Let me begin with the obvious, our first half offensive performance was completely unacceptable. The blame for that rests in my opinion entirely on the coaching staff. Just a couple nuggets from our first half.
We were 3-17 from 3 in the first half.
We did not attempt a 2 point FG until the under 12 minute time out
17 of our 25 shot attempts in the first half were 3 pointers
Wichita State threw a zone at is and anyone who has watched Mooney coach for the past 18 years, knows that this is one of the areas where he truly struggles. The result of this is that our guys were completely frustrated, "tentative" as Mooney describes it. We had zero energy because literally all we could do on offense is throw the ball around the perimeter and than chuck up some contested 3. Why Mooney didn't call a time out and tell the team, the next person who jacks up a 3, is immediately coming out of the game is beyond me. The team need an ultimatum like that. He did make an adjustment in the second half that was really effective, but you can't play like complete ass for 20 minutes and expect to win games. Adjustments need to come sooner.
Also, Mooney needs to understand, we are not a good 3 point shooting team. Outside of Roche, there is no other player that I would consider a really good 3 point shooter, so to go out and design our offense to almost exclusively in the first half is lunacy.
A couple player observations:
The Great:
Bigelow: Started, needs to start from this point going forward. My god, he was impressive. His poster dunk, probably will go down in my Top 10 of all time best Spider dunks. When Grace return, Grace becomes are starter at the 5, Quinn comes off the bench.
Burton: Strong all around game, a beast on the boards again, his lack of an inside game to get his and our offense flowing is still not there
Serviceable:
Goose: 28 minutes, scored 2 points, 1 board, 1 assist. He is screaming to be replaced in the starting line up BUT
Roche and Dji: Roche was getting abused in the second half by Wichita, they were clearly designing plays to get a favorable match-up against him. Dji: 18 minutes, 1 point, 2 assists a horrible turnover near the end of the game. Goose is not giving us what we need as our starter at the 2, but Dji and Roche aren't doing anything to come out and take that role from him. Our two guard has lots of depth, but right now, no clear number 1 guy, so it remains Goose by default.
Nelson: 5 turnovers, unacceptably high for our PG. It's his 4th game of college ball and he has a load of responsibility on him, so I'm not going to jump all over him. Learning and Growth opportunity.
Yikes:
Quinn: The last play of the game kind of epitomizes Quinn right now, it is painful to watch. Mooney is trying to make him into a Grant/TJ like center and he is just lost out there, particularly on offense. It should be noted that he sat the bench most of the second half when we made our run. That to me was a sign and why when Grace returns, Quinn needs to come off the bench. Maybe he can better into the flow in terms of what we want to do as the season progresses, but he is no where close to that now and it is hurting the team.
We were 3-17 from 3 in the first half.
We did not attempt a 2 point FG until the under 12 minute time out
17 of our 25 shot attempts in the first half were 3 pointers
Wichita State threw a zone at is and anyone who has watched Mooney coach for the past 18 years, knows that this is one of the areas where he truly struggles. The result of this is that our guys were completely frustrated, "tentative" as Mooney describes it. We had zero energy because literally all we could do on offense is throw the ball around the perimeter and than chuck up some contested 3. Why Mooney didn't call a time out and tell the team, the next person who jacks up a 3, is immediately coming out of the game is beyond me. The team need an ultimatum like that. He did make an adjustment in the second half that was really effective, but you can't play like complete ass for 20 minutes and expect to win games. Adjustments need to come sooner.
Also, Mooney needs to understand, we are not a good 3 point shooting team. Outside of Roche, there is no other player that I would consider a really good 3 point shooter, so to go out and design our offense to almost exclusively in the first half is lunacy.
A couple player observations:
The Great:
Bigelow: Started, needs to start from this point going forward. My god, he was impressive. His poster dunk, probably will go down in my Top 10 of all time best Spider dunks. When Grace return, Grace becomes are starter at the 5, Quinn comes off the bench.
Burton: Strong all around game, a beast on the boards again, his lack of an inside game to get his and our offense flowing is still not there
Serviceable:
Goose: 28 minutes, scored 2 points, 1 board, 1 assist. He is screaming to be replaced in the starting line up BUT
Roche and Dji: Roche was getting abused in the second half by Wichita, they were clearly designing plays to get a favorable match-up against him. Dji: 18 minutes, 1 point, 2 assists a horrible turnover near the end of the game. Goose is not giving us what we need as our starter at the 2, but Dji and Roche aren't doing anything to come out and take that role from him. Our two guard has lots of depth, but right now, no clear number 1 guy, so it remains Goose by default.
Nelson: 5 turnovers, unacceptably high for our PG. It's his 4th game of college ball and he has a load of responsibility on him, so I'm not going to jump all over him. Learning and Growth opportunity.
Yikes:
Quinn: The last play of the game kind of epitomizes Quinn right now, it is painful to watch. Mooney is trying to make him into a Grant/TJ like center and he is just lost out there, particularly on offense. It should be noted that he sat the bench most of the second half when we made our run. That to me was a sign and why when Grace returns, Quinn needs to come off the bench. Maybe he can better into the flow in terms of what we want to do as the season progresses, but he is no where close to that now and it is hurting the team.