The loss yesterday stung more than some others…but surprised by the reaction by some here. Probably shouldn’t be surprised…. This is still a good ….very good team. The sky isn’t falling. They are very well coached. This is not a perfect team…and while they can be a final four team….that would involve beating more talented teams.
With success comes scrutiny. We have all invested more in this team than we did last year and because of that, we're paying more attention to our flaws. I am most disappointed in yesterday's loss than any other this season because while Vanderbilt is a good to very good team, it was obvious we were the more skilled squad. They just beat us with effort to stay in the game in the first half. Manon is a fine player I guess, but he was everywhere. He killed us with superior effort. No excuse for that IMO. We have too many bodies to not find someone that will match/exceed his energy.
Gates correctly sat Perkins for most of the game because he was giving us nothing. But how he couldn't see that Pierce had about five backbreaking mistakes (not even including the falling asleep on Nickel with three seconds left), and chain him to the bench in the second half is mindboggling. Again, we have too many bodies over there to not find someone else. Shaw is a low skill, high energy guy. We were getting killed by a low skill, high energy guy in Manon. I don't believe Shaw checked in once the entire game. Allen didn't play either.
And then they outexecuted and outcoached us in the last two minutes. No excuse for not fouling up three under eight seconds. But I know some coaches don't like to foul up three for some reason. And if Dennis is one of those guys, fine I guess I'll have to live with that. BUT, if you're not going to foul, there's absolutely no excuse for not preparing your defense to hug Nickel and allow a meaningless drive to the basket under five seconds left. Again, that's not preparing your team. And if he did prepare the team and Pierce made a mistake, then it's his fault for putting a poor defender on their best shooter.
And for the record, I absolutely love Dennis. I realize I'm picking nits here. He has engineered the best single-season turnaround in major college basketball, but that doesn't mean his infallible. I love Andy Reid like a second father, but he still effs up clock management, end of half management, coaches challenges, etc all the time.
And as many have said in this thread, I hope he learns from these mistakes and we grow. The arrow is still most definitely pointing up, but elite teams win that game yesterday. We were up six with 90 seconds left. Most teams win that game, actually, not even elite teams. I think we can be elite offensively, but our defense and rebounding is a little concerning as the calendar continues to get deeper into March.
