And before everyone jumps all over that statement, I understand v tech is in a power conference and a borderline tourney team but let’s face it their not very good. Also it’s a bad loss because we were completely dominating them most of the game and it’s clear in my eyes that we are the better team.
Couple things. First I don’t trust zach in tight situations. He’s going to be the downfAll of this team Down the line if he doesn’t smarten up. It sucks he played like that the final 8 minutes as the first 32 is exactly how he should play. Zach attacking the rim and pulling up mid range is good Zach.
Zach though sometimes dribbles aimlessly trying to go one on one and then takes a horrible shot, usually a bAd forced three. His decision making for a senior is horrendous. This is double a problem because people defer to him as the senior and as the go to guy and this isn’t what’s best for the teAm. This teAms strength is its balance.
Obviously that last play by Irvin was terrible. I couldn’t figure out why we were wasting all that clock and then just for that. Nothing was even being run after the first few seconds.Poor decision making and coaching there imo. If we weren’t out of timeouts, as soon as Zach started bouncing like that and time was winding I would have told someone to call a timeout.
Our defense reverted back to the previous belein squads, it was very soft and offered little resistance outside of charges. I think a huge reason we lost was djs foul trouble. His defense is pretty phenomenal thus far and so is his rebounding and his playing is contagious. They all ramp up the d when he’s out there. He was sorely missed on many easy baskets.
My boy maar was awesome early but bad late like zak. His offensive rebound was huge but he has to hit that open three, he also passed on another three the third to last possession, he then heAd faked the guy hard and was again wide open mid rAnge. Problem was he didn’t want/ wasn’t ready to shoot it, and missed a shot he should have hit if he was confident instead of fumbling it and second guessing He also went under that screen on the three which was lazy. Actually I don’t think it was lazy but the guy hasn’t pulled up like that all game so I think the quick three surprised me.
Another thing we blew was about ten back doors. I missed the South Carolina game but I imagine v tech overextending was similar. The game was tight so you could tell no one wanted to make the slightly risky back door pass but you got to. They All were open and on the way for easy twos, you can’t be scared to make the mistake and play nervous. Hit them on the back door and crush them for coming out to far. We could have had at least four baskets off of those had guys thrown the pass. V tech was handing us good looks.
Walton was quiet, but I was ok with him as everyone else was getting good looks in the offense so there was no reason to force it. Although I still am mad that he one time drove and had a fairly wide open lay in and passed it to the corner three instead. Please take the good 4 foot look.
Wagner looked awesome at times. I still am pounding home that he needs more touches/ looks. Give this man more ISO/ post ups. These bigs can’t guard him off the bounce or in the post. He showed again he has crafty moves down low with that early drop step. He should get 3-4 baskets like that a game. His offense is that good. I honestly want 10-12 shots out of him a game. We’re wasting his talents by not featuring him way more.
Very long post but I had a lot to say after that bad loss. We let that one get away. It felt like we were killing them yet never pulled away. This team remains a mystery and very frustrating.