kreed5120

You don't have to wonder. Estimated figures are out there. I think Texas Tech was around $10.5 million if I remember correctly. I imagine $3-$4 million of that went to Toppin who obviously didn't play. You can still win as a mid-major. The margin of error is just very small. It requires a great gameplan and even better execution.

This is based. At least that's what I believe the youth call it.

If you remove your Zippy colored glasses this is an accurate take. 0 wins over top 125 teams. We were a very good, but not a great team. Our style of play allowed us to run up the score up on inferior competition, but we had too many holes defensively to take the next step. Namely we needed better perimeter defense. Edit: As @Captain Kangaroo pointed out this was probably a game Nate Johnson could have made a difference.

Could have certainly helped disrupt Anderson more.

Didn't do a good enough job of defending the 3 against an elite shooting team. Perimeter defense has plagued us all year when playing elite shooting teams. Could have maybe won a 90-88 game if Tavari had it going offensively.

Going to take late game heroics at this point.

Going to need a few stops defensively.

Watts fouling out was huge. He was their 1 big hurting us offensively. We can now focus more attention on their perimeter shooters.

Would have preferred Tavari pushing it after the steal. Even if he didn't make it he probably would have drawn a foul.

You can't leave Atwell open. He's one of the best volume 3-point shooters in the country. Keep someone glued to him.

Tavari is picking a bad time to have his worst half of the season.

Scott Cross reportedly accepted Georgia Tech job.

I feel all of this is true. I also feel Bettiol was probably the most skilled traditional center in the MAC. He both had the size and fundamentals to eat Miami alive in the low post. Miami didn't really have an answer for it. SMU had bigs, but they seemed much more raw offensively. They didn't have the same footwork or ability to finish near the rim that Bettiol did.

With Toppin out I don't feel their bigs are particularly skilled and they have plenty of warm bodies to run out there if 1 gets in foul trouble. It's going to come down to limiting Atwell and Anderson. They seem very thin at guard as both only get a couple minutes of rest each game. If Anderson gets in foul trouble or aggravates his groin injury that would be a massive boost. He's more important to Texas Tech's offense (post Toppin) than Tavari is to ours.

I actually feel those metrics don't even fully show how 3-pt dependent they are. You have to remember JT Toppin was taking ~15 2-pt fgs per game. He's obviously no longer playing so I would imagine in the last 5-10 games their 3-pt attempts are even further up as much of those attempts got absorbed by their perimeter shooters, namely Atwell and Anderson. Edit: Atwell in particular we have to run off the line. He averages 9.4 FGA per game. 8.5 of the are 3-pointers. I'm guessing the other .9 is him having his toe on the line /s.

I still expect Duke to win this game by double figures tbh.

You generally don't want the 8/9 seed line if you hope to go on a run. Now TCU likely goes on to lose by 15 to Duke.

I feel our defense improved considerably from earlier in the year. We were around ~#250 in defense per Kenpom when MAC play started. We currently stand at #114. If we played defense in November/December like we played in February/March we would have won those games. I feel inserting both Young and Halligan into the starting lineup played a part in that. They helped set the tone early defensively. Edit: Look at opening play by Halligan against Kent as a prime example. Those are the plays that energize a team.

Which record do you think is more likely to be broken Joe's career points or Zeke's career blocks?

You can add Steele to that list too.

Steele out coached Enfield. Miami was always one step ahead in their adjustments offensively. SMU never was able to bully Miami on the inside outside of the first few minutes of each half.

They have some talent. Just don't seem well coached. They spent all of maybe 5 minutes this game feeding their bigs the ball in the low post, which allowed them to erase the half-time deficit. They then abandoned what worked. Miami is baiting them into playing their style of play and it's working for Miami.

Miami is actually now tied with SMU in rebounds. If they can stay within reach they can win this.

I'm not sure why SMU isn't attacking the basket more. Even on misses it would give them good opportunities to get offensive rebound put backs. I would expect them to make adjustments at the half. I feel Miami needs to build a cushion this first half.

Kent getting dog walked by Illinois State in the first half. Love to see it.