v A&M

[flippinhogmana]

Another unwinnable game on paper, but we will still meet them in battle shall we not?

Its our last home game, lets see if we have any fight left in us.  The girls have been outnumbered and outsized in nearly every SEC contest and yet they have fought with heart trying to pull off an upset every game.  I am sure they are tired.  I wouldnt blame them if some of them just wanted the season to end.

But some of them have hearts bigger than you might expect.  Sometimes the shots dont fall, and sometimes there are players whose numbers dont get called.  I am still proud of them. 

the game is at the Bud and at 7 PM, will be available on SEC network for those who cant attend.

[flippinhogmana]

I will be taking a step back tonight and not posting on the thread.  I just want to watch tonight.  Maybe I am a jinx!  But go hogs!

[psycHOGlogist]

I will be taking a step back tonight and not posting on the thread.  I just want to watch tonight.  Maybe I am a jinx!  But go hogs!

Your theory is, unfortunately, not holding up well! :-(

[flippinhogmana]

Your theory is, unfortunately, not holding up well! :-(

well I did watch, maybe that was jinx enough!

[Dr. Starcs]

I mean I get dykes left us in shambles. But 44 points?!  Dang this sucks. It's like the team was totally satisfied with that 3rd conference win. Been terrible since.

[flippinhogmana]

I mean I get dykes left us in shambles. But 44 points?!  Dang this sucks. It's like the team was totally satisfied with that 3rd conference win. Been terrible since.

i think I can answer some of that.  When a team of logical players know what they are up against (and your better players do) its hard to sell them they can win every game with an upset - with a maximum effort - that they aren't normally physically capable of winning.  Would you agree with that?

You can pull off an upset every now and then - as a player - your ability to buy into that maximum effort gradually declines.  You get emotionally worn out.  I think this team fired its last emotional bullet against Tennessee.  They have been running on empty since, physically you can recover, emotionally not so easy.  I think this team being shorter all year had to play at their best in all the conference games just to be even in the contest, much less to win it.  Sometimes the disparity in height and quality depth was just too much to overcome.  I think they have just worn down.
just mho.

[Basketball fan]

Hog man is correct in height and depth of quality...neighbors better be going after some big people inside instead of all these guards  or this program will always be average...a and m scoring 104 points tonite is the most they have ever scored in a sec win ever...that just is not acceptable....three teams this year have scored team highs on us..I'm not sure neighbors or staff focus on defense but better begin next year if they want to improve in conference play !! You gotta put this loss on neighbors...totally embarrassing when u let a team score that much on you...he seems content standing on sidelines with arms folded and never saying anything...just sayin

[flippinhogmana]

As a coach (a very tough job by the way especially in a rebuilding period like ours) you HAVE to ask your players to play heroically on occasion - especially in our case - our post players.  On a typical night you have one 5-10 player in the four position giving up about four inches or more (and the equivalent amount of weight and strength).  At the five you have had a 6-1 one player playing at least thirty (sometimes all forty) minutes who was also giving up four or five inches as well.  Most of the night quickness just couldn't compensate and they shot over and rebounded over us.

One some nights there is a height disparity through the whole lineup, not just those two positions.  Your only choice is to try to trade threes for two.  But if you can't slow them down on defense and they score at will inside, then you have a numerically impossible task.  In tonight's game (which has happened on more than one occasion) the inside players were hitting at above a 70 percent accuracy rate.  There are not going to be many nights when we hit at above 50 percent from the arc to compensate for that.

Part of the problem about how well some teams have shot against us is that we have consistently turned one player loose and not closely guarded them.  I think we have now made about a half dozen players SEC player of the week because of it.  We did that to try to combat an inside player that we couldn't match up with one on one.  We have used triangle and two defenses and we have used box and one.  We have just packed in the zone around the lane.  None of those defenses are generally productive against good teams, especially for more than a half.  Been there, done that.  All of them have gaps that you cant cover as a result.  Tonight we didnt cover outside very well because we couldnt get there in time.  As a result they burned us inside and out - for over a hundred. 

Do coaches have to employ those defenses sometimes?  Yes.  Have I ever used them?  Yes  But they generally also come at a cost.  A good bigger team is going to beat a good smaller team 90 percent of the time or thereabouts. 

One thing I dont want you to do is take this as a criticism of Mike.  I dont fault Mike for giving it the maximum effort himself and for asking the same from his players.  You do run the risk of burning them out - especially if you dont use your bench much - you just hope it doesn't carry over to next season and you hope you dont lose the players who didn't play much (and who dont develop as much because they didn't get quality playing time).  I am not sure if its not the better thing in this particular occasion if we didnt get to the post season. 

I know as a general practice is best to give a redeveloping team all the games you can, especially post season play, but not if the effect is wearing them down, tearing them down, rather than building them.  Sometimes its just best to let the season end as well as you can manage it.

[flippinhogmana]

But after watching Mike last night - even on a night when they were once again punched in the face and thoroughly trampled - I think they will show up emotionally on the road against Vanderbilt.  At least that is my hope.