by BradleyBrave » November 18th, 2013, 10:55 pm
Bradley got taken to the woodshed in this one.
Our game plan wasn't bad - make Illinois shoot 3's (which they had been pretty bad at), and spot up when Walt drives and the defense collapses. Grier, Barnes, and Pickett - all decent 3 point shooters when set - had as open of looks as they'll have all year in the first 10 minutes of the game, and didn't make a single shot. It was pretty much back and forth the first 10-12 minutes, but one thing that was clear was that Bradley was getting one shot, while Illinois was finding ways to get 2-3 even on badly missed shots. Eventually this caught up with the Braves as Illinois started converting on their 2nd chance opportunities and started making some 3's - specifically our old pal Jon Ekey. Bradley kept clanging from deep and missing layups in close, and Illinois converted and pushed the bulge to 15.
Any chance BU had to make a game of it went out the window in the first 2 minutes of the 2nd half. We couldn't even get to the first official timeout without the rout being on. BU missed open looks, and Illinois rained 3's like they may not rain them again all year. I don't know what Ekey's career high is in college, but I would guess he came close last night. Not only did he refuse to miss a 3 (5-7 on the game), he was also tip dunking on misses. Everyone else joined the 3 point/tip dunking parade, while BU missed alley-oops, 3's, layups, and went into the lane scared of contact and scared of getting their shot blocked. BU simply quit and got outhustled, outmuscled, and outplayed in the 2nd half. The lead immediately ballooned to 20+ and that was that.
The long view is that BU probably isn't as bad as they looked Sunday, and Illinois probably isn't as good. As Geno said, we can sure spin excuses of 5 games in 9 days or whatever, but the fact of the matter is we played weak, didn't respond to a physical challenge, and simply got our @sses beaten in embarrassing fashion.
While some I think are overreacting on what this 'means', if get looks like we did in the first half, more often than not we'll convert. Lemon won't continue to play this poorly. It was a learning experience for a team with a lot of newcomers. It is good to hopefully learn this lesson in Game 5 rather than Game 25 when it really matters. My view of this team as an upper half MVC team hasn't changed. Hopefully we'll respond with at least a better effort on Friday at Arizona St.
"At some point in the near future, we're going to have a team out there competing for championships" - Geno Ford, November 9, 2011.
