Line ‘em up: Predictions and Game Thread Utah State Thursday at 8:30
- Thread starter bcvegaspt2
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Harper, you are on the clock…
I think we have seen what a difference having a big guard like Henley on defense instead of a little guy like dt can change the physical makeup of a team . Hopefully whoever coaches next year will get strong physical players with size.
Saw some of the second half of SDSU and BSU. From the bits I saw and what I heard about it, they let them boys play.
Impossible for most teams to be adequately prepared for the big dance when the critical officiating is so bad in this league. Maybe BSU will have benefited from that game.
I think UNM plays a fairly physical brand as well, from the bits I saw of them this year.
By contrast, USU i felt watching last night would get absolutely waxed in the first round
Checks out. The January 15 W over USU was Krugers only W against the Haggis in the 8 times we played them.
23.6% shooting. And 15% from 3. Lucky the 3 point streak did not end last night.
While we missed some easy shots, again our offense is mostly a pass to the wing and a guy has to go one on 2 or 3 to get a shot.
Also we only got 18 defensive rebounds and USU got 14 offensive rebounds.
If this was one game, it could be forgiven. But this is really generally how it has been for much of the ckk era.
While we missed some easy shots, again our offense is mostly a pass to the wing and a guy has to go one on 2 or 3 to get a shot.
Also we only got 18 defensive rebounds and USU got 14 offensive rebounds.
If this was one game, it could be forgiven. But this is really generally how it has been for much of the ckk era.
So, I don't want to take away from USU. I thought they were well coached and their depth especially given our current roster shortfall was a real problem. USU especially did a great job mixing up their defenses. Mostly a matchup 2-3 which gave us fits, but switching occasionally to a man and even a bit of 3-2 and amoeba (1-1-3 matchup). We had no idea how to read the changes or how to adapt and continually threw our same pick and roll man offense at it or tried to feed a single down post against over and over and over again. Now when a defense can switch on the fly it makes things tough if you don't have a good point guard--and obviously Hill and Henley are a lot of things, but I wouldn't call either of them a good point guard--but at a certain point you have to do a better job of adapting your offense. And this is Kevin Kruger ball to a T--as stubborn as his dad, and with half the coaching acumen. We settled over and over again for terrible outside shots or hard contested cutesie midrange shots ad nauseum. No instructions or changes from the bench, just the slav squat and the occasional rahrah clapping from Kev. I don't need a coach to be demonstrably active if the team reacts thanks to good coaching on the floor. But when our guys are constantly trying to eat a poop sandwich, I think I'd like a coach who says at least 'hey, lets put that down and find something else to eat'.
And at the half change, it was clear we were okay with how we played and what we were doing when we were down 7, whereas USU came up with some new offensive sets to really punish that switching man with the wing crash down wrinkle that worked in the first half. Good coaches adjust even up 7, bad coaches say 'man, we're playing pretty well given our circumstances, lets just keep doing it'.
I hope with all my rebel heart that this is the last Kevin Kruger basketball I'll have to watch in my lifetime.
And at the half change, it was clear we were okay with how we played and what we were doing when we were down 7, whereas USU came up with some new offensive sets to really punish that switching man with the wing crash down wrinkle that worked in the first half. Good coaches adjust even up 7, bad coaches say 'man, we're playing pretty well given our circumstances, lets just keep doing it'.
I hope with all my rebel heart that this is the last Kevin Kruger basketball I'll have to watch in my lifetime.
Never in my life have I bet against one of my teams...until last night. It wasn't a matter of rooting against UNLV because I just knew for certain they would lose and USU would cover. 100% certainty.
As stubborn as his dad with half the coaching acumen …. Perfect.
Well that’s what CKK wanted in his team during his introduction presser, tough and physical but didn’t pan out. Almost immediately went for soft guys because they were hometown guys.
I did this once against our football team when we played AFA. It was either during the Sanchez or Arroyo years and I didn’t worry about if I’d win or not. It felt a little wrong to me but I got over it as soon as the ticket cashed into my account.
UNLV jumped the shark for the last ...... what 10 years??? Loyalty goes both ways. I too has bet against UNLV the last couple years. I dont bet often but when i do i usually win.
Yeah the winning ticket has a habit of doing that
I almost bet against football but I didn't "just in case" I didn't want to get caught rooting against them. Even when I had a winning ticket with UNLV making the CFP I couldn't bring myself to hedge and bet on Boise in the conference title game. But when you know 100% it makes it a lot easier!
