The worst part is...

opsooner

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not that we played poorly. Every team is going to have nights like that and we fought back.

The worst part is that had the game in our pocket and then proceeded to play not to lose. Very poor execution and bad choices down the stretch on both ends. It was Creighton down the stretch again.
 
Maybe I'm wrong but im pretty certain we win if Thomas and Spangler hit their free throws at the end of regulation.
 
Maybe I'm wrong but im pretty certain we win if Thomas and Spangler hit their free throws at the end of regulation.

You're correct.
But we also have a much better chance of winning if we don't dribble around for 30 seconds and jack up a contested 3 for 2 or 3 straight possessions down the wire.
 
You're correct.
But we also have a much better chance of winning if we don't dribble around for 30 seconds and jack up a contested 3 for 2 or 3 straight possessions down the wire.

Maybe, but there is no guarantee that playing more aggressively wins the game. Presumably we were playing more aggressively for the other 42-43 minutes and we couldn't pull away, why are you so confident those 2-3 minutes would have been different from the others?
 
You're correct.
But we also have a much better chance of winning if we don't dribble around for 30 seconds and jack up a contested 3 for 2 or 3 straight possessions down the wire.

We definitely did not play smart and place the pressure on the other team as we should have innately done.
 
Maybe I'm wrong but im pretty certain we win if Thomas and Spangler hit their free throws at the end of regulation.

Yes, that is also part of being clutch. We were poor on free throws when we really needed them. But our possessions were also bad.

OU by 4; Hield goes for an early 3-dagger and is short
Then still up by 4 Cousins takes a contested 3

There was no offense on either possession. Then Spangler was fouled and missed.

in OT:

Buddy has the steal but runs to soon and gives it back to them and we gave up yet another offensive rebound to them.


We were 12-19 from the line and we did miss some key ones. However, it is not as bad as our 4 assists and 13 turnovers.
 
Yes, that is also part of being clutch. We were poor on free throws when we really needed them. But our possessions were also bad.

OU by 4; Hield goes for an early 3-dagger and is short
Then still up by 4 Cousins takes a contested 3

There was no offense on either possession. Then Spangler was fouled and missed.

in OT:

Buddy has the steal but runs to soon and gives it back to them and we gave up yet another offensive rebound to them.


We were 12-19 from the line and we did miss some key ones. However, it is not as bad as our 4 assists and 13 turnovers.

This is the biggest challenge for this team. They always seem to revert back to isolation/one on one instead of working the ball around and trying to go inside. Part of that is on our big guys for not working hard enough to get post position. But we also need to work the ball around by passing and setting better screens earlier in the shot clock in order to get open looks or higher % shots.
 
The worse part is we had the refs on our side, fouls and free throws were very lopsided, and we still lost at home to a bad team.
 
Just to echo some previous thoughts...its amazing how different (lack thereof) the ball movement was today compared to BU. Obviously, different defense tonight, but for me the BU win was a game I thought where we had somewhat turned a corner on the offensive end. Ball movement often seems to tie into experience and will usually allow for deep March runs.

Even some of Buddy's shots tonight wouldn't be classified as "good shots"...they were pretty much shots that we could get at any point...fortunate he was on.
 
Why were they shooting free throws in the first place? Ball shouldn't have been in their hands (if it was).
 
Why were they shooting free throws in the first place? Ball shouldn't have been in their hands (if it was).

Exactly!! Our inbounds plays are always bad and this comes back on Kruger. When Spangler got the ball and was fouled, there is a reason he is wide open to get the ball.

I love Kruger but he really needs to start playing strategy more at the end of games. Our players obviously can't do it themselves. How about take out Spangler, put in Walker. Get fouled and then have Spangler check back in for defense. Getting the ball to Buddy to get fouled. Stuff like that.
 
Maybe I'm wrong but im pretty certain we win if Thomas and Spangler hit their free throws at the end of regulation.

Or if we run some offense down the stretch or if Thomas and Hield don't botch the double - team on Foster's 3 pointer or if anyone else besides Hield shows up at the beginning of the game or if Cousins doesn't take so many bad shots throughout the game or if the team has more than 5 assists for the game or if Woodard manages to put the ball in the hole even 1 time or....

There are a lot of things we could've done to win that game.
 
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