MBB: Pacific (2-5) at UC Davis (6-2) Thu. Dec.1, 6 pm We just got home from the game. Man, these last few games have been frustrating to watch. We've been in 3 straight games where we have squandered big leads and missed a ton of FT's. We were 16-30 tonight and a bunch of those were the front end of one-and-one's. 8-26 three point shooting didn't help either.
We looked great at in the first 10 minutes of the game. The defense was stifling and the ball movement was good on offense and we built an 12 point lead. Things went downhill from there. I thought Pacific was the aggressor in the second half especially on defense. They made things tough for us and battled on the boards. We had too many defensive breakdowns and critical TO's at critical moments.
Les was very displeased, to say the least, with the team in his post-game comments. He said the players lost their toughness when a few shots didn't fall and got away from playing as a team and started playing "me, me, me" basketball. They got away from the "scheme" on both ends of the floor. The ball movement went away and they began taking rushed, poor shots. He commented on the atrocious FT shooting and he said the players shot a ton of FT's in practice and everyone was making them. Then they get into the game and can't make FT's. He said it's a lack of "mental toughnes and it's ridiculous." I think there's going to be some tough practices before the next game.