Sorry for not updating from Monday (well, I'm not really sorry) but it's been pretty crazy around here with trying to get things figured out. We took on the Tommies (Game 2 of 3 against horrible nicknames) on Monday night at Hutton. St. Thomas is the defending National Champion with a slew of new players on their roster. They also have a bunch of other guys that didn't see the floor last season that are hungry to prove they belong in the same breath as the seniors that just left.
The game got off to a great start for us, as we converted on a bunch of transition layups and a couple of open 3's as we took an 18-15 lead with about 11 minutes left to play in the half. After that, the ugly turn that we have seen all year came out. We went flat and St. Thomas converted on everyone of our mistakes which included seven turnovers and three missed layups over a 29-6 run. It is something that we clearly need to fix as basically every team we have played has produced big runs against us with us having no answer at all. St. Thomas took a halftime lead of 49-34. Once again, a deficit that we have come back from.
The second half started out ok for us and then we have two straight turnovers and they hit big 3's on both possessions. Just when we thought we would get right back into the back, the lead is up to 20. Then the tides changed and we made a 12-0 run of our own and got it back within 8 in a matter of three and a half minutes (spurtability at it's finest). We had several opportunities to get it closer and we just couldn't convert on either end.
Final score was 94-77 in favor of St. Thomas. The game was definitely closer than the score showed by St. Thomas was clearly better than us. Every time we made a mistake, they jumped on us. That's a sign of a good team. This was the first time all year that I thought the team we played was better than we were. Does that mean that they will be better than us down the stretch? No, but tonight they were.
We definitely had some positives within the game as we only turned the ball over 12 times with their pressure. Problem was, about seven of those turnovers were unforced as we made some mental mistakes. St. Thomas had 18 turnovers, which I think is a high number against a quality team like them.
Our biggest issue right now is that team's are shooting over 50% from the floor and over 40% from 3 against us. That is just not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination. We need to take pride in our defense and it's been how we have battled the past couple of years. Everyone in our program (coaching staff included) needs to make adjustments for us to get better. If we continue to play this kind of defense then we are in for a long year.
"If we continue to play this kind of defense then we are in for a long year"
ReplyDeleteCoach Hop, save yourself the time spent worrying about it, you will definately have a long year ;)
Yep, you are right. And you are exactly what is wrong with people today. You obviously aren't man enough to put your name on here.
ReplyDelete