I'm wondering if this team is somewhat more suited to a faster tempo than recent teams. Caveat- I didn't see the Furman game.

This team is built to play fast. But, there’s a difference between playing fast and just running up and down the court. This offense can wear people down playing fast for 40 minutes...within the offense. That doesn’t mean just running free without a pace or discipline. Looking big picture, while we’re fast and athletic we’re not as fast or athletic as some power 5 teams that we’d want to beat in March.

LU played great. The body movement was excellent the second half and we did a better job on not getting hung up on screens and our defensive rotation and close outs in the second half was terrific. I also thought that Porter did a better job of not subbing as much and he let the starters play longer stretches and they got more traction.

Ahur looked great, his best game as a Rambler. He finally got mean heading to the hoop and finished with authority. He also slashed hard from the weak side to board a bit. Let’s hope he continues the trend.

We are shooting a very good 52% from the floor and that is with our 3 pt woes. If we ever get to upper 30’s look out. We are definitely scoring more but until Sat we did not show they type of furious defense we normally play. We got TOS, deflections and harassed St. Joe in the second half.

Let’s hope Lucas gets back to being. 40% 3 shooter and Marquise also connected from deep and if starts to be consistent from there with his attack game, he’s really going to be a force. Tate is making shots.

Question is can we repeat the performance? Remember, in our conference they will pack the lane and we will need to make 3’s, get some easy transition buckets off of defense and TO’s.

Other factor, we need to shoot FT’s better. 67% is not good enuf.

Good progress though and definitely a good step forward.

Did anybody notice the look on Porter's face after Lucas missed the attempted stuff off the steal?

Porter doesn't like stuffs/jams...he's absolutely LIVID if you miss 'em and lose the 2 pts.

Yeah, Porter got right in Lucas' face. I thought he was going to have a stroke.

Reminds me of a practice I went to a few years ago when Tanner Williams missed a dunk. Porter balled him out and made him run sprints.

I think it's the missing part he doesn't like...

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It was the fact that he was wide open and easily could’ve laid it in, and that the game was tight and it sucked the air out of the building. At least that’s how I read it from my seat down on that end of the floor.
Also, maybe Uguak read my questioning of his role on this board (probably not) but that is the way I want to see him play; angry aggressive dunks resulting from great cutting to the basket and strong rebounding.
Also, that was my first time seeing him in person this year and he has definitely bulked up, so he should continue going to the basket hard, and hopefully will be less bothered by contact.

It's not that he doesn't like dunks, it's that he doesn't like wasted possessions. Most missed dunks result in a turnover (this one didn't).

Same happened with Krutwig his freshman year; and Cooper last year. Happened to Donte once as well when he was a junior or senior I believe... Nothing new, so i wouldn't read too much into it.

He was definitely not happy with the missed dunk. To paraphrase in a message board appropriate tone, I believe he instructed him to lay it in.

I will say that, thinking back to how many fast breaks were thwarted last year by layups being blocked from behind, I don’t mind the dunking it...just be confident you’ll make it.

I think the Phoenix beat reporters should ask Porter if he could dunk back in the day. It might be that his aversion to dunking stems from a deep-seated feeling of vertical inadequacy.