Outcoached. Period.
There is no excuse for 14 points in the 1st half. Sure we missed some chippies and made some careless passes into the teeth of the D. But 14 points in one half of a championship game against an inferior roster is a schematic problem. Coach should have had some set plays or strategies to create a few extra buckets (i.e. get the damn ball to TK).
In particular, we were not prepared for the the extreme ball hawking at the top of the lane. HC was throwing waves of players towards the ball – and our players seemed utterly unprepared to exploit this. BR was banking on placing 4 players on the perimeter and moving the ball around the lane. I’m sure that worked well in pre-game walkthrough. But under the intensity of the HC defense we struggled to make one pass from point to wing. Plus, how many times did we attempt to sneak a pass into the high post between not two but three players? Not a winning strategy …
Perhaps our short rosters inhibits us from emulating game conditions in practice. I was waiting for the light bulb to flash that a defense that runs to the ball at every progression can be exploited with crisp, quick passing or a misdirection and head-fake or two.
Regarding the use of JRG in the post. The dude is very athletic and a much better ball handler than our other bigs. He was actually pretty effective at feeding Timmy at the post. Dude has got some serious hops as well ..
By the time we fought back and got to the final sequence of four three point attempts – I suppose our starters were fairly gassed and didn’t have the legs to finish the job.
Still – monumental job to go perfect in January and even get to a final home game. Great season – something to build upon!
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This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by
gohawks63.
