Bonnies @ VCU (01/18/20; 2:00 pm)

There isn't much to choose from, but surprised you chose Winston as your positive from this game. I like Winston's game a lot, but I thought it was his worst game of his early career and it was beginning to feel like Schmidt kept him in down the stretch to humble his ass.

I agree with your assessment. I really like Winston and see huge upside. My concern is that he has a tendency to take ill advised shots and gives up on running the set when there are better options. I have noticed that he has really improved his effort going after rebounds. Defensively, he has a long way to go. He is still trying to figure out the defensive rotations. He will be a really good player for us as he continues to develop.
 
Holy Scheisse! I was so dispirited by yesterday's performance that I had to look up last year's A10 results to remind myself that SLU lost to hapless St. Joe's by 30 points on Feb 8, but later went on to win 4 games in Brooklyn to win the A10 title. We've got an inexperienced team that got the bejesus scared out of them and just proceeded to screw up every step of the way in the first half. I made some similar errors early in life, but I won't go there. The basketball gods are fickle. This is not the banned wagon. This shall pass. We'll lose to Dayton, but I'm pretty sure it won't be by 28 points.
 
Seems like a siege of a prisoner of war camp would be counterproductive, health of prisoner-wise. In any event, glad to have you back.
 
VCU made Lofton invisible on the offensive end. Lofton had one assist and one shot attempted at the U12 timeout. English who was supposed to be our secondary ball handler ran the point much of the first 5 minutes before picking up 2 fouls and it was at this point things got ugly. Not that it was a particularly great first 5 but it was only a 5 point game when he left.

Then the cold streak starts 2 points in 5 minutes or 6 points in 9 minutes. These are the stretches that VCU dominates. If you let VCU play without having to take the ball out of the hoop or contesting the offensive glass they will run and find open shots or mismatches. This wasn't always the case during the Will Wade era but under Rhodes they are quick to play in transition and that is their best offense.

To illustrate that point in the first half the Bonnies made VCU take the ball out after a make 11 times. VCU scored on 5 of the subsequent possessions, not bad, but 2 of those were really on second chance putbacks by MSS so limit them to one shot and they were 3 for 11. Include them and VCU scored 12 points after a Bonnies make. The other 40 first half points they scored were off misses or live ball turnovers. The key to beating VCU is making VCU play half court offense and the best way to make them do that is make shots.

And we are not going to make a high percentage of the shots we took in the first half. There was a stretch where Ikpeze, Winston or Bobby took 8 of 10 shots, not a recipe for success unless we are manhandling Alfred.

On to Dayton.
 
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