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Message: [QUOTE="RayRay, post: 4116653, member: 10131"] It’s really just an observation, none of us are freaking out or panicking over this tournament. Overall it was a successful tournament, and Hurley and staff have been 95% great, but there is always room for an improvement in anything you do, no matter what it is. That being said, I do believe Hurley doesn’t adapt well in games. We could have/should have won that MSU game had we adapted better. It’s going to be incredibly difficult to win games if we are playing our anemic offensive lineup of Cole-Jackson-Martin-Whaley-Sanogo for long stretches. Clearly this is the lineup that Hurley trusts the most to not make mistakes, but defenses feast on this lineup. Take a look at all the possessions where Jackson caught the ball vs MSU, the defense is literally daring him to shoot, and by playing off him that far, he has nowhere to go. He has no confidence and doesn’t even look for his shot as of right now. The reason this got brought up in this thread is because unfortunately Gaffney is not going to be the answer, particularly against ball pressure defense, which we will get from most big east/quality opponents. Obviously Hurley knows what he has in Diggins from practice, so hopefully he was just bringing him along slowly and he will give him a good sample sized opportunity against MES and Grambling. I also think Johnson needs to get the same opportunity because he is more than likely going to give us quite a bit more than Akok, especially consistently. One more point to address regarding Hawkins. I honestly think his handle is just fine, and his issue is more of a being sped up issue. I played basketball and sports for the majority of my life, and it’s so common to start your next move and just forget to bring the ball with you. To me it looks like that’s exactly what his issue is. He’s just going so fast and it’s causing him to lose the ball in a few instances. When you watch him take his defender off the dribble on half court offense, he has great handle and nice quick moves. This is an easily correctable thing and Hawk will be just fine imo. [/QUOTE]

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