Frank was simply awful tonight. Horny was forced to pull him early both in the 1st then in the 2nd half. With 8 minutes left in the 4th, Horny finally turned to Burke, who never came out of the game again and led the team to an impressive road win against the team who drafted him.
Horny finally closed with the lineup that I proposed in my last post: Playing Beas at the 4 and Kp and the 5. And Burke at the 1, along with his fellow Wolverine alum, Timmy at the 2--with Lee at the 3.
IMO, this is our best lineup. Burke was able to orchestrate under pressure with his quickness and ball handling and get the ball to Timmy, who was red hot and carried us on offense. Then Burke was able to pick n roll with Beas leaving him with the ball in great spots to be a triple threat and operate. More importantly, Burke was forced to be guarded at the point: he was not afraid to shoot or to drive when left open. With this closing lineup. there is no one you can lay off of and all 5 players are a threat to score. You have to pick your poison. It's the most well balanced lineup on our roster. While, defensively, they are athletic enough to defend.
If Horny sticks with this unit to close out games, we will win a lot more games.
Maybe tonight marks the beginning of the Wolverines backcourt reunion in NY.