What I am seeing is a lack of killer instinct. We've all seen this lacking for many years in both major sports. We tend to come out flat to start 2nd halves and we are terrible when holding a lead. I think part of this as to do with our coaches' personalities, i.e. Grobe, Bz, Manning. Whenever we get a any sort of lead, we consistently slow it down and play conservatively. We rarely, if ever, try to bury teams. I think this is largely philosophical and personality traits of our head coaches. (I don't see this in Clawson. Once talent is there, I think he will try to pour it on).
We came out in the 2nd half against Xavier like we were trying to play relaxed instead of coming out with a chip on our shoulders with something to prove. Xavier came out swinging while we stumbled against the ropes and cowered in the corner. Aggressive teams tend to win. We were the aggressive team in the first half and it showed. In the second half, we weren't and well, we saw that disaster. I'm pro-Manning and he knows the game FAR better than I, but he is making a huge mistake not calling timeouts when other teams make huge runs. Even if he has nothing to say in the timeout, it gives our players a chance to regroup and can slow momentum. It can even give the crowd a chance to get more involved. To further the boxing analogy, sometimes when you are getting pummeled and you are stumbling, all you need is the bell. Survive the blows and regain composure.