by Chicagojayfan » Sun Jan 21, 2024 7:53 am
Took a bit of time to think about this game and I still think it's the most impressive game of the year by the team (so far). It was a very important win because we couldn't afford to fall back another game in the BE standings, and because we needed to pick up a road win to make up for the Nova loss at home, but mostly this was important because we showed we could win a game where we showed the kind of toughness and mental strength to win on the road against a red hot team
Offense:
While this wasn't a great offensive day for us, we did a few really good things yesterday
- We got the ball to Kalk. Very few teams have anyone who can play him solo and while he wasn't his usual efficient self, we needed him to be established - particularly in the first half when no 3's were falling for us
- We didn't hit 3's to start the game (3/12 in first half), but we ran the offense through Kalkbrenner and found enough ways to score to keep us in the game until the shots started falling in the second half
- SH's defense is pretty good, particularly at home. In the BE season, only Marquette scored better against them, but didn't play as good of D and lost there.
Defense:
Another game that may not have been our best defensive performance, but given how SH's been performing at home, it was a great day for the D
- In their 3 BE home games they've torched opposing teams (UConn, Marquette, and St. Johns) at a rate of 119, 113, 115.9, and we held them to 102.2.
- Every one of their guards was under 50%, including Richmond who shot 25% on the game (he came in shooting around 45%)
Big 3 all did big thing throughout:
- Baylor didn't shoot his usual %, but 10 boards and 6 assists and he got 20 pts on 20 shots + 0 turnovers
- Trey made some huge plays and seeing him hit 3 PT shots on the road gives me hope he'll come out of that slump, add in 8 pts and 7 assists + only 1 turnover
- Kalkbrenner was the focal point of the offense for long periods - which we desperately needed, and while he didn't finish as well as he usual does, he showed how he can battle while getting knocked around by the physical SH D
- Miller - often left out, but we desperately needed the big 3's he gave us yesterday, and he battled on the boards yesterday
- Ashworth - he's really showing us what he can do these past few games. The shots still aren't falling, but now that he's comfortable in his defensive assignments, he's doing some excellent work defensively, and his ability to run the offense (and not pull up his dribble in traffic) is opening up chances for Trey and others on offense - 8 assists/2 steals/0 turnovers
Since the poor game he had vs. Marquette, he's really turned things around IMO: 26 assists/5 turnovers/3 steals, and I like the way the offense is running with him. We'll still be sharing ball handling responsibilities between him and Trey, but this takes some of the load off of Alexander and gives him better chances off ball as well. I think his shooting will come around also
While I would have loved a game where we shot lights out and just won with a nice margin, having a game like this is the kind of learning and development game that should pay dividends as the season goes on.
Onto Xavier - they are playing well lately, so need to be locked in to make sure we take care of home court