Well, that certainly didn't go the way we hoped.
At halftime I proclaimed there was reason to hope that we could claw back into this thing in the second half -- in looking at the Four Factors, only our eFG% was out of line with our season numbers. Everything else was as good (or better) than a typical Cougar performance, so it figured that our shooting would have to regress to the mean and allow us to make a game of it in the second half.
Obviously, that never happened. Was it tired legs? Man, you hate to second guess, but when everything else looks good except for your eFG% ... let's just say that doesn't usually happen unless a team's shooting legs have left them. One has to openly wonder why all of our important players played about five minutes longer than they needed to last night.
Give a lot of credit to UCLA, too. It was clear they were fired up and ready for this thing from the tip. But we absolutely matched their energy early -- the offensive reounds were evidence of that. Had we not blown about 52 layups in the first eight minutes, we might have been able to match the energy on the floor with results on the scoreboard. But once we fell behind, we just didn't seem to have the energy to make the comeback happen.
So now, we wait. Will the call come on Sunday for the NIT? Or is the final time we'll see Rochestie, Baynes, Forrest and Harmeling. I don't know about you, but I don't want to think about that yet.
I don't care if it's the NIT and not the NCAA Tournament. I just want another game with these guys.