The bench did not show up for the Houston Cougars Saturday afternoon. Their three-point shooting ability took the afternoon off. Kelvin Lewis and Adam Brown struggled from the field the entire day. And Aubrey Coleman had a flash back to the days of Phi Slama Jama where making a free throw was cause for being ejected from the fraternity. Yet with one minute left, the Cougars and Mississippi State Bulldogs were tied at 64 and the game was where head coach Tom Penders wanted it to be.
Unfortunately, for Penders and the team, Mississippi State got the win as Coleman continued to miss shots and free throws while Mississippi State made shots and hit free throws.
“It was a heck of a defensive battle,” Penders said afterwards. “I would have never thought that coming into the game. Our guys left everything they had out on the floor.”
A heck of a defensive battle it was, and more than anything, the
Cougars’ play on defense was the most shocking thing about the game.
But despite the loss, the team’s defensive presence, if it continues
through the season, gives promise for Cougars prospects.
“In
many ways [I feel] better [about the team] because the defense stepped
up today,” Penders said. “The defense was more like a Cougar defense in
my era. A lot of deflections. We turned them over 19 times. We only
six, etc. Those are things that I think you can have more control as a
team night in, night out. The shooting part is not always there. It
really isn’t. I feel like our defense knows what they have to do. And
hopefully we can continue to build on that.”
Besides forcing the
turnovers, the defense held Mississippi State to only 38.6 percent
shooting from the field. It was this that allowed the Cougars to stay
in the game — to even compete — despite the team only shooting 31
percent from the floor.
Penders set his defense to play to, and
stop, the strengths of the Mississippi State game, which was taking
away the inside game. Their big guys were only 6-for-18 from the field
which resulted in the Bulldogs being forced to take more threes.
“We
were a little more aggressive,” he said. “We set up the defense to
force them to stay outside and not reverse the ball. And our kids
executed that very well. We’ve tried that in some other games and
didn’t do such a good job. Some teams rely on ball reversals. These
guys do that through high-ball screens and using their center to
reverse the ball. We did a good job of stopping that.”
What
the Cougars did not get is much of an offensive contribution from
anyone but Aubrey Coleman, who finished the game with 28 points. Still,
he struggled as he took it upon himself to do what his teammates could
not, make shots.
Coleman was only 10-of-31 from the floor, but
that was a huge improvement over Kelvin Lewis who was just 7-of-17,
Adam Brown who was 1-of-11, and Kirk Van Slyke who was 1-of-5. Worse
than the number of shots missed was the large number of open shots
missed. And for the most part, the bench was MIA on the offensive end.
Kahmell
Broughton was the bright spot off the bench, again, for the Cougars.
He only took one shot (which he made), and he ended up fouling out, but
his inside presence, and his willingness to bang the Bulldog big guys,
helped to throw Mississippi State out of its intended game.
“He
gives you everything he has,” Penders said of Broughton. “He’s an
effort guy. He gave us more than anybody else did in that area, at the
five position. He’s been doing that in practice. That’s good to see.
Now maybe some of the other guys will catch on and see there’s minutes
to be had with effort. I’m very pleased for him because he’s one of our
hardest working guys on a daily basis. Some of the younger guys, and
some of the new people, I think can look at him and say ‘Hey, that’s
the way we need to play.'”
The Cougars (5-3) get another
chance to get it right tonight as they host The Citadel (7-6) at 7:00.
The Citadel is one of those non-major teams that can sneak upon a team
that takes it for granted. And after Saturday’s disappointing loss, the
Cougars will have to guard against taking The Citadel for granted.
“You
learn a lot more about yourself when you lose and you see how you’re
able to bounce back,” Penders said. Like learning how to bounce back
against a lesser team after a tough, disappointing loss.
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2009.
