Cougars Lay Down Against Wofford, Cochran (Now with Screenshots!)

For the 2nd consecutive game, an opposing player had a
career night against the Cougars

Final Score: Wofford 75, College of Charleston 58
Top Performers: Karl Cochran 21 points (6-12 from three)

If I had written this post last night, it would have a markedly different tone and be inappropriate for children under 17. Since then, I have composed myself a little bit more and rewatched the second half with a more neutral, emotionless bias.

We laid an egg. Plain and simple. We were exposed last week by a strong George Mason team and the coaching staff had 7 days to prepare for Wofford and work out the shortcomings in defense and rebounding that plagued us against the Patriots. In the first road game of the season we showed little to no improvement in these two key areas save for a five minute stretch to open the second half. To make matters worse, we had a poor shooting night and never moved the ball enough to get a wide open look (like the ones we were giving up).

Credit Wofford. They knew how to attack the zone we've been using so much. Even when we switched to man-to-man, they still found enough space to make passes and create shooting opportunities. Freshman Karl Cochran had a career high 21 points while Brad Loesing and Kevin Giltner had their way with us.

The 10-3 record may have fooled us Cougar fans a bit. We were skeptical before the season and now I'm starting to come back down to Earth. The team is still young and there are things that ALL young teams have trouble doing. Winning on the road. Playing defense for an entire game. Making in-game adjustments. An eight man team that includes five underclassmen learns to do those things as time goes on. We'll have our ups and downs just like Wofford, another young team, will have theirs. This was an "up" for Wofford and a "down" for us. The Georgia and UMKC games were "downs" for Wofford. Meanwhile we escaped against Clemson and UTC. Mike Young had a very specific plan to attack us and his team executed it to near perfection.

There are certain issues though that need to be fixed immediately before we resume play against Furman tomorrow. We came out looking lazy, disinterested and stunned by how easily Wofford was scoring. Agan, rebounding and defensive rotations were the biggest atrocities. We'll throw in shot selection as well because I have a good example.

Take a look at the following screenshots....

Effort-Rebounding

Context: Anthony Stitt has just drained back-to-back three pointers to cut the lead to three. After forcing a bad shot, Lawrence gets the rebound and begins a break.

Wiggins ends up with it and pump fakes a three while Sundberg stops short at the three point arc. He's still a few feet back from the line.

Then Sundberg jacks up the shot from Goudelock range. There is no one around him. Now, Sunshine has taken enough threes in his life time to know if it's going in or not. Also notice the time on the shot clock.

The ball clangs off the front of the rim. This shot is of the ball coming BACK at Sundberg. He's still in the same spot. Doesn't go for the rebound at all.

As Sunny D watches, the Wofford player hustles in front of him and gets the long rebound. Ball goes the other way.

Defensive Rotations

At this point, the Cougars have played solid defense to get the shot clock all the way down to 9 seconds. Nori is on Byrd while Wiedeman is down in the paint.

Byrd drives left with Nori following

Nori's defense forces Byrd to take a wider angle around to the basket and Sundberg comes over to double team a shot attempt. More importantly, Trent comes over to TRIPLE team Byrd and leaves his man for a second.

Byrd finds the open man while three Cougars watch

Two easy points right before the shot clock expires

Shot Selection

This is our offensive possession after that last play. We were exposed on defense, gotta recover and get a good shot here to keep it close. Right Antwaine?

Plenty of time on the shot clock. A little shake and bake action on the perimeter.

Highly contested three pointer as Bobby stares, disenchanted

Brick

I Don't Even Know

Stitt has the ball on the far side of the arc and shoots a three

The shot misses bad and it's an easy rebound for Wofford. Lawrence and Sundberg just watch. Don't go for the ball, don't run back on defense to prevent an open look.

Somehow the player who has been torching us all night managed to get free and has the ball thrown to him. Our two freshman, the one who took the shot and the one fighting for a rebound under the basket, are the only ones chasing him.

Two more points and the crowd goes wild.