CMSOONER
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2010
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One thing not being talked about, or I have not seen, is the fact that for whatever reason Cousins would not attack the rim. Almost every time he had the ball he would make an aggressive first attacking step and then do his go to sharp crossover stepback and pull the ball back out.....Every time like clockwork.
I'm not laying the loss on Cousins by anymeans, but imo this was a big contributing factor, down the stretch at least. The only player consistently attacking the paint was Woodard, who unfortunately was just undersized to do so against ISU.
Decision making down the stretch was what lost this game. I know some posters like to jump on Lon for late game strategy woes, but it really falls on the players. It wasn't Lon who took a bad jump shot that got blocked instead of posting up. It wasn't Lon who got into the paint and got stuck resulting in a turnover. It wasn't Lon who settled for a jumper instead of attacking the paint. Fact is this team needs, and should have already, learned to play smarter basketball.
Lon repeatedly screamed at Thomas, "Get to the block". He did and positive things happened. The offense was more aggressive, we drew fouls and got to the line. Then in the blink of an eye that all went out the window in the last few minutes.
It's frustrating to watch this team have so much potential and flash so much brilliance, just to flush it away with stretches of poor decisions making.
I'm not laying the loss on Cousins by anymeans, but imo this was a big contributing factor, down the stretch at least. The only player consistently attacking the paint was Woodard, who unfortunately was just undersized to do so against ISU.
Decision making down the stretch was what lost this game. I know some posters like to jump on Lon for late game strategy woes, but it really falls on the players. It wasn't Lon who took a bad jump shot that got blocked instead of posting up. It wasn't Lon who got into the paint and got stuck resulting in a turnover. It wasn't Lon who settled for a jumper instead of attacking the paint. Fact is this team needs, and should have already, learned to play smarter basketball.
Lon repeatedly screamed at Thomas, "Get to the block". He did and positive things happened. The offense was more aggressive, we drew fouls and got to the line. Then in the blink of an eye that all went out the window in the last few minutes.
It's frustrating to watch this team have so much potential and flash so much brilliance, just to flush it away with stretches of poor decisions making.
