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I've been thinking deep thoughts coming out of the tournament, and this is what I thunk:
1. Coming into the tournament, the rational fan (i.e., not me) had to be seriously wondering whether this would be a lost season. Barely squeaking past the Pee [email protected], losing to Wagner AND Chattanooga AT HOME . . . the feeling in the pit of my stomach was the pits.
2. Welp, over the last couple of days, we beat a likely first weekend team, we were within 4 at 00:15 with a #1/2 seed, and took a 2d weekend team to OT. That's pretty, pretty good. Quite shocking, TBH.
3. We still have huge offensive issues. Ace's return will help and can't come soon enough; he'll get his own shot (I am convinced his offensive output last year was suppressed by Bones' presence, and that he will be a legit, reliable double digit scorer), and he will get other guys better shots, leading to an incremental improvement in the O overall. But we will get nowhere if we continue to shoot ~50% from the FT line, make carefree passes to people in the 4th row, make a hobby out of stepping on the end/sidelines etc. These are serious, consequential flaws that must be addressed for us to be anything. At all.
4. But we are a top 5 defense nationally (maybe #1).1/ Without a truly reliable scorer this weekend, we stood shoulder to shoulder with elite and near-elite basketball teams. Continued growth, the return of Ace, increasing roles for The Kids (PLEASE let's get Kern and DeLoach more minutes!), next year's class on the horizon . . . it's pretty heady stuff.
1/ https://barttorvik.com/trank.php?so...limit=All&year=2022&top=0&hteam=&quad=5&rpi=#
1. Coming into the tournament, the rational fan (i.e., not me) had to be seriously wondering whether this would be a lost season. Barely squeaking past the Pee [email protected], losing to Wagner AND Chattanooga AT HOME . . . the feeling in the pit of my stomach was the pits.
2. Welp, over the last couple of days, we beat a likely first weekend team, we were within 4 at 00:15 with a #1/2 seed, and took a 2d weekend team to OT. That's pretty, pretty good. Quite shocking, TBH.
3. We still have huge offensive issues. Ace's return will help and can't come soon enough; he'll get his own shot (I am convinced his offensive output last year was suppressed by Bones' presence, and that he will be a legit, reliable double digit scorer), and he will get other guys better shots, leading to an incremental improvement in the O overall. But we will get nowhere if we continue to shoot ~50% from the FT line, make carefree passes to people in the 4th row, make a hobby out of stepping on the end/sidelines etc. These are serious, consequential flaws that must be addressed for us to be anything. At all.
4. But we are a top 5 defense nationally (maybe #1).1/ Without a truly reliable scorer this weekend, we stood shoulder to shoulder with elite and near-elite basketball teams. Continued growth, the return of Ace, increasing roles for The Kids (PLEASE let's get Kern and DeLoach more minutes!), next year's class on the horizon . . . it's pretty heady stuff.
1/ https://barttorvik.com/trank.php?so...limit=All&year=2022&top=0&hteam=&quad=5&rpi=#
