I think our tourney chances rest on McNeal's shoulders.
1. He has to get back to being a lock down defender. His biggest contribution to a W or L will be on the defensive side of the floor.
2. Get your points in the flow of the game, off turnovers, and at the line. The offense will come if he plays within the system and there are other offensive threats on the floor with Hayward and Matthews. The open 3 is fine. The 3 with a defender in his face and 20 seconds on the shot clock is not.
McNeal is a great player and he deserves all of the praise and recognition he has gotten. He needs to realize that his role has to change with DJ hurt. I truly believe, that if he does these things, we will make a good run in this tourney.
You sound like what Jerel said his approach is to every game according to Rosiak's articles this morning.
"The first three things that I want to do at the start of every game is limit my number of turnovers, take my man completely out of the game and move the ball offensively. When I'm doing those things at a high level, everything else just comes. That's always been my recipe for me having a good game, coming out and doing those three things.
"The points and the steals all that other stuff comes in the flow of the game. Every time I'm able to do that I feel like I'm playing well and playing at the highest level I possibly can. So those are the things I tell myself and remind myself before every game that I need to do."
Let's all hope in this case he reads his (own) press clippings.