That was a great win for the Griz last night! I've identified four positives from the game that were great to see and will help this team keep improving:
1) Refuse to Lose
To come back from 15 down, on the road, early in the season and with a pretty young lineup was huge. Games like that can really pay off down the road. There are many teams made up of great athletes who have many skills but the intangible that comes with "refusing to lose" is hard to come by. They showed great poise, determination and teamwork during that last 12 minutes. It can often take teams a complete season before they can put something together like that. The coaches & players all have to be on the same page & they did it.
2) Defense
In the Minot State game the Griz turned things around and ran them into the ground with a relentless 3/4 court press. Against Idaho we used a half court zone trapping defense that caused them to get out of rhythm and take bad shots. These were good second half adjustments that created havoc and boosted the offense. It's good to see the coaches and players adjust and make it work.
3) Rebounding
As bad as the rebounding was against CSU, I wondered how long it would be before the Griz outrebounded anybody. We kept Idaho to 11 offensive boards. In one possession CSU had almost that many just a week ago!! Well, maybe it wasn't that bad but they had at least 5 in that possession, lol.
4) Inside Play
While the strides weren't great, Hutch, Martin and Wiley did show some improvement. While Ward and Coleman are really forwards, they stepped up big time down the stretch to help down low. I agree that Hutch needs to slow down and it would help him to kick it out now and then unless he gets easier opportunities to score. Martin and Wiley will only improve as they get more experience and strength. There's no doubt this team's success isn't going to come primarily from post play but it will improve and become a bigger factor.
1) Refuse to Lose
To come back from 15 down, on the road, early in the season and with a pretty young lineup was huge. Games like that can really pay off down the road. There are many teams made up of great athletes who have many skills but the intangible that comes with "refusing to lose" is hard to come by. They showed great poise, determination and teamwork during that last 12 minutes. It can often take teams a complete season before they can put something together like that. The coaches & players all have to be on the same page & they did it.
2) Defense
In the Minot State game the Griz turned things around and ran them into the ground with a relentless 3/4 court press. Against Idaho we used a half court zone trapping defense that caused them to get out of rhythm and take bad shots. These were good second half adjustments that created havoc and boosted the offense. It's good to see the coaches and players adjust and make it work.
3) Rebounding
As bad as the rebounding was against CSU, I wondered how long it would be before the Griz outrebounded anybody. We kept Idaho to 11 offensive boards. In one possession CSU had almost that many just a week ago!! Well, maybe it wasn't that bad but they had at least 5 in that possession, lol.
4) Inside Play
While the strides weren't great, Hutch, Martin and Wiley did show some improvement. While Ward and Coleman are really forwards, they stepped up big time down the stretch to help down low. I agree that Hutch needs to slow down and it would help him to kick it out now and then unless he gets easier opportunities to score. Martin and Wiley will only improve as they get more experience and strength. There's no doubt this team's success isn't going to come primarily from post play but it will improve and become a bigger factor.
