By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) — MBB Beat Reporter
At multiple points throughout this season, the Spartans’ offense has looked like a congruent symphony.
Following back to back blowout losses to Fresno State and Colorado State the offense now resembles a cacophony of ill-advised passes and misses.
The main difference between these two losses and incredible performances against Bethesda and Portland is the three ball.
In the two losses to the Bulldogs and Rams the Spartans shot 15/54 from three compared to the 37/74 against Portland and Bethesda, a difference of 23 percent.
Spartans head coach Tim Miles’ gave an unvarnished response in regards to this.
“We feel like we are a team that’s dependent on the three … one time tonight we were 3/22 from the three and we were down 34 points and I’m like that’s just what happens.”
Forward Trey Anderson had two of those threes in that span and is now 6/10 in the past two games from beyond the arc and should be praised for his efforts.
Other Spartans however, like Trey Smith will have to start heating up in order to nip the current two-game losing streak in the bud. Smith followed up a 1/5 shooting performance against Fresno State by going 1/9 against Colorado State.
The 1/14 shooting in these back-to-back losses is a polar opposite from when he banged 5/10 against Bethesda and 8/16 against Portland.
Smith shouldn’t shoulder the entire blame as his teammates struggled just as much with less attempts.
Against the Rams, forward Tibet Gorener went 0/3. Guard Alvaro Cardenas Torre shot 0/6. Guard Omari Moore shot 1/4.
Freshman Josh O’Garro is someone Miles might call upon to help right the ship after he accrued 10 points in 10 minutes and shot 2/3 from three on Saturday.
“He’s got great athleticism and he’s just really picking up everything and he’s developing”, Miles said.
One silver lining of blowout losses is players like O’Garro, who might not be in the regular rotation, get a chance to show their capabilities when the game is already decided.
In a similar situation against Texas earlier this year, O’Garro had a season-high 11 points in 15 minutes.
The guard from the Cayman Islands has yet to start and hasn’t played more than 20 minutes in a single contest. All that could change if the Spartans don’t improve from three as they continue through the teeth of the MW facing UNLV on Monday and Wyoming on Wednesday.