My thoughts on tonight:
—I thought Coach K might start AOC tonight to spread the floor, and boy was that a great choice. His performance is a great sign for this team moving forward, obviously. I was more surprised to see Javin start over Marques: as well as Javin played defensively, Marques has superior hands offensively, and might have finished more fo those lobs that went through Javin’s hands. I wonder if this means Marques was under the weather.
—I’m flabbergasted that K would burn Joey’s redshirt only to play a handful of minutes in this game. I have to think there’s more to that story that’s going to be coming, either having to do with Zion’s injury or with why Jack didn’t play today. I have no inside information so I won’t speculate.
—Coach K made an absolutely BRILLIANT adjustment coming out of the half that went a bit under the radar, and that was having Tre flash to then high post rather than R.J. Tre is obviously much more comfortable with that shot, and once he made a few of those the zone started to collapse in (which corresponded nicely with when AOC got hot from deep). Once that was established, R.J. was able to do more work in there as well. When Tre was up top, he was so reticent to shoot that the top of the zone could sag down and prevent R.J. from getting to that spot. For those who often are frustrated by the lack of half-time adjustments, this was a perfect example of one that changed then game. If you can’t beat the zone by shooting over it, you have to beat it by getting the ball into then high paint and collapsing the zone. The first 5 minutes of the second half were an absolute CLINIC on how to do that and the effects it can have.
—The most conspicuous impact of Zion’s absence, in my mind, was the number of turnovers we had. There were a half-dozen lobs that normally would’ve gone to Zion and could’ve been thrown over the zone, that instead had to be more modest when headed toward Marques or Javin. Those are great passes when Zion is playing, and awful passes otherwise. If Zion is out on the longer side of things, the team will have to mentally adjust to this absence accordingly.
—If R.J. plays like he did today, we can win tough games without Zion. Period.
—No one should undervalue this win. Any victory against the 2-3 is a challenge considering you have to gameplan specifically for that defense in a way totally different than every other game. Having to do so following a UNC hangover and with all the Zion drama makes this even more impressive. All that, and doing it on the road in the dome? A big win no matter how you slice it.