First off inspiring close out to the game, coaching and execution, very reminiscent of why we earned the name Cardiac Pack.
Ok – observations Ol’ Roy has coached his boys excellently on how to defeat the zone we employed which I think was a box and one. They operated this play like clockwork against us.
* Paige passes to a big near the free throw line (just outside the farthest edge)
* then he sets a pseudo screen.
* Then the big passes him the ball back now Paige is on the Wing
* The Big is still right there near the free throw line but his defender doesn’t have a body between him and the rim.
* The baseline big on the play side is drug out of the paint by UNx player down on the baseline.
* the original big cuts hard to the basket for an uncontested layup or dunk on a pass from the guard usually Paige
The second thing that killed us was the hardly contested 5 footers. I wasn’t able to see a pattern of how their players got open. I think we are just still figuring the zone out.
Huge improvement by Anya in transition defense last night. He used to get in great position to protect the paint but got easily distracted by anyone running the court with him and he would abandon the paint for easy scores against everyone all season. Last night he stayed in the paint until help arrived. I didn’t see him give up a single point that way, could have dropped a tear to witness that improvement.
Offensively, we have to keep moving without the ball no matter who has it. Kyle Washington, played clutch last night but he is starting to be a black hole. Anya and Abu I saw set their defenders up to provide easy scores for themselves or team mates. KW with his consistent 12-15 footer is going to draw defenders. We need cutting players like Anya’s and Abu to receive passes and get easy layups. I’m not mad at KW shooting in his spots but sometimes there are easier points.
We didn’t execute the zone effectively last night but every error seemed coachable. Our team is getting smarter and experience is starting to kick in.
My vote is if Paige wants to beat us on the perimeter we let him, but we can’t let their bigs continue to dominate inside like that.
If I’m coach Gott I’m obviously disappointed in the outcome, I’m disappointed in the execution in certain parts of the game but overall I leave with a smile on my face because you know your team has fight, the mistakes are correctable and not based on talent gap, Lacey isn’t going to play that bad in the first half very often, and our bigs got an example of how to be effective last night and they responded.
round of applause for the refs – there were some debatable calls both ways but the only egregious one was foul number one on Ralston. That reach looked very weak.
