I think when we took 16 minutes off from playing offense, that was our undoing. You know, if I had to point to one thing.
After the game last night, someone said they wouldn't be surprised if these teams followed a game played in the 70s/80s with one played in the 50s/60s. Whoever that was must be super smart...and handsome...and have a million friends.
Honestly, I think both teams were worse than they were last night. UMBC just took a significantly smaller step back, while UVM dropped off the Wile E. Coyote cliff. A bunch of reasons for that: fatigue, UMBC's physical defense...or some nights you just kinda suck. It was kind of a bad basketball casserole for us.
One thing that jumps off the boxscore that is really frustrating: UMBC with 32 FT attempts, UVM with 19. I'm not going where you think with this: this isn't about officiating quality. Rather it's about being aggressive on the offensive end and trying to actively get to the line, and trying to find a way to defend them in the paint on the defensive end. UMBC had 1.45 FTAs per foul committed by UVM. In large part because they (read: Akin) was getting position under the rim and our choices were let him score, or foul him...and let him score from there. Conversely UVM had 1 FTA per foul committed by UMBC. And it wasn't because we were getting And-1's. This is a must-fix if we're fortunate enough to see them again.
But re: officiating, I do think Davis got squeezed a little which obviously was a HUGE detriment to us.
All this said, getting a sweep this weekend was a big ask. It's a bummer to lose the #1 seed on a tiebreaker, but the rules are the rules, they're set out at the beginning and they're fair for everyone. UMBC did what they needed to do and earned it. On one hand, there was never a year where I felt better about having to win a road game at UMBC in the title game. On the other, we have a semifinal to worry about first. It's not often we get a year where (in my opinion, anyway) the gap between 1-4 is this tight, and there's a good chance we'll have to play a team we haven't played this year which is a helluva wild card for a conference tourney game. Let's hope we can spend the next two weeks getting healthy and staying healthy.