We decided we'd get the ball to Phil to make plays, and he made many big plays. His yards after a catch, which were at least 10 or more, were just amazing. |
We did a nice job of handling the first five to seven minutes of the game. We told our guys Duke was going to come out in those first few minutes and try to get us on our heels and that if we could work through that we'd be in good shape. That's what happened. A tone was set and I think they knew they were in for a contest all night. |
We didn't have any timeouts, so we have a 45 set that we put Darrel Mitchell in a corner, and we hand him the ball and have our two post men (Davis and Thomas) go run and set a double stagger screen on him and just let him find a way to shoot it. |
We didn't run it precisely like we could draw it on the board, but certainly we did enough, and he was able to break free for just long enough to set his feet and rise up and hit a big shot. |
We didn't think he was playing as well as he was capable. He did get in some early foul trouble, but I don't think he was as mentally sharp as we needed him to be. |
We got better offensively in the second half. We rebounded the ball a little bit better the second half. We got to the foul line the second half, which is what we wanted to do the whole game. |
We had planned to red-shirt Magnum. But when Tyrus got hurt (late in the season) we needed him. He is right now where Tyrus was at this time last season. |
We hadn't run it in a game but maybe one time. We happened to work on it in our practice the other day. |
We have a lot of confidence. I'm not saying we're going to win every game. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying the message we sent tonight was that we looked like a real team. |
We just didn't think he was mentally as sharp as we needed him to be. |
We just were not good enough to close it out. That's a compliment to Florida, too, because they made it a little more difficult. |
We knew early on that Duke was going to try and pressure us, do what they do best and get in lanes. Our team was able to fight through that, and we scored some easy baskets on them. We did a nice job in the first five or seven minutes, and after that, they knew they would be in a contest. |
We knew that if we were to win, we were going to have to hit some outside shots. But we never could get offense going from the outside. We were 0-for-6 from three-point range. |
We may see colder weather start to come back in January after a brief respite. The market had been oversold and we've seen new length coming in. |
We might just have to play Tyrus in short stretches. As opposed to playing him 12 or 14 minutes straight, maybe he can just go five and we'll take him out, let him rest and put him back in. The more he plays, the better he'll feel and the more comfortable he'll feel. We'll make more of a determination of that as the week goes on. |