Obviously, no complaint about the outcome, especially because it has generated some positive social media. But, this game never should have been that close.
Two Autry things from today regarding personnel usage.
1. I don't understand him not going to his bench at all when the defense was poor while Miami made their 16-9 run in the second half. After Pack had already hit a couple shots, Copeland and Starling had a miscommunication when Pack slipped a screen and got wide open for a second three. A couple possessions later, Mintz missed a jumper and was unhappy about the lack of a call. Cleveland gets the rebound and goes coast-to-coast for the dunk while Brown, Copeland, and Starling jog back and Williams never steps in to stop the ball. He called a timeout after that, but no substitutions.
2. Going to Cuffe after Bell got beat twice in the last couple minutes. I absolutely get lifting Bell. I don't understand going to a guy giving up five inches in the matchup. The height difference didn't matter when Cuffe got picked and George banked in a long three, but I would have thought Taylor would have been the preferred option for size reasons.
The guys still do plenty of nonsensical things. I don't think basketball IQ is at a premium in college, but they could make things so much easier for themselves and they have shown the ability to do these things previously. Some examples from today that came in a pretty quick sequence (looks like they were right at the start of the second half):
- Williams didn't see/ignored a wide-open Bell in the corner on a swing until the defense had time to recover.
- Starling passed the ball to a defended Taylor with 4 seconds on the shot clock and he ends up taking a contested stepback 3.
- Mintz shooting a 3 from about 26 feet as a trailer in transition.
- In general, too much dribbling from Bell (at least four times, he took at least two dribbles on offense and was unable to create a positive situation) and Copeland spotting up on the arc (I understand creating space, but at 26.1 percent on the season, defenders will not close out hard and create blow-bys).
Those things said, Williams zipped a beautiful pass to Copeland cutting on the baseline that netted two foul shots (which makes the lack of a pass above more curious).
Bell had troubles on defense late, but also did a solid job in the game rotating to tag Brown's man when he came out to double on screen actions and was able to ease;ly rotate back.
Just wanted to give those guys credit for some stuff that generally goes unnoticed, especially since I am on those two for failures in these areas plenty of times.
