Cyclonic ThoughtZ™

[RichZ]

1. OK! UConn won the Men's and the Women's titles in their respective brackets. Feels like the earth is back on it's proper axis.
2. Ajax making his presence felt early on with rebounding and passing.
3. Just under 9 minutes left in the half. 3 fouls called on the good guys in less than 10 seconds.
4. I thought Diarra's 3 to close the half might be a back breaker for Iowa State. They had just closed to within 5 points, and in the blink of an eye, it was back to eight.
5. Hawkins sat a long time with 2. Then he gets a foul and a T in the first 20 seconds of the 2nd half, and never saw the court again.
6. Ajax shooting form on his 30+ foot 3 looked pretty good.
7. So did his line in the box score. 10 points, 13 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and a block.
8. Hawkins barely played and Sanogo was pretty much a non-factor. Which is a big reason that the 4 man bench outscored the 5 starters, 40 to 31.
9. Both teams made 22 field goals.
10. 16 of our 22 buckets came off assists. Only 9 of theirs did.
11. We made twice as many free throws as Iowa State attempted.
12. We had two blocks -- one each from Ajax and JoeyC. Joey? Why not?
13. Speaking of JoeyC, every game, I like him more. His D still isn't great, but it's gotten to where it's pretty danged good, and the kid still plays as hard as anyone on the team when he's out there.
14. Sure felt like Karaban made more than 2 threes.
15. Our average margin of victory so far is 26.
16. Their guards stole the ball from us too easily. 13 steals? Newton was a frequent victim, and ended up with 8 TOs.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Overall I thought Ajax played a really solid game (especially with his rebounding and defensive pressure) but I thought he was forcing the pass a little too much in the first half. I think Iowa State kicked at least 3 of his passes? He also needs to seek out contact. He continues to model the Jalen Adams contortions at the rim. It worked for him with one layup but it's not a winning formula. Take notes from Tristen.

We need to practice against the press more. Too often we were retreating into the sidelines and allowing Iowa State to use the sideline as an extra defender. Tristen did something really heady at one point when Joey and others thought the press was broken but then Iowa State came with 3 defenders before he crossed midcourt. He pulled it back and then found a new path across the half and then found the open man for an easy two points. That being said, our guards need to be decisive and play stronger with the ball, and teammates need to present themselves as options. And I thought there were about two times we probably deserved a 5 second call.

Hard to complain about a rout of a really good opponent though. I didn't think we'd be this good of a rebounding team this soon.

 

[MTHusky]

1. OK! UConn won the Men's and the Women's titles in their respective brackets. Feels like the earth is back on it's proper axis.
2. Ajax making his presence felt early on with rebounding and passing.
3. Just under 9 minutes left in the half. 3 fouls called on the good guys in less than 10 seconds.
4. I thought Diarra's 3 to close the half might be a back breaker for Iowa State. They had just closed to within 5 points, and in the blink of an eye, it was back to eight.
5. Hawkins sat a long time with 2. Then he gets a foul and a T in the first 20 seconds of the 2nd half, and never saw the court again.
6. Ajax shooting form on his 30+ foot 3 looked pretty good.
7. So did his line in the box score. 10 points, 13 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and a block.
8. Hawkins barely played and Sanogo was pretty much a non-factor. Which is a big reason that the 4 man bench outscored the 5 starters, 40 to 31.
9. Both teams made 22 field goals.
10. 16 of our 22 buckets came off assists. Only 9 of theirs did.
11. We made twice as many free throws as Iowa State attempted.
12. We had two blocks -- one each from Ajax and JoeyC. Joey? Why not?
13. Speaking of JoeyC, every game, I like him more. His D still isn't great, but it's gotten to where it's pretty danged good, and the kid still plays as hard as anyone on the team when he's out there.
14. Sure felt like Karaban made more than 2 threes.
15. Our average margin of victory so far is 26.
16. Their guards stole the ball from us too easily. 13 steals? Newton was a frequent victim, and ended up with 8 TOs.

Thanks for the detailed write up. On the money on all 16.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Overall I thought Ajax played a really solid game (especially with his rebounding and defensive pressure) but I thought he was forcing the pass a little too much in the first half. I think Iowa State kicked at least 3 of his passes? He also needs to seek out contact. He continues to model the Jalen Adams contortions at the rim. It worked for him with one layup but it's not a winning formula. Take notes from Tristen.

We need to practice against the press more. Too often we were retreating into the sidelines and allowing Iowa State to use the sideline as an extra defender. Tristen did something really heady at one point when Joey and others thought the press was broken but then Iowa State came with 3 defenders before he crossed midcourt. He pulled it back and then found a new path across the half and then found the open man for an easy two points. That being said, our guards need to be decisive and play stronger with the ball, and teammates need to present themselves as options. And I thought there were about two times we probably deserved a 5 second call.

Hard to complain about a rout of a really good opponent though. I didn't think we'd be this good of a rebounding team this soon.

Here's the play I'm talking about. Had Andre not contorted himself as he did and sought at the contact this easily could have been an And-1, but certainly he would have gone to the line.