Biggest factor in this game was the experience levels of the two teams. It was repeated several times that the opponent had played over 80 (?) games a year over the last few years and had won some league tournaments.
Hated that Shawn Jones and Marcos Knight were injured and didn't play. Shawn was obvious on the bench - It wasn't clear to me if Knight was there. And where was Dendy? If he was mentioned I missed it. Those were three of the players I was most hoping to see.
Hard to win when the three guards with the most PT are Washington, Jason Jones, and Massey. Massey is a good floor general (in a structured system) and really good defensively but his best offense is his floater going toward the basket (the best of any MT player in my memory). None of the three are great shooters or creators - something needed in this type of game.
Sure wish Boro product Hurt had come to MT either after high school or JUCO (Do I remember we tried to get him after JUCO but not out of high school? He signed with Lipscomb where his game blew up and he decided to go JUCO to aim for bigger and better which I guess he got at K-State?). He would have had a nice career (2 or 4 years) for Davis.
This game did give me more appreciation of the job Davis (and staff) has done with the players we have had.