by Chicagojayfan » Thu Feb 08, 2024 8:39 am
Tough loss in a place that has historically been difficult for us. Refs, of course, made it worse by calling the fewest fouls on Providence (by their stats) all year in regulation (9 - 5 in the first half 4 in the second half) and the other game where they got called for that few was Leigh, in a mostly non-competitive game
Biggest Problems:
Defense - we've had 2 of our 3 worst defensive games of the year the past 2 games (119.7 rating - UNLV was the other one along with that last Butler game). I don't think the level of effort and execution is as bad as some here think, but it's a problem and we have to get stops in close games like these
Would have helped if Kalk had a better game, but Oduro was very good, but even then finished at 50% overall so it wasn't a Wilt Chamberlain type of game for him. Carter was more of a killer for us - including some amazingly tough buckets to finish in the paint, and a crazy 3 PT shot to win it
But, like Butler, the result is the same - they scored and scored a lot.. too much
Turnovers/Defensive Rebounding: Even with the D we were playing, we win this game if we block out in the first half and if we hold onto the ball in the 2nd half - 15 pts off turnovers, 12 second change pts. Can't do that and win tough road games in the BE
Offense, I disagree with some who think we had a really good offensive game - it was pretty much an average game by us offensively and in the bottom half of all of our games this year for offensive performance (114.5 rating)
Individual Play:
Ashworth is rapidly becoming one of our most important players. He had a great game last night despite missing around 10 minutes due to foul trouble (one poor call on the charge/blocking and a stupid foul to try to stop a transition bucket off of a turnover). 20 pts off of 11 shots is what gave us a shot to win this game in the second half
Baylor was also great. Trey was good, Kalk had a poor game by his standards
The 4 spot has become a problem with Miller not scoring and Traudt not getting off the bench much. Green played well in the few minutes last night, though, and I liked the experiment of playing Traudt as the backup 5. If King can't turn it around fast, we may need to see a combo of Green/Traudt as our backup center
Bello has been a solid and dependable bench guy for us, but we need to figure out a way to never get him 33 minutes in a game (even an OT game)
Looking ahead:
I've been saying for a while that this team is a work in progress and will be better by the end of the year. It still think that's true (Ashworth elevating his play makes me more confident that there is more improvement to come), but it's time for them to step up and lock in some key wins. Can they win the next 3? It's certainly possible, but they need to pull out the win vs. Xavier if they want to separate and fight to be in the top 3 of the conference