I think that this game was winnable, but at the same time I fully realize that this is not the most experienced of teams and in places it is lacking talent as well.
While we lick our wounds, we should at least get a little solace from the fact that Kyle Washington came up big at times. Yes, he made some mistakes late in the ball game, but hey, the kid is barely getting used to wearing his college uniform.
Cat Barber made some mistakes too, but you would have to overlook his defense to say he had a “bad game.” Again, freshman in the first semester of his career.
Even though he is a senior, Vandenberg wasn’t quite all there tonight, but keep in mind that he doesn’t have the most experience and that he’s going to have to climb up a learning curve.
Not sure what to say about free throws except that it seems that all college athletes are allergic to practicing them in AAU or prep ball. The number of clanks I saw in the UK-Louisville game today mirrored pretty much what we had in our game, and we all know that UNC is having trouble with their trips to the charity stripe too. Had we made our free throws, likely we’re celebrating and not bemoaning mistakes that cost us the game.
Take it for what it is and don’t make too much of it: this is a young team that faced up to a ranked team and damn near beat them. They did some stuff wrong and will learn from it. If that’s the case, sometimes when you lose you win. Let’s hope so.
