Well, I think UMass won this game with strong defense under the hoop. They packed it in down low, established their physicality early, and completely neutralized our low post offense. Kellogg deserves a lot of credit for a strong game plan and the Putney/Carter/Lalanne trio deserves a lot of credit for using their length and strength to push Larsen around and turn him into a midrange jump shooter. The offense didn't really know how to respond to that and looked stagnant for much of the game. The only way we could've overcome it was by hitting our shots from outside or attacking the hoop from the perimeter and opening things up--the former really comes and goes from game to game for us, and while Garino did his best in the latter category, we just didn't have the personnel to do it effectively with Savage in street clothes and McDonald banged up.
Not trying to make too many excuses, but I will say this: I think you guys lucked out big time in playing us three days after our trip to VCU--that game wore us out. As I said yesterday, our bench is really, really thin right now (understatement of the century--three fucking points the whole game from the bench--and we looked completely gassed out there. I really hope we meet again in Brooklyn, where I think a healthy Savage could make the difference--he's the best slasher on the team and we need both his aggressiveness and his minutes. Of course having said that, I'm well aware that Chaz was banged up today too, and I'm pretty nervous about the possibility of seeing him explode for 20 points in the A-10 semifinals.