Yesterday this was on full display as Arizona trailed by 19 in the second half against UCLA and Texas Tech was down 16 at the half against BYU. They both came back and won. It is hard to win on the road in conference play and even harder against good/ranked teams.
Looks like the home teams are 25-10. Haven't gone through to see what home teams lost though.
Exactly. Lipsey being out sort of took the ‘governor’ off of Gilbert & Jones, so to speak. They had to be the playmakers and may have given them added confidence knowing they’d be playing extended minutes regardless of performance. They made the most of it!
Agree I think Lipsey being out certainly gave us elevated versions of Curtis and Keishon. Would like to see that continue, even when Lipsey returns to the lineup. Winning a Big 12 road game with a starting backcourt of Mountain West and MAC guards is hella impressive, even if the team did surrender most of a 19 point lead. We outplayed them pretty badly all day, but they have a lot of talent, and my opinion at least, the refs were kind of helping them stay in and get back in it. They had a 50% free throw shooter go 8/10 from the line ffs.
Free throws are a matter of repetition. Muscle memory. Watch our women’s teams from the past few years. They shot around 80% or higher as a team. They were so good they didn’t bother to put people around the key during the shots. I remember Chelsea Poppins who was a horrid free throw shooter as a freshman (62%). She worked hard at it. As a senior she shot 84% on 129 attempts. If men put in as much time on this critical component of the game they would net the same results.
I would be willing to bet he will be playing next year. Cutting your teeth in practice against BRE, Tre, Ward, Watson, Omaha, etc. is so much better than playing high school games against bad competition. With his size and skill I could see him getting 12-15 minutes a game, and providing much needed size.
Hoping this a catalyst for both of them. Also shows Lipsey does not have to initiate offense the entire game. Though, Lipsey would have made a huge difference in the last 5 minutes.
