First off, what a great game to watch. That was high level basketball.
Secondly, if we play like we did the last 35 minutes of the game we will win at least 2 more games and make the tournament. In fact, if we can consistently play like we just did against Maryland, we will be a hard out the first weekend.
Donnal had a good offensive game, no doubt, but the real credit goes to our guards for attacking all game. We didn’t settle. We forced Maryland to help and our guards found the open man throughout the game. That is the first time all year this has happened for more than a possession or two.
Lastly, I hope JB goes to the 2nd half rotation all year. There’s no reason to go past a 7 man rotation. It’s do or die going forward.
If we play like that we should win out. My problem with that second half rotation is our guys will be gased out to no extent. Overall we should have no problem beating NW and a win at Wisc or vs Iowa would be huge. Will be a close one!
I wouldn’t say the last 35 minutes. We were good until the first commercial break. Then about 10 minutes of wanting to kill myself. Then finished it out. Obviously defense is still a major issue. But I liked what we did on offense. If that was a home game and we get the home calls, we get that one easily.
If Donnal can continue to be a threat from the perimeter, it really helps mitigate the inefficacy of our PnR this year because now the opposing defenders have to account for a pop or a roll off the screen.
Can’t sleep on N’W. They’re a solid team and I begrudgingly admit that Collins is a good coach.
Other teams do it(7man) it is what is. The bench has to shrink.
Doyle needs to sit go with Wagner until foul trouble.
Love that Dawkins found pine. About time
Offensively it’s amazing what happens when a big does something. Kudos to JB for going PNR with Donnal because Maryland was staying with ball handler and ignoring the Big. By doing that the other help defender has to decide, stay with shooter or help on PNR. But the main thing is it gets us attacking
In the end giving up 80 is not good. Can’t win many games doing that
You put Stone on our team this year, and we are as good as anyone in the Big Ten. That’s how big of a hole we have on the block is. We gave up far too many 2nd chance baskets today and that’s a sure fire way to lose a close game.
We were hot from 3 today because we attacked with penetration. We didn’t just play patty cake around the perimeter the entire game like we usually do.
Defensive rebounding killed us. We came up with stops at crucial times only to have a Marlyand Big out athlete and muscle our bigs for an easy put back.
I would had loved to see Duncan seen the bench a bit more. He really did not do much out there. Someone like Chatman who was having a good game and could guard the 4 could have made more of an impact out there IMO.
Not buying the narrative. We had 19 attempts at the rim, 17 from midrange and 20 from three. Same offense that it’s always been. We just happened to shoot better today.
And yeah we were also bad at rebounding, but most of that had to do with people losing their man. Robert Carter was constantly under the rim by himself because two guys would go out to contest a shooter.