Here are the highlights. Let me break down Ash's greatest hits for you:
:07 Trae's first bucket of the game, he blows right buy Ash for easy and one
:33 Ash is light years too late on a switch, allowng Trae have a wide open 3. Dakich exclaims "too easy".
:56 Trae blows by Ash agaiin; BMac steps in stop the uncontested layup, but in doing so has to leave his man, who Trae hits for the wide open 3
1:42: Ash, presumably tired of getting blown by at this point,, tries a different tack; he backs up about 2 yards off of Trae. It doesn't work.
1:56: Pardon gets caught in a switch with Ash, but actually does a far better job of defending Trae than Ash has done to this point in the game, and forces Trae to pick up his dribble. Ash then gets back into the play, and Trae looks trapped. Then (and I wish I was makng this up), Ash LEAVES Trae, who he has trapped, to guard another man! Trae says "thank you very much, and finds a cutter baseline that he would likely never had found if Ash had stayed in his grill like he should have. Collins had seen enough, and. now down 27-12, with Trae already having 12 pts and 4 assists on Ash in 6 minutes (!!!) Ash was pulled at the next dead ball for Brown who holds Trae scoreless for two minutes until Trae mercifully exits the game for a blow at the 12:00 mark. Trae comes back in at the 9 minute mark, but it is still Brown (with Gaines helping) and Trae misses his first two shots upon his return, and it appears we are settling down a bit. Ash comes back in at around the 8 1/2 minute mark, but he is no longer guarding Trae
3:03: Ash back in the 7 minute mark, but now he the strong side top of the 2-3 zone. Of course, even though it is zone, we are paying extra attention to Trae, and Brown picks him up weak side since there is no other man in his area and Trae has buried all his threes from the weak side, and none from strong. Ash, even though he mist know this leaves the strong side in anticipation of a screen on Brown and a switch, which would be fine if we were in man, but, unforutuately, we are not, The "screener" dives to the basket and Ash is WAY out of his spot in the zone, Trae doesn't go strong and stops (since he prefers weak-side). Falzon, who has two men in the area that Ash vacated, in no-mans land (Scottie would have similarly been in no-man's land had Brown continued to chase Trae, but Brown correctly goes back to his area of the zone, which addresses the screener diving to the basket. Falzon even gestures to Ash in the hope of getting his attention, since, if he leaves his baseline, it is an easy layup for the forward on his side; so he stays home allowing the guard in the space that Ash vacated to take an easy 3. Can't fault Falzon for picking the better of the two poisons in avoiding the easy layup by vacating baseline. Can fault Ash, though.
3:10 On the next offensive possession for Oklahoma after a stoppag, BMac subs in for Brown and makes a mistake; he assumes that he playing strong side top in the zone, assuming that Ash would take weak side since that is Trae's side. But since BMac came in for Brown, who was strong side, he should of asked Ash if they should switch, since Trae has been shooting (and hitting) from weak side all day, and Ash is obviously quicker than BMac. But Ash takes his strong side spot, noticing too late that Bmac is strongside as well. Trae dribbles up with no one strong side, with predictable results, except that, instead of trying to make up for BMac's mistake and spring toward Trae (which would hae been fine since the guard on Ash's side was trailing the speedy Trae badly, and Ash had no one in his area to pick up, he actually tries to push BMac toward Trae, which, of course, doesn't work. Looks like this one was BMac's false (though the highlight leaves out the dead ball period and the inbounds, so I can't be certain But the net result was that a guy who HAS to be shadowed was left wide open, and Ash certainly did not help matters.
3:23: Back in man, since zone was a disaster and Ash is back on Tre (after we previously tried Brown/Gaines and then zone). Ash gets picked (again) and Pardon properly switches again and , with BMac as a help defender weak side so Trae doesn't have the option of pulling up on Pardon from his preferred side, and Trae can't go strong since Ash though is switching to Pardon's man will still be strong side, so there will be traffic if Trae decides to go strong. So we finally have Trae defended with Ash in the game! Well, at least we would have if Ash had actually switched, but Ash. instead of switching since he can SEE Pardon is guarding Trae, continues to pursue Trae, from behind strong side, for no apparent reason since Trae is NOT gong to go strong side if Ash just makes the switch. Trae finds the man that Ash conveniently vacated for the and one. At this point, it is 47-24, Trae's scoring/dishing has immediately resumed upon Ash's return, and the game is all but over.
5:03: Ash defends Trae for the final shot of the half. Ash appears to anticipate a screen that never comes, Trae beats Ash to then strong side (again) and hits an open 3 to end the half. The 1st half damage; 25 pts, and 10 assists.
Second half-- Ash didn't play Trae (Trae didn't play much) and it was essentially 20 minutes of garbage time, but Ash does get schooled by the backup pg at the 6:56 mark,
Please give me you examples of Ash "shining all day". He was better offensively, so perhaps this is what you mean? On defense, he was terrible, as the highlights demonstrate.
