We lost a close road game in the MAC. Calm down people.
This was a very frustrating game. Not a particularly good game all around...the pace was fast and the bricks were aplenty. 98 rebounds in the game. We were too flat footed with careless overly fancy passing on offense and did a poor job of boxing out and grabbing the damn ball on defense. Coach Boals is no doubt really on the guys with this performance.
But we also had a lot of unlucky bounces...the rim was feeding the ball right to UB all night. I do not think rebounding will be an issue in the MAC, in fact I think it can be a strength. Not all luck though, there was definitely several that we let a UB guy come out of nowhere to grab a rebound he had no business getting. That'll be a point of emphasis this week.
Wiz getting 16 minutes (maybe more if he didn't foul out?) and DW only 24 (with just 1 foul) is definitely odd. Would love it if someone ask coach if DW is 100%. I understand he is a big guy coming off a medical redshirt year and load management and all that but only 24 mins in a close conference game where we desperately need him and the opponent has little answer for?
Only 2 players over 24 mins and 1 over 28 in a close conference game is pretty crazy...don't think I've ever seen anything like it. Boals, for the time being, seems committed to the deep 10 man rotation and limited minutes all around. Some nights it will be great others not so much.
Jaylin had an awful time distributing the ball tonight (and as an extension DW/Wiz were limited) and AJ couldn't create open looks like he usually can. We didn't shoot well across the board yet had a shot to tie it at the end. I'm disappointed but I can't be sky is falling upset over it. BG won't be easy and we may indeed have a poor record after 5 games but I still think this is a contending team and the MAC will be madness this year.