Some random thoughts from last night's game
Posted on: November 13, 2019 at 08:32:10 CT
FIJItiger
MU
Posts:
141705
Member For:
21.20 yrs
Level:
Moderator
M.O.B. Votes:
0
That was a brutal first half in almost all capacities, so to come back and seize the game on the road against a semi-quality opponent in the second half I suppose bodes well. I know the quality of play and talent level in college basketball is way down, but if Xavier was a top 25 caliber team then I guess MU isn't far from the same.
When Tilmon is out of the game we basically have no offensive design. We go most of the possessions with nobody below the free throw line, which unfortunately makes guys like Watson/Mark/Mitchell who can't penetrate almost useless on that end of the court. We are going to have to rely really heavily on Dru and Pinson to create in those situations.
Defensively I thought we looked pretty solid most of the night. I don't get after seizing the lead late inserting Mitchell at the 4 down the stretch and going with 2 bigs, because that forced us into a sort of Vanleer-type situation where 4 guys are trying to guard 5 and predictably a team that couldn't generate anything all half started easily breaking us down each possession and getting easy baskets. If you want to point to a coaching mis-step, inserting Mitchell in the game at that point and sticking with him was the root cause of our collapse down the stretch.
Dru Smith has a Chievous-like ability to get to the line. That is going to serve us well when the offense stagnates.
I don't like 6 three point attempts from the combo of Kobe, Mitchell and Tray. That is not what we need from the 4 spot.
I thought Nikko did exactly what we need from him in those type of situations, although I don't know why we felt Tilmon needed to sit for such prolonged stretches. We have to be able to get more from Tilmon, 5 field goal attempts is just not nearly enough. He has to be getting at least 10 attempts every game, probably more.
Overall rather encouraging game even though we came out on the losing end and it was so ugly with poor execution for most of it. College basketball is all about poor execution at this point, so this is a good era to struggle in that aspect and still be ok.
Edited by FIJItiger at 08:36:36 on 11/13/19