I think the whole Hawaii was a microcosm of our team, and might be a glimpse into the season. That could be good or bad, because they showed signs of both in the three games:

They were utterly outclassed by GW and looked totally disinterested in the second half after a solid first half. They went 5-10 from 3 in the first half and 1-11 in the second half.

They shot the lights out against DePaul, but the huge effort on defense was a bigger difference. They made everything tough for DePaul and did a nice job of breaking the press. As good as that game was, I could do without the three-pointers early in the shot clock. Of course, a lot went down that day, but they weren't all smart shots. Many were a few seconds into the shot clock with no rebounders under the rim. Those look great when the fall and make you look like the second half of the GW game when they don't. But with that defensive intensity, I think this team can hang with anyone in the MAC.

The Nebraska game had a solid opponent and they stayed close despite pretty poor shooting (under 40% for the game and just 32% in the first half). Though the percentages were worse, the shot selection seemed better, and the team was hurt by foul trouble with the bigs, which is another thing that could hurt the team through the year.

Beat me to it. Our win against them in Hawaii was 95% on them. To our credit we hit what they gave us but if I was going to draw up a defense designed to make our offense successful DePaul has the blueprint. Soft full court pressure and no attempts to trap Bean in the half court isn't the way to stop our offense.

They're now 3-0 after winning at Creighton Wednesday.