I made a comment in another thread before the game that it's not on the coaches when shots don't fall. I think the whole complexion of the game may have been different if Freeman had made the 3-4 uncontested bunny layups he missed in the first 10 minutes. I really think he left 10 points on the floor just on inability to finish off plays - between the bunnies and one blocked dunk attempt that I don't think he went up strong enough with. Between that and a couple of fouls... it just wasn't his night.
Beyond that, we started off 0-9 from range, I think, and finished 3-16. If we started 3-9 and finished 6-16, that's another 9 points along with Freeman's 10, and it would have been a completely different ballgame.
I thought the team fought hard, and were coached well. I think they were prepared, they ran the plays they were given, they got their looks... but they just couldn't find the bottom of the net. We just lack that scoring consistency... sometimes it's there, and sometimes it's not. When it's not, we're going to struggle once we hit conference play - because defense/hustle/etc alone isn't going to keep us in games.
Were there things to clean up? Definitely. Some ill advised or bad passes, some gambles on defense, some body control/positioning fouls from our bigs, some defensive gaps, etc.... but overall, if we had hit our uncontested/lightly contested shots at a higher rate, this game was in reach for us. And that's a good sign moving forward.