by Chicagojayfan » Sun Mar 10, 2024 8:28 am
Pretty crazy game - from scorching hot offensively to very very cold, but managing to win on the road against a team that has probably the most effective weapon in attacking our defense (i.e., Dixon) is a great thing
Rebounding/Turnovers:
We generally did well on the boards w/53.4% TRBs, and Turnovers were generally in check at just 7.9% (versus 13.6% last time we played them). When we control those 2 things, we tend to win. We did have a couple stretches of Turnovers that led to points though (15 off of Turnovers for Nova) that could have sunk us, but these stats maybe control our future more than any other. When we keep teams off the boards and hold down our turnovers, we almost always have enough of a stretch offensively to win
Defense:
We came out super locked in on D, but Nova adjusted. The stretch of time when we had Baylor on the bench with his second foul really changed this game IMO. Not only did our offense suffer, but the D was put into more mismatches than it had been, that continued into the second half with them scoring over 1.2 PPP through the half.
Near the end there was a great moment when they ran the PnR to get Moore on Kalkbrenner again and Mac/Kalk fouled him using one of the fouls we had to give. Really good bit of smart basketball there
Overall a pretty good performance defensively holding them at just over 1 PPP for the game, and their 4th worst home game offensively (100.5 offensive game score)
Offense:
We were scorching hot in the first few minutes, but, obviously, that changed hard. I tend to think a lot of that was due to Baylor being on the bench with the second foul screwing up our offensive flow, but we got enough done to get by. Nova's generally been pretty good defensively this year, and we hit just enough shots after the hot streak to get the win
I really wish we'd been able to get the ball to Kalkbrenner more, but Nova was definitely doing what they could to stop that, but, even so, just regularly getting Kalk touches inside leads to better shots and opportunities, and keeps us from the hot/cold of shooting jumpers over and over.
Not one of our best, but not bad in the context of how well Nova plays D either - 103.5 offensive game score by BBall reference, but 10th worst of the year for us.
Individuals:
Trey - shows how mature and confident he is to make the defensive mistake to foul Dixon and then make the great play at the end of the game to hit the bucket. He also played ALL 40 minutes yesterday.
Baylor - continuing the push to be POY for the BE, I'm pretty convinced this would have been a much easier win if he hadn't gotten that 2nd foul in the first half
Kalk - They were doing everything they could to limit his opportunities in the paint yesterday, but he came up big when it mattered (even after the ankle roll)
Ashworth - seems to definitely be in a bit of a shooting slump (hope to heck it turns it around for the BE/NCAA Tourneys), but also contributed nicely yesterday, 8 assists, 7 boards, 2 steals w/ a couple of those assists on just, almost perfect passes to Kalk in the paint. As with some earlier games, he had a lot of rim in-and-out shots so hopefully those land during the tournaments
Miller - gave us some good minutes and hit some 3's that became important. Box score only says 1 board, but I thought he scrapped for more boards/loose balls than he got credit for, and his D was very good.
Bello is great, but I thought we were going small much of the second half with him and it hurt us a bit defensively. That said, there was a sequence where he was caught on a switch and had to block out one of their bigger guys - which he did aggressively, allowing Kalk to get the board, and then he was rewarded by getting the pass and hitting the 3 on the other end. That block out was just a sign of how good we were on the boards yesterday and how Bello does the little things so well
Bench was otherwise very short. Green showed some good minutes, and King even had a good minute
Overall - Same record in the BE as last year (14-6), but finish 2nd instead of 3rd, and we are only 1 win behind last year's total of 24. Team's had some ups and downs, but is rounding into shape nicely - 7-1 in the last 8 w/ only the road loss at St. Johns. Defense is generally playing pretty well and offensively, we are having some solid ball even on the road with some stretches of just beautiful basketball that should scare anyone we see in the NCAAs