It was poo poo’d by the coaches because you don’t create doubt when you don’t need to. Are they supposed to say, ‘heck yes it’s a concern’ to a team that hasn’t displayed a great deal of mental toughness the last few years? And again, what would you have them do to manage this?
I’ve been to the facilities for the Suns and Cards, and they have actually rooms with cardio equipment in them that they can seal and simulate the oxygen levels at particular altitudes. We don’t have that, so what do we do differently?
The best remedy is execute, score points, don’t let them score points, and try to be in a position to substitute. We did that pretty well in the first half, but when that changed, the thin air became much more of a factor.
As others pointed out, in TO’s final season, with all those years of experience traveling to CU, his last NC team got gassed late. It happens. It’s why you never want to let teams hang around. I think back on some of the games played in Florida or Louisiana in years past, and that hot, humid home field worked against as well. You can’t flip a switch and adapt.