EastStang wrote:Had cable problems last night so I didn't get to see the game. Did WS switch to man to man or a match-up zone in the 2nd half? Did we ever switch to man to man or post up zone once WSU started raining threes? Our problem that I've seen this year is that none of our bigs can finish inside. They either turn the ball over or get it blocked. So, when a team guards the 3, we should be pounding it inside, but if our guys can't finish, we cooked. If they started raining threes and we did try to adjust but personnel couldn't get implement it, that's on the players and not the coach (unless you buy into the culture stuff). Blown 17, 21, and 24 point leads in one season are pretty close to unforgiveable. Especially when the worst one was at home.
Yes, WSU switched their defense up in the second half. Some man, a lot of zone. The good thing was we didn't jack up a lot of crazy threes like we did in the other blown lead games. We missed some shots we normally hit.
We started the game in a 2-3 zone, and it was great first half. We also pressed after made shots in the first half, which slowed WSU from getting in the half court with a lot of time to work the zone. In the second half, we stopped making shots, and stopped pressing, and WSU was able to tear up the zone given the extra time. The team tired significantly as well, and were late closing out. Really, though, WSU got very, very hot in the second half. We went man a few times (a little too late IMHO), but that got torn up as well. It would have been nice to switch to a 1-3-1, but with no Jasey today that was impossible.
The team was clearly exhausted in the second half. That is what happens, IMHO, when your offense is centered around individual play and you give up a lot of rebounds in your zone defense. The biggest mistake, however, was slowing down our tempo. In the first half, we had long offensive possessions where we passed up an ok shot and ended up getting a better shot (for the most part). In the second half, we really slowed the game down with Davis dribbling the ball until later in the clock and then someone trying to make an individual play. It didn't work. In the first half, we worked to find an opening and took it. Credit WSU for adding a press that got us out of the offensive rhythm , but we lowed it down even more when we got into the half court. The whole team played scared. That falls on both the coach and the players.
Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2020 9:22 pm