I read the comments about the game but did not comment last night. With this post, I want to comment again about a couple things:
1. I do not feel we rebounded poorly last night – yes we were outrebounded, but I saw many instances where we had inside position and a long rebound occurred or their bigs went over our back to tap the ball the keep it alive. Frankly I thought we rebounded quite well under the circumstances.
2. We missed a lot of FT’s and everyone wants to point to the coach. Yes, FT’s hurt big time last night, and they work on them in practice. What else is a coach to do?
3. Barber has hurt us all year and seems to be out of control, no good shot selection, and turnover prone. Nothing new here, but this is an area coach can control. Last night could clearly be on Cat but this is a team game, team wins or loses.
4. That call on Turner was absurd. He clearly re-established position in bounds and to say no player touched it first is bogus. I have never heard of that rule and even if it is rule, clearly in the hands of the passer and Turner had already re-entered the court. This did not directly affect the outcome but losing that possession surely hurt.
5. We are still a young team, and while I hate to use that as an excuse, every young team loses on the road, especially early. I saw a stat last night that Duke has lost their last 5 first road games of the year – 5 in a row! Turner is a SR, Lee is a SR (and not playing), Lacey is still under 10 games as a Wolfpacker, and the rest are still Soph and Fr. Give it time, the youth will grow.
We lost the game but it was a good experience to learn. In Lowe’s era we would have been blown out. In HWSNBN era, we would have scored 35 pts and lost badly. Even in years past, the results may not have been this favorable. Yes, a loss is a loss no matter by how many points, but I am actually encouraged by the grit and determination of this team. They did not quit and did not back down.
4.
