Gibbsyonemoreyear! wrote:Great gameplan DePaul, you had the Jays on the ropes there late in the game with your dribble drive penetration and rebounding. Seems like you are benefiting from giving your young guys more playing time. I think the future looks good for you guys. Now the Jays must bring desire to rebound every game and It seemed lacking for whatever reason last night. They must simply want the ball more to compete on the boards, when that element is not there the Jays will struggle against every team in the league IMO.
I agree Gibbsyonemoreyear!, the effort on the defensive boards last night was laughable... I think a lot of it was due to 2-3 zone that CU was running on defense - as it looked like the Jays were out of position almost every time for the rebound, up until late in the game. Thankfully they Jays started crashing the boards better during the last 4 minutes and that was really the straw that broke DePaul's back, other than great FT shooting by CU, namely DMD. Also last night I can admit that the Jays benefited from a few calls down the stretch, that really helped them build back the lead after DePaul made their run to cut the deficit to 1. Great atmosphere last night, on a bitter cold Friday night against albeit a weaker Big East opponent - record wise (which still would probably regularly beat all but one team in the MVC, LOL)... Great crowd, and I can't wait for what the atmosphere will be like next Sunday evening against Nova, no matter what happens the next 7 days!
On to tomorrow night against SJU. The Jays OBVIOUSLY need to bring more intensity to the offensive and defensive glass cleaning up rebounds on Sunday night at MSG - or it could be a long night. I think the Jays will go back to playing their normal defense, and dare St John's to beat them from the perimeter and cut off the open lanes to the basket. Also if the Jays can limit their mistakes/turnovers, which they should having Gibbs back on the floor for at least 20-25 minutes... and get their touch back from behind the arc, the Jays should have a good chance of getting out of NYC with a W.