We have gotten I guess to the point that a BIG 10 win is ho hum for this board but that would be a mistake. One of our better shooting games , 56% from 2 , 45% from 3 and 93% from the foul line going an incredible 26-28. Each player was confident shooting as Tyson , JMike and Zach shot the ball in rhythm without hestitation. Offensively we are getting better.
Dylan makes the team go and his hustle tonight with 9 assists and 6 steals to go along his 25 points , not to mention the hustle to the ball to keep possession or other high IQ plays , were off the charts. 6 steals were ridiculously good. He is that good and as good as any guard in the country. We go as he goes.
Ace , another quiet night , being denied the ball a lot. He still hit 2 huge threes in each half. Funny , but it seems to me that when Dylan is going off , ACE gets passive and lets Dylan do his thing but is also not fully engaged on the boards . Only when Dylan was hurt or rarely struggling does ACE turn into a mad man and score 25-35 , 10 or more rebounds , 2-3 blocks and a few assists and a monster. Wonder if they can both go off together down the stretch. ACE didn’t want to rebound tonight which was unfortunate since we were getting killed on the boards but at least a couple of blocks .
JMike and Bryce having their best games of the year offensively. JMike limited his drive into trees to 1 and actually hit one and shot the ball confidently . His 8-8 from the line was massive. He still doesn’t fight over screens and doesn’t keep his man in front of him so I am still down on his defense.
Bryce 4-4 with 2 great put back dunks and a nice and one layup. Has to help his confidence. He is trying real hard on defense but because of his weight he still gets pushed around. He still gets some steals and deflections and was very active . Glad they burned the redshirt.
Thought Lathan had an outstanding second half until getting stripped 2x late. His scoring and rebounding was good but I thought his defense denying the pass to their center was outstanding. He hedged high and recovered a few times. His best defensive half of the year. His foul shooting is outstanding and was also massive tonight.
Tyson and Zach hit some timely shots and contributed tonight across the stat sheet. We needed everyone contribution and hope it becomes consistent.
USC two guards Claude the grad transfer and Yates , the outstanding freshmen were phenomenal but we shut down the rest of their team and why we won. JMike could not stay in front of Claude and the geo came too late from our bigs. Claude has done this to about 5 BIG 10 teams so hope no one was suprised.
Yates has been outstanding the last 7-8 games as Claude was hurt and missed 2-3 games after they beat Michigan State and Illinois. He is quick as hell and his 16 matching Dylan’s16 in the first half was fun to watch.
Now I think they have the same problem that we have with Dylan and ACE that is Claude started hot and then came out in first half , not sure he had foul trouble , but then Yates took over and got his 16 at the half. Then in second half , Claude took over completely and Yates was a non factor until the last 2-3 minutes. He had 16 at the half and then 18 with 2-3 minutes left as Claude dominated the ball and the shots.
All in all , we got up 15 or 17 against a decent USC team and of course we let up too soon and let them give us a little heart palpitations for a few minutes but our foul shooting was outstanding for the win. Did not like our rebounding effort tonight on the defense end as all 5 players on the floor must rebound before we get out on the break and their getting 2-3 offensive boards or balls just hitting the floor after a shot really sucked and unfortunately 28 games in , the guys must be reminded they all must rebound.
Very good win and we are right there with 3 left and 7-10 in the conference with the 9th spot right there as Indiana , Nebraska and Ohio State also with 7 wins. One game at a time. Team is finally healthy and supporting cast is playing better. Just need our players to actually try and keep their opponent in front of them.
