Well, yesterday wasn't the most fun I have had watching Tech play this season. Like I said in another thread, losing @ UCF isn't a "bad" loss. Despite them being at the bottom of the conference they are a solid team and winning on the road in the B12 is a tough ask. But damn if it wasn't super frustrating to watch. UCF had 32 points in the paint and scored 17 points off of 14 Tech turnovers. Combine that with the bad guard play and voila..... Really tough watch. More than anything Tech just needs to get right health wise. Warren is clearly not close to 100% and this team desperately needs him to make any sort of post season noise. Plus, while Tech is on the cusp of locking in a tournament spot they are not there yet. IMO they need at least 1 more win to solidify a spot. And without Washington that is far from a sure thing.
Things I liked:
Things I didn't like:
Things I liked as much as when I left my phone in an uber and had to chase the car through a parking lot yesterday:
Things I liked:
- Darrion Williams/ Kerwin Walton - These guys were the only offensive threats for Tech yesterday, and I thought played well overall. Darrion continues to steadily improve and seems to have made a real jump as a shot maker. I think he is going to be a star. And Kerwin has continued to show flashes of more than just a catch and shoot game. He made several moves that showed his skill level. His consistency is much needed. Outside of this I can't really say anything else flashed positive to me. Maybe Yalaho making a couple of threes? The stroke looks solid, but I need to see it outside of garbage time.
Things I didn't like:
- FT Shooting - As one of the best FT shooting teams in the country Tech shot 65% from the line yesterday. That's not going to cut it. Especially when you shoot poorly from the field.
- Dumb Turnovers - The number wasn't crazy high , just 14, but the way the happened was not great. Tech seemed to make dumb mistakes with the ball and always at the worst possible time. You can't give a team like UCF who struggles to score in their regular offense repeated chances to score easily. There were multiple bad passes that lead to run outs. And as we have seen for most of the season Tech just isn't strong with the ball. They get ripped or just lose it way too much.
- Warren's toe - He doesn't look near ready to make a positive impact on the game.
Things I liked as much as when I left my phone in an uber and had to chase the car through a parking lot yesterday:
- Guard play - Not going to rehash shooting numbers or efficiency stats here. But for a team that relies so heavily on its backcourt it is very hard to win when they both perform like yesterday. One guy being off is ok and understandable but both guys being huge net negatives? Not going to fly. Call it whatever descriptive word you want but Tech will not win many games (if any) when Pop and Joe regularly do whatever it was, they did yesterday. Flush it and do whatever you gotta do to fix it. Can't keep happening. Guard play is everything in college basketball.
- Getting into the paint / Letting the other team into the paint - When you can't get to the rim and can't stop the opposing team from getting penetration regularly.... That's a problem. Tech settled for contested jumpers and couldn't/wouldn't put any pressure on the rim. That's a hard way to live offensively. And they also let UCF run amok defensively and get whatever they wanted inside. Warren's injury certainly plays a part in this on both ends. But, adding physicality and rim pressure needs to be an urgent priority this offseason.
