Coming out of halftime at the first Ohio State game, I thought this team was a sweet 16 team or better. Given where we ended up this team underachieved by two wins. Iowa and Wisconsin wins at home lead to a 5/6 seed and a top 25 finish. This is where Pikiell's team should be right now. The key factors in not getting there were below average 3 point shooting from RJH, Jr and others and MJ's foul troubles. W/o those both happen.
I’ll address this since ...last year I nailed our season to a T at 20-11 and a NCAA bid....but this year was way off in my overestimation saying we would make the major step up at 15-5
For us to have gone 15-5 from 11-9
In the big ten... there were a few things that had to happen that didn’t quite happen or really were off
1.) I really believed that experience and maturity would lead to better overall ball movement for open looks from three ...and we would shoot much better. And while I thought our looks from three did get better this year...we just didn’t hit them ...and I felt that a lot of that was mental. I am hoping that the weight of making the tourney being off...that we can loosen up and get hot. If we get hot from three...we can make a run ....
2.) we really needed someone to step up and being a leading scorer. That did happen....Ron and Jacob did score more ...got their averages up to 15 and 14...but it was so damn uneven
3.) We really need some more scoring balance from the underside of the roster....This is one that hurt The most . While we got enough from Myles and geo with what Ron and Jacob scored ... Really didn’t the 5-8 guys to chip in with enough offense ...those 5-7 points missing a game definitely had an impact on the offense ...and other than Mathis...the other three just didn’t have a few 12-14 point games to fill in at times ...not enough balance. When These four chipped in more...you will find our record was A lot better this year ....
4.) I really thought we would be a better team rebounding team ...that didn’t happen ...especially with a tall back court to help out.
5.) we never owned the last 8 minutes like an experienced team should if it wants to have a big season
Yes.... We did beat minny twice, Syracuse, Illinois and Indiana on the road in the close end games in the 6-8 minutes ...But we lost close games to Iowa at home, Wisconsin At home, Penn state on the road, blew the Ohio state game on the road (some of that was self inflicted ) , ...plus we played road games against Iowa and Michigan where we had every opportunity to come back and win and didn’t get over the hump offensively
I felt that against the better teams ...with the exception of Illinois, we never not put together a compete 8 minute finish ...That an experienced team with high aspirations needs to go if wants to have a big season
So....while I would not call this season an underachievement at all...I would point to those reasons on why we were “only” 10-10...and not 14-6/15-5
Which is a shame, because I don’t think there was a game this year that I thought we won that we weren’t the better team on the court that evening.
Conversely ...other than really bad shooting, I thought we were better that night than Wisconsin at the RAC and lost, thought we were better than Iowa at the RAC but didn’t get a stop on the last 6 possessions....
Combine of all of that ...don’t think we underachieved ...but we didn’t achieve as much as we could have ....
