Here's a question. How good could this team have been if we had not abandoned this style of play 5-6 games into the season. If anything, we have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that we should never step foot back into the "bleeding eyeballs" offense ever again. Our defense is not good enough to gut out and win these games of attrition like we have in the past. Playing fast creates so many more weapons than we have playing slow. There is no better example of that than Shaq. He not only flourishes in this style, he actually almost looks like an all-league caliber player. Jacob Evans again is starting to look like the player we saw early in the season. He looks so much more comfortable. Caupain is back to never turning the ball over like he did early in the season. Clark looks more comfortable. Ellis looks more comfortable. They all look more comfortable.
I think we're giving Kenyon a little too much credit on the impact he made on these two games. If one guy stepped in and made that kind of difference, then maybe he should be our head coach. That doesn't make our coaching staff look very good. But, if he wants back in to basketball, and he made something happen in these two games, then we need to pony up and seal the deal and get him in here.
But, to summarize, there were enough positive signs in these two games to provide some renewed hope. We have 3 tough road games out of the next four and I think we have to go a minimum of 3-1 over this stretch. We are certainly capable of winning all 4 if we can build off of these last two performances.
Gotta give Mick a lot of credit. Something changed in him yesterday. Putting Tobler in with 6 and a half minutes left, playing the bench guys for extended minutes to close out the game, letting Tulane come back and score into the mid-70s against that 2nd unit, etc. are things he has never done in the past. Maybe he has finally seen the big picture and is going to put away some of those old stubborn habits he's had in the past. One can certainly hope so.
