The million interviews with Hurley talking about three-peating was fun but I get the sense from Hurley on down this team loved the smell of their own farts the entire off-season. The sum is shockingly so much less than the parts.
Our defense is atrocious, you simply can't win games with the defense we play. The staff probably should've focused on defense while they were busy perfecting the offense. The offense is also a huge mess but nothing like the D.
Hurley has no clue what his rotation is. He had Mahaney and Nowell playing together. Then at one point he went with no guards. He stressed all off-season and up until today that the strength of the team is our great wings. What does having depth at wing matter when you play Liam the whole time when he's hurt and missing everything and you have Jaylin plastered to the bench. Jaylin gets the short end of the stick every game. He got four seconds of action in the second half and missed a shot before being benched. How dare he miss a shot.
Solo can shoot threes, that's it. He's a huge liability on defense and does nothing other than shoot threes on offense. Hass plays his heart out but he's meant to be a backup point guard/energy guy off the bench. Karaban looks great if he's hitting threes, otherwise he's a ghost. Only thing Samson is good at is alley oops and blocking shots but he usually fouls on his block attempts. Everything else is a liability with him. Jaylin is inexplicably in the doghouse. Ross and Mahaney provide nothing. Where was Tarris Reed?
The last two years were amazing but Hurley probably needed this humble pie. Something miraculous has to happen or this team isn't making the tournament. I'm already at peace with it. I didn't think we would win this game going into it but the way we played leaves a very bad taste.
On to Thanksgiving, enjoy your Turkey and ketchup.