In Reply to: Just got to watch the replay last night posted by Cachorro on January 06, 2025 at 10:19:55
well said and thanks for making those comments. Agree with most of them
IMO Mak is much improved but still makes a whole lot of freshman mistakes. Over aggressive can pay dividends but it nearly always winds up bringing to mind the saying 'live by the sword, die by the sword.'
Any time we don't have Dailey, we're a big step behind what we can be. Add the loss of Kyle and we lose depth at least up front.
As to Mara, his issue is holding position. When banging bodies with opposing really big bigs, he too often winds up on the outside (of the key) looking in. Next year I expect he'll be pretty good. We just have to hope he gets more time this year.
But Cronin does a good job countering teams with much bigger post players - see our win over Michigan on our way to the final four or the second half vs Gonzaga this season. I think the difference in the game comes down to shooting in that game - Nebraska packs the paint and dares you to shoot them out of their defensive stance from out outside. We came up just awful from outside the arc.
Now that may in part be playing in a sold out hostile arena and in part the travel involved - or maybe that's just part of the learning curve for a team of nearly all juniors, sophomores and freshmen who mostly came from different programs allowing the situation to get into their heads - all that stuff comes under the heading I suggested: learning isn't a straight line affair. There are ups and downs. This was certainly a down. Next game is tomorrow