This is my first chance since getting back to comment with some first impressions on the game. Haven't watched the replay or postgame comments yet, maybe I'll have some different impressions after that, but here goes..
- Playing 7 games in 16 days and then having a looonnnggg 12-day layoff seemed to have worked against us. I think that was a big part of the missed shots. - Defense was excellent, almost all the way through. We held them to their 2nd lowest scoring total of the year. 97 times out of 100, you win a game when you play like that. - I think OSU had a game plan to be physical inside, and the officiating complied. Every layup and drive had some contact, almost none called. - I think their physicality and length intimidated our inside shooters and drivers. - They took us way out of our rhythm, and it definitely worked. We never got any kind of flow in the offense. - ** We did not lose because of officiating ** There were some terrible calls that were really demoralizing because of when and how they happened.... missed out of bounds (after a tough, long defensive stand) and goaltending (on one of our few fast break opportunities), non-calls on some real physical mugging by (23?) off the bench (but by then it was really too late). And the fouls called were all on the ball and ignoring most of the away-from-the-ball bumping and pushing-- that really favors a team with the kinds of players and size Big Ten/OSU has. ** Again, we did NOT lose because of officiating ** - I've seen teams play as good if not better defense against us, and we still made a much higher percentage of shots than on Friday. - In the future, I think we need to have some players who embrace some physicality. I think Marques Townes was that kind of guy. Christian Thomas didn't LIKE it, but he dug in deeper when we had teams try to out-tough us. Leon Young, Andy Polka. We need guys who get tougher when the other teams try to bully. - Obviously, we need to have the option to go big-- we desperately need a guy who's 6'9" or taller/245 or heavier who can be a rim protector-- some length and average hops to block some shots. Just need to have that option available for the matchups with teams like this one, Michigan State, Auburn, and Drake. Almost every team in the A10 has enough height to exploit it against us.
Maybe I'll change my mind after watching on a screen, but those were my impressions. And sad/devastated that Lucas and Aher especially didn't have a more emphatic final game.
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