My Summation......

[newmexicuse]

1. Ref's stunk, but we had our chances & did not get it done. Couldn't get a big stop or bucket when we were within a hoop sooooooo many times in the last five minutes.

2. Another poster said six missed easy layups. I had a really bad feeling when KJo blew the early gimme on a break. Failure to get a half-time lead with Sully riding pine was a really bad omen.

3. I posted pre-game that I thought we need a 15 & 5 game from Kris. It didn't happen - nor did a W. I hate to say I told you so. Not sure if it is the knees or just not enough of a skillset, but by and large Kris really under-achieved towards the end of this season. Too bad - great kid - great career - wish his final legacy was better.

4. I am really surprised that Dion didn't get it done & had a very poor game. I must confess, I was counting on at least a solid (though not necessarily a spectacular) game from him as a gimme.

5. I had also posted that I thought we need solid O game from five of our players. We really only had Scoop & Brandon step up. That ain't gonna cut it. say what you will about good scoop - bad Scoop - he was a kid who almost always came up big when it really mattered.

6. Smashed on the glass worse than expected - only Baye battled successfully against them.

7. Only 6 shots combined from James & CJ - what was that - what kind of sets were we running ?? CJ failed to get a single bucket from the field in a half court set.

8. Credit to them - see point one above - they made key hoops & stops at crunch-time. refs helped, but loss was on us & not the zebras.

9. Second time in three years loss of a center does us in. No question this was a game made for Melo's skills.

All in all - great season & congrats to our guys. Competition at this level is too close for any team to have the loss of a star player right at tourney time & expect to win. Pre-loss of melo I would have said anything less than a FF would have been a failure, but wo Fab, it is hard to say that we should have gone further.

 

[Noexcuse]

Amazing to me that going down the stretch when the game was on the line we had turnovers on 4 of 6 possessions.

 

[jcuse44]

So you said we needed 5 of our players to have a good game offensively...wow, how astute of you. Espn is calling

 

[newmexicuse]

Amazing to me that going down the stretch when the game was on the line we had turnovers on 4 of 6 possessions.

Yes.....we did ourselves in. I hate when we lose & play lousy when it matters & then some posters put it all on the refs. Smacks of sore-loserness. In any game there will be bad calls. Over the course of the season we benefitted from some good calls. Bottom line the refs did not take away our opportunity to win if we had out-played them down the stretch, and when you get to the EE, you can't expect to win unless you outplay the opponent in the last 5 minutes. We simply did not get it done.

 

[orangecuse]

Amazing to me that going down the stretch when the game was on the line we had turnovers on 4 of 6 possessions.

That certainly was a killer...especially, since most, if not all, were unforced at that.

 

[suthrills]

Yes.....we did ourselves in. I hate when we lose & play lousy when it matters & then some posters put it all on the refs. Smacks of sore-loserness. In any game there will be bad calls. Over the course of the season we benefitted from some good calls. Bottom line the refs did not take away our opportunity to win if we had out-played them down the stretch, and when you get to the EE, you can't expect to win unless you outplay the opponent in the last 5 minutes. We simply did not get it done.[/quote
Unfortunately it's a recurring theme with cuse.
We played poorly down the stretch against Butler and Marquette too- in those games we had leads and played piss poor in the last 4 minutes.

 

[Cuseology]

Yes.....we did ourselves in. I hate when we lose & play lousy when it matters & then some posters put it all on the refs. Smacks of sore-loserness. In any game there will be bad calls. Over the course of the season we benefitted from some good calls. Bottom line the refs did not take away our opportunity to win if we had out-played them down the stretch, and when you get to the EE, you can't expect to win unless you outplay the opponent in the last 5 minutes. We simply did not get it done.

True but it is hard to outplay your opponent when you have 4 guys in foul trouble at the end of the game and they are either sitting on the bench or playing to avoid picking up their fifth. Amazing that we were still in the game in the end given the officiating. Our play in the last two minutes was bad and we did waste opportunities down the stretch but to ignore that the team was battling against the odds is a bit disingenuous.

I think we beat OSU 6-7 out of ten times, even with Fab out. Yesterdays game showed that we did not have to play our best to win. We just needed a chance to play.

 

[TinyManInside]

Very nice post newmexico.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Amazing to me that going down the stretch when the game was on the line we had turnovers on 4 of 6 possessions.

Yeah, the end-game execution was not what we are accustomed to. Dion seemed to be so focused on getting to the rim and cradling the ball under his arm to protect it, that he wasn't in shooting position as he finished a few of those drives. Too many missed layups in the first 10 minutes. They seemed tight for this one, I have to say.