.
This is a wake-up call to our guys to go back to playing hard. We came back but that resolve we have had in past games just wasn't there or wasn't consistent. We can beat Butler. They are very composed and play their game but we have to play ours too. To get to the NCAA all the games count in a huge way now. Our guys have to dig deep and work every second to get there. I believe they will.
Last edited:
