OSU vs. E. Kentucky Game Thread

I didn't watch the game -- time difference was too much for me with a long week. Looking at the box score, it seems like it was a fair amount of much the same with some improvements. Only 12 turnovers is a big improvement. Finally started hitting some from 3, and Stevie had a good offensive game. Hard to tell how Ethan did. Obviously didn't do much in the way of points, but he had 5 assists and only 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 32 minutes. Freshmen are going to be up and down, so seeing that he contributed in assists and didn't hurt the team with turnovers is a plus. Not a great game overall, but getting a win makes things better.

If we don't beat Arkansas-Pine Bluff big on Saturday, I'll be really disappointed. Looks like they have one scorer - a 6-6 guy. Looking at their stats it appears they might play a pressing defense -- 9 guys with 13 minutes or more and 68 steals. I'm really interested in seeing Travon Harper play. He's listed at 5-8, 220 -- a little fire hydrant.

Against good teams with active bigs  and quick penetrators this team will look much worse. Then we will find out how much these players can improve, and how good the coaching staff is, or isn't. 

I think you could just about see the ceiling on this team yesterday.  They struggled mightily against a good juco level team until they could overwhelm them with pressure D and fast breaking, and 3's.  Will they have that gear against a Cal or the Huskies? 

I was getting pretty p-o-ed after about the third time EKU buried a three from the corner.  But then I looked up EKU's 3-point shooting stats.  They weren't very good.  I imagine that WT told the guys to concentrate on slowing Mayo down, which meant Tres was cheating towards the key, which left the shooters open in the corner.  It would have seemed pretty smart, had not a couple 20% shooters put on their Steph Curry jerseys for while there.  We did keep Mayo under control in that span.

So, I'm cool with that.  That's a coaching decision, and sometimes you take a risk that doesn't seem to pay off.  But maybe if Tres stays on the perimeter man, Mayo might have broken loose inside - maybe even get our other bigs into foul trouble, and change the game that way.

I do think we have to give WT some credit here.  I think we won for two reasons:  Tres woke up in the second half and played like Tres Tinkle.  And coach found the adjustments in the second half that contained Mayo, even with Drew on the bench.  It wasn't a perfect game, but I saw quite a few things to be positive about.

We were favored by what, 14-15, and we won by 12, so that isn't so bad. What was big was that we convincingly won the second half.

We stepped up the defense (TT can play d), we mixed the inside and outside shots, broke down their press attempts, finished the break-away opportunities, and if we had hit more free throws, we would have beat the spread.

EKU did a good job of taking Drew out of the game, until we started to play a better perimeter game, then suddenly Drew got a couple of easy slam dunks.

Do we pass too much? Yes, but if the outside shot confidence grows, the passes will become fewer.

I am not saying there is much room for improvement, but for a second half we played above the level of the competition, and that was a nice 20 minutes to watch.

totally. Beavs stopped the colonels in their tracks. Froze them up like a soda left outside on a cold Fargo night. Quite a defensive juggernot.