POSTGAME THREAD: Did our Tournament hopes just disappear?
by Jeff Nusser on Jan 24, 2009 5:09 PM PST
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PrintThis, my friends, was an absolute choke job.
For 35 minutes, we were clearly the better team. For five minutes, we were the worst team in college basketball -- and barring some kind of miracle run, this probably was the end of our hopes of earning a third consecutive NCAA Tournament bid.
Why so glum after just one game? We had a chance to cement ourselves as a clear part of the middle third of the Pac-10, squarely on the bubble if we can get some more good wins down the stretch. Instead, we just got swept at home, in two games that were clearly winnable. We're now 11-8 overall, 3-4 in the Pac-10, and getting ready for four consecutive games away from home.
We are in trouble.
I'll go ahead and give credit where credit is due to USC. In those last five minutes, the Trojans' defense was masterful, consistently forcing the ball into our fourth or fifth options on offense and daring us to win with jump shots. There's a reason why they're one of the top teams in the country in 2-point percentage allowed.
Case in point: As hot as Caleb Forrest was on Thursday he was equally cold today. Yet there he was, tied for the team lead in shot attempts and playing 34 minutes. Credit USC for daring Forrest to beat them. Where UCLA got burned, USC looked brilliant, especially when you consider that Forrest is such a liability on the defensive glass.
But it never should have been that close. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, we absolutely dominated in every area but the scoreboard. We dissected USC's defense for some wide open looks, yet just couldn't make any shots. I said at halftime on the game thread that we would win this going away if we could even shoot halfway decently. I figured we would win anyway with just average shooting. Instead, we missed just about everything. You just can't do that and expect to win a Pac-10 game.
Thought Thursday hurt? This one hurts even moreso. USC is a team we clearly needed to beat, and we let it slip away.
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Thursday's game was the kind that was frustrating, but when I got away from it, I could be happy with the positives.
This just sucked. I have nothing to be happy about with this and never will. I just tore my room to pieces with a baseball bat and I’m going to blame WSU for the damages.
This is what I have been saying, we are just not able
to put teams away. Our defense is absolutely terrific, but our offense have failed to step on the throat of teams. I missed the entire game except for the last 5 mins. Lucky me. I have jinxed the Cougs.
I've gotten so used to watching us drain shots over the past two years
It’s still just stunning when it doesn’t happen. I guess we need to come to terms with the fact that we are a poor shooting team.
I gotta be honest, I was worried about this game from that perspective. But I really thought we could drain a few. We couldn’t.
One more thing
I just had this nagging feeling that USC was a bad matchup for us. Yes they are beatable — which we showed for 35 minutes — but in terms of our strengths on offense and their strengths on defense … I just worried that Gibson was going to shut down Baynes, and we weren’t going to hit the 3’s I knew would be there. I didn’t want to put it on the game thread preview, because I was trying to stay positive, but I guess I felt that way for a reason.
This could easily become a six game losing streak.
To answer the question, Yes. We would need to win a lot of games we aren’t supposed to in order to make the tourney now.
Things that could help us win
-Making open shots
-Getting to the free throw line
-Getting Baynes more touches
The first one has to do with execution, and it was obvious what happened there tonight.
The next two can be achieved with competent point guard play; of which there was none in the final five minutes.
How many shots did Klay get in the last 5 minutes?
I remember him getting maybe only one, possibly two and then there was the turnover at the end. Caleb was cold as ice. TR was just as bad in that regard. Harmeling only hit one three. I’m not saying Klay is the only option, but he was having a decent game. We were one shot away from icing it when we got up by 8. We frittered it away. We need to play to our strengths more often. TR went one-on-five too often, but he’s just trying to be the guy. I understand that. How many turnovers did he have in the last five minutes? I was a little disappointed in how smart he played down the stretch.
Oh, well. We’ve got to do it on the road now. Maybe the pressure will be off and they play a little looser.
Go Cougs!!! There’s always tomorrow.
Clock Management
I’m not a coaching expert but it seems like the Cougs do a really poor job of managing the clock with less than 1 minute.
When we have the ball with 50 seconds and down, why don’t we play for a 2 to 1 possession by getting a shot of quickly?
Why when we’re down are we jogging up the court?
This weekend hurts. It really sucks to be losing at home and to wait a week until we play again.
Dick Bennett pretty famously never practiced late game situations
I don’t know if it’s the same with Tony or not.
Really?
That seems rather dumb. It is one of those finer points to the game that can certainly make a difference. Seems like you could pick up 1-2 wins (or conversely drop 1-2 wins) per season just by playing the last 1 minute of each half smartly.
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