I loved this line:
“Perhaps more telling is that after blowing a defensive rotation — he was late on help-side and allowed Smith to catch an over-the-top pass in the post for a dunk — Oubre was yanked, yelled at on the bench … and put right back into the game a minute later.”
I hope Self keeps doing that to these freshmen. I love it.
I’m assuming we are better-conditioned than them, if anything because of a) Hudy and b) better athletes. Under normal circumstances, I’d say run 'em out of the gym. But under normal circumstances, we’d be playing at AFH. Since we’re not, I’d say a balanced attack is best. We gotta play some half court, if anything, just to minimize crowd impact, particularly in our first true road game.
Screens and swings and a little weaving in the half-court game, and aggressive-yet-opportunistic fast breaks would be my formula. (But thank God I’m not coach!)
Forget about the streak. The Big XII isn’t that good anyway, so from here out it’s not that significant. We need to go the way of Izzo and sacrifice early wins for late wins.
Give our talented guys the most minutes and let them play through their mistakes. Only sit them if they’re being lazy, and don’t sit them too long.
Final Four all the way.
Just another example of Self being unlucky and Cal being lucky.