First half:

Defense: We were in man defense most of the half. Austin does a good job of hard hedging and recovering quickly to his man. Unfortunately, he's the only one of the big guys that seems to do this right. They all hedge pretty well so the shooters didn't get too much space off a screen, but they didn't recover in time. The backside guard stayed on the big guy as the help man, and a skip pass gave an open three.

I saw it quite a few times where the guard was helping off underneath and didn't get back to his guy in time. Also saw once or twice the guard helping on DRIVE, which is tough... the big guy should cut that off and the backside guard should cut off the pass then the guard helps the other guard.

Guards were also not fighting through screens hard enough, so shooters got too much space and the backside guard would hurry over and contest (leaving two guys open). 

Towards the end of the half, our guards started recovering much more quickly to contest the three-point shot. Much improved by the end.

Summary: Guards were helping off a lot and it gave Belmont shooters too much space. They were deep threes they had to get off quickly, but to their credit they made them often. Not many other schools will have that specialty... but we've got to do a better job contesting shooters even when we help (which we did in the second).

(Also, I think man defense was the right approach because they are primarily a jump-shooting team. They just found enough space).

Offense: Our offense looked good. Austin, Davis, Corbin, and Kyle all did well getting us offensive rebounds. Collinsworth finally looked like himself driving to the hole, he scored well and created well for everyone else. Good to see Fischer shoot well, Toolsen shot pretty well, and Emery is as good as advertised (a couple of bonehead passes, but a good scorer/distributer for the most part).

Also, the Bellmont coach evidently doesn't know what a travel is. He asked for it about 8 times in the first half on obvious non-travels.

Second half:

Defense: Came out in man-to-man again. A lot of effort to contest shooters in the second half. I think the key word was "pressure." They were getting up in shooters' faces, contesting shots, closing gaps etc. The guards fought harder through screens so the other guard didn't have to come over and help as much... left two people guarded where in the first half both had more space. 

I loved Collinsworth matching up on *their shooter whose name I can't remember,* he stuck him and didn't help off which slowed Belmont way down. 

Offense: Again, great effort on the o-boards. I liked how we started off going inside to the bigs and then kicking it out to shooters. Collinsworth AGAIN created well, driving in and either scoring or getting an assist. He passed post to post well as well as good kick outs to three-point-shooters.

Really, inside out was the key IMHO. Got a lot of threes, mostly set up by attacking the basket or hitting the post. Always my basketball philosophy, but proven right in this game. 

GREAT to see Ficher shoot well from the three. Seriously awesome. But I hate to say this: I don't think will happen night in and night out (he'll do it often, but shooters have trouble shooting that well often). Like all shooters (even Jimmer), you'll be on from three some days and off other days. So some days we'll see what we saw last night, some days he'll be off. I was hoping to see him drive to the hole more this year... that's what shooters do when they're off (see Jimmer against UNLV at home his senior year). I've seen it a bit, but if he's going to be a consistent scorer I think he needs to do it more. Or at least the 15 foot shot.

Overall, great game for us going into Utah. I haven't seen them play yet this year... but no outcome  will surprise me next week (either team could win, either team could get blown out).