Well, you're not going to win too many games if your opponent shoots 62% from the field. yikes. the red raiders ended up scoring 48 points in the paint. in fact, in the first half, they scored 28 out of 37 points in the paint, with the other 9 points coming on two 3-pointers and 3 free-throws. in other words, not a single 2-pointer outside of the paint. unfortunately, the bruins often lost track of their men under the hoop and away from the ball, leading to WAY too many layups. I don't think the Bruins quite understood that they could not ease up at all during any Tech possession.

besides giving up easy baskets, we were hurt by the usual culprit: turnovers. although we ended up with only 13, it seemed like every time we had the ball and could gain some momentum, we wouldn't even get a shot off. this happened numerous times in the 1st half. Tech's d was less than dominating for many stretches in the 1st half, but we didn't take advantage.

and our freshmen backcourt got completely dominated by the Red Raiders. this was not a complete surprise, but it was much worse than expected. oh, and starting the game down 8-0 certainly didn't help us either.

this was probably a very frustrating last game for the seniors, but dijon thompson did all he could to keep us in the game. 22 points and 7 boards is not a terrible way to end a career.

Josh Shipp also contributed plenty, especially in the first half. with thompson gone next year, i hope Shipp looks to create for himself a little more, as he is a terrific finisher around the basket for his size. and i know i've said this many times, but he does a great job getting loose balls and picking up the garbage, basically giving us extra points that we don't deserve. i know his role was not to be a primary scorer this year, but if farmar isn't scoring and we need points like today, i'd like to see him more aggressive.

perhaps the worst part of this loss is simply all of the annoying comments that will come out tomorrow, with several people probably mentioning how Lavin got to the sweet 16 5 out of 6 years, and how our team was inconsistent because we had a four game losing streak followed by two losses to end the season. don't believe me? here's a letter to the Times from LAST week. i'm afraid it will only be worse tomorrow.

as far as the rest of the action today, i think we were the only team out West to lose (except Utah St. and Montana, who don't count because they lost to West Coast teams). also, there were only two real upsets: UAB and Wisconsin Milwaukee. UWM knocked out Alabama, whose coach is former bruin assistant Mark Gottried, in the now infamous yearly 12-5 upset.

anyway, i'll do my best to enjoy the remainder of the tourney. hopefully, the bruins will take this as a learning experience and use it as motivation to work hard over the off-season.

Here are the recap and box score.