What Happened last night

[lr591902]

I am constantly amazed at how negative this site gets after a loss. While last night was a tough loss and hurts us a bit by no means did the team play terribly or did the coach get out-coached. It was a hard fought game between two teams that are fairly equal in ability and went right down to the wire. We lost because our big men could not make lay-ups in the first half and because, except for IW, no one on the team could hold on to the ball. The number of times last night where we had passes or rebounds bounce of our guys hands and right into the hands of the other team was amazing The other issue last night was that for some reason we could not stop Dunham. He looks very slow to me and I thought that Gordon or Carrington would eat him up but that did not happen. Like Archidiacano, Dunham must be a much better player than I think.

As far as the coach is concerned, he actually had a good night. If the players had made half of the lay-ups they missed in the first five minutes we would have been off to a big lead and the outcome may have been different. The plays called were the right ones as we got several good looks within 5 feet of the basket. They just did not go down. The design of the plays were fine the execution was off. In addition, I thought his offense/defense use of Gordon and Desi at the end of the game was great as he maximized their abilities and gave us a chance to win. Really the difference in the game was not getting a rebound on the missed foul shot in the last minute and Carrington missing an open three. The coach did not lose this game, in fact, he did a lot to give them a chance to win.

 

[Seton75]

I agree with you. Our defense was not up to the previous standards we have set. Nor was the rebounding. We have out-toughed teams lately but not last night. The guards, specially Dunham, beat us and the defense didn't rotate. When they got to the rim, the weak-side help wasn't there to disrupt the shot. Since none of the BU bigs play in the post, they were a bad matchup for Angel. We didn't take advantage of our size, but Angel was covered pretty well. Ish has got to take the ball to the rim like he is gonna rip the basket down. So many points left with the inside misses. They took IW's shot away in the second half. They took away what Derrick does. They had a couple of crucial offensive possessions, and they converted on all of them, not always on easy shots. The Martin kid is becoming a star and is only a soph.

We did a good job of exploiting the mismatch we saw on Desi at the end of the game and he made it work.

It does concern me that we have our best player hitting his first three threes, and we cannot/do not set him up for good looks. BU runs Dunham off a screen for an open shot.

I do not care about their record or who they have lost to, Butler is a good team.

 

[Section112]

Let's hope we get the revenge factor at Hinckel. A lot of folks are writing us off for that game but our kids can get it done there. But now they need to rest up and prep for GTown. I know this group can get it done and I'm behind them 1000%. Let's go Pirates!!

 

[hbkmyr]

Compared to year's this is pretty tame. There would have been 16 different threads on Willard, etc. I think most posters recognize that we had a off night and got beat by a pretty good team. It happens. All they can do is lace up the sneaks and try to do better.

 

[Piratefan2009]

We lost because our big men could not make lay-ups in the first half and because, except for IW, no one on the team could hold on to the ball. The number of times last night where we had passes or rebounds bounce of our guys hands and right into the hands of the other team was amazing

There was no "one" reason we lost last night. Butler looked like the better team all night and looked in control of the game. We were only tied at half because IW was making circus shots from Penn Station and they were going in. Both teams had plenty of turnovers, in fact both teams had equal amounts of turnovers, so it wasn't just that we could catch passes.

What sucks is that Butler just isn't that good. They are a very beatable team and we were at home. Our defense gave them whatever they wanted. They could isolation drive. They could drive and kick easily. We gave up plenty of open baseline cuts. Defense was weak and unfocused.

As far as the coach is concerned, he actually had a good night.

You made this statement without supporting it. I have no idea why. But let's skip to:

The plays called were the right ones as we got several good looks within 5 feet of the basket. They just did not go down. The design of the plays were fine the execution was off.

What plays? We run almost no plays in the offense. We run the weave. We run a pick up top, followed by a three or drive. They studied the tape and disrupted our weave 30 feet out from the basket. Our picks were working as long as IW was shooting insane percentages. Every drive into the lane was basically 1 on 3 (because they packed the paint), and our off-ball movement was weak. I saw little to no adjustments after the half. The defensive intensity I put on the players, but the offensive game planning was non-existent. Our offense is still showing some of the same issues with Willard teams of the past.

Can we still make the tournament: Yes
Was the game a dagger in our chances: No

I think we looked a lot like the Creighton game. We were unfocused on defense. Lost on offense (even with IW's ridiculously good shooting night). If it only happens once every 5 games we'll be fine. Let's hope this isn't the start of a losing streak.