1. Rodney Williams reminds me of former Buck Marcus Haislip... amazing at running and jumping, worthless in pretty much every other area. Some NBA team will grab this guy (like the Bucks did with Haislip) and be disappointed. He whispers about leaving for the pro every year presumably because someone is telling him that he'll get drafted.
2. That being said, I was also pretty disappointed with the way we guarded Williams. It's not hard. Give him the perimeter shot and foul him when he starts to drive. Then watch him nearly shatter the glass with his free throw and grab the rebound. Brusier had a particularly poor series against him mid-way through the OT.
3. Tubby Smith logic... use up your time outs within a 25-second stretch around the 2:00 minute mark and then have your defense confused and not knowing whether to foul or play straight up. Luckily for us, they did the always-intelligent "let us run 20 seconds off and then foul". Thanks Tubby.
4. The white haired ref just decided that after the Evans travel (which was wrong), that we were going to get no more calls. Luckily, he FINALLY gave us one with about a minute left when we called that TO with Berggren on the floor. Letting that push go against Gasser at midcourt was criminal.
5. The "stop the game to look for elbows" rule is nonsense. Leave it to the ref's discretion. That play with Gasser under the hoop was obviously nothing, but we screw around for 4-5 minutes to prove it. Pointless.
6. The essence of Rob Wilson... grab a great, key rebound; decline an open lay-up; drive another step and pump-fake with nobody around; then miss the shot. That play is basically his career in a nutshell.
7. I don't know what the official rule is about is supposed to be done when the ball is wet, but I've never seen a ref decline to stop play to dry it off. There's absolutely no advantage to saying the ball is wet there, so I'm not sure why they just wouldn't stop. During live-ball play, it's actually a disadvantage because you have to in bound it again. The only time it's a minor advantage is if you're trying to stop play because you're due a TV timeout. Again, if it's wet, stop the play and dry it.
8. Ryan Evans had some key points for us, but again, he just has no concept of what "feeling it" means. That "back down with his ass to the basket play" was leading to nothing but awkward flat shots, that barely touched rim, so why keep going to it?
9. I thought we did an amazing job with our drive-and-kick offense for the entire game, other than the last 7 minutes of regulation. Part of that is Minnesota's "look like we're playing defense, but really only give about 80%" strategy. I also felt like we had some good possessions with about 5-6 minutes left, but then we really clutched up at the end. That being said, if we simply draw one foul, we win it in regulation.
10. I also felt like Bardo was wrong in the first half when he kept saying that Minnesota was lucky be in the game because the Badgers were on fire. Yes, we hit a couple tough threes, but we also missed 4 point-blank lay-ups in the first half. That game could have been a 15-point game at half, had we actually been "hot".
2. That being said, I was also pretty disappointed with the way we guarded Williams. It's not hard. Give him the perimeter shot and foul him when he starts to drive. Then watch him nearly shatter the glass with his free throw and grab the rebound. Brusier had a particularly poor series against him mid-way through the OT.
3. Tubby Smith logic... use up your time outs within a 25-second stretch around the 2:00 minute mark and then have your defense confused and not knowing whether to foul or play straight up. Luckily for us, they did the always-intelligent "let us run 20 seconds off and then foul". Thanks Tubby.
4. The white haired ref just decided that after the Evans travel (which was wrong), that we were going to get no more calls. Luckily, he FINALLY gave us one with about a minute left when we called that TO with Berggren on the floor. Letting that push go against Gasser at midcourt was criminal.
5. The "stop the game to look for elbows" rule is nonsense. Leave it to the ref's discretion. That play with Gasser under the hoop was obviously nothing, but we screw around for 4-5 minutes to prove it. Pointless.
6. The essence of Rob Wilson... grab a great, key rebound; decline an open lay-up; drive another step and pump-fake with nobody around; then miss the shot. That play is basically his career in a nutshell.
7. I don't know what the official rule is about is supposed to be done when the ball is wet, but I've never seen a ref decline to stop play to dry it off. There's absolutely no advantage to saying the ball is wet there, so I'm not sure why they just wouldn't stop. During live-ball play, it's actually a disadvantage because you have to in bound it again. The only time it's a minor advantage is if you're trying to stop play because you're due a TV timeout. Again, if it's wet, stop the play and dry it.
8. Ryan Evans had some key points for us, but again, he just has no concept of what "feeling it" means. That "back down with his ass to the basket play" was leading to nothing but awkward flat shots, that barely touched rim, so why keep going to it?
9. I thought we did an amazing job with our drive-and-kick offense for the entire game, other than the last 7 minutes of regulation. Part of that is Minnesota's "look like we're playing defense, but really only give about 80%" strategy. I also felt like we had some good possessions with about 5-6 minutes left, but then we really clutched up at the end. That being said, if we simply draw one foul, we win it in regulation.
10. I also felt like Bardo was wrong in the first half when he kept saying that Minnesota was lucky be in the game because the Badgers were on fire. Yes, we hit a couple tough threes, but we also missed 4 point-blank lay-ups in the first half. That game could have been a 15-point game at half, had we actually been "hot".
