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I think the biggest challenges we faced in the game came during a period where we were tired, because we used significantly less of our bench in the 2nd half. I was also surprised that Dexter was assigned primarily to guard Garrett Sturtz; he may play the 3 but the shorter Yesufu should have been our only priority coming into the game. Yesefu lit us up for 21, and was coming off a 7-game, 23PPG stretch.
I was surprised that we physically dominated Drake to such an extent, having been the smaller team in virtually every game this year. Drake didn't necessarily guard us particularly well; I fully believe that we can shoot 30/10/50 against a fairly mediocre defense on a bad game. We just aren't particularly efficient. A big reason was the offensive flow; we had just 7 assists on 19 makes. That wasn't atypical of our games this year. I thought our defense was one of our better games until we tired out, but against a team like Houston we'd have lost by 15-25 points if they had a decent shooting game.
Ultimately, I think this year's team overachieved. We did not have overwhelming physical or offensive talent, but we had good effort on defense and good team chemistry. We didn't have many complete games, but we were good at keeping games close and coming through in the end. We need more consistent scoring and playmaking next year to have the same or greater success. Brown needs to improve in several regards as a coach, most notably in developing offensive schemes and adjustments.
I wouldn't be surprised if good recruiting and the natural development of the talent we have on board makes us a top-3 AAC team and a NCAA contender. I also wouldn't be surprised if we regressed by losing a few more tight games. I feel like this year's roster was a top-70 level team, but we got a lot of B and B+ games out of them thanks to the chemistry and effort, and it is unreasonable to have expected more than that given the circumstances. I want us to keep the same energy, but fill in the holes in our game.
I was surprised that we physically dominated Drake to such an extent, having been the smaller team in virtually every game this year. Drake didn't necessarily guard us particularly well; I fully believe that we can shoot 30/10/50 against a fairly mediocre defense on a bad game. We just aren't particularly efficient. A big reason was the offensive flow; we had just 7 assists on 19 makes. That wasn't atypical of our games this year. I thought our defense was one of our better games until we tired out, but against a team like Houston we'd have lost by 15-25 points if they had a decent shooting game.
Ultimately, I think this year's team overachieved. We did not have overwhelming physical or offensive talent, but we had good effort on defense and good team chemistry. We didn't have many complete games, but we were good at keeping games close and coming through in the end. We need more consistent scoring and playmaking next year to have the same or greater success. Brown needs to improve in several regards as a coach, most notably in developing offensive schemes and adjustments.
I wouldn't be surprised if good recruiting and the natural development of the talent we have on board makes us a top-3 AAC team and a NCAA contender. I also wouldn't be surprised if we regressed by losing a few more tight games. I feel like this year's roster was a top-70 level team, but we got a lot of B and B+ games out of them thanks to the chemistry and effort, and it is unreasonable to have expected more than that given the circumstances. I want us to keep the same energy, but fill in the holes in our game.
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