Didn't have time to post over the weekend, but was at the game and had some thoughts. I'll try not to rehash what's already been said.
First, Georgetown was clearly the better team on Sat. I was thrilled being down 2 at half and having the game close with 7 mins left. If we had continued to play that way we probably would have lost by 10. Instead Crean decided to take a gamble and turn DJ loose. The gamble didn't work and we lost by 18. I agree with Crean's decision to try to win the game as opposed to make the score respectable. After watching them, I expect them to win the BE and make some noise in the NCAAs.
Hibbert was much better than I realized. I also thought he and Gray were on the same level, but after watching them both play in person this year, Gray's ceiling in the NBA is as a role player, 2nd stringer type. Hibbert can be a perenial all-star. Green was amazing, but that was expected.
Ready for a weird comparison? Barro offensively is reminding me of Novak as a freshman. Defensively teams didn't focus on either as the primary or secondary thread. They would touch the ball for less than a minute and could score 10+ points a game. Going into the season, I was worried about our frontcourt being a huge liability, and it's become a slight asset. Great to see Ooze's improvement. Plenty of room for more.
Overall I thought it was a well coached game. I would have liked to see some different substitutions however. As well as Lazar played he got 14 minutes. I would have liked 25. Kinsella did a great job defensively, but you couldn't tell looking at the stat sheet. The Georgetown bigs were consistently catching the ball 2, 3, 4 feet further out in the post vs. Kinsella than any of our other players. That translated in to a lower shooting percentage. I would have like more pt for him and would have liked to see him play alongside Barro. Or Barro and Burke. A 2 big man lineup hasn't been used much this year by MU, but has been effective when we have.
A dissapointing loss, but we needed our A+ game to win. We had our B. Our guards could have all played better today, but no one person lost the game. Just like Providence had to play at the BC during Wade's retirement, we had to play during Georgetown's 100 year ceremony. Two tough environments and two losses by the visiting teams. Given that, there was a really good MU turnout which was great to see.
