(01-12-2018 11:21 AM)Raider_Lope Wrote:  

(01-11-2018 11:59 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  GCU played with a lot of intensity to match NMSU energy. But as the game wore on, GCU's legs started to get heavy. They were not getting lift on their shots and clanked a lot of three. NMSU is conditioned to play at a high level for long stretches. It is hard to match NMSU's intensity for 40 minutes.

At one point, NMSU had to inbound the ball at the opposite end of the court, with only 6 seconds left on the clock. When the Aggie player drove down 90 feet and scored, it was like GCU was just watching in amazement. Absolutely unacceptable.

Toward the end, with just under 3 minutes left, NMSU wisely wound down the shot clock, took a shot, got the rebound and kicked it back out to start draining the clock again. You could see the wind leave Canyon's sails. They didn't foul, and they looked resigned to lose. Then, with under a minute left, they began fouling. It seemed like they just wanted to be finished. On the offensive end, they couldn't buy a bucket... even lay-ups and would-be tip-ins just wouldn't fall.

I am not sure why Majerle would want to over play a speed team like NMSU on the perimeter well above the arc. NMSU did accumulate a lot of turnovers but overplaying a quicker NMSU team started to take away the Lopes legs on offense. Majerle would have been better off playing more of a straight man-to-man "position" defense; not so much hounding pressure but just stay between the Aggie player and the basket. And, only get help defense inside the arc if needed. Having your center way above the arc trying to trap our 5'9 point guard was a complete waste of energy. Especially when NMSU has a closer like Lofton who can put all your defensive effort to waste with a timely "in your face" jump shot. NMSU has three losses. In all three games, the opposing team played with pace; not trying to speed up the Aggie offense or the game in general. Bad GCU game plan.