bobinator said:
Texas did shift up their defense in the second half and started closing out on the perimeter, so I get why the shots weren't there. And that big lineup of theirs caused us some problems.
I also thought we did a pretty good job of adjusting to their adjusting and trying to attack the paint better, but then we shot uncharacteristically terribly from 2 in the second half (even for us.) We were 6/21 (29%) inside the arc in the second half which is just insanely bad. Our worst game of the year from 2 was Oregon and we shot 33% in that one.
And it wasn't just one guy. Phelps goes 1/6 from 2 in the second half, Payne goes 2/4 (and 3/10 for the game when he'd been shooting like 80% lately), Taylor goes 0/3.
That's your three best scoring options lately going a combined 3/13 on two point shots in the second half. Just absurdly bad.
One worrisome thing about this stat is that teams have traditionally kind of tried to force us to make 3s because we don't shoot that well, but here as you mention, Texas really rethought their defense and forced us inside the 3 point line unlike anyone else this year.
Here, our lack of passing and Wade's lack of size really hurt us. We basically spent the second half taking contested 2s and tough layups in traffic and not getting our misses. 3s make for good offensive rebound attempts because of the space on the court and the typically long bounces off the rims, plus we occasionally make them.
It seemed like Texas taking away the 3 point line flummoxed is completely and disrupted the offensive rhythm we had in the first half.
It's worrisome because other teams could obviously emulate this approach and I don't think that bodes well for us.