Last night was a loss for easily identifiable reasons.
1. Turnovers- You can't waste possessions on the road, you just cant. Way too many turnovers especially in the second half when they were shooting poorly for a period of time. They were getting 2-3 looks per possession and many times we weren't even getting 1.
2. Rebounding- 36-24 we were out rebounded by. Way too many offensive rebounds for them (10) and certainly not enough for us (4). These are extra shots, extra looks that one team gets and another does not. Especially on the road, the home team is eventually going to make a shot or two which ignites the crowd and leads to more and more makes. I will note, this is an area that people are going to critique Marshall and for a fair reason. He always seems to be out of position on the defensive end which leads to men being wide open on the weak side of the hoop where a majority of shots come off. This specific area is where we desperately need Amile back because he always seems to be in position and ready for a missed shot on either end.
3. Shot Selection- As DJ mentioned sometimes the worst thing that can happen is a hot start. We made a ton of 3's in the first half and play perimeter ball down the stretch. When you are only getting 1 look per possession, a cold spell from 3 at the worst time can sink a team. We went cold, we were sunk.
4. Foul Trouble/Timid Defense- I thought it was a very tight whistle last night, but it happens, especially to road teams. We had numerous guys in foul trouble, which led to a switch to zone defense. I won't critique the switch because we needed to keep guys on the floor, but I will critique us staying in zone when it was clearly not working. I will be honest that was the most timid zone defense I have ever seen watching a basketball game before. Hands were down, there was no energy, the top of our zone BI, was scared to go anywhere a Clemson guard and the gaps were bigger than the parting of the Red Sea. When we went back to man our energy picked up and we stringed together a few stops in a row and almost clawed all the way back.
5. Free Throws: Lastly this is a 2 part category. Our reliance on the 3 point shot led to us not shooting enough free throws and down the stretch we missed several key free throws, mostly by guys that shoot higher than 80% from the line.
Add up categories 1-5 and it equals a road loss 9/10 times. It was very disappointing because this is a game we let slip away and we now have 3 losses and have yet to get to the meat and potatoes of our schedule. I am confident these areas will be addressed but it will be up to the players to execute better going forward as Coach K has clearly exhausted his eligibility. As the saying goes X player is not walking through that door. Our roster is our current roster and it's up to our guys to get better or we could be staring a several more losses going forward.
