Well as many of you know, KSU lost the other day against the defending national champions #1 Duke. As good as KSU is, Duke is just that much better.
Kyrie Irving played phenomenal. He managed to shut down Jake Pullen, who scored only 4 points, and walk past him anytime to score. This was one major problem, but not the only one. Duke defends against the 3 point shot better than anyone in the country. We live on the 3 point shot. During the Gonzaga game, I think 7 different people scored a 3 point shot. Every shot was contested. We also live in transition, and we had like 3 transition plays the whole game. Duke was just too quick at getting back. We would have simply driven the ball inside, but Duke also has the #1 rated big men in the country.
During the game, we kept up with Duke for about 10 minutes, and the remainder of the game, we were about 10 points down. We pushed every now and again, but never got close enough. Oh well. Our team is young and I am sure this will be a good learning experience. My delusions of grandeur has lessened a bit from dominating everyone and winning the national championship to simply winning the big 12 and going to the Final 4.
Well in some non-basketball news, Jen and I are in Wichita for a few days visiting her family. We also get to go to the wedding reception of my Freshman year roommate Michael Tuszynski. It should be a great time. I will update later about that. For now, I will just get pumped up for the basketball game tonight!
Although I thought they didn't play that well, all in all it was more of the defense of Duke and one of those nights that all teams go through where some shots just don't fall. They needed the Bearded One to score and sadly he didn't. If the game started out like it did with the Zags it could have been a different outcome. They will get better. I watched Duke earlier in the year and they played like a well oiled machine as they did that night. All it would take is two or three long shots falling and more importantly to make free throws which they can work on. I think the year Ku won the tittle, they weren't exactly the best free throw shooters. Its still not a bad loss at all; will not hurt them, and should be a good learning lesson to grow from. Duke is playing well and probably won't improve much through the season whereas the Cats Will improve throughout the season. I hope Harlee got the wishbone and some sugar cookies for turkey day.
ReplyDelete