IMHO was defense and rebounding. We can point out players and their deficiencies in this game, and some of that justified, but to me that wasn't the main problem. Once it became clear what this game was going to be a slow placed slugfest, and IMO that was pretty early, we didn't adapt completely, from players to coaches. Its even more frustrating b/c we've proven we can make that adjustment before; we needed a Junkyard Cats game type of game on the defensive end and we simply didn't consistently bring that. It shouldn't be completely unreasonable to think that you'd have a game like this in the tournament either; while its nice to hope, it was unlikely we were going to have our guards shoot as well as they had in the first 3 games.
Butler seemed to have an answer to every run, and while several were on great individual plays and hard shots, many more were defensive breakdowns or allowing a second chance b/c of an offensive rebound. We've been in these before against good teams, especially Texas and Missouri, and we adapted and found a way to win b/c we dug down for stops and rebounds at key points. Today we didn't do that besides for just a few quick stretches and just as much as our lack of offense (which Butler had a ton to do with), our lack of really playing the type of defense and rebounding the basketball that became this team's identity is why we didn't make it to Indianapolis. This time we let a frustrating offensive night carry over to the defensive end and we couldn't afford to do that against a team as good at Butler, especially at playing this style of basketball.
Great season, but an extremely frustrating way to go out.
EMAW.
