Senior Board Moderator
After suffering the first loss of the season at Indiana it was time to see how this team would react to a little adversity. Here is what I saw against Chattanooga:
Positives:
• Quick start. Got out to a quick 6-0 lead in the first minute. 10-0 after three minutes of play. This team came out with something to prove after the loss to Indiana.
• Anthony Davis’ 18 rebounds. Davis learning to use his body and bring down rebounds is going to be big for this team in March.
• Marquis Teague with 8 assists and only 1 turnover. Teague is becoming a better point guard and understanding this offense better every game.
• Better help defense. When a defender was beat by the dribble, our post players were sliding over to help on the ball more than they have in previous games. This is clearly something we have worked on in practice over the past week.
• Better spacing in the half court. Poor spacing in the half court has been a big reason we have struggled in that area. We seemed to have better spacing against Chattanooga, resulting in better ball movement and better looks offensively.
• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist offensively. We know how good Kidd-Gilchrist is one the defensive end but he has greatly improved on the offensive end the past three games. 17 points on 4-7 shooting. He also made some outside jump shots, going 2-3 from three point range.
• Doron Lamb. Lamb is going to be a first round draft pick in the NBA after this year. The decision to come back was the right one for him. He is proving to be a better all around player this year. He is driving to the basket, hitting floaters, pull up jump shots, and he is still a deadly three point shooter. Doron Lamb should be considered among the top ten players in college basketball this year but is not getting the recognition for some reason. He is averaging 15.8 points, 4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 47% from the field and 50% from three point range on the year. Number very similar to Harrison Barnes.
• Darius Miller is becoming more aggressive on the offensive end. As the sole senior on this roster, this is the kind of production we need from Darius Miller.
Negatives:
• 33 three point attempts. That is way too many three point attempts against any team, much less a team we are so much more athletic than.
• 64% free throws. This killed us against Indiana and it did not improve against Chattanooga. We are going to have to shoot better than this from the free throw line.
• Terrence Jones. Even before he came out with the finger injury, he looked disinterested again. There is clearly some kind of mental issue with Terrence Jones right now.
• Rebounding, other than Anthony Davis. Davis had 18 of the 40 rebounds. Even with Davis coming down with 18 rebounds, we only managed to outrebound Chattanooga by 7. We should dominate the glass against teams like this.
• Three point defense. I know they only hit 8 of 27, but it could have been a lot worse. We still did not guard the perimeter very well. They missed a lot of wide open three point shots.
Overall this was a solid game. We came out with some fire and intensity after the loss and did not let Chattanooga back into the game. There are still a lot of things we need to work on, but it is still early. For this team to be successful in March, we are going to need to improve on these things and most importantly, we are going to need Terrence Jones to mentally be ready to play.
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