If two "halfs" did make a whole, the Broncos would be 9-2 and not 7-4; with four more preseason games remaining. The next four are all winnable games; with tonight's roadie at Boise State being a tough win. My guess is that we win three of the next four to exit non-conference at 10-5.
The good news is we've been "in" every game and had our chances to get the W, but lately we just can't seem to put two "halfs" together. We can put quarters, (10 min) together, but not in the same half. In our last four games, we have been behind at the half in three of the four games; winning two and losing two.
Against LA Tech, Mt. St. Mary's, and Cal we were ahead in the first ten minutes of each; only to fall behind in two of these by the end of the half. We were behind Hawaii by eight in the first ten minutes. In the last ten minutes of the second half, we dominated Mt. St. Mary's and Hawaii to post double digit wins. We made strong pushes in the second half to tie Cal and get within two of LA Tech, but couldn't finish for the win.
With us, it's like the Forrest Gump adage "you never know" what ten minutes you're gonna get. We all witnessed the ten minutes of the ball moving, guys making the right reads, good shots falling and filling up the assist book. Then we see the next ten minutes, when we stop moving and devolve into standing around then having to take hard shot attempts as the clock winds down. Our guys try to make a play in the middle, get caught in "big land" and can't find the teammate who made the extra cut to get open.
On defense, in those ten minute lapses, we fall victim to easy screen/roll buckets that we either stopped or contested early on. At Cal, we led 34-24 with about four minutes left in the half only to give up a 14-0 Cal run to fall behind by four.
It's frustrating to watch (when the video streaming actually works) and no doubt to the coaches trying to motivate the players through it. Those are the ten minutes where we miss Josip Vrankic the most. A leader, a calm head, who in many cases makes the pass or play to get us back in sync. Unfortunately, we didn't have him and although we have scoring leaders each game we need another floor leader to get us back on track.
Tonight at Boise State we'll have our hands full. They usually start four seniors and a talented freshman. Ranked # 63 in Kenpom, we will see speed, some size, and depth. They shoot it pretty well, but a major strength is offensive rebounding - something we struggle with. We should have a deeper roster tonight with Vrankic getting some minutes, but it will take two full "halfs: of effort. Two of our four losses are on the road. Hopefully, we can throw a TCU effort at them tonight and squeak by.
We have Florida A & M Friday and Montana Sunday at home. Both teams we match up well against and should be able to "wrap up" the Christmas season with wins.
We will need our overall guard play to get their stroke back on track this week. In our last four games, excepting J Will, our high minute guys are shooting 30%. I expect this week they'll revert to the mean, back in the mid 40%.
Our winning formula remains play full "halfs" not quarters and get back to the 50% solution out shooting our opponents. Love to see that happen!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments and ideas welcome