A combination of factors I think. Also, Colorado hit 13 threes. A lot of those were wide open. If that doesn’t happen, the game is close (or we may have even won). Sometimes things don’t go your way in a lot of areas and they didn’t yesterday
LADY RAIDER BB NCAA Tournament: Middle Tennessee (28-4) vs Colorado (23-8), ESPNNews, 6PM, Saturday, March 18, 2023
- Thread starter SpaceRaider
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For those saying “well maybe it’s the player quality” - all of these upset winners fit the same mold of player we do! Something has to change for us to get to the success we want to have.
It truly is a head scratcher. They went on a tear in the WNIT last year, even beat Toledo on their home court and returned almost the same cast. They were playing well in the early part of the season and looked good doing it, but later in the season, they were struggling in conference play even though they were winning something just seemed off.
These tournament blowouts have got to come to an end and we need some wins there. These performances may have an impact if we have another season like this year's w/ls and end up losing in conference tournament, it would not surprise to be left out. I'm not so sure with the seeding it might have happened this year.
I appreciate Whittington and Malashka and will miss their efforts. Every team but one in that tournament loses their last game. I just wish the loss had come later in the process.
These tournament blowouts have got to come to an end and we need some wins there. These performances may have an impact if we have another season like this year's w/ls and end up losing in conference tournament, it would not surprise to be left out. I'm not so sure with the seeding it might have happened this year.
I appreciate Whittington and Malashka and will miss their efforts. Every team but one in that tournament loses their last game. I just wish the loss had come later in the process.
And it's not like we haven't shown we can compete and beat very good P5 teams. Vandy x2 last year, Illinois last year, Wake Forest last year, Louisville by 18 this year... The strength of this team gives me a lot of hope for next year considering we have so much of our team coming back at this point.
Maybe Rick puts much pressure on them come NCAA tournament time. Did anyone else see that snippet of the pregame speech where he was telling them they could be one of the greatest MT teams of all time? Seems to me like that's unneeded pressure to put on them. There is already a ton of pressure that goes with these games. Why add extra? Could explain them being cold from 3 point land. Doesn't excuse the terrible defense though.
The defense was the biggest issue in the Colorado game. Their shooters were just open left and right and, unfortunately, made their shots.
Like was said earlier that may have been Matt's strategy to start. Knowing the physical interior strength of Colorado & considering the small number of outside shots they normally took he could have had our perimeter players sink off to protect our post area. I saw on more than one occasion this past year we would target a specific player & leave them totally wide open. Many times it worked fine. If that was the case it certainly didn't work against Colorado. And if that was the strategy it should have been dropped after 1st quarter.
Or alternatively we were just slow to react all game long, kind of like "deer in headlights" syndrome. Totally stunned by what was going on. I tend to hope it was the former, not the latter.
At the end of basketball season the Insell's need to do 1 thing & 1 thing only. Call coach Jeff Walz at Louisville & ask him what he does specifically to prepare his team for NCAA tournament action. Listen intently & take notes in triplicate!
Then drop whatever the heck you've been doing for the last 15 years, & put his words into full use.
Then drop whatever the heck you've been doing for the last 15 years, & put his words into full use.
This. This x100. Jeff is a close friend of this staff, and you know he will tell them whatever they'd like to know.
