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So I left for Hartford Thursday afternoon and got back to northern mass a couple hours ago. As far as sentiment goes, they don't get much deeper than this one: I live for this stuff. To be able to wake up every morning, eat breakfast, walk about a mile to the XL center so I don't feel like a complete fat ass for stuffing myself all day, take in some high-major basketball from wherever I want to sit, and lose my mind to root on the Huskies...that's as good a mini-vacation as you can possibly have. I would have given anything to stick around another 24 hours, but hey, even in one of the worst years in recent program history, they give me memories I'll have forever. People that only look at the record or the final score are missing so much.
The on-court product went from terrible to good to I don't even know because their were too many fouls. The coaching was largely good, though I remain frustrated by their collective lack of urgency when it comes to making obvious tactical concessions to disguise what their personnel can't do. To me, the three games I saw at the conference tournament - two from right behind the bench and one from section 202 - solidified the belief that this team massively under-achieved. To not have them dancing is a failure, even if the long-term trajectory of the program trends upward due to the excellent work they have done in other areas.
But that can come for another day. This one stings, and it is especially frustrating because, even with all the injuries, even with all the young guys we're playing, and even with all of the bad things that have happened to us, this game was so, so winnable. And we fouled ourselves out of the nuclear opportunity to potentially fill the arena for sunday and storm into the NCAA tournament. Cincinnati and SMU are better than us, but I still think man for man, everybody at their best, we're more talented.
A couple brief thoughts:
- It is difficult to gauge from the upper-sections whether the calls being made on the court are good ones, so I don't really have anything for you on that front. But Cincinnati shot 46 free throws, which is too absurd to gloss over. Either we got screwed or we were way too undisciplined. On that front:
- The strategy when we got within two minutes was terrible. We cut it to five at one point within the last minute, and instead of trapping and at least making them advance it past half-court, they gave the foul right away. You need to force at least one turnover there if you're down that much. The odds of winning the game otherwise are infinitesimal.
- Enoch's defense killed us in that game. Jackson's was not very good, at any point in the tournament, either. That brings me to my next point.
- We're going to miss the three seniors a lot more than people realize. They were our stalwarts on that end, and while they were inconsistent at best offensively, they would always put it together for just long enough that you believed they could be great. In a lot of ways, this was the most fitting of ways for it to end, losing a game that it doesn't actually feel like we lost, not because mistakes weren't made but because at no point did it feel like the stars ever aligned. Speaking of:
- In retrospect, it really seemed like Jalen was starting to put it together before he turned his ankle against SMU. In the 11 games before the injury, he was averaging 15 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds on 43/40/88 shooting splits. We had also just come off a five game stretch in which we were playing our best ball of the season - we had gotten our signature win @ UCF, gutted one out @ Temple, come back against Memphis, walloped South Florida by a starting 59 points, and led Houston by double digits at the half before succumbing to fatigue. In the three games after the injury he was at 8/5/4 on 36% shooting and against Houston and Cincinnati he was sensational. I'm trying not to exaggerate, but I can't think of a single player I'd take over him next season - assuming the expected players depart - if I were starting a team. He made a top ten defense look straight up bad at times.
- With Jalen in mind, serious questions will have to be asked of the staff if we can't score points next year. Between him, the expected improvements from Jackson and Vital, Gilbert, Durham, Enoch, and whatever we get from a recovering Larrier, there is going to be plenty of opportunity to finally boast an explosive offense.
- Again, though, plenty of question marks on the other end. We will miss Brimah a lot for the reason that it is easier to build a functional offense around Brimah's limitations than it is to build a defense around Enoch's. I trust Vital to eventually fill Purvis' shoes defensively, but it likely won't be as soon as next season, and I have questions about Gilbert's ability to defend. If you trot out a lineup of Adams-Gilbert-Jackson-Larrier-Enoch you're going to get scored defensively. Our best bet is somebody like Durham making the leap to a transformative defensive player, which I think is possible. Otherwise, Enoch or somebody else will have to step up.
The on-court product went from terrible to good to I don't even know because their were too many fouls. The coaching was largely good, though I remain frustrated by their collective lack of urgency when it comes to making obvious tactical concessions to disguise what their personnel can't do. To me, the three games I saw at the conference tournament - two from right behind the bench and one from section 202 - solidified the belief that this team massively under-achieved. To not have them dancing is a failure, even if the long-term trajectory of the program trends upward due to the excellent work they have done in other areas.
But that can come for another day. This one stings, and it is especially frustrating because, even with all the injuries, even with all the young guys we're playing, and even with all of the bad things that have happened to us, this game was so, so winnable. And we fouled ourselves out of the nuclear opportunity to potentially fill the arena for sunday and storm into the NCAA tournament. Cincinnati and SMU are better than us, but I still think man for man, everybody at their best, we're more talented.
A couple brief thoughts:
- It is difficult to gauge from the upper-sections whether the calls being made on the court are good ones, so I don't really have anything for you on that front. But Cincinnati shot 46 free throws, which is too absurd to gloss over. Either we got screwed or we were way too undisciplined. On that front:
- The strategy when we got within two minutes was terrible. We cut it to five at one point within the last minute, and instead of trapping and at least making them advance it past half-court, they gave the foul right away. You need to force at least one turnover there if you're down that much. The odds of winning the game otherwise are infinitesimal.
- Enoch's defense killed us in that game. Jackson's was not very good, at any point in the tournament, either. That brings me to my next point.
- We're going to miss the three seniors a lot more than people realize. They were our stalwarts on that end, and while they were inconsistent at best offensively, they would always put it together for just long enough that you believed they could be great. In a lot of ways, this was the most fitting of ways for it to end, losing a game that it doesn't actually feel like we lost, not because mistakes weren't made but because at no point did it feel like the stars ever aligned. Speaking of:
- In retrospect, it really seemed like Jalen was starting to put it together before he turned his ankle against SMU. In the 11 games before the injury, he was averaging 15 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds on 43/40/88 shooting splits. We had also just come off a five game stretch in which we were playing our best ball of the season - we had gotten our signature win @ UCF, gutted one out @ Temple, come back against Memphis, walloped South Florida by a starting 59 points, and led Houston by double digits at the half before succumbing to fatigue. In the three games after the injury he was at 8/5/4 on 36% shooting and against Houston and Cincinnati he was sensational. I'm trying not to exaggerate, but I can't think of a single player I'd take over him next season - assuming the expected players depart - if I were starting a team. He made a top ten defense look straight up bad at times.
- With Jalen in mind, serious questions will have to be asked of the staff if we can't score points next year. Between him, the expected improvements from Jackson and Vital, Gilbert, Durham, Enoch, and whatever we get from a recovering Larrier, there is going to be plenty of opportunity to finally boast an explosive offense.
- Again, though, plenty of question marks on the other end. We will miss Brimah a lot for the reason that it is easier to build a functional offense around Brimah's limitations than it is to build a defense around Enoch's. I trust Vital to eventually fill Purvis' shoes defensively, but it likely won't be as soon as next season, and I have questions about Gilbert's ability to defend. If you trot out a lineup of Adams-Gilbert-Jackson-Larrier-Enoch you're going to get scored defensively. Our best bet is somebody like Durham making the leap to a transformative defensive player, which I think is possible. Otherwise, Enoch or somebody else will have to step up.
