DU men’s basketball (3-6) travelled to Pocatello, Idaho, and played the Idaho State University Bengals (6-4) on Saturday afternoon. The Pioneers can certainly score points. However, their leaky defense continues to be surprisingly poor. Idaho State had its highest scoring output of the season in the game. Denver could not get stops against the Bengals in the disappointing 93-79 loss. It is no longer just a size issue for Denver, either. Idaho’s three leading scorers were guards. The game was a step backwards as Denver fell to #350 out of #361 NCAA DI teams in defense, allowing 87.4 points per game.
Denver took an early 10-5 lead behind two buckets from Carson Johnson. A Martin Kheil four-point play put the Bengals up 14-13. The Bengals caught fire from the field, hitting from distance, building a 24-14 lead at the midway mark. Denver’s field goal shooting went cold. Three consecutive makes from beyond the arc pushed the hot shooting Begal advantage to 30-19. ISU’s Connor Hollenbeck hit another tray, 35-26, as the teams headed into the final five minutes of the half. Denver chipped away at the deficit in the waning minutes. DU’s Zane Nelson nailed a three-point shot at the buzzer, 43-37, at half.
Denver shot 48% from the field while the Bengals hit on 52% of their shots, nailing 9 three-point shots (27 points) in the first 20 minutes. Keil led both teams with 19 points while Carson Johnson earned 12 points for Denver. Denver had four more turnvers than ISU in the half.
ISU pushed the lead to 49-39 before Logan Kinsey snapped the Bengal run. Both of the Bengals ‘bigs’, Evan Otten and Caleb Van De Greind, picked up their third fouls of the game as Denver started to work inside. DU trailed by 8 points after the opening five minutes, following a Lachlan Brewer bucket. A nice DU run, bookended by Jeremiah Burke baskets, cut the lead to 2 points, 55-53. Another three-point make by Gus Etchison pushed the Bengal lead back to 10 points again with less than ten minutes to play. DU continued to struggle with stops against the Bengals as ISU dominated the offensive glass. Denver cut into the lead behind a strong second half from Logan Kinsey but two consecutive three-point makes ballooned the Idaho State lead back to ten, 79-69, with under five minutes remaining. Denver’s defense melted down the stretch as the Pioneers could not make stops while Idaho State solved Denver’s defense from inside and outside the paint. Final score 93-79.
This game boiled down to defense. Denver allowed 50% shooting from the field, 15/29 three-point makes (45 points) and 12 offensive rebounds in the paint. Sure, the offense is fun to watch and consistently shoots 50% from the field and is solid at the free-throw line. However, the Denver defense is vulnerable to teams with size. Now, even smaller perimeter players are scoring with relative ease from the outside against the Denver defense.
Logan Kinsey had a solid game with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Carson Johnson finished with 20 points and 2 rebounds but seemed to wear down, missing his last four shots while playing 40 full minutes. Next up is Colorado Christian (D2) on Tuesday at 7:00 pm at Hamilton Gym.
350 out of 361 in defense. Way to go “Bergy”
ISU came out into the game shooting 29% from 3 point range. Against us they go 15/29 from deep. We better not lose to the D-2 schools on our schedule. Wait. Why not. Our roster is loaded with D-2 players. I must admit, some are playing pretty well.
Until this team learns to play defense, they are doomed.
Do you think we’ll lose to a D2 school? Scary because we have former D2 guys playing major minutes
1. If you haven’t noticed that D2 has some very good players and teams due to all of the rules changes regarding NIL, transfer, and eligibility rules over the last 5 or so years, you are living under a rock. D2 is not a knock on a player’s ability. My guess is that we don’t know their recruiting stories or how they ended up at MSUM.
2. If you think that the 3 players that are playing major minutes that came from D2 haven’t proved that they can play at this level, then you are living under another layer of rocks. Johnson and Kinsey have without a doubt proven they are D1 players, so let’s stop referring to them as D2 players. Wysocki has shown flashes that he is as well, his consistency is the big thing, but a lot of true sophomores struggle with that at this level. He is a D1 player as well.
I have been surprised by the quality of the D2 players brought over by Bergy- clearly, Bergy was right that the top 3 or 4 of them can clearly play D-I ball, at least offensively.
That said, team defense remains THE issue for this team. They rank #345 out of 364 teams nationally, giving up 85 points per game. Until they can bring that number down to under 75 (or 70) per game, there will be far more losses than wins.
I am sure the coaching staff has to be working on a plan to get better, but it remains to be seen if such a plan can or will work….