keys to the game....

[Harrison]

1.  too many missed lay ins DJ, Barro, and LAzar had a ton.  Lazar needs to use the glass more, Ooze needs to go up stronger and DJ was unlucky on a few.

2.  poor coaching move in the first half about 8 minute mark jerel comes back in with two fouls and guards Nelson who simply abuses him to build a nice cushion.  Jerel had to play soft and Nelson made him pay.

3.  too many offensive rebounds given up late.

4.  a few poor decisions on 3's late, Jerel on 2 late possessions forced poor threes one pass into the psossesion.  Dj did it too of no passes and Cubes shot one totally off balance 1 pass in.

All in all a well played game by MU a few of those layins bounce our way and we win.  Play like that nad we will have a nice season.  Ed Hightower should be written up for hi performance tonight, why is he allowed to go have a conversation with Kryzewski and hol up the game at every dead ball?  Also he called charges every time on us we drove and blocks on us every time they drove.  I would love to see the percentages of his called that went our way versus theirs.  Other two refs were ok, Hightower was brutal, nevertheless a few made layups and we win. 

[Big Papi]

With all the no footers missed, blocks called on us that could easily gone the other way and the near steals that should have been, we could have won if only a couple of those went our way. 

We did throw up some shots that were not good shots at all.  Very little ball reversal going up against the zone.

[chapman]

Point #1 caught me the most.  Actually I would call it all-around not finishing.  How many almost-steals or loose balls were in our hands and ended up slipping away?  I think fatigue had something to do with it.  But we also tried to drive inside way too many times.  The other guards need to copy McNeal's pull-up jumper when he's in foul trouble.  

I also noticed point #2.  It's just hard all-around having your MVP in foul trouble the whole game.  Of course, foul #2 was probably the worst offensive foul call I've seen.

For #3, I think we really need another inside presence.  Ooze didn't play terribly, and Burke's minutes are higher quality than in year's past.  But there were so many situations where it was asking too much of Ooze or Burke to handle themselves inside with Fitz or Hayward, who were playing in foul trouble and not huge interior players to begin with.

I don't know what the exact reason for some of the poor shot selection was.  It's between fatigue, overagressiveness, not having McNeal in to create opportunities, or a combination of the above.  It wasn't a glaring problem, but one or two more buckets and the outcome might be different.

I think it's a known fact that Hightower hates MU...

[Pardner]

Key was fatigue.  The boys played hard despite the uphill climb with the refs' horrid calls.  We would have been better off playing at Cameron.

>>Fouls:  27-16
>>Outrebounded 33-24
>>DJ 4-16 and 0-3 for Treyland
>>Third game in three days, travel

Thought TC did a great job with half time adjustments to get us back in the game.  On-ball pressure on Poulus via Wes, dCube and Mo disrupted their play.  On O, we were able to get spacing in the 2nd half for the treys for various folks.  In the end, we had no more legs despite our conditioning. Duke was in no better shape.  A lesser opponent would have folded.  Both teams should move up.