I was a bit worried coming into the game that the new faces on defense might have problems with Iowa and to a certain extent we did, but this game was very comparable to a few games last year from a defensive standpoint - the game @Nova, both Xavier games, Providence OT game, Arizona, and even the Princeton game a bit.
121 offensive rating vs 110.5 defensive rating and from what I saw last night I think Iowa will score a lot of points this year
- for comparison worst defensive games last year 125 vs. Nova, 118 and 115 vs Xavier
I also don't think it's a surprise that Mac had guys on the floor who'd been here a while during a lot of the critical times in the second half - Miller and Bello. Bello was in the middle of a career kind of day, so also hard to pull him (checked and it was a tie for his second highest scoring ever in all of his time in college ball!)
So I'm not reading a lot into Bello being on the floor instead of Ashworth. Bello was having a great game and has been here longer and Mac trusted him more defensively at that point, particularly when Trey was running the point so well
For whatever reason I did think the team got sped up early and looked a bit out of control and even Trey looked a bit out of sorts (4/11, 3 turnovers in the first half). Some of the turnovers were just not good ones and defensively we went under a lot of screens. Early second half was some of the nicest basketball you'll see though - wish we'd been able to keep the foot on the gas to the end, though and not let it get close again
Both teams looked pretty tired from the pace, reference put it as 76 pace rating which would have been the 3rd fastest pace we played last year. We had 40 possessions in the first half, 32 in the second and if there is a thing as too fast for us, the first half may have been "too fast"
Some general thoughts:
- Teams will give us troubles if they have a 5 who can step out and hit the jumper. We rely so much on Kalkbrenner helping in the paint against everyone else that the opposing 5 will have open shots from the distance. Traudt may be an option there to give some different looks
- Bench looking like a strength so far. Bello hitting shots, King was a beast, and Traudt played well and hit a few shots
- The Miller/Traudt rotation continues to be good for us - 13pts / 6 boards/2 assists is a solid outing for the position that is supposed to be the weakest for us, and I liked how Miller hustled on D and on the boards, especially in the second half
- Ashworth looked a bit like Baylor did at the start of last year offensively - not quite sure which shots to take, etc, and I think he'll settle with more time on the floor (e.g., he played SD State 3x last year, he can play against physical pressure D's)
- Baylor's offseason work has made him more versatile on D and on offense and it's a big difference maker for us
- Bello and King were stars last night (wanted to mention them again)
- Armstrong was especially great in that second half 5/8 FG, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 turnovers