and by the time we did we were too tired.

Take Murphy for example.

He had a shot blocked and an alley oop blocked. Normally he doesn't make those mistakes. But he had to get used to their length and athleticism. Plus those ghosts we were seeing - it's not because we decided to start seeing ghosts. Memphis caused us to make decisions quicker, made us execute passes better that we aren't used to (I think we turned it over 3 times making an entry pass to the high post - I remember the 1st possession of the 2nd half Murphy turning it over this way because Memphis was not allowing an easy entry pass to Mutts on the high post)

Also - Yes Murphy is used to playing 35 minutes a game, but he is not used to beating pressure all game, especially against guards who are more athletic and will take the ball from you if your aren't operating at a high level. That takes alot of energy.

On the other end we played good defense but had to expend alot of energy to play against Memphis athleticism. By the end of the game I think our guards were gassed. But I don't think there were other options for now. Cattoor got the ball taken from him when he was PG and Pedulla is to new. Our bigs were gassed too. They were leaned on and pushed for the whole game. By the end of the game they were spent. I guess Ojiako is not ready for a game like this but it would have been better I think if he got 10 - 15 minutes this game to give Mutts and Keve some rest.

For me - we played against athleticism and length that we haven't seen in practice or games and we never quite got our feet underneath us until we were too tired. But that's OK - I think we get alot better from this game. Interested to see how we do against Xavier tomorrow.


[Post edited by HokieHill at 11/25/2021 12:39PM]