The Downside - TCU

[SWC75]

- We’ve got no shot against the Spartans if we can get maximum production from the Big three. They are the heart and soul of this team. 10 for 39 and 27 points isn’t going to nearly do it. Just because the other team has set their defense to stop them, that doesn’t mean that there is no way to get them good shots. JB can’t just keep running the same high picks and screens when they aren’t doing any good. And we’ve got to start attacking from the sides, not just out front.

- Will Marek have another game like that? Probably. But it needs to be this year.

- We need to get some calls. It’s a big part of our offense. An awful lot of contact was ignored by the refs. We only got to the line 15 times. We average 22. We have the dilemma that we don’t wan the refs to call a lot of fouls because we don’t have much depth but we do want them to call fouls when we drive to the basket because if we are fouled, we’ll likely miss and need to be rewarded with foul shots. If that had happened tonight, we’d have won comfortably.

- We also would have won comfortably if we hadn’t allowed the Amphibians to have an 0-8 run to end the first half, (which became 0-10 when they scored to begin the second half). In that 4 minutes and 44 seconds of playing time we were 0 for 9 and committed 3 fouls. TCU was 7 for 9 shots and committed no fouls. If we have a stretch like vs. the Spartans, it won’t be Thermopylae. It will be Marathon, (the one the Greeks won).

 

[Madbiker]

We also had bad decision making the last 30 seconds of the first half that really cost us. We have the ball up 3 and can hold for the last shot. Instead Frank tries an ally oop from half court that fails and TCU gets a quick bucket the other way. Then we have the ball up 1 with 15 seconds left and can again hold for the last shot but Tyus puts up a shot with 7 seconds, misses, and TCU beats the buzzer for a lay up that also gets Dolezaj his 3rd foul with 1 second left. We fortunately were able to overcome this.

 

[JoeSU]

Howard had a bad sequence with :37 left in the game, with a 2-posession lead (54-49). We were obviously trying to milk the clock in that situation, but after passing the ball around the perimeter, Howard settled for a long, "chuck-it-up" 3 pt attempt as the shot clock ran out. (I though we might take it to the hoop with the chance to get fouled.). To make matters worse, after missing the shot, Howard fouled the TCU player who rebounded his miss, committing the cardinal sin of letting TCU narrow the lead with the clock stopped. Fortunately, the TCU player only made 1/2 FTs, or it would have been a 1 possession game at that point.
In all fairness, this sequence took place not long after Howard snared a defensive rebound and hit a HUGE shot to give us the aforementioned 54-49 lead, but it left the door open for TCU.