What with the 16 point blown lead and all, but here's a few things we have learned...
1. We have a pretty darn good team. Elite? Likely not. But that's a team that's going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of quality competition. We'll see if they can do enough to earn a tournament bid, will take improvement in some areas, but I feel a lot better about that thought now than I did on Wednesday. That's a good thing. The team that beat us tonight is likely a top 5 seed when the dust settles.
2. We also learned what we already knew...we have a good, if not great frontcourt and a solid group of shooters. I'm a little surprised at how well we've shot it overall, and I certainly want to see us go inside more. I think that's where the trouble started tonight. We had forced 2 fouls in 12 minutes in the 2nd half. If we do what we did the first half, attack the glass, we've got a win that we cruise to. I think that's a lesson learned.
3. But we have a point guard issue. I will go out on a limb and say we won't face a matchup that exploits our weakness like tonight, the rest of the year. Yeah, Arkansas will press, but to give you an idea, Arkansas ranks 91st in defensive turnover percentage this season, and 180th last season. West Virginia is first this season, and was first last season. They eat teams alive that can't handle the ball and struggle with turnovers. The fact that we handled it well for 30 minutes is impressive. The last 10 minutes was a disaster. Geist imploded, Phillips was never reliable to allow himself to implode, and Harris was rough early on.
All in all, this was an opportunity lost. It's not a bad loss, despite the blown lead...it's a win we should've had, against a top 25 (I think they prove to be top 15) team on a neutral court. There are 24 more opportunities. Depending on how they bounce back thursday, I think we win quite a few of those.
1. We have a pretty darn good team. Elite? Likely not. But that's a team that's going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of quality competition. We'll see if they can do enough to earn a tournament bid, will take improvement in some areas, but I feel a lot better about that thought now than I did on Wednesday. That's a good thing. The team that beat us tonight is likely a top 5 seed when the dust settles.
2. We also learned what we already knew...we have a good, if not great frontcourt and a solid group of shooters. I'm a little surprised at how well we've shot it overall, and I certainly want to see us go inside more. I think that's where the trouble started tonight. We had forced 2 fouls in 12 minutes in the 2nd half. If we do what we did the first half, attack the glass, we've got a win that we cruise to. I think that's a lesson learned.
3. But we have a point guard issue. I will go out on a limb and say we won't face a matchup that exploits our weakness like tonight, the rest of the year. Yeah, Arkansas will press, but to give you an idea, Arkansas ranks 91st in defensive turnover percentage this season, and 180th last season. West Virginia is first this season, and was first last season. They eat teams alive that can't handle the ball and struggle with turnovers. The fact that we handled it well for 30 minutes is impressive. The last 10 minutes was a disaster. Geist imploded, Phillips was never reliable to allow himself to implode, and Harris was rough early on.
All in all, this was an opportunity lost. It's not a bad loss, despite the blown lead...it's a win we should've had, against a top 25 (I think they prove to be top 15) team on a neutral court. There are 24 more opportunities. Depending on how they bounce back thursday, I think we win quite a few of those.
