MBB Game 5 - @ Saint Mary's College, 11/19/22, 8:30 PM EST

[Flying Dutchmen]

Actually I thought we played fairly well in the first half but we could not hit anything. Blew two layups, open shots, but I thought we were working hard for points and were playing solid defense. St. Mary's is an excellent defensive team though, we had to work very hard to get the looks we got, and they punished us for almost every mistake.

Thought we just lost the attrition war in the second half and it kind of brings me to the observation I've wanted to discuss for a few games now. We live on the perimeter in the first half because if this team is going to have anything in the tank the last 5 minutes, we cannot exert too much energy or get into foul trouble in the first half. Our starters are playing Mihalich minutes right now, we're short-staffed in the frontcourt, and the ball movement offensively is still not completely fluid. The tight rotation is hurting us more defensively though. Under Joe we constantly sacrificed defense for offense which was a calculated decision for a small rotation. Personally, I don't think Speedy wants to play that way at all, but I think it's a tradeoff he's willing to make as we wait for Williams and to see if we can get consistent contribution from the freshmen. If we can get a 9 man rotation, we can play more man to man and slow down our pace and let our shooters dominate.

Speedy's gambit kind of came to a head against St. Mary's. We had to exert too much on both sides of the ball in the first 15 minutes, and we started looking flat by the end of the first half, the game was functionally over at that point.

[HUSID80]

You can x and o all you want but the fact of the matter is we are currently under-manned and we were out-talented and sized vs St. Mary's. Look at how many times we were blocked or stopped at the basket due to their size and how they shut down Dubar completely.

On to play lesser competition, except of course for Purdue and hopefully get our bigs back.

Oh and by the way, St Mary's is ranked 13th in the country by SAGARIN.

[Pride97]

I was actually happy that they weren't chucking threes from the start (which i expected to be the plan). They drove the lane and took mid-range shots as well. Yes St. Mary's is the best defensive team they've seen this year, but also the shots just weren't falling as they had in the first 4 games. I thought they had some good looks and just missed them. Unfortunately no one got hot to pick up the others. Needed Dubar or Thomas to have their own runs but they were ice cold.

I'm disappointed too that it wasn't a closer game. I had a few days to let the anger go and just realize that they were beat by a better team on a horrible shooting night. Ball movement could have been better - should have tried to find better looks, but they couldn't hit the good looks they got either. Might have buckled under the pressure a bit - hopefully its a leaning experience.

I am in agreement that i expected to see a bigger rotation. I was encouraged in the Princeton game, but looks like that was more about the foul issues. Would be great to be able to play a more aggressive defensive game with more players contributing. If Speedy isn't doing it in the OOC, i dont see it changing for conference play. Washington started the first game and has been benched since. I also expected to see Barrouk more.