Lots to like about this win. Lots. Thoughts.
1) Tad appears to have been right that at least two dudes look to have taken significant steps. Kee & Nique. To be determined on Silva. He was in foul trouble but contributed while in. Nique was in the closing group though. Absolute game changer for us on both ends of the floor. Lots of defensive hustle plays. 9 rebounds. Smart offensive play. A wing making 1v1 plays on his own and willing to do so? Haven't seen that on a Tad team since...? He was very close to getting a bunch of steals that just went out of bounds. Loved his game. So fluid on offense. Kee was fun to watch. Definitely see how he's modeled his game after Kin's. He's a little bigger, plays above the rim more, and has a better shot, and he's just getting started. Let's see how he does when his shot isn't falling, but that late season surge from him was not a mirage!
2) Bari was an absolute disaster most of the night last night with 6 turnovers, only one of which was iffy or weird (the travel), but still made a lot of game winning plays. The pass to Eli on the broken (what else does Tad call to end games?) play to tie the game in the last 30 was just one of them. The usual threes mixed with some defense and clever makes inside. Really nice to see him struggle, but not foul and still help the team. Maturity! This reminded me of Dre's first 10 games in his 3d season when Tad let him prove to everyone whether he was a guy who could create his own offense at will. Hopefully it works out better than Dre's, he certainly has the talent to do it but last night was real rough at times.
3) Tad completely changed the game (and saved it) by simplifying the defense to all switch all the time in the 2d half. They never adjusted. While they did get some easy buckets, their offense stagnated with a lot of TO's or near TOs that allowed us to go on our run. Tad mentioned this in post game, but they were killing us on switches. Something was broken there. Nice call coach!
4) Students. Holy ****! They filled up the student section and then started filtering over into our greybeard seats. They even got to sing **** um up a lot! Attendance was great. Activity still not matching the Spencer years group, but wow, to even be mentioning them in that vein one game is DOPE.
5) MSU came out and just punched this team in the mouth. Blocks, etc. They were the better team on the evening despite not having the athletes we do (I love being the team with better athletes). They looked confident, knew what they were doing, and the only thing that saved us in the first half was hot 3 point shooting. The refs called a bunch of soft bull**** (both ways, but concentrated on our bigs because they were actually going inside the paint unlike us) that took us way out of our comfort zone. They were a team that was greater than the sum of their parts. But we still won thanks to good adjustments, talent, and grit. Such a good sign!
edit, added:
6) How we broke the press was a breath of fresh air. Both guards (Kee and KJ iirc) were comfortable handling it (when was the last time we had two guards that could handle the press?). Nique stepped in and was great too. Having someone with his height and ability to handle the ball is a blessing there. A welcome change from hero ball by double teamed Kin.
7) KJ! He's going to be so good.
Plus, that was fun as ****! I got three hours of sleep (thanks kiddo 2) but this was ****in worth it!
Now to work before this coffee wears off.