Great win. It wasn’t a Picasso on offense. They really tried to overplay Chase and especially Boo on the screens and throughout the court. Dared the rest of the team to beat us. Ty did his part early. Barnhizer was great all night. And Nicholson was a vacuum for grabbing lobs and dunking them. But we are starting to learn how to respond to that.
Our team defense was exceptional tonight. I loved the way that we flexed and rotated. In person you can see all the small little backside movements- eg when ball on the far side the guy defending the corner rotates up to get in the way of the pass to the wing which got us a couple of steals. Or eg 2 when we had to double front side with Nicholson how the back side defender would slide on in to prevent the pass to the post for an easy dunk. Or eg 3 how every time I tapped my buddy on the shoulder to say this is a bad matchup for us (Boo guarding Mulcahy or McConnel late in the shot clock), like clockwork the double team would arise from Nicholson as they attacked and the clock ran down. And it was exquisitely timed and well executed which led to turnovers or bad shots.
Down the stretch I said don’t turn the ball over and make FTs. It wasn’t our best job closing out but our team defense was so good that they couldn’t cut into the lead.
Nice showing from the cats fans they got a few chants in there down the stretch. Great to watch in person at the RAC. Rutgers fans were good hosts as usual.
Just an excellent way to close out the season. Got the bad mojo out of our heads, avoided ended the season with a losing streak, remembered what it feels like to get a big W. Puts us in a good position for the postseason.
GO CATS!
And let’s dance, boys.
Our team defense was exceptional tonight. I loved the way that we flexed and rotated. In person you can see all the small little backside movements- eg when ball on the far side the guy defending the corner rotates up to get in the way of the pass to the wing which got us a couple of steals. Or eg 2 when we had to double front side with Nicholson how the back side defender would slide on in to prevent the pass to the post for an easy dunk. Or eg 3 how every time I tapped my buddy on the shoulder to say this is a bad matchup for us (Boo guarding Mulcahy or McConnel late in the shot clock), like clockwork the double team would arise from Nicholson as they attacked and the clock ran down. And it was exquisitely timed and well executed which led to turnovers or bad shots.
Down the stretch I said don’t turn the ball over and make FTs. It wasn’t our best job closing out but our team defense was so good that they couldn’t cut into the lead.
Nice showing from the cats fans they got a few chants in there down the stretch. Great to watch in person at the RAC. Rutgers fans were good hosts as usual.
Just an excellent way to close out the season. Got the bad mojo out of our heads, avoided ended the season with a losing streak, remembered what it feels like to get a big W. Puts us in a good position for the postseason.
GO CATS!
And let’s dance, boys.
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