hmph....

The Maroon · hmph....

Bucknell took it to us from the get-go. We trailed by 18 at the half. Bucknell's Hope Foster played a tremendous game at both ends of the floor and it was an incredibly dismal night in the Kirby Sports complex.

The officiating was the worst I saw all year, but it doesn't change the fact that we got outplayed...The Bison had 15 more rebounds than we did and we shot a horrendous 27%--I think the 3 on 3 kids at halftime shot better...

I'm not smart enough to know what's wrong---but tonight felt way too much like games of past seasons. We clearly have matchup issues with good post players like Foster but I feel like I'm watching a completely different team than I saw earlier this season particularly on offense. We still have two of the last 3 at home...but it seems like eons ago where we really looked like a title contendor.

Tammy looked mortified as she left the court for the half. I couldn't bear to see the end. I left with us down by 14 and 3:08 to go...Looks like it only got worse.

Xboreturns

There were more cheerleaders and dancers than there were fans in the stands. And the people who were not there must have known something.

Bucknell was taller, quicker, faster, and more athletic player for player. But thats no excuse for coming out of the locker room unprepared to play. We got beat for a layup off the opening tip and got beat down the court numerous times early in the game. Tammy had to call a timeout at the 3 minute mark to try to get the team focused. BU shot 59% in the first half, we shot 29%.

Once again the offense failed to get out of the 40s. I'm getting a bad feeling that this team is satisfied with 13 wins.

The Maroon

Sleeping on it has made the memory worse. The crowd wasn't that big--but there was some noise. Bucknell is a big game for us in any sport, at any time--and while it's great that we beat them at Sojka we REALLY NEEDED last night and we got beat on from the opening bell.

We're 1-5 in our last 6 games--and none of the losses were that close. We close out I really believed I was watching a good team a few weeks ago...maybe a "special" team but the road is VERY tough from here. All three of our games are against teams ahead of us in the standings.

Those of you that hate it when we run our offense because we don't shoot often enough for their taste got a showcase of what happened when we shoot plenty but don't focus on getting a good shot. There's balance--we had it early on, we don' t now. Although Bucknell played one hell of a game.

No more predictions for me---I'll just be there in hostile territory on Saturday!

Xboreturns

We took 56 shots, 2 less than Bucknell. I don't consider that a high number. For comparison, lets look at the Lehigh game, the only game we won scoring less than 50 points. In that game we took just 42 shots, making 18. However, we held Lehigh to 38 and they made only 12.

When you get behind by 15 points in the opening minutes, you allow the other team to dictate the pace of the game. BU pushed the ball up court, we used the 3/4 press to try to slow them down with little impact.

When you are that far behind you need to score more quickly to make up ground. I think that's the single biggest problem with this offense, it doesn't allow you to score quickly. By taking the full 30 seconds to score you shorten the game and when you are behind, it makes it very difficult to comeback.

But lets not overlook the fact that BU dominated in the paint, outscoring us 34-16.

The Maroon

It wasn't the number, it was the quality of the shots. We weren't getting anything from our offense. I don't think the shot clock was a factor at all. Fine, we get behind by 15...We keep at it and get the lead cut to 10 at the half it's a completely different game. We got away from what we do well last night---we just didn't look good.