Tough matchup. Under Pera we're 0-4 on the road at La Tech. Average margin is something like 25. No surprise that we've struggled against them, really. Konkol (and White before him) loves to recruit athletic guards and wings with length. Combine that with a good defensive system which knows how to take away the perimeter and it doesn't take a genius to see why they match up well against us.

#81 in KenPom this year. Obviously Lofton is the headliner, but they've actually shot the 3 ball at an above average clip this year, which isn't usual for them. I think we need to start Poteat. He probably wouldn't fair much better than Fiedler against Lofton defensively, but we need to exploit Lofton's size inside and I think the best way to do that is with Poteat. Make Lofton move in the P&R and utilize his size against him on the block.

Rice currently #181 in KenPom.

Maybe we can move up the table if we keep this one close.

Line is LaTech by double digits (10.5)

need our big men to earn their keep tonight against the big fella from La Tech! talk about a load.

Good start offensively. Fiedler is unsurprisingly toast against Lofton. That's basically true of any big man in the conference, save for Sharp from WKU (and that's just because he's 7-5). 11-11.

Geron into the game with 12:43 left. Very interesting.

Love the small things from Sheffield so far. Really good contest on a drive and then a very contested offensive rebound.

Wtf is Fiedler supposed to do there. Pera has a right to be pissed.

21-20 La Tech. Lofton with an early 9. I actually don't mind that call on Fiedler. A defensive player has to jump in the restricted area if there's contact. The contact was minimal, but Fiedler did take a couple steps forward to contest the shot, there was contact, and he didn't jump. It's a call that probably isn't made 90% of the time, but by the rules it's probably the right call.

Lofton is absurdly fun to watch, especially when he knows the guy who's defending him can't guard him. 27-22 La Tech, Rice TO. La Tech defending us much, much more effectively the last 5 or so minutes. 16 points in the first 7-8 minutes, 6 points in the next 7-8 minutes.

(01-27-2022 07:55 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  21-20 La Tech. Lofton with an early 9. I actually don't mind that call on Fiedler. A defensive player has to jump in the restricted area if there's contact. The contact was minimal, but Fiedler did take a couple steps forward to contest the shot, there was contact, and he didn't jump. It's a call that probably isn't made 90% of the time, but by the rules it's probably the right call.

I thought his steps forward had brought him out of the restricted area and Lofton just jumped into him. Kid is a load

Edit: to add to that if you’re going to let Lofton bang bodies down low I think you should let Poteat body him up without calling a foul.

Great illustration of CUSA reffing. Call Poteat for a soft foul defending Lofton, then let Poteat get away with an egregious amount of contact on a Lofton "miss."

Complete danger zone for us. Pierre forcing it, we're not getting good looks, our defense is porous, and nobody can make the shots that are open. 37-25 Tech.

We were looking pretty good until the shooting went ice cold and LaTech took advantage with a 19-3 run over 6:32 of the final 7:12. Brrrr.

29-44 at the half.

44-29 La Tech at the half. Deserved lead for them. It's not the first time that we've struggled to score at Tech. While having a system that consistently struggles against certain defenses is certainly Pera's fault, I thought the players were poor. When we did get decent looks, we missed them. But the defense...the defense is another matter. Lofton is one thing but the fact that Pera can't fix our discipline on corner shooters is astounding to me. The worst part is that I thought our shot contesting inside (on guys not named Lofton) was actually fine for the most part. But it's telling that even when we don't look abysmal on the defensive end, we still give up 44.

Yikes! It was close then I stepped away for a few minutes and, next thing I know, we're down 15. And evidently shooting very poorly from 3 point land

Good news is that at the Half, Rice is on a 2-0 run. Poteet with an offensive board and put back at the buzzer

Olivari has been so confusing today. Has made a few contested floaters/layups. Just made a 3 while being fouled. And has also missed 4 or 5 of the most open looks he's had all season. 50-38 Tech.

53-40 Tech at the U16. Lofton can't defend Poteat. But unfortunately Poteat has missed a couple short ones. On the flip side, Tech's jump shooting is just super hot. Even when the looks have been contested, they're making them.

Poteat is improving so much -- even his FT shooting too.

Poteat has transformed into the focal point of our offense. As in, we're looking for him on every possession. It's good that we have options, but we're actually becoming *too* focused on him. 59-46 Tech. Rice shooting technical FTs out of the break correctly but ridiculously because evidently we don't like guys celebrating dunks and having fun.