Originally Posted by
fbmind
I was double fistin' yesterday, watching the football game and this one. Here were my general thoughts...
-Biggest takeaway was that this team had only played 2 games in the last 2 and half weeks and hadn't played in 9 days and it showed. They were not bad on offense yesterday, just extremely rusty. Basketball is a rhythm game and they were just not in rhythm on the offensive end. From the start they were pounding it inside and getting a lot of good looks but just missing. Tyree was 1-8 from inside the arc and missed numerous shots in the paint that he normally makes. Guess my point is thought the offensive game plan was good and they got good looks...just could not finish and it looked like a lot of rust/lack of rhythm. Hopefully getting that out of the system will help at Denver tomorrow.
-That being said, they need to take better care of the ball. Again some of it was rust, but most of it was just being sloppy...have to value the ball more.
-The effort on defense and the boards is what saved them. They outrebounded Omaha by 10 and were very active on defense. That is their calling card and it won them the game yesterday.
-Nelson's injury looked bad. He went to jump and it looked like his leg just gave out. My guess is that he tore something in his knee and is out for the year.
-Maleeck will probably see a lot more minutes in his absence and they need him to play like he did yesterday. Far and away his best game of the season...10 points and 10 rebounds, but more importantly he was super active around the rim and bringing a ton of energy, which is when he is at his best. He had 5 offensive rebounds yesterday and challenged a lot more...he is going to need to bring that consistently moving forward.
-Good to see Rocky back to himself yesterday...he has had some bad nights recently, but last night he looked like himself.
-Closer than probably expected, but still a win on the road and the effort was good on both ends.