Utah State post-game breakdown

[Guest EagleBackr]

A few observations:

? What did I predict about the refs and their early season jitters? Happens every November - it's like they just got new whistles and they fall in love with blowing them! Palming the ball? Three seconds? How many charges did they call tonight? They called Larry for traveling, and he had already had the ball hacked away from him! Pathetic! High School! The white guy was a total joke - might as well have flipped a coin on every call.

? That was a really good opponent we saw tonight - well-coached in every facet of the game. Smart. Tenacious. Did we get a fast break basket all night? I doubt we will see a better team in the Mabee Center this year. USC may have better athletes Wednesday night, but I doubt they will be as well-coached or play as hard.

? Caleb has got to know by now that he can't try to contest shots inside that are already inevitable. Give up the dunk and live to fight another day instead of reaching in for a fourth or fifth foul.

? Mickey played arguably his greatest game ever on the Mabee Center floor. Their big men were very talented and active, but he hung in there tough all night, much of it with Caleb and Larry on the bench.

? Jonathan was forcing the action inside way too much. I wonder if the coaches instructed him to try to beat his man off the dribble because of the quickness disparity, but once he penetrated he often got a bad case of LSG disease and looked to score WAY too much before finally forcing a bad pass or shot. Whatever happened to stopping at the free throw line and dishing it to the cutter or the wing?

? That low, curving, bounce pass from the wing into the post wasn't working - our big men were so off-balance trying to catch it off their shoe tops that the refs couldn't tell they were also being bumped from behind. Several of those passes flew right between their legs, resulting in turnovers or rugby scrums. Is their a law against lobbing the ball?

? Why have such a bad free throw shooter as Yemi on the floor in crunch time? Why not Andrew or Marchello instead? At least they are battle tested in the last couple of years - Yemi hasn't played that many meaningful minutes since high school four years ago. The two missed free throws in overtime killed us.

? Surprised to see Ken Tutt trying to break down the defender off the dribble for the make-or-break shots at the end of regulation and overtime. That's not his forte - he's a catch and shoot guy. Why not run a play for him with a couple of screens? Did he free-lance that, or was that the called play?

? Let's see, we full-court pressed exactly once each half, forcing a bad shot and a turnover respectively. Why are our coaches so tentative about embracing it more than that?

? Owens sure came up strong at the end. He started out slow last year, too. I think he is once again trying to refine his role, this year as the defensive stopper. Frankly, I thought Chris Rouise did a better job on Bryce Drew-clone Carroll than Larry did. But didn't Larry's two free throws in crunch time look good!

? All criticisms aside, I thought this was a very entertaining game between two really good teams. It was a crash course for the team and coaching staff about what our weaknesses are. Could prove much more valuable leading into Alaska than a 50-point blowout of the likes of Oklahoma Wesleyan.

[Guest Rob Marshall]

Great take EB! Well done as usual. We DID get a transition layup in the first half by Tutt off a steal near half-court and he showed speed and athleticism reminiscent of Tim Gill on that play (although Gill might have elevated and flushed on the Utah State defender).

I thought ORU showed much heart and played pretty well in the second half. Michalec certainly did step up his play with Green out of the game in foul trouble, and Owens contributed nicely too until a tough call for his fifth foul toward the end of regulation. Bluitt's six turnovers to five assists in a full 45-minutes of playing time makes me cringe. I'll get over it, but why not play Fowlkes more than three minutes?

Bottom line, if anyone would have said, Green won't play the final ten minutes of regulation (as well as the entire overtime period), there probably aren't too many of us that would have thought the Golden Eagles would have had an opportunity to win the game but clearly they did. Tutt had a very makeable shot to win it, unfortunately it just didn't fall.

Utah State was a fun team to watch play. Their execution on plays coming out of timeouts was phenomenal which is a true sign of being very well coached. I remember seeing them take Kansas to the wire at the Ford Center in OKC during the first round of the NCAA tournament two years ago and I said then how well coached and how much fun Utah State was to watch play.

PS ... regarding post entry passes from the wing ... if your man (offensive player) has a size advantage you "lob" the ball but if the defender is a bigger player the post entry pass is typically a bounce pass.

[Guest EagleBackr]

... regarding post entry passes from the wing ... if your man (offensive player) has a size advantage you "lob" the ball but if the defender is a bigger player the post entry pass is typically a bounce pass.

...then we need to work on bounce passes! Which brings another thought to mind - once again we struggle against a match-up zone, ala Oakland, Valpo, UMKC and Southern Utah. Will ANYONE in our conference play man-to-man against us this year? Not if they're smart (which a lot of the coaches in the conference are). We have GOT to establish other 3-point shooters than just Ken. Will it be JB? Larry? Marchello? Chris is so erratic - out of three trey attempts, you can count on at least one swish and one airball. It's that third one that you never know about!

[tbone77]

Turnovers and poor free throw shooting were our doom (again). Our shooting was a woeful 29% in the first half (I think 22% from the arc). Utah St. gets a ton of credit for most of that in my opinion. Agree with Rob regarding our staying with them in spite of Caleb's lack of minutes. That is actually a ray of hope. We will have to play much better to stay on the floor with them at their place, and I think we CAN. Wondering why we didn't see more of 'Cello when Caleb was on the bench. Scott said that some of the players needed to "buy in". Anybody know who hasn't made their down payment?

[ORUTerry]

Utah State loses to Middle Tennessee State Monday evening, 59 to 60.

[EagleFanatic]

wow, that doesnt look good for ORU.