Yeah, the zebras weren't exactly helpful tonight. But 2 seeming constants once again reared their ugly heads tonight. While we once again executed well offensively, we once again had another poor effort defensively, as Dick shot > 50% from the floor. I've always thought FG% D is the most important team stat, and Buzzdick's teams here and at Colorado have always been at the bottom of the ACC & B12. It's hard to get to .500 in the conference when you're always the worst defensive team in the conference.
The second thing is something I've started thinking about recently. We were even at the last TV timeout last night and ended up losing by 5. Even in our 3 wins, we've been pretty bad in the last 4-5:00 in games - we had 8-10 point leads that we almost blew against UVA, BC and State. Not sure whether it's youth, Buzzdick, some combination thereof or something else, but our last few minutes of close games have consistently been bad.[/QUOTE]
I did not see the game last night but I also have been thinking about the same thing. We have trouble finishing games. We get shaky at the end. These players literaly need to learn how to win at the end on this level. Poor Travis and CJ can be of little help. But before we can take the next step we need to learn how to play in close games and win at the end. There is of course a youth factor here. For those who are old enough, you can remember that the need to learn to win at the end of games was the case when Tacy and Odom rebuilt the basketball program as well. I am pretty sure our players can learn but you can't be too sure that Buzz can teach them until he does.
