How is Ball not getting more shots!?!?

[DogMania]

I realized this has been mentioned in the number of threads, but looking at his stats and how well he's been shooting the ball most of the season, I don't know why they're not running more plays and featuring his capabilities.

He's shooting 45% from 3 and 47% overall. I can understand the coaching staff telling him to lower his volume if he's bricking a bunch of shots, but that's not the case. When he gets going and is dialed in, he's deadly. I'm not saying that other players shouldn't be looking for their shot, but when they get into these funks where they find themselves throwing up a prayer with the shot clock running down, that's the perfect time for them to run some specially designed sets to get him some catch and shoot opportunities. With that said, he should be taking a lot of shots throughout the flow of the game as long as they're not crazy forced ones.

Granted, Butler did a lot of clutching and grabbing especially him off the ball. But with that said I noticed a lot of times he was either hanging out on the perimeter not moving or simply not working hard enough to get open and or his team's just not looking for him as much as they should. I think part of it is just not drawing up more plays to get him the ball and the coaching staff needing to insist his teammates find him more often.

Normally his current output would be fine, but with McNeeley out this team simply needs to get him more shots to be more competitive overall.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Solo Ball has averaged 12.3 FGA across the last six games.

Marquette's David Joplin averages 12.3 FGAs per game, which is good for 7th in the conference. Only three players (RJ Luis, Kam Jones, Eric Dixon) average 13+ FGAs per game.

Based on those stats, I don't think getting Ball even more touches is the answer. Other guys need to step up.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Not sure how many shots you want him to take ideally, but the answer is he is getting key’d on, and he can’t really create his own shot.

 

[Hurleyman216]

I realized this has been mentioned in the number of threads, but looking at his stats and how well he's been shooting the ball most of the season, I don't know why they're not running more plays and featuring his capabilities.

He's shooting 45% from 3 and 47% overall. I can understand the coaching staff telling him to lower his volume if he's bricking a bunch of shots, but that's not the case. When he gets going and is dialed in, he's deadly. I'm not saying that other players shouldn't be looking for their shot, but when they get into these funks where they find themselves throwing up a prayer with the shot clock running down, that's the perfect time for them to run some specially designed sets to get him some catch and shoot opportunities. With that said, he should be taking a lot of shots throughout the flow of the game as long as they're not crazy forced ones.

Granted, Butler did a lot of clutching and grabbing especially him off the ball. But with that said I noticed a lot of times he was either hanging out on the perimeter not moving or simply not working hard enough to get open and or his team's just not looking for him as much as they should. I think part of it is just not drawing up more plays to get him the ball and the coaching staff needing to insist his teammates find him more often.

Normally his current output would be fine, but with McNeeley out this team simply needs to get him more shots to be more competitive overall.

If you've been watching the same games as I have and you keep an eye on both Ball and Karaban, the two of them get held or bumped off of their actions anytime they run through the lane. I know most of our fans don't see it or have just become so accustomed to seeing it that they don't realize how egregious it is. I often find myself watching Karaban and not watching the ball and what I see is defenders constantly grabbing him or lowering their shoulder to push him away from our screener. The exact same thing happens to Ball all game long. If you follow basketball you know that the screen is only effective if the man using it can get shoulder to shoulder with the screener and use the screen effectively. We are more often than not being bumped, held or pushed off of our screener which just means our guys have to run further around the screen to try to get open. Generally when this happens it gives the defender enough time to switch or recover. It happens time and time again which is why I am constantly complaining about the officiating in the game chat. We had a much more talented team last year, but teams were not allowed to hold and bump us off screens like they are this year. This year the officiating is much more like 2023 where we had almost no freedom of movement and yet, when we got out of the Big East all of the sudden our officiating troubles magically disappeared and we dominated everyone. And I should mention that 2023 was not a case of us just getting better and "fixing" things. We dominated everyone in non-conference, then got beat up in the Big East often due to large foul discrepancies like this year, then all of the sudden we got into the NCAA tournament and dominated everyone again. We did get better, but we did not go from being world beaters, to awful to then magically being world beaters again....there's a reason it happened.

I'm glad Hurley finally called out the officiating disparity after the game last night. Calling it out in a game you win is much more effective. I think he also did it in a professional manner by consistently complimenting the refs and saying they're good officials. Maybe the Big East made it a point of emphasis that they aren't going to be calling off ball fouls when it isn't impacting the player with the ball. Either way these are fouls and if they don't start calling them then we will be taking a few more L's in the Big East before the season is over. There's a zero percent chance we're going to revamp our offense to accommodate the officials.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Solo Ball has averaged 12.3 FGA across the last six games.

Marquette's David Joplin averages 12.3 FGAs per game, which is good for 7th in the conference. Only three players (RJ Luis, Kam Jones, Eric Dixon) average 13+ FGAs per game.

Not to mention I feel like he’s been getting shadowed pretty hard on the perimeter. Luckily he can exploit that in the midrange

 

[Huskybass]

Solo gets open enough to grab 12 shots a game recently. I'd prefer a few more looks go to him, but his improvement from last year is very significant...and he seems to keep improving. I like that he rebounds well too. He often seems to grab at least 4 or 5.

 

[superjohn]

Hurley drew it up for AK again on the final play of regulation last night. I don't understand the reasoning.

 

[Sibeerian]

Not to mention I feel like he’s been getting shadowed pretty hard on the perimeter. Luckily he can exploit that in the midrange

More than shadowed, he's getting shoved, elbowed and prostate examined out there

 

[Palatine]

According to Hurley, he is being grabbed and held

 

[CardiacAndre7]

According to Hurley, he is being grabbed and held

Last night specifically the refs were not bad.

 

[August_West]

Hurley drew it up for AK again on the final play of regulation last night. I don't understand the reasoning.

AK is his ride or die. At that level and that kind of relationship legendary coaches will do things like that. Remember K in the title game putting the ball in Langdons hands telling him to take Ricky Moore with the game on the line? He was willing to sacrifice (and in the end did just that) the Title to do it through Langdon. Out of all the plays he couldve run that was the absolute worst one considering who he was going against, but K wanted Langdon to have the glory more than the title. He was asked about it after the game, and made no apologies for it. That takes some balls and some arrogance.

 

[Hurleyman216]

Last night specifically the refs were not bad.

Yes, they were just as bad as they have been. I don't have an issue calling fouls on us that are fouls (and many/most of them are). What I take issue with is we get bumped or held on nearly every cut (especially our shooters). When we do penetrate and try to score we never get fouls called when there is clearly contact. Diarra got absolutely slaughtered on a play last night near the end of regulation, he got bodied/pushed back and then hit on the arm and there was no call. Karaban got clearly fouled on a rebound which then ended up being a held ball rather than a clear rebound. I can go on and on. If you watch and understand basketball at a high level, then you should be able to recognize this as being lopsided. The end of the game was especially Butler friendly. I used to coach Div II basketball and also officiated AAU, so I can tell you very matter-of-factly that if you think the refs last night were bad then you don't know what you're watching. Thankfully we pulled it out.

 

[jibsey]

Solo shooting or Johnson on an alley is the best chance to score but we need more than that. We should be getting 10 points from Mahaney every game.

 

[UCan3]

Solo shooting or Johnson on an alley is the best chance to score but we need more than that. We should be getting 10 points from Mahaney every game.

We are going to have a hard time if Mahaney doesn’t improve soon. He is a nonfactor in many offensive sets.

Also combine Johnson camping out at Ft line setting picks for no one and you’ve got 3 on 5.

I watched this over and over again last night.

I was glad to see Johnson finally figure it out and start cutting to the hoop. That led to some nice dunks!

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Yes, they were just as bad as they have been. I don't have an issue calling fouls on us that are fouls (and many/most of them are). What I take issue with is we get bumped or held on nearly every cut (especially our shooters). When we do penetrate and try to score we never get fouls called when there is clearly contact. Diarra got absolutely slaughtered on a play last night near the end of regulation, he got bodied/pushed back and then hit on the arm and there was no call. Karaban got clearly fouled on a rebound which then ended up being a held ball rather than a clear rebound. I can go on and on. If you watch and understand basketball at a high level, then you should be able to recognize this as being lopsided. The end of the game was especially Butler friendly. I used to coach Div II basketball and also officiated AAU, so I can tell you very matter-of-factly that if you think the refs last night were bad then you don't know what you're watching. Thankfully we pulled it out.

No, I watch and understand basketball well, it wasn’t particularly lobsided. We have been in games where it has been, yesterday was not one. We don’t drive a lot, that’s why we don’t get fouls. Butler does, that’s why they are top-10 in the nation in FT attempts. Sometimes it is as simple as that.

 

[NHUConnfan]

Yesterday, the refs didn't blow several whistles on pretty egregious fouls made by Samson Johnson. Missed calls on both ends, and thus, we shouldn't lay blame either way.

To the original question, Ball had someone on his hip most of the 2nd half and he struggled to get open.

 

[Shabazzkets]

Solo shooting or Johnson on an alley is the best chance to score but we need more than that. We should be getting 10 points from Mahaney every game.

I post pretty rarely, and I hate criticizing a team or a staff that just won two straight titles.

But I will say the staff clearly whiffed on Mahaney and that’s probably the biggest problem with the team, outside of McNeeley being hurt. Mahaney really struggles defensively - it often looks like he has no hope of staying in front of literally any opponent - and can’t create his own shot. He has also not been consistent with the open shot. The staff thought they were getting Spencer 2.0 and we got Timberlake. It has to be said that Hurley got enormously lucky that Timberlake chose Kansas and we had room for Cam. Number 6 probably resulted directly from that stroke of luck. We didn’t get as lucky this year and are paying the price.

 

[husky429]

#8 offense in the country. #2 with McNeeley. We shouldn't be complaining about the offensive game planning.

 

[JungleLobo]

I post pretty rarely, and I hate criticizing a team or a staff that just won two straight titles.

But I will say the staff clearly whiffed on Mahaney and that’s probably the biggest problem with the team, outside of McNeeley being hurt. Mahaney really struggles defensively - it often looks like he has no hope of staying in front of literally any opponent - and can’t create his own shot. He has also not been consistent with the open shot. The staff thought they were getting Spencer 2.0 and we got Timberlake. It has to be said that Hurley got enormously lucky that Timberlake chose Kansas and we had room for Cam. Number 6 probably resulted directly from that stroke of luck. We didn’t get as lucky this year and are paying the price.

By the same token, if Mahaney never settles in he will be back in the portal after the season. No harm, no foul.

 

[uconngb]

Hurley drew it up for AK again on the final play of regulation last night. I don't understand the reasoning.

Be careful. No criticism of our coach allowed on this board. He just won two NCs you know

 

[RuffRuff]

I post pretty rarely, and I hate criticizing a team or a staff that just won two straight titles.

But I will say the staff clearly whiffed on Mahaney and that’s probably the biggest problem with the team, outside of McNeeley being hurt. Mahaney really struggles defensively - it often looks like he has no hope of staying in front of literally any opponent - and can’t create his own shot. He has also not been consistent with the open shot. The staff thought they were getting Spencer 2.0 and we got Timberlake. It has to be said that Hurley got enormously lucky that Timberlake chose Kansas and we had room for Cam. Number 6 probably resulted directly from that stroke of luck. We didn’t get as lucky this year and are paying the price.

Staff missing on Mahaney really could be the difference between good and very good. It was a key decision. Not to say I told you so, but was at the August open practice to watch close up and came away underwhelmed, wondering if I was missing something. He was small/undynamic and the freshman looked better. With so many more appropriate options, had to be a mishit based on overvaluing current roster somewhere * overvaluing Mahaney himself * overvaluing their ability to develop him into something he wasn’t. Happens, just have to learn from it.

 

[lonsharkin51]

The floaters by Alex weren't horrible looks. He just short-armed them all night

 

[AllHusky]

The floaters by Alex weren't horrible looks. He just short-armed them all night

Again. Same as previous game. He needs to get all the way to the Basket or take a jumper.

 

[upstater]

On some of Diarra's drives to the hoop, he could've kicked out to a wide open Solo in the corner.