I don't have a lot of extra notes to add to T's concise post game observations from last night (well early morning for those of us out East). Bruins are turning into team of Tyler Honeycutt. As Don McLean observed he has clearly emerged as the best player in our basketball team and I would think he will be the unquestioned leader of this group guys next season.
As for the game, I thought I had a good shot of winning the game even though we were playing a depleted frontcourt. Oregon State is a terrible 3 point shooting team and was the perfect opponent for our 2-3 zone. The Beavers played according to their scouting reporting making only 3 out of their 20 attempts beyond the arc. Coach Ben Howland was gracious about that stat line saying Beavers just "missed a lot of wide-open shots."
I liked the effort I saw from the team especially in the first half. Even Ragovic dove to the floor. He did it twice even though he wasn't successful. As T said, Bobo had some good moments on the defensive end but it seemed like he tired towards the end of the first half.
It wasn't very difficult to see what the Beavers were doing as they had Joe Burton eating up Ragovic all through the second half. I would have still liked to see Howland give Bobo more minutes in the second half, as he pretty much stuck with Ragovic. Oh well, we just have one more home game left with this guy. It is not worth getting worked up over questionable game rotation involving this guy any more.
MR played the role of primary ball handler number of times last night against the 1-3-1. It seemed to effect his point production but he didn't mind too much:
Senior guard Michael Roll was the primary passer, handling the ball when Oregon State (12-15, 6-9) pressured the top of the key. Roll, who leads the team with 3.6 assists per game, finished with seven, though he scored just three points.
"Last game, I played the point guard just because they were trapping, so we stuck with the same thing today," Roll said. "Today I was more of a facilitator. I didn't shoot well, 1 for 6 - that's not like me. But they were trapping us, trying to get into other guys, trying to bring the zone to me, and other guys were open."
The Bruins end up shooting 52 percent from the floor, which wasn't too shabby.
Going forward, I think the game against Oregon is going to be very difficult. The Ducks are coming off a victory over Southern Cal last night at Costco Center. Kent's held the Trogans to 12 points in the second half, as they clearly haven't given up on their own season. As we learned from our first matchup against them they are young but a pretty deep and athletic team.
Tajuan Porter and LeKendric Longmire have the potential to create huge headaches for our shaky backcourt. Porter himself has been inconsistent all season long, however when he gets going with couple of make shots, he can become very dangerous. Also, with Michael Dunigan (6-10, 255) and Josh Crittle (6-8, 260), they have two bangers up-front they have the ability to overwhelm us around the rim. We were absolutely embarrassing last night against the Beavers (which included a disappointing effort from Bobo in the first half). We will have to bring lot higher energy to mitigate Duck's physical advantage on Senior Day.
Last time we played the Ducks we lost to them in OT by 5 points. One of the key reasons for losing in that game was the usual lack of patience as we attempted 33 3 point shots connecting only 10 times. I really hope our whole team takes its cue from the selfless freshman who has emerged as the best player at the end of this season, by focusing on being patient and giving all out effort on both ends of the court.
GO BRUINS.