I felt like my dog died last night. I didn’t cuss, I didn’t break sh*t, I didn’t sacrifice a State shirt to the flame (like I did one night in college). I just sat there shocked, appalled, in disbelief, in what I was witnessing on the screen. I woke up this morning to watch the game again. Last night was a blur because of the ending, the drinking and the emotion I experienced on the couch. I wanted to see what happened and figure out what transpired.
Here we go:
1) I have never seen our team play sh*t defense like they did for the last 3:30 of the game. We allowed them to roll the ball up the court to save time, instead of pressuring them and making them burn the clock up as soon as it was entered into play. Once they got the ball across half court our guys weren’t sticking their man, they didnt rotate in the zone and they didn’t hedge the screens. We were lost. SLU shot 8 shots in that last 3:30 while allowing less than 7 seconds drip off the clock while doing so. I won’t tell you how many they made. That is irrelevant.
2) Offensively no one wanted the ball in their hands. Our best player even ran away from the ball. Why I don’t know(I do but you form your own conclusion.) Yes we missed a bunch of free throws, TJ especially, but regardless, he has got to be the man going to the line. His unwillingness to do so reflected poorly on him and I think it made the rest of the team uneasy as well. This team would only go as far as TJ would take us. No one stepped up to be alpha last night in the end.
3) I’m going to differ on this than others. When Crews called a timeout after a made basket to set up the press Gottfried DID counter. He knew they would be pressing and he set up the press break. What happened was we got the ball in, we were fouled, we missed FT’s, they scored, they pressed, we were fouled, we missed FT’s, they scored, ETC. We then buckled under the pressure that we created ourselves. I believe the guys don’t shoot FT’s in practice as much as they should and that it is something that is taking for granted. We suck at FT’s. As a team you should shoot 75 to 80% from the line. We were exposed last night. Props to Jim Crews for doing the exposing.
4) Lastly, and shortly, you play to win always. We played not to lose in the end and that is exactly what happened and deserved.
The Archie situation is a dammed if you dammed if you don’t. No one will ever be happy with Gottfried OR will no one ever be keeping him at this stage. The only thing I have to offer is if you switch the i and the r in his name…You do the rest.
A buddy of mine, an uppity up at Wake, says Archie is one of the coaches they will pursue.
