Icebear
Andlig Ledare
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 18,785
- Reaction Score
- 19,227
Coming out of finals this team took off for the biggest game of the year. Emotions were automatically high and the game was one of maximum effort and quality. It was a sell out crowd and the energy took care of itself.
Last night the team had been on the road for several days, yesterday was rainy and the ability to do some interesting things was limited (per an in game comment by the announcers). The crowd was ok but very different than the zoo at Baylor. The team came in flat and seemed to be struggling and to a degree just going through the motions.
I would have loved to hear the half time conversation in the locker room. In the game file I noted I thought Geno might pull out his Broadway speech about how this game may be this crowd's one time seeing a WCBB game and it will leave an impression. The crowd deserved the best effort of the entire team and sure enough an entirely different team showed up in the second half.
I see a huge learning curve for this young team on this trip. It was the first major road trip of the season, first huge game in a hostile environment, first long road trip, the game after let down after that big Baylor game, and a game without the rigors and daily discipline of class work because the semester was over and, oh yes, a teammate who contributed to the great first half against Baylor got injured away from the normal medical facilities. There was a lot of non game related material to learn to manage.
It should not be surprising, disappointing, yes, just not surprising, that the first half was uninspired, immaturity can lead to false expectations that just showing up against CoC should be enough compared to Baylor. The best news is second half showed correction and the ability to make in game transition in attitude and execution. With a young team the firsts are constant and the learning is continual. It is easy to lose track of that as fans who simply turn on the TV and want to see a good performance.
The team still needs to find its voice and player who can hold the internally accountable. Struggles like last night can help that. According to John A. some players voiced that again after the game. Time to resolve this issue.
Last night the team had been on the road for several days, yesterday was rainy and the ability to do some interesting things was limited (per an in game comment by the announcers). The crowd was ok but very different than the zoo at Baylor. The team came in flat and seemed to be struggling and to a degree just going through the motions.
I would have loved to hear the half time conversation in the locker room. In the game file I noted I thought Geno might pull out his Broadway speech about how this game may be this crowd's one time seeing a WCBB game and it will leave an impression. The crowd deserved the best effort of the entire team and sure enough an entirely different team showed up in the second half.
I see a huge learning curve for this young team on this trip. It was the first major road trip of the season, first huge game in a hostile environment, first long road trip, the game after let down after that big Baylor game, and a game without the rigors and daily discipline of class work because the semester was over and, oh yes, a teammate who contributed to the great first half against Baylor got injured away from the normal medical facilities. There was a lot of non game related material to learn to manage.
It should not be surprising, disappointing, yes, just not surprising, that the first half was uninspired, immaturity can lead to false expectations that just showing up against CoC should be enough compared to Baylor. The best news is second half showed correction and the ability to make in game transition in attitude and execution. With a young team the firsts are constant and the learning is continual. It is easy to lose track of that as fans who simply turn on the TV and want to see a good performance.
The team still needs to find its voice and player who can hold the internally accountable. Struggles like last night can help that. According to John A. some players voiced that again after the game. Time to resolve this issue.