ADVERTISEMENT

McConnell Block

Certainly turning point of the game and should be an ESPN Top Ten play, but to me the turning point of the season has been the emergence of Paul Mulcahy the last 3 games. The way he's playing completely changes the dynamics for every team defending us and makes every other player on the floor for us better. Hard to overestimate how important that is.
100% agree.
 
I was up in the 301 nosebleeds at the most distant section from that basket. I couldn’t see it that well and was in disbelief that he was able to pull off that block.
 
I was thinking. "Don't foul". Then "What a frickin' block". Considering the time in the game, could be defensive play of the season.
100% best defensive play of the season

Shoutout to Bo and the other refs too for not anticipating a foul
Exactlyyyy and a huge pet peeve of mine. Refs love to anticipate fouls like it's a reflex

Certainly turning point of the game and should be an ESPN Top Ten play, but to me the turning point of the season has been the emergence of Paul Mulcahy the last 3 games. The way he's playing completely changes the dynamics for every team defending us and makes every other player on the floor for us better. Hard to overestimate how important that is.
Nailed it. Defenses have to scheme bc of Paul now. Wheeler got 2 fouls and was out. Arhens came in and got abused for an old school 3 point play by Paul in the lane and was immediately yanked. I expect Caleb to draw shorter defenders with size seeming to slow Paul down

And he had 4 fouls at the time so knew he would gone if he didnt get it.
One of the aspects that makes the play so great. Completely unselfish willing to sacrifice if needed knowing they needed stops at any cost
 
Underrated post! Anticipation calls on a defender in a “bad” position are all too common.
I think it was Lamont Simpson? Not familiar with him from prior games which is probably a good sign generally.
 
Underrated post! Anticipation calls on a defender in a “bad” position are all too common.
I know everybody railed on the refs most of the game. And there were some calls that were off, for sure.

But down the stretch, the refs mostly appeared to just let the two teams play, and play hard. I was seeing a ton of contact (both ways) and the refs seemed like they had made up their minds to let most stuff go. I think, for the most part, that when the refs let the players play physically, it benefits RU because RU seems prone to getting into early foul trouble when refs call things tightly.

It was almost like, in the second half in particular, they started out by calling stuff pretty tight, perhaps to keep things from getting out of control and then gradually eased up on the calls once it was clear the teams were exercising some restraint on their own. This is pure speculation, of course. But it's hard to explain the variance in how tight or easy they called stuff across the full 40 minutes.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT