FWIW, My 2 cents,
I was kind of scratching my head when we came out and the full court press, and I cotinued to scratch my head throughout the 1st half. Our Full Court Press was weak, Maryland would just use the dribble to beat it or throw a close pass because we wouldnāt have enough men up for a full press. Donāt half-heartedly do a press, if you are going to full court press, do it all out! Maryland got WAY too many easy looks in the 1st half, Osby (guy with the fro) continually benefited off of it!
Gerrityās on the ball defense was weak, Vasquez was torching him in the first half, he would easily get to his spot and pull up. No contest, he had 17 or so at halftime. In the 2nd half, Harris did a MUCH better job at defending him, except when he would post him up. I saw Dijuan fight through screens and hassle him the whole time when in the game.
As usual, Bobbyās In bounds sets were weak and usually resulted in nothing. Although, I did see a cutter or two to the basket, so that is a glimmer :biggrin:
Leemire was trying to force his shot, this is what happens, teamās know he is going to shoot the 3, he isnāt going to drive it past them, just like when we were on the break and the Maryland defender (I think it was Vasquez) looked at his feet and quickly got out on him because he knew the Scouting Report on Lee. Just drive a few times to keep them honest Lee!
I loved the 2nd half effort, epecially when the bench came in. This is the type of basketball I would like to see, good sound defense and an attempt to get it inside. I absolutely loved the play of Gaby & Dewhurst, they are ballers and I am going to enjoy watching them for years to come! Big Phil needs to do something about his hands, I swear he has blocks for hands, canāt catch anything. The play of our bench had me excited about years to come, it showed when we donāt have a guy to run offense for a 3 for, we actually look like a dangerous and effective team.
I was a little pissed off at the conclusion of the game, but I when I really thought about it the positives showed. I liked how we fought back and never QUIT! Down 22, it would have been easy for the team to hang it up and just finish the game. The comeback also showed me how mature our young guys were! Anjuan, Dew, Dijuan, and even Gaby didnāt come in forcing things. They just played sound basketball, and before you knew it we were back in the game, which was very promising.
The frustrating part was that some of our vets, mainly Lee and Lamont were forcing shots. I know Lamont hit a few big 3ās, but the one he forced near the end off the dribble was terrible shot selection. Lee felt like it was his destiny to shoot the 3, and he kept forcing 3ās with defenders on him like glue. I also was frustrated by the fact that our full court pressure was weak from the get go and yet Bobby kept sticking with it. It cost us at least 10 points in the first half. Good M2M half court D is underrated I guess.