Sheesh. That was ugly. I watched Saint Mary's handle Oregon, saw that BYU dominated Oregon. This isn't the talented Oregon team that smacked us a couple years ago with Payton Pritchard and Chris Duarte. Their bigs are athletically imposing but not very skilled.
What really stuck out to me when Oregon played Saint Mary's was how bad Oregon's off-ball defense was. They were constantly ball watching, losing their man, making late switches that created open shots or mismatches. Saint Marys destroyed them by their off-ball actions, got great shots, and won the game. Plus they have a crafty pg who made Oregon's big pay for sitting back in ball screens. Saint Marys, from an athletic perspective had no chance of beating Oregon, but they were way more skilled and use on offensive scheme to create easy looks. There was not a lot of 1v1 going on.
Last night was the complete opposite. We're stagnant off the ball, we're ball screen heavy, and we rely on our guards to break down superior athletes to create offensive opportunity. Why does Josh B never get easy looks? Why does Beasley take so many contested shots? Why are we turning the ball over so much trying to get to the paint?
For a mid-major playing a P5 program, the equalizer will always be skill (less talented, shorter, slower but better shooting, IQ, team cohesion, etc) and scheme (4-5 year guys who have been in the program and know the system inside and out). We don't have a scheme conducive to beating P5 teams because we are trying to play like them....ball screens and dribble drive. We aren't even the most athletic team in the Big Sky.
It will be interesting to see how this strategy plays out against the best teams in the conference. My guess is wildly inconsistent. There will be games where we take and make tough shots and have great individual performances, and games where we struggle to score 60 because our opponent is equally if not more talented, game plans well, or we just don't have solid individual performances.