Tough loss to a beatable team that we are in a dogfight with for the sixth and final seed in the Big Sky Tourney. PSU overcame sloppy play and a slew of first half turnovers to take control of this game in the second half. But, a 6 point lead with 5:37 left in the game was not enough of a cushion to carry us to the win. One could blame this loss on a lot of little things that went wrong during the course of the entire game, not just down the stretch: missed free throws, 24 turnovers, poor second half FG%, lack of point production from our posts, questionable offensive foul calls etc. But once again I'm going to blame this loss on the fact that we did not switch into a zone defense at any time during the game. What were our coaches thinking? Sac. State was having a horrid outside shooting game, hitting only 11% outside the arc, and making only 2 of 18 shots. So how did they come back and snatch the game from us in the last 5 minutes of the game? Same old story, by driving and passing the ball into the paint for high percentage layups and O-boards. Our 6 point lead was erased in a minute and a half when we surrendered 3 made layups. If our coaches had decided to go to a zone to protect our lead, and forced Sac. State into making more outside shots, who knows how differently this game might have ended!
We've also got to work on our press break, as Sac. State pressured us into many turnovers, especially in the first half. There are so many times that we pull up our dribble, back into traps, and make errant cross-court passes when pressured, rather than having our guards drive quickly up-court, away from pressure, and catching our opponent off-guard. The few times that we dribbled out of the press, not wasting so much time advancing the ball up-court, resulted in easy baskets. This is how this team successfully used to attack a press, in previous years. I don't know why we have changed our strategy this year, but it is not working.
This team still controls it's own destiny as far as getting the 6th seed in the Big Sky Tourney, despite today's disappointing loss. With 4 games left in the regular season, compared to Sac. State's 2, if we are able to win 2 of these games, we should be in. Easier said than done, I know! But now that Feb. 25 game at the Stott looms large. Go Viks!
We've also got to work on our press break, as Sac. State pressured us into many turnovers, especially in the first half. There are so many times that we pull up our dribble, back into traps, and make errant cross-court passes when pressured, rather than having our guards drive quickly up-court, away from pressure, and catching our opponent off-guard. The few times that we dribbled out of the press, not wasting so much time advancing the ball up-court, resulted in easy baskets. This is how this team successfully used to attack a press, in previous years. I don't know why we have changed our strategy this year, but it is not working.
This team still controls it's own destiny as far as getting the 6th seed in the Big Sky Tourney, despite today's disappointing loss. With 4 games left in the regular season, compared to Sac. State's 2, if we are able to win 2 of these games, we should be in. Easier said than done, I know! But now that Feb. 25 game at the Stott looms large. Go Viks!
