I thought we really found something today defensively. This team has been really excellent offensively thus far. The defense was the culprit in the previous losses. Today was the first time I thought we started to put it all together.

The end result isn't what I was hoping for, but to me this was a really positive sign. I think the live ball turnovers in the first half and the subsequent 10 fast break points were the difference in the game.

We do need Boots back. This is still a special team as constructed. You can just see it in the fight.

We kind of played like we always do. They just missed open 3s. It worked for the most part. Disappointed in the easy layups in first half. Still, give the boys credit for fighting their tails off.

Felt like most of the threes were contested except the couple times we lost Cryer, and even one of those Solo slipped. They also hit some really tough ones. And when you have guards like that, they're going to get open a few times.

Overall liked the defensive performance today. We just need more options on offense. We gotta figure out how to get the ball to the middle of the floor and get some space for Coleman.

The 3/2 matchup zone with solo up top changed the game

He was refusing to get beat off the dribble easily, which makes everything behind him easier

We need to run it more against teams with no traditional post scoring threat

Our regular defense is more or less a 3-2 matchup zone, but yeah, I like it when we get Solo up there when he can play it without fouling, although we do give up a bit on the boards.

The 2nd half defense today was different than the rest of this year. More straight man to man, less over helping on strong side and weak side, and less doubling post (unless team has great post player we don't need to always trap the post).

All of this led to more contested jumpers, and credit to them they hit some big shots. I hope we play D like that the rest of the year.

I'm not really sure it was that different, I think we just didn't make many mistakes and Houston seemed to get a little mentally fatigued by us.

But honestly it's hard to tell what defense we're really in half the time unless the offense runs some really long sets.

Incredibly we're now up to 6th in the country offensively according to kenpom. 85th defensively.

Our defense is not that great. Everyone shoots pretty well against us but I suspect it'll get better.

I think it will, too. Every year there have been second half of the season improvements on D. Admittedly it's hard to believe a Buzz coached team is that offensively tilted.

Our offense is something of a statistical marvel based almost exclusively on how unbelievably good we are at offensive rebounding. We're not really good at running an offense, and we're truly awful shooting, but we're the best in the country at getting the ball back when we miss.

Also interesting that our offensive efficiency is so high when we've played the 1st, 2nd, and 5th ranked teams in defensive efficiency.

Honestly, I think that's playing into it some. Good defensive teams force misses, and we're strangely sort of built for that. I think it's probably overestimating our prowess against average defenses. But we'll see.

If you watched Simpson's post-game presser he highlighted Solo running at the 3 as changing things.

He said with Solo at the three we had "three first team all America rebounders" and a guard could not keep Solo off the glass.

We'll need to get better at shooting to make any real noise imo. Having said that , it could happen.

halfastros81 said:

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We'll need to get better at shooting to make any real noise imo. Having said that , it could happen.

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Boots need to get healthy and return for the rest of the season. I would play Solo a lot more; I just think Solo has more upside and he needs more minutes to develop his offense.

Agree on Solo. I really like the intensity when Solo and Garcia are in the game together . Buzz has played with quite a few combos like he always does preconference. It'd be fun to hear him talk about his observations to date but of course that won't happen. We'll just have to wait to see it unfold.

I feel like if the staff told Solo…. Look to score ….good things would happen but probably should have done it 4-5 weeks ago.