I’m obviously glad that we won last night’s game. I’m not going to act like I’m not, considering we stole a win from a talented team in their gym without the benefit of London Perrantes’ steady guidance. Wins are better than losses.
We definitely stole this one, though. Malcolm Brogdon scored a little over a third of our points, going over 20 for the third straight game and fourth time overall, but he didn’t do it the way you’d expect — by mixing his attacks between threes, drives, and playing off the elbow — he did it by jacking threes, hitting six of 10 tries (both career highs) for the game. Malcolm got some help from Darius Thompson (12 points, including a beautiful gliding layup, and six assists in a spot start) and in the second half from AG (all 10 of his points), but it felt like he was going it alone for parts of this one. The guys who we expect to chip in points to compliment the main guys — the Shayoks, Halls, and Tobeys — didn’t really make a substantial impact on this game without London there to set them up perfectly. It goes without saying, but if Malcolm taking threes off the bounce from a foot behind the line with a defender in his face is our best source of offense, it’s probably not sustainable.
The numbers (we shot an acceptable 44% from the field and scored 1.13 per possession) were OK in the end, but it was the laborious nature with which we found offense (possessions took forever, as the ball stagnated on the perimeter) that made it painful to watch. I was really hoping to see more of Devon Hall running the show, and for Devon to be more aggressive than he was last night.
The perimeter defense was a sieve, allowing OSU’s guards to parade down the lane to either draw a foul, convert around the rim, or kick to a shooter, and the Buckeyes’ effective field goal percentage (59.5%) took up residence in a neighborhood only occupied by Tennessee in 2013 and UNC in last year’s ACC Tournament. Those are not the neighbors you want to see walking up when you unload the truck. The post traps were slow no matter who was on the floor, and I was shocked at how often a Buckeye wing beat one of ours off of the dribble. All of this lethargy and poor positioning led to OSU getting better looks from behind the arc than I wanted, and they knocked them down (8-16).
So what went right? Beyond Brogs channeling his inner Klay Thompson for a night, I really liked what we got from Isaiah off the bench (six points, five boards, active, intelligent defense). He’s put GW fully behind him, and might have to play more than he’s playing now if we plan to keep trapping the post as often as we are. He also made a nice little floated on a pass from Darius and two free throws in the last three minutes of the game. Coming back to Darius, he had some moments, though more of them came in transition or via the secondary break than in the half court. He wasn’t really aggressive in trying to find the paint and work the angles to set up people for shots.
Tony seems to know that we weren’t at our best last night, and we’ve had some hiccups in the half court defensively every year while he figures out what his best set of lineups is. I’m not panicking — again, I’m glad we won — I’m just not ready to anoint us ready to defend our ACC title until some of these issues improve (and London returns).
