The good:
The bad:
- REB. We took 43% of ORBs, when D1-avg is only 29%. Defensively, we took a whopping 87% of REBs. Individually, E-Bo has 5 ORBs (7 total), Nojel 4 ORBs (6 total), and Eifert 4 ORBs (5 total). Cline has 6 DRBs and Haarms 5. It's a collective effort. Now I know how it feels to be an MSU fan to just throw the ball up and still score b/c your team get 2nd and 3rd chances consistently.
- Carsen's scoring. 29 pts (5-10 from 2s, 6-11 from 3s, 1-1 FT). He is the only one who can finish reliably. Our offense goes as Carsen goes.
- Haarms' post-up. For a stretch, Haarms was unstoppable posting up his poor defender, who just doesn't have the height. I wonder why we stopped doing that entirely the rest of the game. Also, given Haarms' height, why aren't we lobbing him some alley-oop? He doesn't even need to jump much.
- Haarms' decision-making. I was surprised when I see Haarms have a 4:1 AST/TO ratio. One of those was a beautiful pass off double-team to a diving Nojel. He played 19 mins and had 10 pts, 5 REBs, 4 ASTs - if you double that it's 38 mins, 20 pts, 10 REBs, and 8 ASTs! Best of all, he didn't pick up one foul at all tonight.
The bad:
- Missing open 3s. While our 38.2% (13-of-34) is respectable, that number could easily be 50% if not for MULTIPLE open 3s that we missed. Eifert took 5 and 4 of them are wide open, but he made only 1. The same with everyone not named Carsen Edwards. We can have one possession where we got 3 ORBs and missed all three 3s. It's frustrating to come up empty. On the bright side, you just have to be drooling how dangerous this team can be if the guys can actually be calmed down and knock down those open 3s.
- Carsen's decision-making. Sometimes he seems to be forcing things, like the last possession of the first half (he was going 1-on-3 and fortunate that Nojel got the ORB putback). In addition, he has 4 TOs (only 3 ASTs).
- Setting picks. Maybe I am spoiled by the unmovable Haas' screens that we've had in the last 4 years, but it feels like this year our players aren't doing as good a job as setting screens. The first 3 from Cline was a set play where we had two players screening for him as he curled around the baseline, and still the defender was able to get reasonably close to him b/c those screens aren't solid enough.
- The court. Somehow it seems like the floor is very slippery, esp. in the first half, and multiple players slipped. And then the angle feels like it is from the ceiling.
- Officiating. I am not impressed at all. Seems like they are calling us too tight, and a lot of petty fouls that wouldn't be fouls in the B1G.