Better poise in late game situations would have made a difference

[Palatine]

The way KO put it, a few points would have made a difference, is true. Another way to look at it is that our play in the last two minutes of games is the cause of those points.

We turned it over too much. We had trouble getting the ball in bounds. We had to use time outs. We missed important fouls shots. We screwed up defensive switches. In short, our execution at the end of close games cost us those points.

Yes, falling so far behind, so often, made a big difference as well. But in many of those situations, we came all the way back only let games slip away late. To get back where we belong, we simply must execute better in the final minutes with the game in the balance. Even our last second win against Cinny never should have come to that. There were turn overs, bad offensive possessions, missed FTs and second chance points that all went the wrong way.

With another year on the majority of the team, I'm hopeful this will work itself out. But I also hope that the staff will address it as well. Those few points that cost us so much were not the result of luck, they were the result of poor execution and lack of poise

 

[prankster]

"Winning teams know when winning time is."

 

[Ripper32]

They were simply not good enough collectively.

 

[jibsey]

The way KO put it, a few points would have made a difference, is true. Another way to look at it is that our play in the last two minutes of games is the cause of those points.

We turned it over too much. We had trouble getting the ball in bounds. We had to use time outs. We missed important fouls shots. We screwed up defensive switches. In short, our execution at the end of close games cost us those points.

Yes, falling so far behind, so often, made a big difference as well. But in many of those situations, we came all the way back only let games slip away late. To get back where we belong, we simply must execute better in the final minutes with the game in the balance. Even our last second win against Cinny never should have come to that. There were turn overs, bad offensive possessions, missed FTs and second chance points that all went the wrong way.

With another year on the majority of the team, I'm hopeful this will work itself out. But I also hope that the staff will address it as well. Those few points that cost us so much were not the result of luck, they were the result of poor execution and lack of poise

KO's quotes in today's paper are disturbing but I cut him slack because I believe they're for public and team consumption and not wanting to back the bus over anyone at this point. 12 years in the NBA and all of his life experience in basketball, I don't think he's one to kid himself about what we would need to compete for a national championship and I bet he will press to try get what we need. Sure some better decisions maybe puts us in the tourney but that wouldn't make us ready to compete with the best teams this year.

 

[Palatine]

KO's quotes in today's paper are disturbing but I cut him slack because I believe they're for public and team consumption and not wanting to back the bus over anyone at this point. 12 years in the NBA and all of his life experience in basketball, I don't think he's one to kid himself about what we would need to compete for a national championship and I bet he will press to try get what we need. Sure some better decisions maybe puts us in the tourney but that wouldn't make us ready to compete with the best teams this year.

Better decision making elevates the entire team. To my eyes, this was (talent wise) a team that could have been in the top 15. It ended up in the top 75. So I believe we could have competed with the top team.

I really believe it was just a case of a team never jelling and never coming close to its potential.

 

[Kitaman]

The double digit deficits were mind boggling and all too frequent. Mostly caused by poor shooting. There were times the opponent didn't shoot well either and we could easily have been down 25+ points.

The turnovers were a lot of times lazy/sloppy types. Throwing passes with arcs-no zip, dribbling into traffic, and not protecting/securing the ball on rebounds.

I say that cold shooting and turnovers were too lethal for us and killed our season (oh and often made for some fugly basketball).