Everyone should be excited about the Marquette win yesterday. Yes, it's Marquette. More important is the way we went about it.
UW played a defensive gem. Marquette has much more size on the front line. Even with Reuvers having some foul trouble, UW completely controlled the boards, limited post touches, and interior scoring. There was a pick up in the quality of play from Ford and Pritzl. Pritzl was the player of the game...but Ford's approach was the difference.
Offensively, we hit a lot of 3 FGAs. A cynic would say UW looks good when they hit shots (which is hard to argue), however, UW 3FGA % was a by-product of really good movement and a concerted effort to relentless attack the post. Reuvers, Ford, Pritzl, King, Davison all had frequent post touches. When you have different guys coming from different angles off different action...there is no way for a defender to anticipate it coming and beat the offense to the spot. UW consistently got excellent post position. And when the post got fed, it felt like we had almost unlimited time and space to operate. The results: lots of interior scoring, lots of foul shots, and lots of clean kick-out looks.
The Marquette game is an example of what UW can be. It took a couple of games to come together but it was wonderful to see.
Going forward the question has to be: Can we be this team night-in and night-out? When the game is frustrating or things aren't going our way...Can they commit to consistent board control? Can UW commit to relentlessly attacking the post?
If so...this could be a special season.
UW played a defensive gem. Marquette has much more size on the front line. Even with Reuvers having some foul trouble, UW completely controlled the boards, limited post touches, and interior scoring. There was a pick up in the quality of play from Ford and Pritzl. Pritzl was the player of the game...but Ford's approach was the difference.
Offensively, we hit a lot of 3 FGAs. A cynic would say UW looks good when they hit shots (which is hard to argue), however, UW 3FGA % was a by-product of really good movement and a concerted effort to relentless attack the post. Reuvers, Ford, Pritzl, King, Davison all had frequent post touches. When you have different guys coming from different angles off different action...there is no way for a defender to anticipate it coming and beat the offense to the spot. UW consistently got excellent post position. And when the post got fed, it felt like we had almost unlimited time and space to operate. The results: lots of interior scoring, lots of foul shots, and lots of clean kick-out looks.
The Marquette game is an example of what UW can be. It took a couple of games to come together but it was wonderful to see.
Going forward the question has to be: Can we be this team night-in and night-out? When the game is frustrating or things aren't going our way...Can they commit to consistent board control? Can UW commit to relentlessly attacking the post?
If so...this could be a special season.
