Underdogs no more

[1SE]

According to Barttorvik, as of right now we are favorite in all our remaining games ((-0.8) @ Creighton).

I'm not that concerned about last night's game, but I would observe that the team seemed at times a bit tight and a bit tense. Case in point is the FT shooting - I think missed free throws are attributable more to tightness than anything. I thought the final swing of the game was when Darryl missed the two FTs and then down on the other end the hit two. 

I wonder how much of that tightness was attributable to the fact that (even though we were the underdogs vis-a-vis the odds makers) the sense of the game was more that UCONN was coming after us (take down the hot team) than us going after them. I think this team thrives when they're playing with a "nothing to lose" mentality and they attack attack attack (violence!). These next 6 will be a good test of how we respond to being the favorite with teams desperate for a (quality/any) win coming at us. I fully expect us to respond, but it's going to be a bit of a different mindset.

[MU82]

According to Barttorvik, as of right now we are favorite in all our remaining games ((-0.8) @ Creighton).

I'm not that concerned about last night's game, but I would observe that the team seemed at times a bit tight and a bit tense. Case in point is the FT shooting - I think missed free throws are attributable more to tightness than anything. I thought the final swing of the game was when Darryl missed the two FTs and then down on the other end the hit two. 

I wonder how much of that tightness was attributable to the fact that (even though we were the underdogs vis-a-vis the odds makers) the sense of the game was more that UCONN was coming after us (take down the hot team) than us going after them. I think this team thrives when they're playing with a "nothing to lose" mentality and they attack attack attack (violence!). These next 6 will be a good test of how we respond to being the favorite with teams desperate for a (quality/any) win coming at us. I fully expect us to respond, but it's going to be a bit of a different mindset.

I think you're thinking a little too much. And I doubt Morsell was thinking about any of those things when he went to the line.

We should be favorites the rest of our games, and it will be interesting to see how we do as the hunted.

[Pepe Sylvia]

Morsells missed fts were BARELY misses, just unlucky, by my eyes. Sucks to miss fts throws, but they're generally good at them. The real problem was getting rebounds. I don't know about being "tight" or whatever.