For better or worse, a lot of this looks mental. As you said, the guys actually looked very sharp to start the game. But their open 3s wouldn’t fall, Pierce couldn’t make a bucket, and some bad calls got in their head (e.g. refs forgot that an airball FT is a TO!).
They stopped playing hard in the 2nd half, even though they’ve routinely made 15-20pt comebacks. It’s worth noting that Cornell also had a disastrous weekend. So emotion and momentum are very real factors that can take down even good teams.
Right now, our guys just look like they’ve given up - at least on the regular season. But if they don’t find their mojo, they won’t have a chance to redeem themselves in the ILT.
Nice writeup from Adam Zielonka on his Guarden State blog: