Thursday's 1st Rd: IU survives and advances
In November and December, how your college basketball team "plays" is more important than whether your team wins or loses. Games early in the year expose a team's weaknesses and lets you see its potential. Sure a win is a win, but early in the season, you are more concerned with a team's growth and improvement.
In March, whether it is a Conference tournament or the NCAA Tournament, winning is the only thing that matters. If you play well but lose on a last second shot, you go home (i.e. UK-Duke in 1992 East Regional Final). If you play bad but win, you get to stay at the hotel and practice the next day (i.e. IU over San Diego State last night).
IU looked like the team that we all watched this season. At times, they pushed the ball in transition and shot the lights out from behind the arc. Killingsworth was a man in the post and dominated the interior play. The problem is at other times the Hoosiers played matador defense and were stagnant on offense (that reminds me, does Davis actually have an offensive philosophy? I have watched entire games over the last few years and openly wondered what the players were "trying" to accomplish on offense.)
That being said, IU did win. I don't really know how, but I know they did.
The Hoosiers were lucky that they played a team that is as bad fundamentally, as they are. Neither team played fundamental defense. Both teams preferred reaching over moving their feet. Both teams went for the block rather than holding its position with hands up. On offense, both teams relied on the guy with the ball to create his own shot. Even the last possession for IU was a head scrather. You are down 1 point with less than 15 seconds to play. You fail to get the ball into the post and rely on a 3-point shot created off a loose ball. What does San Diego State do in response? Throw the ball the length of the court and out of bounds.
The good thing for IU fans is that they survived and advanced. Neither Gonzaga nor IU will be spend their summer on the seminar circuit teaching the fundamentals of defense. The next 3-point shot that the Zags defend will be the first, so IU stands a chance to dance in to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament.
One last thought, what was up with Steve Fisher's glasses? He looked like he borrowed them from the cooking expert on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy or Elvis Costello.
In March, whether it is a Conference tournament or the NCAA Tournament, winning is the only thing that matters. If you play well but lose on a last second shot, you go home (i.e. UK-Duke in 1992 East Regional Final). If you play bad but win, you get to stay at the hotel and practice the next day (i.e. IU over San Diego State last night).
IU looked like the team that we all watched this season. At times, they pushed the ball in transition and shot the lights out from behind the arc. Killingsworth was a man in the post and dominated the interior play. The problem is at other times the Hoosiers played matador defense and were stagnant on offense (that reminds me, does Davis actually have an offensive philosophy? I have watched entire games over the last few years and openly wondered what the players were "trying" to accomplish on offense.)
That being said, IU did win. I don't really know how, but I know they did.
The Hoosiers were lucky that they played a team that is as bad fundamentally, as they are. Neither team played fundamental defense. Both teams preferred reaching over moving their feet. Both teams went for the block rather than holding its position with hands up. On offense, both teams relied on the guy with the ball to create his own shot. Even the last possession for IU was a head scrather. You are down 1 point with less than 15 seconds to play. You fail to get the ball into the post and rely on a 3-point shot created off a loose ball. What does San Diego State do in response? Throw the ball the length of the court and out of bounds.
The good thing for IU fans is that they survived and advanced. Neither Gonzaga nor IU will be spend their summer on the seminar circuit teaching the fundamentals of defense. The next 3-point shot that the Zags defend will be the first, so IU stands a chance to dance in to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament.
One last thought, what was up with Steve Fisher's glasses? He looked like he borrowed them from the cooking expert on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy or Elvis Costello.
posted by Conrad | 8:36 AM
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