caughtinasnare
Senior
Posts: 362
Age: 35
Reg: 02-21-09
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03-15-18 10:53 PM - Post#253338
In response to 10Q
My thoughts from Wichita as I prepare to sleep before a 5AM flight:
1) Getting to and from Wichita sucks. It's just the worst. Air carriers really should have added more flights from hubs this weekend.
2) Everyone in Kansas is nice. More people welcomed me to Wichita as I walked around the city in my Penn garb today than I can even try to count.
3) Boy was the crowd shocked when we went up early. I was in the Penn section, but there were a lot of Kansas fans that infiltrated our midst. Had a few Penn students in front of me (the guys who were shown on TV with the signs) and Tommy McMahon and Brennan Votel behind me next to another current student. We were cheering a lot, high fiving, and it was great for awhile.
4) I really think that the inability to hit FTs had a compounding effect on other parts of Penn's game. It's a momentum killer to have the chance to put free points on the board and not do it. That really killed our chances of staging a full comeback after going down, I think, because we just couldn't get the momentum to keep a run going.
5) Kansas' defense was way better than I expected it to be. They were doing a great job of getting in the passing lanes and making it hard for us to move the ball well inside, as well as on the perimeter.
6) The best 3pt defense in the country wouldn't have any way of stopping Graham from hitting the shots he was taking from distance. That kid was throwing daggers.
7) Lightfoot got away with SO DAMN MANY moving screens. The biggest difference in this game was that we let them get around our screens and they didn't let us get around their screens.
8) I honestly wish Darnell took some more shots in this one, despite the well-documented results of him shooting more than 10 shots. The big difference he was making (and the difference Dev was making toward the end of the year, especially at Columbia) was to be able to weave through traffic in the lane and get to the bucket. Part of the problem today preventing that was the athleticism of a 1 seed, but forcing the issue couldn't have hurt. The good (and bittersweet) news: Darnell will never shoot more than 10 shots for Penn again, so does that mean we're gonna win forever?
9) Caleb Wood doesn't get enough credit for his rise this year. The kid can put down shots from 3 and often seemed like the only guy who could make one from the line. Both he and Darnell will be missed and hard to replace.
10) Given the perpetual problem of Quakers getting lower leg injuries, I have to question whether there is a common factor that can be resolved. Way too many walking wounded walking around it walking boots (and Darnell playing through it, apparently). It would seem there is something here to analyze. Also, no idea why the injured guys had to sit on the opposite side of the court from the bench... Would have been nice for them to experience being on the bench and involved in the conversation during the game.
Great season, Quakers. You did us all proud by your gutsy performance and grind to get this far. It's a shame you couldn't make history today, but you definitely put a shock into the 1 seed for awhile on what is basically their home turf. Use this experience and come back next year looking for more.
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