Saturday Night's Goat: Derick Grubb
It doesn't seem fair to blame the entire loss on mini-center Derick Grubb, but when you're getting major minutes in the final game of a tournament, 2-11 with terrible defense and rebounding isn't going to cut it. DeVon Hardin (pictured below) abused him all game.
The real problem is that the Lions couldn't figure out the Bears' zone defense in the second half. Miller was the only guy hitting threes and without the outside shooting to stretch the zone, most of the attempts to get the ball inside failed as the Cal guards cheated into the passing lanes and deflected lazy entry passes over and over again. As such, the Lions' biggest strength, their Knight's game in the post, was negated and Cal was able to make up for their one-on-one defensive deficiencies. It was a great gameplan by Cal. Unfortunately, Worthy and Miller couldn't do enough alone to carry the team.
Overall, LMU impressed in the Great Alaska Shootout, with quality comeback wins against Pacific and New Mexico State. They were able to cut Cal's 15+ lead to 5 with a minute to play, which to me reflects highly on Coach Tention and his staff. 5-2 with a couple of big non-conference wins is nothing to sneeze at. Hopefully, they'll be pumped up for my first in-person game on the road at UCSB this Wednesday.
The real problem is that the Lions couldn't figure out the Bears' zone defense in the second half. Miller was the only guy hitting threes and without the outside shooting to stretch the zone, most of the attempts to get the ball inside failed as the Cal guards cheated into the passing lanes and deflected lazy entry passes over and over again. As such, the Lions' biggest strength, their Knight's game in the post, was negated and Cal was able to make up for their one-on-one defensive deficiencies. It was a great gameplan by Cal. Unfortunately, Worthy and Miller couldn't do enough alone to carry the team.
Overall, LMU impressed in the Great Alaska Shootout, with quality comeback wins against Pacific and New Mexico State. They were able to cut Cal's 15+ lead to 5 with a minute to play, which to me reflects highly on Coach Tention and his staff. 5-2 with a couple of big non-conference wins is nothing to sneeze at. Hopefully, they'll be pumped up for my first in-person game on the road at UCSB this Wednesday.
Labels: college basketball, LMU
This entry was posted by VJ, on
Sunday, November 26, 2006.
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