Did the staff put that gameplan together to trick Akron or did the team completely ignore their instructions? I can't believe what I just watched. The defensive rotations were about as crisp as the junior high team I coach and the offense was similar to my pick up game on Sundays with my 40 year old friends. Standing flat-footed on both ends of the floor while OVC guards blow past you is just not good enough. I wore out my DVR remote tonight rewinding the game so frequently to verify what was on the screen. Here are some things I do not understand about tonight:

Why wait until the second half to start focusing on Reggie inside?

The substitution patterns and rotations seemed like a science experiment.

Stevie and Travis got a lot of minutes at times when the game was not out of hand and our other guys were not in foul trouble yet. Both were defensive liabilities.

DJ moved East-West all night in the half court offense. Why not make that a point of emphasis in a timeout? That's why his assist numbers were so low.

Why did we not switch to a zone at some point to stop their 3 point barrage? The man-to-man switches and pick and roll plays killed us for 40 minutes.

Ivo's offensive woes are the secondary issue. He is fast enough, yet gets beat all the time on defense. That is just a lack of focus because he can do everything physically.

I really hope the team uses this as a learning experience. It was awful all the way around. The game was meaningless in terms of the team goals to win the conference, as well as the MAC tournament. I hope the Convo is still rocking Wednesday night, because that is a game that really matters. Belmont is a good team, but I like ours better. I hope that is the last loss the team has before the start of the NCAA tourney.