I didnt expect to win because as others have rightly noted, the matchup is not a god one for us. As I stated in this thread during the game, I am mystified we struggled with their zone mightily the first time around and seemingly made no changes to the way we attacked it.
That said, I really thought there were alot of positives that came out of this game. We basically played them even up for the first ten minutes and the last 20. We came out fired up to open the game, lost our focus/intensity in the last ten minutes of the first half and came back out fired up for the second half. I dont know whether Lavin pulled out his junk in the locker room at halftime and told them to play like they had a pair, but they were definitely motivated in the second half, even after losing Branch. Unfortunately that second 10 minutes put us in a hole we couldnt dig out of.
Obviously he missed his last 6 shots, but I thought Greene played well today and I thought the staff used him well because he was truly off the ball today (until Branch got hurt). JaKarr really played better in the second half..I dont mind the "highlight reel misses" because i didnt think he passed up something easier to try them. He came out much tougher in the 2nd half too. Cautiously optimistic on the Marco explosion...I'd like to see him do it again a few times before I'm going to bury Lavs for keeping him glued to the bench. But man it would be nice to have another long distance option.
Best part of yesterday? In recent years I had lost much of my hatred of G'Town..I think JT3 is a great coach (and not an unrepentant racist, like his father) and they play the way I'd like to see us play. But it felt a little funny. But since we have a nice little rivalry cooking now, I can go back to hating them and the world makes sense again.