It's becoming more and more apparent by the game that this team is closer to what everyone thought they were in the preseason. (#245ish) All the statistical markers have been regressing steadily for a month even before the competition quality increased. The bad losses are starting to stack up as well, and it's as much about how ECU is losing these games. They haven't even really been competitive recently. Javon Small missed today which will be the excuse given, but even he's only had 1 good game in the last month.
To me Small being out is beside the point if you can't beat a 7-10 (0-4) #179 NET team at home. If you are going to be without a key player that's as good of a game as you get for him to be absent. Especially given the fact they have a 5-9 point guard as well LaCount is playable against. Injuries happen, and ECU has been incredibly fortunate for years when you actually compare games missed by important players. Losing this game by 11 points handily I doubt Small even changes much, especially given LaCount was actually pretty good at replacing his minutes. Tyler Harris is probably still making the shots he made, and certainly Tchewa is dominating down low.
Diboundje benefitted the most by extended playing time with Walker moving over to point guard 13 minutes and opening some more minutes as well. It continues to be obvious he needs to play. I'll give Debaut some credit today. He was the only player on the entire team in the positive, +3 and he played 20 minutes which is a lot for him. He has rebounded at a high level this season and if he could just reign in the turnover and fouls he actually would be having a decent season.
I still think games like this highlight why you needed some older stronger transfers, especially a point guard. Everyone deals with injuries and ECU has been the beneficiary of multiple games vs teams this season missing a top player. It was ECU's time, and a good time for it to happen vs this team at home, they didn't have enough to overcome it. That's why you needed more quality depth even if you really believed in the guys you brought back. The freshmen have continued to disappoint overall. Even Ausar was unplayable today. Tchewa is playing like a slightly above average AAC big, but he's not Zach Edey. You got to be able to slow him down some.
