Anatomy of Murder(ous loss)

I have had to wait to write this until I have regained a portion of my sanity and a hope, however small, for the future. Being at the YUM! last night certainly wasn't Yummy. This was a Titanic loss to a team that had not won a single away game this season.

Here are a few observations about daggers to the heart that did us in.

Of course I have to lead with free throws. We shot 63% and Notre Dame shot 76%. We were outscored by five at the line. This however is only the tip of the Titanic's iceberg. Please Captain John (Pitino) Smith turn this damned ship around before it is too late. In the first OT we missed our first three FTs and finished three for six. 50%!!! All we had to do was hit a lousy four for six (OK, that's 66% which is pretty good for us but still lousy for most teams) and there is NO SECOND OT. WE WIN IN ONE. GAME OVER!

And then there is the shot count. We took 52 shots. Note that is essentially only one per minute. We like a fast tempo. Is a shot a minute fast? Let's look at Notre Dame. They ran the clock down every possession to the point men, women, and children were falling asleep. But they took 63 shots! That's eleven more than us which certainly offset their lower FG%.

Sometimes a team gets more FG attempts because they shoot fewer free throws. That makes sense. But Notre Dame actually shot two more free throws than us. That means they had more scoring opportunities from both the field and the line. How awful is that, especially for a slow down team?

And then there is our play selection which I tend to think of in the singular given that the high screen, drive the lane out of control seems to be our primary weapon. We even had the last shot twice and never even got one off (I know some people who can get off in 15 seconds). We had the ball out of several timeouts and didn't score a single time. Where, oh where, are the Denny Crum timeout plays? We used to score almost every time when the ball was put back in play. That ship has sailed.

Watching this team play (and I will continue to do so and cheer as loud as possible) is like being in the dentist scene in The Little Shop of Horrors where there is drilling without anesthetic. My favorite sports were Cards basketball followed by basketball recruiting followed by football. It seems after yesterday football recruiting is the most uplifting. Thank God for Charlie Stong.