Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde kind of team
by longhorn543 on Mar 23, 2008 3:46 PM CDT
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PrintI wanted to bring this discussion out from the game thread after watching the Horns nearly blow a 17-point lead to Miami.
How can a team look so good for the first 35 minutes and so poor for the last five? And as mentioned in the thread, this isn't the first time this has happened (i.e., the Baylor game).
There have been plenty of wins going away this year, but there are a few examples of teams making large comebacks against the Horns. It seems like the team has the "ability" to lose its focus and fail to put away its opponent. As mentioned in the thread, it seems like the team plays better & more focused in closer contested games.
One solution is to abandon the clock-killing stall offense. I know running clock is important, but we've all seen teams go into the stall and it does nothing but kill the flow of their, up to that point, potent offense. Why abandon the gameplan just to kill an extra 10-15 seconds per possession?
Thoughts?
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very frustrating
why not continue to push the offense, stay up by 20, then rest your players.
by the other Andrew on Mar 23, 2008 3:55 PM CDT reply actions
Maybe so, but after watching what just...
happened to #2 Georgetown and what almost happened to #2 Tennessee, I'm not going to second guess this one. Let's just take the W and get out of friggin' Little Rock.
Survive and Advance
No one ever said it any better than Jim Valvano:
The only game that matters is the next game. The only opponent that matters is the next opponent. At this time of year, all that matters is to survive and advance.
The time for fine tuning is over. All we have to do now is be 1 point better than Stanford.
by beast in bama on Mar 23, 2008 5:19 PM CDT up reply actions
Complacency
I think the team just gets too comfortable with big leads on occasion, then relaxes a bit, loses focus, and makes mistakes. They need to stay in the same mindset all game long, whether we're up by 20 or 2.
Especially at the charity stripe
UT was 12-22 from the line...Miami was 19-22.
Missing free throws really helped the Canes get back into the game.
That's a pretty common phenomenon
in all sports. But specifically, going to the slow down too early can be an aggression killer - and can lead to losing Big Mo all too easily.
Good fight by the Horns to get what they needed and leave Arkansas in broad daylight.
Agree with above about getting the W. That's it, regardless of the mistakes.
It's all in the timing
I was at the game, sitting in a very anti-Texas section. Around the ten minute mark of the second half, Memphis fans started filing in, and the band sat next to the Miami band. The reception Texas got once Miami started chipping away at the lead was horrendous, and by the time the one minute mark hit, EVERYONE was in full on I HATE TEXAS mode. That crowd was hostile, and I have to think that a lot of what went down in the final few minutes came from the unexpected outburst of hatred that wasnt even present when Texas took the court for the first time on Friday. Texas did get a bit lackadaisical though, and Im sure its just because they were in cruise control with the lead, but I dont expect this same problem when they go to Houston.
Texas fans take note: The most annoying thing (and you can back me up if you experienced it) that can happen at a sports game is having someone tell you to sit down or shut up in the final minutes of a very contested game. I dont know whats happened in the last few years, but fans seem to have become more anemic, and a large number of the fans that sit in the front rows are the entitled fans that have the cash to observe a game, not get into it in any way, shape, or form. Stand up and cheer!!
Same here...
Texas fans take note: The most annoying thing (and you can back me up if you experienced it) that can happen at a sports game is having someone tell you to sit down or shut up in the final minutes of a very contested game. I dont know whats happened in the last few years, but fans seem to have become more anemic, and a large number of the fans that sit in the front rows are the entitled fans that have the cash to observe a game, not get into it in any way, shape, or form. Stand up and cheer!!
I agree. Most annoying thing ever. I turn around and tell them that if they want to sit down and be quiet, they should buy some better seats. One time I had some old ladies behind me, and instead of tell me to sit down and be quiet, they actually just asked me to switch seats with one of them so that I could stay loud and standing without them having to stare at my butt. Those ladies knew what was up.
Clock killing
Stall offense just ticks me off because it kills momentum for our own team and I just think it's stupid because it's saying you don't have enough confidence to keep playing and still win and it's like cheating the other team out of their chance of coming back. It's like spiking the ball or walking the batter, idiotic stall tactics that rob the game of being a truly genuine competition between 2 worthy opponents. Just play it out, I always say, and like Major says, rest when you die. No team should sit back on their laurels until it's an official W and that doesn't happen until the final buzzer. So play hard until you hear it, otherwise it's like slowing down in a race just because you see the finish line: run right on through. I would love to blow out Stanford by 20 points, especially with the hometown crowd. Wish I could be there!
The reason why Texas went to half court sets and
stalled offense is simply because our offense is mainly based around 3 point shooting. Let me remind you that we dont have a dominant inside presence and Gary Johnson is not 100%
If you look at most of our losses, our poor 3 point shooting was the reason why we lost. I noticed DJ slowing down the offense around 12 minute mark when we were up about 13 points. Of course, as fans, we want them to keep extending the lead. However, at that point, it is more wise to kill the clock and preserve the lead.
Miami is a decent team, and we didn't need to speed up our offense. That is why I think Barnes elected to trade buckets with Miami.
But I agree with you guys about our half court sets killing our rhythm and momentum. I wished DJ would feed the big man down low and see Dex or Wangmene go to work.
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