JCT wrote:
Doyle had three points on 1 for 9 from the field. Yes, he had 6 assists, but you're not going to win many games against a team like New Mexico on the road with your best player doing single figure scoring. Not only was the shooting terrible, it was terrible when the shots were wide open, and the misses weren't even really close.
On the other side of the court, their three big guys (Williams, Aget and Logwood) shot 19 for 24, scored 42 points, and had 19 rebounds. This is the worst defensive performance I can remember since the Michigan State game last year, and the worst we've played against big men since the Tulane game. Rajala can give us some minutes against lesser teams and big subs, but he's not ready to go against guys with the kind of footwork that Williams has.
It's not a disgrace to lose to New Mexico at The Pit, but the margin was a little shocking. I had hoped it would be competitive for more than just the first three minutes. This was one of the three games we have to win in order to make a claim for NCAA or NIT play, and it wasn't even a contest. Hopefully, we were getting the missed threes out of the way for a shocking upset at Notre Dame, or a solid win over Creighton. But if we play like this again, we're going to have trouble beating UIC and Western Illinois.
JCT nails it. It's not a bad loss, but it sure was ugly. Hoping it is a learning experience, especially for our bigs.