The mid-major writer at The Athletic had written a week or so ago about how Liberty was undefeated with most of the team back that beat Miss State in the tourney last year but they hadn't really had any proven opposition yet. I think this weekend gave them a really good case. It'll be interesting to see what happens in conference this year if their first slip-up isn't until the conference tournament and what the committee would do to them. But that's 2+ months away.
As for us and today, better 45-minute effort after dropkicking yesterday's halftime lead away. I'm never going to complain about a win but a few things in the last 5 minutes of regulation really irked me and it's both on staff and players. We get an 8, 9-point lead and we decide, ok, that's enough, time to pull it out and run clock. After all of these years of this type of player, why in the world would we want to purposefully run the clock down to 5 and below knowing that the shot that will be attempted is going to be low-quality? Too many times in those last 5 minutes, I'd hear Gibson for 3 or Fobbs for 3 or whoever for 3. That's the best we can do? I said this at the Florida game and it still rings true -- stop letting the shot clock dictate what offense you run. And in today's case, stop letting the scoreboard dictate what offense you run. 5 minutes left is far too much time on the clock to be pulling it out, especially with how hot Tulane was from 3. The other thing that bothered me and later found ironic was Spiro saying that Sanders was telling his teammates with about 2 minutes left to play smart. I was like, 'ok, good, someone is taking some much-needed leadership in this situation'. And then who commits the STUPID and-1 foul in the final seconds? Sanders. It would be nice if we could grow players who have a bit more of a basketball mind and could do the smart thing in crucial situations.
Foul shooting much better (why we won), rebounding great, limiting Lawson to 1 for 14 is pretty damn amazing. A Florida fan asked me today how we're doing and I couldn't really give him an answer because we do some good things in one game and then we revert back to silly stuff the next. I know Pat likes to trumpet that we're 7-2 in our last 9 against the A-10 and AAC but we also haven't been playing Cincy, UCF, VCU, and Dayton in those 9 games. So who knows what the conference season is going to bring. It kinda feels like we're starting at 0 since we haven't exactly built on wins. Part of that might be the gap between games this month but I think it also exhibits the inconsistency with this group. Gotta hold serve at home against NE next Saturday and get this conference season off on the right foot.