This is all copied from my basketball blog section202.blogspot.com. I wanted to ensure there was some type of coverage on the basketball game on this website, but didn't want to reinvent the wheel.
This was a decent game. We did some good things and some bad things as well. There were more people in Hilton than I expected! Definatley more people in Section 202 than there has been all year
Positives:
- Good defense. OSU was shooting about 48% on the year, and we held them to 40%. We forced OSU to take some outside shots and they aren't really an outside shooting team.
- Balanced scoring. Did heavliy rely on 1 guy and all 9 guys who played for us scored
- Rebounding. Wasn't the greatest, but we out rebounded them which is always nice
Negatives:
- Sloppy play - at times we were pretty sloppy with the ball. We had 13 turnovers and many of those turnovers were from being sloppy. OSU got 8 steals on his.
- Post defense - didn't play good D when their slashers drove. We gave them more free throw opporunities than they should've gotten and gave away a couple too many 3 point plays
Areas of improvement:
- Play D when guys are driving. Avoid fouling. Sometimes guys drive and just throw something up hoping to get fouled. Let them shoot that garbage, and if it goes in at least you didn't give them a 3 point play opporunitiy
- Ball pressure. We do a decent job of forcing bad shots and denying post entry, but I'd like to see us get some steals. We didn't get any this game, and only got 1 or 2 at the UNI game. Both OSU and UNI have been commiting more turnovers than assists and those were areas in which we could've opened the game up more
- Consistency in the post. OSU did a pretty good job shutting down Brackins for the most part. Most of Craigs boards where when they weren't contested at all, and most of his scoring was in the 2nd half
Key Stat:
3 point shooting.
ISU was 10 of 23, and OSU was 2 of 19. That was the difference in the game, as both teams shot similarly from inside the arc
Random Thought:
One of my favorite parts of last season was hearing coach yell at his players. I loved hearing "JIRI ......." ALL THE TIME! It seemed like every possession, coach was yelling at Jiri for something he was doing wrong. I can't always hear the details of what he's saying.. I mean I sit in the upper deck across from where Mac stands. The fact that I can hear him is pretty awesome.
Well, this season there isn't that guy, but there are a couple of candidates: JVB and Hamilton. Against UNI, I saw coach on tv yelling "Jamie, MOVE YOUR FEET!!!!!". I heard him yell something similarly to that today as coach was yelling "JAMIE!". I also heard him hell to Hamilton "HAMM, DEFEND HIM!!!".
Basically, this is what I notice with during points where the game is mundane or when we just aren't playing well. It helps me through the slow patches and from getting frustrated.
JVB and Hamm need this type of direction as there is untapped potential in these guys, and they seem to be responding so far. I hope all of our players realize that coach wants to make them a good player, and he isn't being a "hater".
Game MVP: Lucca Staiger - 14 points, 5 of 9 shooting (4 of 8 from 3 point), 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Lucca was our leading scorer, and put the nail in the coffin in this game. I was happy to see Lucca play well in front of the home crowd, as he hasn't had that great of a game yet.
Final Thoughts:
- Offense: I want to see some consistency inside. Fortunatley our 3 point shooting bailed us out in this game,but we need to get more points on a regular basis inside. I want to see us have an inside-outside all around game. Not 1 game where we go inside, and 1 game where we shoot a lot of 3s
- Defense: Our guys need to move their feet when guys on driving on them and to try to avoid fouling too much. Fouls will happen occassionally, but it feels like almost everytime someone drives on us, we foul.
Next Game: Tuesday, 12/9 vs. Drake @ Hilton, 8pm tipoff on ESPNU