Sort of a strange thought I had about this SDSU team. If they can play offense at a consistently high level, they only need to play defense marginally better to avoid those close games......
My example I was thinking of, in tennis, Pete Sampras was the best at this. he would win a set at 6-4 all the time. he didn't go for the break of serve...he would pounce on the opportunities that gave him the best chance. not that he didn't try, but if down 0-40 in 2nd service game, he wouldn't kill himself trying to get back into the game...which most tennis players wouldn't due how difficult it is to break serve multiple points in a row.. If he was down, 30-40 and opponent had a 2nd serve as an example would be a chance to go do deuce.
So the moral of the story is, which the St Thomas game made me see this. You don't need to go for broke as long as you hold serve......Pete could hold serve, SDSU, our offense should keep us in every basketball game. If our defense can find those moments we have that advantage, that's going to the difference of a disappointing end to the season or a great end to the season. Thankfully most summit teams don't have the offense to match us. The pressure was always on his opponent, Pete could hold serve and in a tiebreaker had the advantage anyway. Sometimes his score appeared closer then it really was in the match.
The problem with that approach is the fact that shooting can go cold, while a good defense generally doesn't.
A good defensive team doesn't get blown out at Idaho.
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