Hi everyone, just wanted to leave my post-game thoughts as a (I think) rational Zags fan.
First of all, I'd like to point out that I am not a poster on our forum (I read them rarely, mostly just tournament time) so take that for what it's worth.
2nd: Congrats on the win and postseason run. I was very happy that the Zags reached the sweet 16 after the down season we had, and I would have been ecstatic to make the elite 8 and I imagine you guys are feeling much of the same after your down year.
On to the game: coming into this game I was honestly more worried about you guys beating us than us was 6 seed Seton Hall or 3 seed Utah. This is because our guards took forever to adjust to their roles and were extremely inconsistent early in the year - we saw flashes of brilliance followed by long stretches of ugly. They finally started playing confident the last month, but I had a strong feeling that your zone would frustrate them and cause them to revert to early-season form. It turns out that's exactly what happened, and they just looked confused and scared most of the night. Stretches of good play like early in the year, but a lot of ugly.
I've seen quite a few posts about Wiltjer and Sabonis playing out of their minds last night and would just like to point out that's not true - they both played well, but really just a bit above average for both of them. Your zone got to both of them as well though, and there were stretches where either of them looked pretty lost or frustrated as well. That was probably the least I've seen Wiltjer operate in the post all season (he is a truly great post scorer) and the least Sabonis has played on the perimeter/faced up in months. Part of that is the way Few designed his gameplan, but part of that is because you guys made them very uncomfortable out there. Props.
On to the refs - it seems like I'm the only person who thought the refs called a fair game. You can argue whether they did a good job (they swallowed a lot of whistles and really let them play) but it was evenly called on both sides. The only really bad call of the game was the out of bounds on Cooney - that was egregious he was clearly not out. That was truly awful but I loved it at the time. Anybody saying Lydon fouled Perkins at the end has absolutely no credibility, it wasn't anywhere near a foul.
Biggest head scratcher for us was McClellan being benched the whole second half. His play the last month has been outstanding and he was the defensive player of the year in our conference. He played poorly in the first half and beginning of the second but he should not have sat for 15 straight minutes to end the game. He was our 3rd best player this year and Few inexplicably cut his career short, which is too bad. Few has a reputation among Zag fans for putting guards in the doghouse if the get out of control.
In the end what it comes down to is that our players simply could not handle the zone. We had a week to prepare, shot the ball at a decent clip, played hard, rebounded well, and played good defense. But the zone confused us and forced turnovers. Boeheim and your players deserve all of the credit for making our offense stagnant for long stretches, making us take tough shots all night long, and holding us to nearly 20 points under our average. I was extremely impressed with Roberson's effort on the glass, that dude has a serious motor. Other than that, I can't say I was surprised by any players, the outcome, or the way either team looked. Oh by the way I love Lydon's game even though he was quiet last night.
I went into last night expecting that whoever won would get smoked by UVA Sunday night. Prove me wrong and go out there and take it to them! Good luck the rest of your season I'll be cheering for you (and I don't want another disappointing night)!
By the way - I'll be drinking tonight to the prayer that Sabonis will come back and Karnowski will come back after his season-ender early this year to give us another elite 8 shot next year!
