One thing I have loved about CTB's teams over the last few years has been our toughness. We grind out games, make big shots and rarely make a bonehead play late. Putting aside the absolutely inexplicable losses to FSU and GT, we have been extremely tough even when we lose. MB made what should have been the winning shots late against Ville and Duke; we nearly overcame a big deficit late against Tech and Joe hit a huge 3 late against MSU.
Even with this toughness, we need more of it, because if we are going to take the next step, we need to beat the best of the best such as Duke and MSU. While we played an excellent game against Duke, a few things were lacking.
First, we need Gill to step up even more. Gill got an early foul against Plumlee, but never really attacked him again in the first half when a second foul on Plumlee would have been devastating to Duke. Also, when we were up 11, he had the ball right at the rim, but a surprising weak (for him) move led to miss and then a quick Duke 3 that killed our momentum and prevented us from holding a solid lead at half. In big moments, we need Gill to play big. You may not get a second chance to deal an early blow to a team like Duke or MSU, and you cannot blow it with a weak move.
Second, our role players need to step it up. MS was great yesterday, and he needs to receive credit for shutting down Allen on the last play. By beating Allen to the spot, he forced Allen to shuffle his feet, and then he out-toughed Allen in the air and did not allow Allen to release the shot until his foot landed. The fact that the officials did not make the call should not take away from MS's great play. While MS played great, and MT had a great spurt, others did not step up. IW has unique talents on this team, and he absolutely cannot get into foul trouble when his services are needed. DH needs to shoot with more confidence. He had two wide open 3s in the first half and missed them both badly. These guys need to step it up down the stretch.
CTB is learning fast as a coach, and the slow starts that plaqued us late last year, and earlier this year are gone, but when everything is on the line, he cannot allow the other team's best player have a one on one opportunity against someone who is not Brogdon. On the final play, I would loved to see him instruct the team to double GA on a Duke screen thus forcing someone else to take the last shot. Also, for the final play, I would have loved him to switch MB onto GA, knowing that Duke was going to GA give the last shot.
Bottom line, this team is poised for a big run, and there will be at least one moment of truth, and this team, and not just MB, must be ready to seize the moment.
