UCSB vs. Irvine Recap

Wow. Where do I start? In the interest of keeping this short (and because Bob gave me so many good ideas last night), I'm going to summarize our performance in each half with one word each: decent, WTF?.

For anyone who played Mortal Kombat as a kid and watched the game last night, I think you'll have a pretty good idea what I'm trying to convey if you watch the first 10 seconds of the clip.



For those of you who didn't watch the game, UCSB lost 65-59 last night to the Anteaters. Here are the four ordinary statistical categories that we normally focus on.

Shooting Percentage - UCSB: 40.4%; UCI: 47.7%

Free Throws - UCSB: 9-11, 81.8%; UCI: 17-22, 77.3%

Offensive Rebounding - UCSB: 10; UCI: 9

Turnovers - UCSB: 12; UCI: 13

Clearly, this battle was lost on both the free throw line and our abysmal second half shooting performance. UCI made us pay when we sent them to line. It didn't hurt that they shot lights out in the second half from two point land. UCSB was ice cold in the second half. They shot 17 three pointers in the second half and made four.

Al Harris and James Powell showed a shooter's mentality out there by firing up the three. I have no problem with that. I'm of the opinion that our three point shooting is so good (In fact, top 5 in that nation before last night's game) that we should keep firing up shots. However, I'm also of the belief that at some point you gotta be smart enough to realize that if your shot isn't falling, you have to go for the easier baskets.

Of course, this is where it gets tricky and I get a bit smarmy. I'm convinced that UCSB does not have an offense. I'm completely serious. Show me a playbook and I'll show a tape where no one moves around on offense and everyone tries to take their man one-on-one. This is part of the reason why we shot so many threes last night. When no one sets a pick for anyone else, you have to dribble around the perimeter. Since we're playing D-1, we've got a shot clock and we kept shooting silly three pointers.

The flip side of this is even more ridiculous. This team is one of the best free throw shooting teams in the nation, yet we got to the line 11 times. 11 TIMES!!! Does Bob or anyone on this team understand that they should drive to the basket, pump fake, get a foul, get to line and get in the bonus early? I know, it's complicated stuff. Lucky for me, I've got a degree from UCSB so I can put two plus two together. If I was coaching this team, there would be two shots they would be allowed to take: a lay-up in which they must pump fake at least once or a three pointer. You have to know your strengths and it seems ridiculous that after 20+ games, Bob still can't figure out what his teams strengths are.

Getting back to our lack of offense. It pisses me off when I see three or four of our players standing around for 25 seconds before moving around. If you don't believe me, watch the off ball players next game and you'll be amazed at the lack of movement.

One more gripe I have is with Nedim Pajevic. Nedim, I'm sure you're a great guy, and we'd probably get along if we ever drank beers together. However, I have some constructive criticism for you. You try to do much more than you're capable of. You played 17 minutes last night and the boxscore attribute two turnovers to you. Unfortunately, I was keeping track and you were directly responsible for 5. You averaged a turnover every three minutes. In other words, you had one more turnover than points you scored in the game. We call that uneffective. Next game, don't make crazy passes into the post. You're a big man, play like it.

The last gripe of this rant is our offense again. This again falls back to Bob. Do you know what 58 is? It's the number of possessions we had last night. Do you know why I'm pointing this out? Of course you do. It's because our team has become the greatest chameleon act in Division I basketball. Again, we proved we're incapable of playing our own pace or imposing our pace on the other team. We played down to Irvine's pace, which is about 62 possessions a game. The game before, when we played CSUF, we had 67 possessions, about 4 less than Fullerton averages. Against Riverside, we had 60 possessions, about 3 less than Riverside averages.

The point of this is that we don't know what kind of team we have because Bob Williams allows his opponent to dictate the pace. A crazy friend of mine once said, "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"(OK, Mike Tyson really isn't my friend). I don't know if the Gauchos have a plan, but they abandon it once the game starts. How about Bob surprises his opponent next game and forces his team to press and push the pace the entire game. If he does, I bet we get to the line a lot and shoot the three pretty well, and win. Wouldn't you believe it that that type of style plays into our two biggest strengths? Well, you should.

Have you figured out what the Mortal Kombat clip was? The point is that when we were up 10 points in the second half, we had the opportunity to step on Irvine's throat and finish them off. Unfortunately, we allowed them back in the game and lost. These guys need to get a killer instinct and take a lesson from the animal kingdom. When an animal sees/smells blood or weakness, they finish the other animal off because in their world, only the strongest survive.