I'd rather take a hard fought road/neutral loss than be someone like Nebraska (18-1 home, 4-8 road) or Iowa State (18-0 home, 6-7 road) and go around acting like we're king shit because we get the benefit of setting our own cupcake schedule.
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[March 10, 2024] #1 Indiana State (28-5) vs #2 Drake (27-6)
- Thread starter Jason Svoboda
- Start date
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Was surprised Jayson wasn’t on him more. On those fadeaways it probably didn’t matter.
Man, what a game. So unfortunate it turned it out the way it did. I thought we were a team of destiny this year and when swope hit that +1 3 I thought there was no way we were losing. But it just didn't happen. Props to Drake, i thought they played about as well as you could; maybe they match-up well against us because they played about as well as they could have in our first matchup in Des Moines as well. I mean starting off the game 7 for 7 on 3s is just insane. You would be lucky to do that during warm-ups, let a long a championship game.
I had real good seats, about 3 rows up from mid-court so i could see a lot of the details happening. Drake has been one my least favorite teams that past few years, because honestly i thought they were overrated. I have much more respect for them now. Overton does not play like a freshman, you can just see it on his face that he has the poise of a senior. Enright is still unlikable and flops like crazy (that "moving screen" call on Bledson happened right infront of me and was an absolutely horrid call. Enright got it because he whipped his head back and his damn curly ass hair went flying back. I swear guys with long hair get those calls more) but i will give Enright credit, he has worked on his game and has improved in that starter role. I thought DeVries the first 2 years in the Valley were overrated as well, and honestly he probably was. He was a volume scorer because he was a volume shooter with an very good team around him. But this season and especially yesterday he was a man among boys out there. He looked the part of MVP for both reg-season and tournament.
I had real good seats, about 3 rows up from mid-court so i could see a lot of the details happening. Drake has been one my least favorite teams that past few years, because honestly i thought they were overrated. I have much more respect for them now. Overton does not play like a freshman, you can just see it on his face that he has the poise of a senior. Enright is still unlikable and flops like crazy (that "moving screen" call on Bledson happened right infront of me and was an absolutely horrid call. Enright got it because he whipped his head back and his damn curly ass hair went flying back. I swear guys with long hair get those calls more) but i will give Enright credit, he has worked on his game and has improved in that starter role. I thought DeVries the first 2 years in the Valley were overrated as well, and honestly he probably was. He was a volume scorer because he was a volume shooter with an very good team around him. But this season and especially yesterday he was a man among boys out there. He looked the part of MVP for both reg-season and tournament.
I think this team will squeak into the tournament and if they do this game should help with a couple of adjustments that will be necessary against the better teams they would see outside of the play in.
Drake was really aggressive and physical guarding the P & R and it did a couple things. It sped both Robbie and the ball handler up to the point they were not effective early in the shot clock and it led to rushed/forced shots later in the shot clock and too many dry posessions in the first 30-minutes of the game. I think the group got much better later in the game at exploiting the aggression and over commits but just got there too late and burned too much energy in the comeback.
Drake also ran guys at Robbie quickly when he became the ball handler which took away a lot of what he can do when super patient with his mid-post back downs or with his probing dribble drives. I think that part of his game will be taken away in the tournament too.. He likely will have to do more passing/playmaking off a catch closer to the basket. Maybe after setting more picks for shooters vs. recieving the ball off a the high pick and roll?
Not anything for this tournament run but feels like for next year this team needs to find a defensive minded, longer wing in the primary rotation that can deny the ball and contest shots.
No doubt the outcome yesterday was also just a bad mix of the Tree's missing too many open 3's and Drake hitting almost all of theirs. Would have been nice to trade a couple of the ones that went down on Saturday that we didn't need and get them to go in against Drake....
Drake was really aggressive and physical guarding the P & R and it did a couple things. It sped both Robbie and the ball handler up to the point they were not effective early in the shot clock and it led to rushed/forced shots later in the shot clock and too many dry posessions in the first 30-minutes of the game. I think the group got much better later in the game at exploiting the aggression and over commits but just got there too late and burned too much energy in the comeback.
Drake also ran guys at Robbie quickly when he became the ball handler which took away a lot of what he can do when super patient with his mid-post back downs or with his probing dribble drives. I think that part of his game will be taken away in the tournament too.. He likely will have to do more passing/playmaking off a catch closer to the basket. Maybe after setting more picks for shooters vs. recieving the ball off a the high pick and roll?
Not anything for this tournament run but feels like for next year this team needs to find a defensive minded, longer wing in the primary rotation that can deny the ball and contest shots.
No doubt the outcome yesterday was also just a bad mix of the Tree's missing too many open 3's and Drake hitting almost all of theirs. Would have been nice to trade a couple of the ones that went down on Saturday that we didn't need and get them to go in against Drake....
Agreed. I don't think anyone else stopped him all season. He's just a very gifted offensive player. Credit where credit is due.
I agreed with you at first on the "moving screen" call. They replayed it and the commentators explained that if Jabo had remained stationary it would not have been called but you aren't allowed to hand the ball off and then make the turn. That was a tough one.
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Unfortunately it was 100% an illegal screen and it came at a really terrible time