(03-17-2021 09:27 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  I think I'll wade in here.

I believe the players have almost to a person exceeded what most thought capable for their given experience. That goes to coaching. One close-up late in the first half showed Shumate was gassed. Gassed like I hadn't seen. He is undersized when playing Richmond or OU and he's on a thin team. Several of them appeared gassed.

I said early in season and still believe, Coach K needs to risk a few losses early in order to develop some depth. As was, he didn't even need to risk losses because the lead 7 gave him point margins to work with. He also needs to work on his end game. I'm thinking a summer project if I can find a useful measure of point swing.

Richmond, due to their injury troubles, played 8 guys (really only 7 though). We played...8 guys (really only 7 though). Both teams had to play 40 minutes. MYbe we ate too much bbq yesterday. The differences were that 1) Richmond played tough enough early on that they believed they could win & then picked up the intensity while the Rockets a la Muncie bolted to an early lead, then got sloppy, then lost confidence and 2) what was left of Richmond’s bench (keeping in mind 2 reserves needed to start) out scored our bench 13-6...including one guy who got 10 points in 13 minutes, all in the paint.