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[QUOTE="SWC75, post: 136990, member: 289"]
- We didn’t handle their press very well at the beginning. We seemed tentative, even leisurely at times. So long as we made them miss so they couldn’t set up the press, we dominated. When they made a shot, the game changed. They set up the press and started to get back into the game- until they missed, which fortunately they did 37 times. Still, we had 12 first half turnovers. The better teams noticed that.

- Oliver Purnell is famous for turning programs around and getting his team to 9-4 this season is a good sign but they will never become really good until they start playing defense. They had plenty of intensity in their press but they weren’t even matadors in the half court defense. They were cigar store Indians. SU found that their best strategy was to just drive directly to the basket and lay it in, without risking a pass that might be bobbled by our young big men. It gave us impressive numbers but was also misleading, because we are going to face some teams that actually play defense.

- Or risking an outside shot, which we don’t seem to be making much of just now. We were 2 for 13 in our last game and 3 for 12 in this one. The outside game comes and goes. Fortunately, we have other things going for us.

- One of them is steals and turnover margin, which we lead the country in. They were absent in the first half as both teams had 4 steals and 12 turnovers.

- We spun our wheels in the second half, , which was 42-42. Missing 7 of 18 free throws prevented us from increasing the lead but fortunately DePaul never made a run.
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