Front Court Offensive Development

[dogpause]

Not to beat a dead horse, but if our FC is going to develop offensively, our smalls are going to have to make a concerted effort to get them involved in the game. It appears to me that we don't even try to throw the ball into the low post, and rarely into the high post.

In football, if you never run the ball, the defense pins its ears back and rushes the QB. If we don't try to establish an inside game, eventually teams are going to find a way to substantially reduce the effectiveness of our perimeter game. We need to pay the price to build our inside game even if it's not going to pay off immediately.

 

[Palatine]

One thing that would help the front court develop would be a little more dribble penetration by the guards. It was noticeably missing during the Florida game. Getting into the middle and dropping off the ball for lay ups or dunks would help build confidence. And it is often more successful than forcing the ball inside from the wing. I hope to see a little more dribble penetration as we get into December and January.

 

[FeedTheDove]

Unfortunately, handling passes seems to be another huge weak point for Amida thus far. There have been multiple drop offs to him during games that he just couldn't handle at all. He also isn't on the same page as Bazz when it comes to alley oop lobs. He needs to be aware that at any moment, if Bazz sees an opportunity he'll lob it up - it's easy points. I did like the lob pass over the D against florida that didn't result in an alley oop, but an easy dunk instead. That'd be cool to see more of that.

I'd like to see a little more Ty down low as he hasn't had much opportunity to show his moves this year.

 

[mcs333]

Nolan has some back to the basket moves, he just needs to finish. AB just has poor hands and lack of O IQ. He just needs more experience at this level. Practice practice practice will help both of them.

 

[jibsey]

At this point AB has a "hands problem". Now i don't know if that's because his hands are weak or he can't catch a basketball. Frankly if he has limited basketball experience that is a skills deficit like shooting and footwork. That i understand, but just not being able to catch a pelota? Most of us can't run, jump, or shoot but if a ball is thrown our way we can at least grab it. Maybe he's not concentrating on catching it but thinking about what he's gonna do next but he needs serious drills on just catching first. I'm sure the coaches are throwing him a thousand passes a day(i hope) and hopefully this will improve.

 

[aceboon]

Not to beat a dead horse, but if our FC is going to develop offensively, our smalls are going to have to make a concerted effort to get them involved in the game. It appears to me that we don't even try to throw the ball into the low post, and rarely into the high post.

In football, if you never run the ball, the defense pins its ears back and rushes the QB. If we don't try to establish an inside game, eventually teams are going to find a way to substantially reduce the effectiveness of our perimeter game. We need to pay the price to build our inside game even if it's not going to pay off immediately.

Both Nolan and Tyler, especially Tyler who is a very good passer, handle the ball quite a bit in the high post.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

This is slightly off topic, but I'd rather the front court and the centers specifically work on their defensive footwork with the hopes of getting better positional defense, better rebounding and less fouls so they can stay in the game. There's enough offense outside the pivot that makes defense the key for me. TO often seems the victim of phantom calls, but he also needs to put his arms straight up instead of slightly forward over the offensive player.

 

[Kitaman]

Our bigs need to go home with Boat on Christmas break and play in some pick-up games. In fact they should spend all summer with Boat.

 

[UConn3432]

Brimah's development will be a very important factor in KO's success recruiting other bigs.

 

[mcs333]

The reason AB hands look so poor is because he is not anticipating the pass, he is surprised by the ball coming his way and he reacts too late to make a good catch. That is why I say his BB IQ, mainly offensively is very low. Just needs way more experience. He can learn a lot in practice but it may take a year or two. He seems to have excellent timing on blocking shots and not leaving his feet early. He needs to learn better defensive positioning and also how to block out and get boards. We knew he was a project and he surely is. All we can hope for is that as he is learning he can contribute along the way.

 

[James]

I'm in the minority but , I think this is a legit question. Are we relying too much on Napier hero ball ? It's clear Napier gets super aggressive in competitive games. His floor game vs Maryland was much different than any other of the 7. I would like him to feed Daniels on the break more , not look him off. It sorta looks like Napier is a full time 2 guard , boat being the point

 

[jibsey]

I'm in the minority but , I think this is a legit question. Are we relying too much on Napier hero ball ? It's clear Napier gets super aggressive in competitive games. His floor game vs Maryland was much different than any other of the 7. I would like him to feed Daniels on the break more , not look him off. It sorta looks like Napier is a full time 2 guard , boat being the point

You are right, at times during the last play they had 4 guys on Bazz, somebody must have been free. It's got to be hard not to go with your best player for KO, and Bazz says in interviews that the team has put this leadership on him.

 

[Waquoit]

I think Brimah has pretty good hands. And he knows how to dunk. I think his learning curve will be pretty steep as he gets used to the pace and rhythm of the game at this level. He hasn't even played 10 games yet for cryin' out loud..

 

[AZHuskiePop]

When we were in the Old Big East we would be playing an easier early season schedule. We have played pretty decent teams up to this point. Even Yale and BU are not your typical cupcakes. Our front court needs some easy games to gain confidence. League play regardless of the league is always tough. Our 5''s need to develop if we are going to compete. Right now we are not there.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I'm in the minority but , I think this is a legit question. Are we relying too much on Napier hero ball ? It's clear Napier gets super aggressive in competitive games. His floor game vs Maryland was much different than any other of the 7. I would like him to feed Daniels on the break more , not look him off. It sorta looks like Napier is a full time 2 guard , boat being the point

Did he take a bad shot the entire game other than the second to last one? He scored 26 points on only 15 shots. I think almost all of them were good looks.

 

[aceboon]

Did he take a bad shot the entire game other than the second to last one? He scored 26 points on only 15 shots. I think almost all of them were good looks.

Agreed, I only watched the game once but I don't recall too many instances of the team draining out the shot clock, looking stagnant on offense with no movement with Bazz dribbling out the clock and being forced to throw up something as the shot clock wound down. He was getting everything within the flow of the offense. He took 14 shots against MD, 15 against FL, in this game he just hit a higher % of them.

 

[James]

Did he take a bad shot the entire game other than the second to last one? He scored 26 points on only 15 shots. I think almost all of them were good looks.

he's been insanely efficient. napiers a good enough shot maker to make defenses pay if they don't play him tight. Maybe you're right , could be taking what the d gives him. And we are undefeated. I would just like for him to continue to look for teammates as the season goes on. IMO he shouldn't be looking off anybody on the break he's a pg

 

[WhereistheDove?]

I think Brimah has pretty good hands. And he knows how to dunk. I think his learning curve will be pretty steep as he gets used to the pace and rhythm of the game at this level. He hasn't even played 10 games yet for cryin' out loud..

He's certainly not shown anything to this point to warrant saying that he has pretty good hands. He may, but since he's generally completely oblivious to the fact that he may get the ball down low (and because of that has it go flying through his hands most of the time), we haven't seen it.

That is what I want to see from him this year. I don't expect there's any chance that we see a real offensive game from him (which is expected considering his inexperience), but he needs to learn to be ready for the ball. He botches way too many gimme baskets right now. If he can play good defense, hopefully rebound a bit better, and convert more of the wide open looks, that's more than enough.

 

[aceboon]

Brimah caught a half lob/half post entry pass over the defense that he held high and converted into a dunk pretty seamlessly. He's had some that he's blown but he's caught his fair share of passes.

 

[OkaForPrez]

One thing that would help the front court develop would be a little more dribble penetration by the guards. It was noticeably missing during the Florida game. Getting into the middle and dropping off the ball for lay ups or dunks would help build confidence. And it is often more successful than forcing the ball inside from the wing. I hope to see a little more dribble penetration as we get into December and January.

Donavan's game plan was to take away the dribble penetration in the center of the court. He did it was a combination of "blitzing" the screen by bringing up a third defender to the strong side and overplaying the inside hedge. You could see the adjustment Ollie made to this in the 2nd 10 min of the first half. Boatright started to pressure the defense on the short side of the court penetrating the sideline. We were reversing the ball via the baseline to the opposite corner or trailing shooters behind the penetration to counter the overplay.

This is the beauty of the Ollie system. With the freedom of movement rules, you have to overplay something. With the threat of the dribble drive to the middle, the pick and pop to the outside and the slip screen you are going to leave something open. Its also why a lot of our sets have 5 guys standing around. Its because the point of attack is the ball screen on the elbow and depending on how the defense reacts, everyone rotates to exploit it.

Florida exploited our interior weaknesses by attacking the ball inside repeatedly. The short range shots allowed them to really beat us up on the boards because they avoided the long rebounds that three's generate.

We counterbalanced that by exploiting them with our shooters and our advantage in 3 pointers just offset that deficit.

It was a pretty good chess match. Fun game.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Brimah caught a half lob/half post entry pass over the defense that he held high and converted into a dunk pretty seamlessly. He's had some that he's blown but he's caught his fair share of passes.

I watched that play and was surprised when I saw it. That's really not a good sign that a play you see in any pickup game 4-5 times makes you do a double-take. But I do think it's more that he's just not mentally ready for these passes, which is hopefully easy enough to fix. The bottom line though is that he botches way too many of these easy buckets.

 

[caw]

JMO:

Brimah has good instincts in some ways and poor ones in others. Offensively he keeps the ball high and tries to dunk it. However, he doesn't keep his eyes on the ball when he doesn't have it, some times he gets caught looking for a rebound instead of the pass. Haven't seen him attempt to post much and while he is decent in the high post handoff he's not a scoring threat from there. He has a decent touch though.

Nolan has the best offensive moves, but he is just bricking a lot of his attempts. Reminds me a bit of Klaiber, not nearly as bad:unlucky, but he just isn't finishing a lot of bunnies. He has shown good awareness of the defense, the ability to post and make a move and a good head fake/one dribble flush. I would love to see more of him in the post against some lesser teams to get him in synch. The big issue with him is foul trouble, he needs to stay out of it while still being aggressive.

Olander is Olander. He plays the best from the high post. His low post game is OK against shorter teams but he shoots everything down low from way too low. He doesn't keep the ball high, resulting in a decent number of shots being blocked or seriously altered. He is probably the best zone breaking center though.

 

[joober jones]

Not that it will help our front court offense, but I bought and greatly enjoyed a Marie Callender's Mint Chocolate Chip Pie from Big Y today. I recommend the rest of you try it as well. It helps to assuage the No Center Scorin' Blues.

 

[aceboon]

he's been insanely efficient. napiers a good enough shot maker to make defenses pay if they don't play him tight. Maybe you're right , could be taking what the d gives him. And we are undefeated. I would just like for him to continue to look for teammates as the season goes on. IMO he shouldn't be looking off anybody on the break he's a pg

Highlights of Bazz's night, he was put in scoring position via down screens, high ball screens, set out of bounds plays, Boat finding him after splitting the D, getting iso opportunities on UF bigs after a switch, all within the flow and with plenty of time on the shot clock. In games like this against a team with great athletes that can play halfcourt D I'll take Bazz being setup like this every time. This didn't come from you, but in another thread I read easily one of the more moronic statements ever posted on here that said we weren't using Bazz right, if this isn't being used right than I would like to know how it should be done.

 

[James]

Love those highlights , pretty startling . Nba range 4 point play followed by a game winner.