We are up to #16 in Kenpom with the NUMBER FIVE DEFENSE IN THE COUNTRY. Unbelievable where this program is right now.

Drake survives 78-76 in OT to go 16-0. But they're likely to slip a bit in KenPom and maybe even in the NET because of efficiency numbers. Only shot 43% against a team in the 200s.

We played some tough defense today, while they played some pretty poor offense. We definitely benefited from a couple of their players being tired or banged up from their Drake series. But our starters each played between 22-25 minutes, so we are in much better shape from game 2 than they are. If we win tomorrow, a 6 road game winning streak would look great on our resume.

Also, it was very nice to see how our guys shut down Mosley. He only scored 8 points today. Very impressive.

The “Best duo in the Valley”, as some refer to them, combined for 10 points.

A couple of quick points

(1) Other than 3 point shooting, this may have been our best game of the year. We never let up. Very impressive.
(2) We need Drake to continue to win so when we beat them - it will mean more.
(3) It is silly to think these players are tired because they played earlier this week. AAU and travel ball players, like these kids, play 4 games in a weekend tournament. They played poorly today. They may be out of sync because they have only played a few games in the last month, but it is not because they played a game on Wednesday night. These kids are accustom to playing more games on a regular schedule - not once or twice a week.
(4) I would like to see Kaifes get some more playing time to start shooting, if he could back to his 46.5% 3 point stroke - we would be doing some serious damage.

We’ve been shooting the 3 pretty poorly the last few weeks, but we can’t abandon it. We can get away with it during conference play, but we’re going to need to shoot better to win against tournament teams (see Wisconsin game)

I thought we would be a good team this year, but I thought it would be because we were lethal from three. Turns out, we are as good as I'd hoped despite being just above average from three. If we can ever really shoot it, we'll be elite.

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Winning on the road while shooting poorly from deep is really a testament to how talented and deep this team is. Can beat you in a variety of ways with different players stepping up. Oh, and one of hte best defenses in the country certainly helps.

Agree with the 3 point shooting. I think Kaifes is a slightly better 3 point shooter than Norris, but I'm not suprised at/kind of agree with Norris playing more due to his ability to bring up the ball and run the point. I think if Kaifes were to get more time, we'd need to have Keith on the court running the offense. I do think a Keith/Kaifes pairing on the court could be an interesting wrinkle to add to our offense.

When we are up big in games, I'd just tell Kaifes to let it rip. See if he can find that in-game stroke that he had freshman year.

As mediocre as our three point shooting has been lately, we still have five regulars shooting over 36%:

Clemons: 40%
Norris: 39.1%
Welch: 39.1%
Uguak(!): 38.9%
Kennedy: 38.9%
Williamson: 36.1%
Kaifes: 36.1%

Scary to think how good this team can be if we find our stroke again down the stretch. Can light teams up from the outside, can feed Krut and let him work or can just beat you with ball movement and perfect passes/cutting.