1. This game is the culmination of everything we feared about this team. There’s not a consistent “scorer” that we can lean on, not enough shooters, and we’re terrible at the rim. This is just a bad offensive team. B-A-D.
2. What I didn’t expect, though, is the poor defense we’ve seen in all five of these games. We don’t turn over the other team (only 7 against American, and 7 against CCSU), and these teams have been shooting the lights out from deep. CCSU ran pick and roll all night, and they were able to create multiple options out of that set. They had multiple lobs to the screener, or the ball handler got an open midrange, or he sprayed out to an open shooter. We never really figured it out.
3. We didn’t reach 60 points. We cut it to 50-47 but then went ice cold, and CCSU outscored us 17-7 down the stretch. This is against an NEC team. That is scary to think about. Throttled 67-54 on our home court, and CCSU punking us with an alleyoop in the last minute.
4. Dylan Grant had a bad night (6 points on 2-10 from the field), and this game showed Grant’s limitations a bit. He’s good attacking the rim. He’s good at spot up threes. But he’s not good shooting on the move or creating space to give himself shots. Also a bad night for JMike, his first real stinker this year with just 2 points (1-6) and 3 assists.
5. After scoring 15 points in the first half, Tariq Francis disappeared and only scored 4 points the rest of the way. But he was still our leading scorer with 19, as nobody else was able to score.
6. Good move by Pike with the Dortch and The Four Freshmen lineup in the second half after we fell behind by 12. That group brought energy with the full court press and sparked a run that eventually got us back in the game. But we petered out after we brought the starters back in.
7. More bad offense notes — We shot just 21-58 overall (36%), and just 5-19 from deep (26%). We must’ve missed 20 shots at the rim. NOTHING was falling. CCSU ran better sets with the constant motion, down screens, back screens, pick and roll etc, and they have more skilled offensive players than we do. Scary to think about.
8. Another night where we lost at the 3pt line … by a LOT. CCSU was 9-21 from deep. We were also outrebounded 41-37.
9. Freshman report — another so-so game for Badalau with 11 points. But perplexing that Pike is allowing him to play iso ball in an effort to generate his own shot. That’s not his game, as he’s not athletic enough, and he got his shot blocked at least twice. We got energy and defense from Nwuli and Mark in the 2nd half, but not much else. And we got nothing whatsoever from Zrno in 4 first half minutes, or from Kaden Powers in 4 second half minutes (0-3 from the field).
10. Manny Ogbole had another pretty good night with 6 points (3-3), 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 1 steal.
11. I know, I know, none of this really matters because we’re going to stink so bad, etc. I get it. But I’m still going to do these Rapid Reactions until the season is truly lost.
