...and I pretty much had most of this written by the under-8 of the 1st half --- and then the 2nd half proved my point.

- By the 3rd possession it was painfully clear that they had scouted and were anticipating all of our predictable horizontal actions. Their guys were simply ignoring anything vertical and opening up to passing lanes.

- And when we got 1/5 and/or 5/1 mismatches on like 8 different occasions before the under-8, instead of letting those guys take advantage, we've got other guys running around in semi-crcles or crossing the ball-handler and getting in the damn way. For pete's sake, opponents can see our "zoom" actions coming down I-40.

- But there's a LARGER question: Why in the hell would you start our smallest iineup against the biggest team in D1 unless you're gonna PRESS? And why use mid-post doubles on Flagg when it just opens up shooters without stressing the ball to any degree?

- Those questions were made even more poignant when, in the second half --- LO AND BEHOLD --- we legitmately went MULTIPLE, mixing Zone and 40, and mostly successfully. Of course we stubbornly waited until precious minutes had ticked off. Still, we beat them by 5 in the 2nd half and believe me, dook was NOT coasting. I'm not into moral victories --- I'm into LEARNING --- and all I can hope is the staff damn well learned something for the rest of the schedule.

- We also eventually played our best offensive ball late when we started using VERTICAL initiations from the key. Some of the actions that got Drake in space for a vertical drive, for example, worked very well.

- But back to the defensive end, look, us trying to be stubbornly in Man vs dook is a loser. For one thing, bless his heart, there is nobody in the dook rotation that RJ can guard --- and hoo-buddy, they exploited that every chance they got.

- Finally, when I wrote that pissed-off abbreviated post after PItt, I neglected to mention the point that this team thus far has had NO IDENTITY. I did notice that @gunslingerdick picked up my slack in the replies and he was spot on. And we've also got Frosh wings making Frosh mistakes on top of our size deficit. My point is, we at least got a glimpse of what this team's identitiy SHOULD be --- be MULTPILE and aggressive from the tip, and on offense, stop with all the called weaves, etc and let play-makers make plays TOWARD the rim. Moreover, make teams guard US in the inevitable mismatches we can create.

- Oh, and one last thing --- once we started showing a defensive identity, ain't it amazing how suddenly the size deficit didn't matter quite as much when we weren't a damn SITTING DUCK anymore, huh? And I'm gonna tell ya, Wash and Lubin started holding their own in the trenches. And I'm also gonna mention that Tyson acquitted himself quite well, and helped mitigate the size thing a bit.

Anyway, there it is. This OUGHTA be a epiphany moment for Hubert. I mean, geez, you gotta know we're starting any game at HIS with a 10-point deficit just from the "treatment" we're gonna get (and did), so why put yourself at a further disadvantage by playing right into their strengths? Fact is, we have personnel who were MADE to be multiple and aggressive --- NOT to be stuck in Man defense. On the other end it's about NOT making ourselves predictable and easy to guard. Stop dicking around horizontally on the perimeter and stress the damn rim. We've got a week to learn. Will we? We'll see...