The win over ND was absolutely essential and it was good to see the team return to the type of performance they were putting on prior to West Virginia. That said all we've really accomplished in the BE thus far is to hold serve with 2/3 of the wins coming against non-contenders. These next two on the road are going to be a real test of how good this team is.
I like the way this team lays disruptive defense, creating turn-overs that lead to fast breaks. We must do this to avoid having to score all of our points against the other teams set zone. However, we've got to find a way to play that way without sending the other team to the line 20 – 30 times. This is going to kill us in road games which are likely to be close (if we're lucky).
Second I fear that we are falling in love with the 3 point shot and we are not a good enough shooting team to live by the 3. Prior to the BE season we looked to have a number of ways to exploit the zone besides just shooting from 3. We were able to drive to get our bigs free for layups coming from the alley, we had one guard drive and dish to another guard who could then drive before the defense could react, we were throwing it into Lazer who used his midrange game. We seem to have gotten away from these other offensive plays.
Finally I think on the road we've got to value possessions more. I think the way we play on defense tends to lead us to "rush" things on offense and go for the spectacular play which more often than not results in a turn over. Against West Virginia we turned the ball over 5 times in the first 6 possessions. This is all while ice cold at the start of the game. If we convert 3 of those we start the game up 6 or 7 to nothing and they spend the rest of the game trying to catch us. There seems to be a pattern in MU's road wins last year (and at UW this year). We get a lead and then hold that lead for most of the game.
And along the same lines can we BAN the ally-oop play for the next 2 games. We convert this about 10% of the time and the other 90% it results in a turn over. I'd tell the guys if you really think the time is right for an ally-oop take a 3 pointer instead. At least we convert better than 30% of those and if it does work we get 3 points rather than 2.
Ally-oops seemed to work in the non-conference schedule to exploit the weak side of the zone against teams with less athletic talent. This has been spotted in the film rooms of our BE competition and I am sure they are waiting for it now. I do not think it will work very much now so i agree that we need to do something else and the ally oop should only be used on rare occasion to exploit a mismatch.
Heading into ND, personally I would be/have been thrilled with 2 out of 3 (ND, @UL, @UConn). At this point, we are in position to do that, if not better.
As far as how they play, we are at our best when we play the way we did against ND - home or away. Keep it up...make the other team adapt to what we do, not the other way around.