What a colossal choke job against Vanderbilt

Submitted by 1VaBlue1 on March 18th, 2023 at 2:06 PM

They gave up a 9-0 run with barely more than a minute left.  Turnovers, fouls, bad defense, horrid inbounds passing, and just plain not handling the pressure.  This is how they lost 16 games this year...

Good effort with Jett and Kobe, but good god what way to choke away a game that was won.  JFC.

M Ascending

March 18th, 2023 at 2:22 PM ^

Incredible that the coaches couldn't come up with a scheme to break the press 3 consecutive times in the last minute.  The tried the same play each time with dug running the baseline and no idea what to do after that. 

How many "won" games did we blow in the last minute or OT?  Sorry, but this is much more on the coaches than the players. 

SDCran

March 18th, 2023 at 2:27 PM ^

The ‘scheme’ was fine.  
 

First time they broke it fine, TWill got his arm pulled off of the ball with no call.  

Second time they broke it fine again and Dug chucks it oob.   TWill was in a different position than Kobe usually is.  
 

Third time, TWill wasn’t ready for a pass back to him.   
 

none of that is on the scheme or the coaches.   It is mostly a sub playing an unfamiliar role.   

Monday Morning…

March 18th, 2023 at 2:31 PM ^

So I think one of the core issues is that the players get really tight in these situations. Then they make all these bizarre mistakes. So it's not necessarily the scheme (as other posters have also mentioned), it seems like a lack of confidence. I'm not saying I have the fix for that, but I do think the coaches should. 

crg

March 18th, 2023 at 2:48 PM ^

Beilein teams were always more fundamentally sound - ball security, spacing awareness, clock awareness, etc.  It was obvious they worked on fine details (and later that included improved defensive positioning with Yacklich added).

The last few seasons watching Howard's teams it is clear that these are less of a focus - more emphasis on play speed and recruiting raw talent rather than developing it.  Yes, youth is a large problem but it seems more a symptom of team building rather than an unexpected independent problem.

BroadneckBlue21

March 18th, 2023 at 2:53 PM ^

It was Terry, Terry, Terry, Dug once, then Terry and Terry. It was not everyone who failed the press. It was —$&# Terry. He should have been benched, or, in the least, switched out from being the inbounder after the second time, if not after his first bad one. 

He played badly all game, but really bad before even that last minute. He appears to have checked out while checked in. He stared at Hunter rebounding the ball three times on one late game possession where he didn’t even leave his feet ONCE while everyone else was trying to get the ball on Hunter’s two to three misses. 
 

 

shoes

March 18th, 2023 at 2:50 PM ^

But- if you are counting Jett who is a 2 or 3 who cannot handle the ball, then that would not have helped in our efforts to handle the press. Kobe missing was a big factor but Vandy was missing their best player. People always seem to think that only we have to deal with injuries.

crg

March 18th, 2023 at 2:53 PM ^

Collins is a greater concern to me since he was someone in the program that looked to have a major role upcoming but bolted (also instances such as Zeb and others who transferred out).

We should never put ourselves in a position of needing to rely on a transfer (e.g. Shannon) to keep the team stable.  If one can't build and retain talent internally that is a problem.

Going after short term guys, whether that is freshman phenom one-and-dones or transfers with little remaining eligibility) is not a good way to build a stable program.

L'Carpetron Do…

March 18th, 2023 at 3:13 PM ^

Like everyone else, I thought Collins' decision to transfer was weird. But I guess it makes sense if you want to study under the best PG of all-time. But he did not have a great finish last night. In crunch time, he had a handful of turnovers, a shot blocked, missed 2 FTs and passed up an open 3 (because he can't shoot, making him almost unplayable in late game situations), and TCU's big man, pump-faked and went by him to get the winning basket. I don't think losing him was the worst and I think Dug is much better. He's turning into a good shooter; hope he sticks around a while.