Originally posted by Chuck Norris
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However, you can point to some glaring flaws in Lombardi's season this year. Was simply making the Sweet 16 really the end goal for a team of this alleged pedigree? I don't think so.
* The whole building, town and opposing teams knew they couldn't hit the side of a barn from outside since early January. It was night after night of box scores reading 5 for 28 from outside or 6 for 33. Yet, he had them just keep chucking. His long belief is outside shooting is the law of averages. Sooner or later things will click. After 8-9 weeks of watching shot after shot clang off the bucket, they needed to change their attack. They never did.
* It's hard to argue the final record standing by itself. But, there's no question a lot of luck went in to that -- especially in late Jan and most of February. Remember, this is the same team that was in severe dog fights -- late in games -- against Clarion, Edinboro and Gannon. They got bailed out at Clarion. Interpret that as you may. They survived at California after blowing a massive halftime lead. They easily could have lost to both ESU and Mercyhurst out at Shippensburg -- and probably should have lost to Winston-Salem. UPJ almost swept them instead of getting swept. They kept winning. No doubt. But should the then-No. 1 team in the country really be scraping by Edinboro, Clarion and Gannon?
* IUP went from lighting up scoreboards in the first half the season to struggling to reach 68 points. The highest IUP scored in its final 5 games was just 67 points.
* The night they lost at Mercyhurst and the lineup he elected to play that evening? Good Lord.
* Some claim his team was physically worn out down the stretch. Perhaps. But ... why was it physically worn out? In the past, Joe's teams never had depth. He had depth this year -- lots of it -- and chose not to use it. Kyle Polce was put in to witness protection in late January. Jaheim Bethea went from the deep rotation to hanging with the local tokens at the end of the bench. Ousmane Diop might as well have quit in November.
* The offense morphed in to some mix of AAU meets playground meets NBA hybrid. There was no flow to it nor any continuity. It was 'good enough' (mostly because their defense was so good) until they finally met a team they really had to score a lot against to beat. West Liberty was the one team all year that could line up with them and was also much deeper than them (again, see above on IUP's perceived lack of depth). IUP had a lot of bad nights in the second half of the season that were simply masked because they had superior talent than nearly every team they played. They won some real ugly basketball games down the stretch.
* Joe refused to let his team attack the basket in transition in the WL loss -- rather electing to force a team in a prolonged, severe shooting slump to set up its offense. That formula worked in 2014-15 but that team had snipers and scorers everywhere. This team, largely due to its 'version' of an offense, did not. This team would have been far better off playing in transition every time the opportunity existed. The end result was getting blown out and embarrassed, at home, in the regional final.
* Why did IUP's offense -- known for the past 10-15 years for being so fluid and structured -- turn in to playground ball? Why was Tomiwa's role just be a garbage man rather than having actual sets run for him?
It was a fun season. No denying. The ending, unfortunately, will always leave a sour taste when remembering this team. It wasn't the loss. Every team but one loses its last game of the season. How they lost ... why they lost ... is what will leave the sour taste.
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