I think these last few games have been different, but have exposed us in various ways. Or atleast played to our weaknesses:
1. It is obvious that in this part of the big ten season the refs are swallowing their whistles. Thus, we got owned on the glass the last couple games. We will not win many games if it turns into a street fight and the score is in the 50's or 60's.
2. Tonight you have to give them credit, they hit threes. 12-28. And they really had for the most part 4 guys on the the court at one time that could both shoot and dribble drive. We are not built to stop that. We can withstand 30% but not anything in the 40's.
3. Their quicker guards bodied up to our guards and the interior did an excellent job denying the post.
4. We missed way too many foul shots. This is a huge part of our game and we have to make them pay at the line. We had them in the bonus way before they were and we didn't capitalize on that.
I think we all know by now that we are going to have a difficult time defending quick guards that can shoot. And most of the time those quicker guards play our slower guards better defensively as well.
Dont hang your head though, we are still a very good team. There arent a lot of matchups like this where we have to defend 3-4 guys on the perimeter that can all bounce it as well as having to double an interior guy. I like us better as a tournament team than a big ten team because we are a matchup nightmare for many teams.