In Reply to: easy game but if we keep leaving the corners open posted by barrya on November 15, 2024 at 21:24:21
I can't remember the last team UCLA played that was so bad in the paint on defense. Glad to see the Bruins hammer it though.
Being a college basketball junkie, earlier in the day, I watched Michigan take down a scrappy TCU team by 12 points. Then I watched an excellent #13 Purdue team knock off a very good, big and athletic team in #2 Alabama in a hard fought game. Then I watched a non rated (supposedly middle of the pack) Wisconsin team take #9 Arizona apart in the first half 55 to 44 but then it was time for the Bruin game. I didn't see any of the second half as I switched to the UCLA game but I later saw that Wisconsin ended up beating Arizona 103 to 88. And Arizona is supposedly a top 10 team. Wisconsin has a senior player named John Tonje who is 6'5 and 218 lbs. He put up 41 points on Arizona on only 14 shots from the field (including 4 of 6 threes). But he killed them at the line with 21 of 22 free throws made--very aggressive at attacking the hoop and they couldn't stop him. And it wasn't just their bad defense, he was just really good and very strong. Wisconsin's offense is really smooth as is Purdue's. I was surprised with Purdue's inside game. They have a 6'10 guy in there who is very physical in the paint and knows how to score down low. Ended up with 26 points and 8 rebounds against some good Alabama big men. With Edey gone, I didn't expect to see that.
My thoughts after seeing some of the BIG teams play is that it is going to be a much tougher conference than most of the so called media experts projected. Both Wisc and Purdue are really talented, physical and athletic and know how to play the game. Even Michigan, projected to finish 17th in the conference (with their 3 good bigs and good guards) is much better than that, IMO. And I'm sure others in the conference are going to be very competitive too.
From what I've seen of the Bruins so far, I believe for them to be one of the top teams in the conference as projected, they are going to have to improve their perimeter shooting significantly. Accuracy from mid range and beyond the arc will be critical in many games as scoring heavily in the paint against some of these big physical teams could be difficult. The upcoming games with strong teams like UNC, Gonzaga and Arizona and perhaps Oregon should give us a more realistic view of what we can expect of the Bruins in the tough conference play.