[BasketballAlum] Last home game

[gary holquist]

Bulldog Basketball Alumni and Friends:

The message to the team going into last Saturday's game at Romano 
Gymnasium against the University of South Dakota was to survive the 
first 10 minutes of the game.  USD has jumped on teams early and 
established substantial leads within the first ten minutes.  The other 
factor we prepared for was to get USD out of their match-up zone and as 
a result be ready to play against their man-to-man defense.  We have 
been successful offensively going against their zone defense over the 
years and occasionally they did go man-to-man, which they very seldom 
play.  We did more than survive that first 10 minutes against their 
match-up; we had a 12-point lead at the 9 minute mark and went into 
half-time up by four.  The problem was we held them to 10 points in the 
first 12 minutes, but gave up 24 points the next 8 minutes of the half. 
They went man-to-man half way through the first half and we lost our 
focus of controlling tempo, as a result, we got into a quick tempo game 
that we do not sustain very well for the long haul.  We lost our lead 
early in the second half, but stayed within striking distance and had 
the ball down four, with 2:30 to play-turned the ball over on a crucial 
play, fouled, and never could get the game any closer.  We lost 79-70. 
I thought we played well overall, with the exceptions defensively 
allowed too much penetration from their guards that created excessive 
help situations, and offensively shot the ball too quickly.  We were 
caught out of position too often on their penetration and fouled 
because of it.  USD was 25 of 31 from the foul line and it was due to 
our lack of being in solid help position defensively.  Controlling 
tempo through forcing your opponent to play defense deeper into the 
shot clock is difficult at times when good shots present themselves. 
Our lack of a solid post presence hurts us here.  We shot 48% from the 
floor, but most of it was on perimeter jump shots.  Lane scores and 
lane touches allow you to get to the foul line, as well as establish a 
strong half court game that lends itself to dictating the tempo of a 
game.  This game needed to be in the 60s for us to win.  We are 
improving, but we still have not made the "BIG" plays teams need to 
make to defeat a nationally ranked club.  Against USD, there were five 
critical possessions that decided this game down the stretch, and we 
failed to make stops defensively and convert offensively on those five 
trips.  We are competing and give ourselves a chance to win every game, 
but we need to deliver during winning time, and make plays.  This is 
the major lesson the team has to learn and overcome from this season 
into the next for us to win.  It takes time for young players to 
understand how critical every possession is.  (That combined with the 
fact of needing to get healthy-last Thursday and Friday were the first 
practices we had since early December in which the entire team was 
dressed for practice and able to compete.)

Brian Sykora (6-7, 210 lbs, So-Bloomington, MN) had another excellent 
game.  He recorded his 8th double-double of the season scoring 32 
points and having 10 rebounds.  Pat Reusse, a sports columnist for the 
Minneapolis StarTribune, spent the day with us in Duluth last Friday 
and wrote an interesting column about UMD Basketball and Brian Sykora 
in Saturday's paper.  You can read it by going to 
http://www.startribune.com/sports/15895087.html

Our last regular season's games are on the road this weekend at the 
University of Nebraska Omaha and the University of North Dakota.  We 
will be on the road for playoffs March 5th facing an opponent dependent 
on how we finish this weekend.

Go Bulldogs!


Gary W. Holquist
University of Minnesota Duluth
Head Men's Basketball Coach
218-726-6185