Sunday, November 23, 2014

Tennessee Tech 69, Chattanooga 67

This should have happened. This should not have happened.

The Mocs forced 17 turnovers, shot 48% from the floor, allowed Tennessee Tech to just shoot 44% from the floor and the Golden Eagles made just three threes.

The Mocs were up by 17 points at halftime on the road...and blew it.

Ouch.

The Mocs turned the ball over seventeen times. Tennessee Tech's size dominated the offensive glass with fourteen offensive rebounds. The Mocs only were able to get eight offensive boards.

The Mocs have now lost three straight. What do they have to do to get back to winning?

For one, they need to play teams that allow some of their big guys to get some boards. The combination of Justin Tuoyo, Duke Ethridge, Chuck Ester and Lance Stokes combined for nine rebounds. That's not going to work in the long run for this team. These guys have to get rebounds.

Of course, against three pretty large teams, they have been challenged. Robert Morris and company won't be nearly as difficult. In some ways, they may not play another team as big as the teams they have already played, so things will get better.

The Mocs are also turning the ball over too much and not knocking down enough threes. When they turn the ball over seventeen times and have just ten assists, the Mocs are going to struggle. When they only knock in five threes, they are going to struggle.

Yes, I like to see teams not shooting a bunch of threes, but they didn't make a single three in the second half. Of course, the Mocs made five threes in the first half and zero in the second half. Is it appropriate that the Mocs jumped out to a 17 point at halftime and were outscored by 19 in the second half? The Mocs did only take one three in the second half, so there you go.

The Mocs will get better as the season progresses. These three games this week are critical. They will play two games in Chattanooga on Wednesday and Thursday and a critical game at Kennesaw State on Saturday. This is a huge week, particularly after the very difficult way the Mocs lost this one.

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