Did you notice how we weren’t too young to win at Auburn, at Tennessee, and vs. UNC on a neutral court?
Truth of the matter is that lineups killed us, not youth.
Anyone who has ever played any one and done tournament basketball understands that the game speeds up on you. A 40 minute game suddenly feels like about 25, because you feel your season slipping away.
How do you think it feels to come off the bench in that situation? Your 14 minutes a half suddenly feels like about 8. Playing from behind makes it that much worse.
Cal didn’t start our best lineups and didn’t play the best combinations enough minutes together. It really is that simple.
Game after game, he instilled confidence in the opponent. They knew they would be better than us to start the game. They knew they would get another crack at it to start the half.
You may get away with that vs. Vandy or Georgia. But a lot of us have been screaming all year that it was going to bite us.
I could also go into the “strategy” of letting the opponent walk it up court. Refusing to force turnovers. Allowing them to set their zone over and over. But I digress.
Truth of the matter is that lineups killed us, not youth.
Anyone who has ever played any one and done tournament basketball understands that the game speeds up on you. A 40 minute game suddenly feels like about 25, because you feel your season slipping away.
How do you think it feels to come off the bench in that situation? Your 14 minutes a half suddenly feels like about 8. Playing from behind makes it that much worse.
Cal didn’t start our best lineups and didn’t play the best combinations enough minutes together. It really is that simple.
Game after game, he instilled confidence in the opponent. They knew they would be better than us to start the game. They knew they would get another crack at it to start the half.
You may get away with that vs. Vandy or Georgia. But a lot of us have been screaming all year that it was going to bite us.
I could also go into the “strategy” of letting the opponent walk it up court. Refusing to force turnovers. Allowing them to set their zone over and over. But I digress.