in that a pure PG will be nice. I like Wilbekin running it this year though.

Boynton is in a terrible shooting funk. 8/33 his last 3 games and 2/20 from 3 over that same stretch. The three he took with two minutes left and a six point lead was atrocious; came down court, dribbled around for 20 seconds, never passed, then heaved a contested shot with no chance to go in.  Not to mention the missed front end 1-1 FT he clanked that should have given us a 3 or at least 2 point lead. Guards have to be money at the end of tight games like this, should have been a parade to the FT line during the last two minutes.  Instead, we had a missed three, missed FT, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls.  From 2 minutes to 1 minute they had three possessions in which they bricked 2 threes and committed a foul, yet we never extended the lead. Instead of going strong to the basket and creating contact/foul opportunities we clanked long range shots and forgot how to inbound the ball.

If Wilbekin is the PG then let him handle the ball at the end of the game.  He made a big 3 for our final basket, but from there on he should have been in control of the offense. It looked like the team kind of let/made Boynton handle the ball almost exclusively making him both the set up man and the go to guy from outside.  We struggled to feed the post the last 4-5 minutes where we could have caused some problems and gotten better looks at the basket as the 7 footer had fouled out by then. 

The officiating blew.  Young never went to the line, that should raise eyebrows by itself, but there was more. They called nothing on post moves, only on drives. The missed kick and the foul on Rosario have already been discussed.  Officiating is not the reason we lost, but it sure didn't help.

Murphy was a turnover machine last night.  He should have shot the ball everytime he touched it. He was shooting well and worked the glass, but 5 TOs is ridiculous.

The consensus seems to be that this team can learn from this loss.  I have my doubts.  Not just the way they played at the end of the game, but also the end of the half was all too familiar to the late game collapse in the elite eight both last year and the year before.  None of the freshmen were involved in crunch time of last night's game, so the guys that were in there should have already learned the lesson. How many times does it have to happen before the lesson sticks? 

What should have been learned before last night:

• Respect the basketball. Possessions, especially in tight games, are

  precious. 
  

• Make your damn FTs.  That is exponentially more important

  when you're not getting many chances to start with and it is beyond

  critical in close games. 
  

• Run the offense. Don't settle for long threes

  when you have a lead late in the game. Instead, force the issue going to

  the hoop and crash the boards.  We had 10 offensive rebounds in the first 33 minutes, but only 1 in the last 7 minutes.

Its not rocket surgery. However, it isn't enough to remember the past in order to avoid being condemned to repeating it, you must also understand what the cause of past failures was and learn what change in your behavior will effect a different outcome.  So far I only see the remembering, not the learning. What gives me hope is the lesson this year - this third lesson - was delivered not at the end of the season but during it.  Let's hope this time they take it to heart. I remain optimistic despite the tone of this post.  Final Four and a chance at winning it all are certainly within this team's capability.