In retrospect, the last three games both give me a lot of hope and a lot of trepidation. Since Lindsey got sick, the offense has really become limited; it is clear in the last 3 games that Law and BMac have had to carry a huge load: Law defensively and BMac offensively to make up for Lindsey's absence and on his return limited ability to contribute. One thing that crossed my mind is that the whole burden of trying to reach the tournament has had this team playing at full tilt all year, and particularly in conference. Assuming it takes Lindsey the rest of the conference season to play into shape, I hope they have enough legs left to pull two or at least one game of the last four out. In some ways it reminds me of things like breaking the four minute mile barrier: once the Cats make the tournament, coming back to it will be a lot easier. One thing that is interesting to me is to compare this team to last year's: at this point, they were, I think, 17-10, 5-9 in conference. They had the easier part of their schedule at the end, and won 3 of 4 to finish 20-11, 8-10. This team is better. Even with a 1-3 finish this year would make it 21-10, 10-8 with a tougher out of conference schedule. With Lindsey limited, I think the two areas last year's team were stronger was that Demps could take the shot at the end of the game or shot clock, freeing up BMac to make plays and not also be the scorer, and Olah was able to match up better with the really big post players in the league and also make shots for spots on the floor, This year's team is stronger in that Pardon is much quicker and against most teams a better defender and rebounder, and Law is a much better defender than Demps. The ability to have five players on the floor with decent lateral reach has made the defense much better. Overall, I actually think last year's team was playing better offense at this point than this year's but this team is much better on defense, even with Lindsey not at full capacity, and as a result it is a better team by 2 or 3 games.
I really hope this team can reach down and win 2 the last 4. Getting over the hump into the tournament and having the several injured players join next year really could tee the Cats up to be in the top 3 in conference next year particularly because they would have more depth in defensive rotations, options to take the scoring burden off of BMac, and the luxury of not carrying the "make the dance" boulder on their shoulders all year.
I really hope this team can reach down and win 2 the last 4. Getting over the hump into the tournament and having the several injured players join next year really could tee the Cats up to be in the top 3 in conference next year particularly because they would have more depth in defensive rotations, options to take the scoring burden off of BMac, and the luxury of not carrying the "make the dance" boulder on their shoulders all year.
