Here is what I saw broken into 10 min segments.
Start of the game: The Utah state offense is very intelligent and well coached. Nevada played poor man to man defense and paid the price. Utah State is very adept and finding open good shots and hitting them. They had some very nice multi pass plays that featured back door cuts to easy baskets. Wilkinsen is as good as advertised. The comparisons to Goady are legitimate. They also have another big man Wesley who can put the ball on the floor and make a good pass or shoot. Their pg Quayle was good but Nevada did not pressure him at all. So that is the bad news – they are definitely an efficient offensive team. Despite the comparison of Wilkerson to Goady, I would say their offense is most similar to Georgetowns except they are better shooters and don’t necessarily rely on threes.
The good news is that their defense was not good. They let a lot of penetration to the basket but Nevada could not finish. Hello Wes and Jerel – I think you will be able to score a lot off the dribble. They also let Nevada take some wide open threes that they missed.
Nevada played poor defense and was tight shooting. The score was 19-4 at this point.
Nevada came back in the next 10 min segment. One of the things they did was collapse their D and increase the intensity. Wesley continue to impress and destroyed someone on a screen. He is also a good shooter and works well with Wilkinsen. The poor D by Utah State continued and they gave up a lot of offensive rebounds. Score 28-23.
Start of the second half. Much of the same. Newbold and Pooh Williams also good players. Nevada double down on D effective. Nevada starters 5-30 turning into a blow out. Utah state switches to a zone and Nevada looks confused. We might see this if they don’t want to give up penetration by Mcneal.
45-32
Last 10 min - Blow out - more of the same. No adjustment by Nevada. Finally some ball pressure and it worked a little to keep them in the game.
Conclusions: Utah State is good enough to beat us but I think we will win. They definitely have the make up of an upset team in the tournament. Maybe our zone (1-3-1?) should be worked in to disrupt them and I think we should try to press them as well. No sense trying to bang with them with Burke. I would give Butler a lot of minutes.
