Looking Back and Ahead

[Nicknack]

Looking back over the past week, I would say that the win over Depaul was more telling about where our team is and the problems that exist overall even more so than the Gtown debacle (looking at the games in isolation as best as can be done). If we can't get out of our funk against a very poor team in the league at home on senior night, we have problems. I came away from that game, like many of you, very disappointed. I felt much less optimistic about the future of our season because I was hoping that the game, against inferior competition, would allow our guys to get the offense going thus sparking a little more confidence and fun on the court. Yeah, we go the W but really came away with an L in terms of what needed to happen.

The Gtown debacle was horrendous and really showed not only our lack of offense, passing and confidence but so much more. I believe it was Bilas who stated that we looked like a very fragile team. I thought at the time, wow, it's been a long time since someone would have said that. However, I think it was a very astute comment and well warranted.

Going into the Depaul game I was thinking that there was virtually no way that our offense could continue to struggle this badly for very much longer and that after another game or two, Triche and others would regain their mojo and the offense would be just fine - maybe not great, but good enough to challenge for the BE title and perhaps a run in the NCAA's. Then came Saturday and only 39 total points of offense.

I STILL believe that our team is far too talented to go out like this. While my confidence in our squad has been shaken a bit (particularly after the past week), I still BELIEVE in this team. If we could just get a game (i.e. Wednesday) where the offense comes off life support and allows them to play with confidence along with a D which has been strong for the most part, memories of the past can be just that, the past. I really do believe that we will get the touch back, Triche will start playing better, many more 3's by Dirty will start going down and the offense will be much more effective. While it may be short lived and not last long enough to carry us deep in the NCAA's, I do believe we will see it and that our team still has plenty of gas in the tank and will surprise some folks before it's all done and said.

 

[RF2044]

Very good post. I was actually going to post something similar on Saturday, but lacked the energy to do so after that embarrassing loss.

Depaul is god awful, and yet we still shot an abysmal percentage from the field. It got masked because we got to the line so often [tacking on points even though we weren't putting the ball in the basket], and due to the fact that the game became a rout.

But I was really concerned coming out of that game. That was a tune-up game that we needed to build confidence, and unfortunately we performed poorly for the most part.

 

[Madbiker]

I posted after the DePaul game that the win was fool's gold. Against the worse defensive team in the league, by far, we still couldn't shoot 40% and went 2-18 from 3. If we play USF on Wednesday it will be another first team to 50 wins game. Hopefully we come out on top (I'm not sure how this team responds after the debacle in D.C.). But expect another slow half court in- the- mud game.