1. This may be an unpopular opinion, what with folks wanting to blame coaching for every loss or breakdown, but in the last 4 minutes plus, we missed 5 shots at the rim, 1 by every player on the court. I'm reading that we should have run different plays or actions, and I want to know for who, because everybody missed an easy shot late, or what play or action was going to get us better looks than 2 footers and wide open 3s.. We made 1 2 point basket in the last 8 1/2 minutes of the game, and that came on the third offensive rebound of a 4 shot sequence. And then, when we got 2 wide open 3s by guys who have been good shooters all year; Franz airballed his, and Mike rimmed his in and out. Even then, on Franz's miss, we got the rebound, and Eli decided to flip the ball up over his head with 10 seconds to go and no shot clock in play, rather than run the offense down 1. Guys who made key plays and smart decisions all year didn't. There were certainly things you can criticize the coaching staff for--we tried to force the ball into the post too much early in the second half--but we win that game with anybody playing well. Anybody. The only guy who made a few shots was Chaundee, and he lost Juzang repeatedly off the ball in the first half, at a time when UCLA was reeling. We played badly. Call it unfortunate, call it playing tight, call it whatever you want ("choking" if it makes you feel better), blame coaches if you want, but when every single player on the court plays very badly on at least one end of the cout, you aren't winning games. That we had a chance to win this one was a miracle.
2. Defensively, other than Chaundee on Juzang in the first half, we were spectacular. UCLA, which came in with the #14 offense in the country, scored .under 88 points per possession, and that's with Juzang going off. Jacquez, who was averaging 17 ppg in the tournament, scored 4 points, 2 off of an offensive rebound, and the other 2 on free throws, ans taken completely out of the game. Bernard scored 4. Even with Jacquez playing well, giving up 51 points in over 58 possessions should win you any game.
3. Franz was very, very bad tonight on the offensive end (though he was the guy who shut down Jacquez). Hunter struggled all night, never kicking the ball out, failing to finish, and making 1 of 4 from the line. With Isaiah out, you usually need at least one of your other stars to play well ; in this game, given our defense, mediocre by either would have sufficed. It didn't happen.
4. Of course I'm very unhappy about losing tonight, but I'm not going to let it ruin an otherwise spectacular season. We won a BT regular season championship, got to the Elite Eight with our senior leader and best shooter our for the entire tournament, and did so with a team where 3 members of our 7 man playing rotation in the tournament were complete recruiting afterthoughts per the experts, and nobody was a top 30 player coming in. We should have won tonight--no question about that--and I would have loved to watch one more game. However, make no mistake--Gonzaga is at a wholly different level than this team, especially without Isaiah, and Baylor is too. While we're a game short of where I hoped we could get, we did a lot of great, great things with a team picked to finish 5th or worse in the conference.
5. I'm going to bed. I'll worry about who we'll have on the roster next year when the dust settles. I'll sit back and try to ignore the finger pointing and vituperation which will inevitably flow against kids and staff who played their hearts out and achieved all year long under extremely difficult conditions. I'll look forward to watching a program which has cemented itself as a national powerhouse continue to compete and thrive. Go Blue!
2. Defensively, other than Chaundee on Juzang in the first half, we were spectacular. UCLA, which came in with the #14 offense in the country, scored .under 88 points per possession, and that's with Juzang going off. Jacquez, who was averaging 17 ppg in the tournament, scored 4 points, 2 off of an offensive rebound, and the other 2 on free throws, ans taken completely out of the game. Bernard scored 4. Even with Jacquez playing well, giving up 51 points in over 58 possessions should win you any game.
3. Franz was very, very bad tonight on the offensive end (though he was the guy who shut down Jacquez). Hunter struggled all night, never kicking the ball out, failing to finish, and making 1 of 4 from the line. With Isaiah out, you usually need at least one of your other stars to play well ; in this game, given our defense, mediocre by either would have sufficed. It didn't happen.
4. Of course I'm very unhappy about losing tonight, but I'm not going to let it ruin an otherwise spectacular season. We won a BT regular season championship, got to the Elite Eight with our senior leader and best shooter our for the entire tournament, and did so with a team where 3 members of our 7 man playing rotation in the tournament were complete recruiting afterthoughts per the experts, and nobody was a top 30 player coming in. We should have won tonight--no question about that--and I would have loved to watch one more game. However, make no mistake--Gonzaga is at a wholly different level than this team, especially without Isaiah, and Baylor is too. While we're a game short of where I hoped we could get, we did a lot of great, great things with a team picked to finish 5th or worse in the conference.
5. I'm going to bed. I'll worry about who we'll have on the roster next year when the dust settles. I'll sit back and try to ignore the finger pointing and vituperation which will inevitably flow against kids and staff who played their hearts out and achieved all year long under extremely difficult conditions. I'll look forward to watching a program which has cemented itself as a national powerhouse continue to compete and thrive. Go Blue!
