Chicagojayfan wrote:My X factors for most of the season for this team have been Turnovers and Rebounding. Hold onto the ball tonight and block out, and I think we'll get enough shots to get the runs we need
What a game and what a roller coaster! Thank God we won!
It's hard for me to think of a game where we struggled that much in shooting the ball and were getting shots as good as we got the first half, but still managed to win it. We were cold as ice that half, but we did the things that really were the most dangerous to us this year --
turnovers and reboundingOn Turnovers, we had a few lazy ones, but for the most part we did great work there: 9.9% Turnovers for the game: 7th lowest rate of the season, and we were 7-0 when keeping that rate under 10%, on the flip side it was the 4th lowest Steal% night of the season for Oregon and by comparison in beating AZ and Colorado both teams were over 18% turnovers -- really a great job of holding onto the ball last night
Rebounding: we did a great job of defensive rebounding earlier on (part of what got us shots in transition), but second half we struggled more due to Altman adjusting (there's a reason he's going to be in the HOF) to Kalkbrenner helping out by sending Dante to the rim for the offensive boards (7 on the game for him and it felt like they almost all turned into points), but we won the boards overall 50.6% and we made up for it in the second half by getting to the offensive boards ourselves (thank you Jasen Green!)
Offense:Last night was like an extended recruiting video for why players want to play for Mac - we're getting great shots, keep shooting it! Ashworth calling him a master motivator about staying in the game and to keep taking our shots.
Jacob posted that after our 1/11 start from 3, we hit 50% the rest of the way. Live by the 3, Die by the 3, and sometimes, be Saved by the 3 was last night. We kept at it, had faith that our guys would hit shots, and we did
eFG% .487 (8th worst of the season for us and we were 1-6 in the games lower than this one), but last night we did just about everything else right by holding onto the ball, hitting the boards and getting more extra shots at the basket to keep us in the game. A big part of that was how poorly we shot at the rim. Some of that was Dante who's a legit rim protector, but a lot of it was just a poor shooting game (8/13 at the rim, 6/23 from mid range .. yech)
Offensive rating: 112.4 - not great by our standards (only 13th worst of the season), but the 9th worst performance by Oregon's D all year (I was shocked to see they'd been that good although it's clear to see the ups and downs they had due to injuries)
The first half had a lot of beautiful basketball by us on offense, we weren't just getting good shots, we were getting GREAT shots.. sadly they weren't falling, but it needs to be said that that ball movement and pace was beautifully executed by the team
Defense:This was a frustration all night, but Couisnard was just really, really good - that shot he hit to extend the game (1st OT?) was insane. Baylor could have maybe had slightly better position but it was still very good D, and sometimes you just have to tip your hat when a guy makes a great shot like that
Altman didn't win a gazillion games by being dumb, and he realized early on that the refs weren't going to stop Dante from setting the ugly moving screens, and that when he did those we weren't able to get over them and into a spot to effectively defend Couisnard so it was the bread and butter for their offense
But the D was actually better than I remember in real time: 4th worst offensive rating of the season for Oregon (95.4) and while Couisnard got his, he was also 13/33 and I'm pretty sure Dante was a ways under 50% on plays where he didn't get a free cleanup due to Kalkbrenner helping off of him (FWIW, I still think Kalkbrenner outplayed him last night)
Individual Stuff (lots of positives here as this was a team that showed it's toughness last night, all across the board):
Trey - we've pretty much lost every game this year where Trey struggled like he did from 2 PT range (3/13) like at Colorado State where he was 1/11, but the 3 PT shots he hit were huge, and he had some key passes at critical times (he and Ashworth diced up their D a few times in OT to get open shots for Ash),and I will defend his D. Yes he had some plays where he got lost against Couisnard, but he was also playing good D on some of those shots and that moving screen was almost impossible to defend
Baylor - Huge moments again and while not a great shooting night (missed some bunnies he almost always makes), the 3's were much, much needed and his D at the end was excellent and gave Couisnard a different look. Us making up that 4 pt deficit was almost all on him
Kalkbrenner - Was there a bigger shot than his 3 PT in the OTs? 5 blocks and altered nobody knows how many others, and 7/10 from the floor, 4/4 FT's. Just wish we'd gotten him the ball more. Despite Dante's glossy stat line, Kalk outplayed him IMO
Ashworth - Started out cold as ice (Mac joking at half about asking him if he was going to hit a shot tonight), then hitting the big 3 before the half, and other 3's seemingly whenever we needed them most. Only 1 TO against a team that turns other teams over like Oregon does, AND holding down Shelsted who came in on a roll as well (12-21-17-11 pts in the games in Oregon's run)
Miller - I thought he had a better game than the stat line suggests - a few tips to keep balls alive, and a big drive to get a foul when we needed it. His D was quality as well and the extra length is something Mac went to
Bello - was his the only 3 pt shot we made in the first half? Solid game for him as well
Green - wanted to call out this one special as he gave us a huge boost when we needed it. To my eyes, it isn't an either/or type thing with him and Miller and with Traudt. Those guys are all going to be excellent players for CU
Given how we shot, we needed every ounce of effort the team gave last night. Just an amazing display of toughness
Coaching: Mac vs. Altman; how could we expect anything other than a great display.
Mac - put the team into a position to have an explosive first half, we just didn't get the shots to fall, but he adjusted and doubling Couisnard was a decisive move late in the game and I give extra credit to him for trusting Miller and Green in critical moments late in the game
Altman - those of you who remember Altman's coaching at the MVC tourneys saw a good bit of that last night. He was short-handed but he had 2 great players on the floor so he figured out ways to put them into a position to win the game over and over, and his use of TO's was a master class on how to keep his guys just fresh enough to stay in it. If a Frosh hadn't thrown the ball to Dante late in regulation (where we fouled him), he may have stolen the win last night also. Beyond that, he took a team riddled with injuries all year and put them on an epic run to get to the Tourney and almost get to the sweet 16 - they were playing like a top 10, top 15 team these past few games. He's had a Final 4 before, but this end to the season has to be considered an amazing coaching job by him
Overall:
Well, lots left to do - hoping that is our worst shooting game of the tourney. I really figured we'd have a shooting clunker in the NCAA's, but hoped we'd be able to pull it out.. and we did, in dramatic fashion