We gave up the wide open 3s because the game plan was to go with a zone that especially focused on doubling Townsend. Yale was smart enough to go baseline and find the open man in the corner. They made 75% of those 3s as a result which is absurd.
Virtually the only fault of Groce this offseason was not finding a true big to backfill Okonkwo's spot. We will essentially always have matchup problems in the paint with teams that have athletic bigs and/or can drive to the basket. Yale was flawless in exploiting the matchup down low and always having a guy slashing to the basket when the double came on Townsend. The defensive game plan and execution gave up 97 points, but I'm really not sure there was a legitimate solution. We needed Yale to shoot 55% from the field instead of 63% or shoot 42% from 3 instead of 47% or make 80% of their free throws instead of 100% or turn it over a couple more times like we did; they didn't do any of those things.
Groce, as a coach, has to harp on the defense - I get it - but his failure to bring in a legit big for games like this is why we ultimately had to rely on Yale to be imperfect. He didn't have the right game plan or the right pieces to truly stop Yale defensively. Credit to Yale for essentially getting a basketball 4.0 - nerds.
Akron proved yesterday that no matter the interior matchup advantage an opponent may have (aside from Purdue who builds their entire front court with fully grown redwood trees they chopped down themselves in California and hauled to West Lafayette, IN), the opponent still has to be nearly perfect to beat Akron (as long as Akron doesn't have a historically bad shooting night). Our system works. This team has an incredibly high ceiling. I've never felt this good after a loss to an unranked team.