I thought we should have had a lead at the half. For most of the first half, our ball movement/offense was pretty good, save for some shot selection and lazy passes that ended up in TOs. Unfortunately a lot of those lazy passes were near the perimeter, which made it fairly easy for BYU to score in transition or, at the very least, put us in some scramble situations on the other end. We also yielded way too many offensive rebounds after initially playing some decent defense.
The 2nd half was a complete disaster and it felt like Otz didn't even try to manage the game and keep his team in it. We completely got away from moving the ball and (instead) went almost completely to a dribble oriented offense off of iso situations. Even Lipsey, someone who picks and chooses his battles well, was guilty. Keshon was completely out of control the entire night, so much so I thought he should have sat for most of the 2nd half. He was his own worst enemy.
Now, given BYU's effort (2nd half) and ball movement (the 3s, 1st half o boards, and repeated cuts to the basket killed us) we probably wouldn't have won the game regardless. With that said I find it to be a troubling trend where the complete lack of game management handicaps our ability to win games, especially on the road. There WILL be close road games and things like allowing (leaving guys in, no TOs, etc) the horrendous dribble offense, playing Pavs 15 minutes (who cannot defend teams like BYU at all), not playing Hason more (he's not losing effectiveness when he's pulled out...he can play more), and rolling some pretty flawed rotations will help us lose those games.
This team can't consistently be it's own worst enemy and ever be better than a middle of the pack team. Losing to BYU on the road isn't bad or even unexpected, but repeatedly seeing the same behaviors, both on the floor and the bench, that help lead us to losses is a bit concerning. I'm not very hopeful but that needs to change.
The 2nd half was a complete disaster and it felt like Otz didn't even try to manage the game and keep his team in it. We completely got away from moving the ball and (instead) went almost completely to a dribble oriented offense off of iso situations. Even Lipsey, someone who picks and chooses his battles well, was guilty. Keshon was completely out of control the entire night, so much so I thought he should have sat for most of the 2nd half. He was his own worst enemy.
Now, given BYU's effort (2nd half) and ball movement (the 3s, 1st half o boards, and repeated cuts to the basket killed us) we probably wouldn't have won the game regardless. With that said I find it to be a troubling trend where the complete lack of game management handicaps our ability to win games, especially on the road. There WILL be close road games and things like allowing (leaving guys in, no TOs, etc) the horrendous dribble offense, playing Pavs 15 minutes (who cannot defend teams like BYU at all), not playing Hason more (he's not losing effectiveness when he's pulled out...he can play more), and rolling some pretty flawed rotations will help us lose those games.
This team can't consistently be it's own worst enemy and ever be better than a middle of the pack team. Losing to BYU on the road isn't bad or even unexpected, but repeatedly seeing the same behaviors, both on the floor and the bench, that help lead us to losses is a bit concerning. I'm not very hopeful but that needs to change.
