Well, that was surely disappointing. I'm not ready to throw in the towel (like it sounds like many of you are), but things aren't trending in the right direction. The team looked unprepared and right back where we were a few weeks ago in Florida. Here are some things:
What I liked:
-Kyle Sturdivant getting some of his mojo back. He has had a a rough start to the season, and I liked the way he attacked this game. In his 21 minutes, the team was +1, which is pretty impressive considering how we were done by 15-20 for most of it.
-Getting Franklin back in. I really don't think people realize how good he has been for us and how much we need him out there. He is working his way back from the groin injury, but we absolutely need 20+ minutes/game from him.
-Miles Kelly tried to get us back in the game, but he can't do it all himself.
What I didn't like:
-Everything else. Clemson outplayed us and outhustled us. I think they will end up in Big Dance this year, and they are a good example of the "Get old, stay old" strategy that we say we are trying (but we have not recruited well enough or consistently enough to qualify).
-Our shooting was absolutely horrible. Horrible. 21% from 3? Yuck.
-Rebounding was -12. Horrible.
-Defense was horrible.
-The offense...was horrible. I don't think the Princeton sets are the biggest problem, or playing through the 5, or even the spacing. The two biggest problems I see are 1)We are SOOOO predictable. I can tell you exactly what the possession is going to look like as soon as we hit the first pass. When we do get creative and run something different, we score at a much higher clip, but when we stick with our base stuff (80% of the time?), we fail to challenge the defense and get stagnant. 2) We screen and cut poorly, almost like we are just going through the motions. Lazy offense against active and tough defense (like Clemson played) equals a bad offensive output.
Things are not going to get easier from here with UVA and Miami coming to town. We need to figure some stuff out and play better or find ourselves way behind the eight ball. I really like you, Coach Pastner, but the clock is ticking. Go Jackets.
