There is nobody in conference tougher to defend than Miang. Well, anybody we have to defend. His match problems create a lot of space for everybody else. They got a lot more open looks tonight than we did. Part of it was being on the road. But part of it was that they just had better structure. In the last three weeks, Spangler has had nights when he just contributes nothing offensively. I believe he's still hurting.
He is such a terrific rebounder usually. But tonight, they were using OU's switch philosophy one through four, to get Ryan out on the perimeter. And when Lattin went to block every shot, it opened up the offensive boards for the in a big way.
I would like to see Lattin do less of the Chamberlain block and more of the Bill Russell block. Wilt's was more impressive. Russ's more effective and harder to do. Wilt liked to bat the ball eight rows into the stands. Bill prefered a tap to a teammate. I wouldn't be inclined to go check the tape to count them, but I'd bet that all but one, maybe two batted balls or blocks that Lattin made, ended up in Iowa State's hands or for their throw in. An intelligent block can get the transition going quickly. He had been improving his offensive game so much. Tonight we got almost nothing inside from Khadeem or Ryan. You can't win tournament games without somebody scoring inside. ISU's defense was very solid tonight. But it's not that good. I do believe part of it was carry over from a very exhausting game 50 hours earlier.
This is no sprint; it's a marathon. The key is to keep improving, cutting the minutes of the key guys to keep from wearing them out, and building the confidence of the guys on the bench.
I also think they need to look inside to Manyang at least occasionally. If the other defense has to defend tough on the post, it will cut way down on how clogged up the lane gets. So long as we stay in the top five or six, I'm fine with how this seems to be developing.
And I always think you're better off heading the the NCAA's with no more than two conference tournament games. Let somebody else play three nutcracker games in three days. Give me fresh legs.
One thing for sure. We'll be battle tested.
