I feel that we are playing the best cohesive team defense in the Smith era. We're doing a much better job of defending the 3 point and what we lack in athleticism is masked by funneling everything into the QDZ (QuetaDangerZone). It's obvious that once a team gets the ball inside, they are tentative and know they are flirting with disaster.

It also helps we're limiting them to one shot per possession and limiting turnovers on offense. Those first couple games giving up 80+ had a lot of turnovers and easy buckets involved.

I thought UNM did a better job of getting Queta out of the paint in the second half, especially late. I can see more teams trying to do this. It hurt UNM on the boards, but it opened up lanes for the drive. I would bet game 2 will be heavy on this.