Let's Put Some of this on the Coaches Shoulders

[dogpause]

Certainly Shabazz deserves some of the criticism he's getting. He's frequently taking too much time off the clock before getting the offense started. In part, this is because his teammates are standing around, or running in endless circles. And his two big men are playing like they're the smallest guys on the court. But at least some of this blame has to go to our coaches.

Drummond still has absolutely no idea how to get himself in position for a pass in the post and clear space around him, nor does he know how to set an effective screen (they're soft, and he releases too soon). The coaches need to step up and focus some attention on these two basic big-man fundamentals.

Have you noticed that wvery team is playing the same defensive strategy against us - double teaming the ball at the top of the circle. And they're all doing it effectively. This tells me we need some counter strategies. We're just too vanilla on offense, and poorly executing the vanilla offense we have.

What we are doing is fine if you have a player, or two, that is capable of creating his own offense, but Lamb can't, or won't, take on defenders, and Shabazz looks like a ball hog if he does it too often.

JC and his staff need to focus attention on getting the big men to play like big men. Alex has been more agressive, but he still forgets, or doesn't recognize, that he's the strongest guy on the floor. His role on offense should be clearly defined - Dunk Everything, and get in postion to rebound everything that doesn't go in the basket so you can dunk some more.

As for Andre, he's standing outside the lane with his arms down, and not making contact with a defender with the intent of posting up. But it's mostly not his fault. He's raw. Where are the coaches? How in the hell can a projected NBA center not be learning how to play the post. He's got great hands, but he's never in position in the paint to get the ball passed to him. He's also not creating any space around himself to give the passer some security. The coaches are failing this kid right now. They also need to teach him how to screen effectively, and when to release and roll. His screens are soft and he often releases too soon letting the defender slip through and negating the benefit of the screen.

And then there is Lamb. Sometimes I think he needs to be yanked out of the game. He runs around in arcs rather than making abrubt changes of direction. He's as easy to follow as a GPS. He also gives up to easily on offense, refusing to take on defenders. He's not making quick, direct moves, everything is an arc. Again, the coaches need to get some of the blame.

I'll probably get lots of flack for this post - How dare I critcize a HOF coach? - but the players are taking all the blame and it's not entirely their fault.

 

[Kitaman]

If the coaches focused on reducing turnovers, better offensive ball rotation and getting better team defense (which is the same as focusing), I would be very happy. Everything else is attributed to youth but these 3 things are fixable regardless of age.

 

[aceboon]

I agree with pretty much everything you posted, especially in regards to Lamb. I made a comment yesterday about how Lamb is trying to free himself, the screens are pretty weak but he's really running around out there very lazy, if you compare how he tried to lose his man on D last year compared to this its night and day. Also, when he does receive the ball off of a screen, if the defender is there he immediately retreats and pulls the ball back out, either forcing up a long jumper or giving the ball back up to Shabazz to dribble out the shot clock and force up a 3. Last year when he got the ball off of screens and a defender was there to contest the shot he took one or two dribbles and was easily in the lane for his floater, why in the hell would he just abandon a shot that was so effective for him last year? The coaches need to sit him down and show him film of last year to show him what kind of shots he was getting because it was not solely due to Kemba receiving attention from defenders.

 

[Excalibur]

I agree with pretty much everything you posted, especially in regards to Lamb. I made a comment yesterday about how Lamb is trying to free himself, the screens are pretty weak but he's really running around out there very lazy, if you compare how he tried to lose his man on D last year compared to this its night and day. Also, when he does receive the ball off of a screen, if the defender is there he immediately retreats and pulls the ball back out, either forcing up a long jumper or giving the ball back up to Shabazz to dribble out the shot clock and force up a 3. Last year when he got the ball off of screens and a defender was there to contest the shot he took one or two dribbles and was easily in the lane for his floater, why in the hell would he just abandon a shot that was so effective for him last year? The coaches need to sit him down and show him film of last year to show him what kind of shots he was getting because it was not solely due to Kemba receiving attention from defenders.

Remember that Lamb is now the primary focus of the defense, so teams are doubling him on the screens, making it harder to get open. Many times last year he would get the ball coming off of a screen 15 feet from the basket. This year, he's often 22-25 feet out, at least partially due to the extra attention. He hasn't yet learned how to deal with teams focusing on shutting him down.

 

[wpq4elamin]

Remember that Lamb is now the primary focus of the defense, so teams are doubling him on the screens, making it harder to get open. Many times last year he would get the ball coming off of a screen 15 feet from the basket. This year, he's often 22-25 feet out, at least partially due to the extra attention. He hasn't yet learned how to deal with teams focusing on shutting him down.

this is a very good point- he's coming off screens much higher, getting bumped more, and playing almost the whole game.... he's tired, so you can't expect him to come off screens hard all the time when he has to dance around for 20 seconds going around screens... I think we need a bit more motion in our offense or at least use tyler when we go with the 2 big set so teams can't double team lamb or whoever else is coming off the screen bc of his ability to knock down the 15-17 footer

 

[John Fryer]

Why wasn't Allen given a chance to prove he can make a positive contribution?

He took a shot - made it - and was sat down.

Do we have a set offense that involves moving the ball from side to side?

Is our offense, beyond fast breaks, centered around SN holding the ball until there is 10 seconds left on the clock and then doing something spectacular or stupid?

When did he become our go-to player?

Peace,

John Fryer

 

[wpq4elamin]

If the coaches focused on reducing turnovers, better offensive ball rotation and getting better team defense (which is the same as focusing), I would be very happy. Everything else is attributed to youth but these 3 things are fixable regardless of age.

I"m sure they're just as frustrated as us regarding certain issues.... unfortunately, the ncaa hamstrung us, we weren't setting good screens and we seemed to overhelp more than usual last night... hopefully you'll start to see some real improvement in 2 of the 3 once we get back the boatshow

 

[DogMania]

Certainly Shabazz deserves some of the criticism he's getting. He's frequently taking too much time off the clock before getting the offense started. In part, this is because his teammates are standing around, or running in endless circles. And his two big men are playing like they're the smallest guys on the court. But at least some of this blame has to go to our coaches.

Drummond still has absolutely no idea how to get himself in position for a pass in the post and clear space around him, nor does he know how to set an effective screen (they're soft, and he releases too soon). The coaches need to step up and focus some attention on these two basic big-man fundamentals.

Have you noticed that wvery team is playing the same defensive strategy against us - double teaming the ball at the top of the circle. And they're all doing it effectively. This tells me we need some counter strategies. We're just too vanilla on offense, and poorly executing the vanilla offense we have.

What we are doing is fine if you have a player, or two, that is capable of creating his own offense, but Lamb can't, or won't, take on defenders, and Shabazz looks like a ball hog if he does it too often.

JC and his staff need to focus attention on getting the big men to play like big men. Alex has been more agressive, but he still forgets, or doesn't recognize, that he's the strongest guy on the floor. His role on offense should be clearly defined - Dunk Everything, and get in postion to rebound everything that doesn't go in the basket so you can dunk some more.

As for Andre, he's standing outside the lane with his arms down, and not making contact with a defender with the intent of posting up. But it's mostly not his fault. He's raw. Where are the coaches? How in the hell can a projected NBA center not be learning how to play the post. He's got great hands, but he's never in position in the paint to get the ball passed to him. He's also not creating any space around himself to give the passer some security. The coaches are failing this kid right now. They also need to teach him how to screen effectively, and when to release and roll. His screens are soft and he often releases too soon letting the defender slip through and negating the benefit of the screen.

And then there is Lamb. Sometimes I think he needs to be yanked out of the game. He runs around in arcs rather than making abrubt changes of direction. He's as easy to follow as a GPS. He also gives up to easily on offense, refusing to take on defenders. He's not making quick, direct moves, everything is an arc. Again, the coaches need to get some of the blame.

I'll probably get lots of flack for this post - How dare I critcize a HOF coach? - but the players are taking all the blame and it's not entirely their fault.

This is some of really good analysis , dogpause. Good stuff.

It's often tough to determine if a loss like last night was due to a sub-par game plan or simply poor execution or both. I'm inclined to think it was both.

I agree with what you said about Lamb. He often smoothly runs around trying to get open. He'd likely get open more often if he worked on sharper cuts and misdirection with quickly decisive screens set by his teammates. Whatever they were trying to run last night over and over again to free him simply didn't work.

Bazz does pound the ball at the top way too much while he teammates either do a lot of standing around and/or execute their off-the-ball movements poorly. Now is this a matter of poor execution on the part of the other 4 or with him included? Could it be simply running the same play or plays too often during the game, making it far to easy for teams to adjust? Could it be they are not running the right plays that could exploit the types of D their facing?

I've followed the game for many years, played that game but at a much lower level and I'm definitely not a coach. I just don't know the answers to the above, though have a feeling it's a combination of some of them. one thing is for sure, it's not a matter of them not having enough talent.

Those AD observations might have described what we saw last night, but he's done well in those areas in other games. As I've mentioned a number of times, we're going to get a monster game from AD one night and MIA the next. That's just how freshmen play, especially the big guys.

IMO, last night was one of those games where the more talented team simply had breakdowns in too many areas that eventually added up to an L. These breakdowns were as follows:

Over-Helping - Bazz IMO was the biggest culprit though he had plenty of company. There was somewhere between 4 to 6 times where he unnecessarily slid over to provide some perimeter help or simply strayed too far off his man who made them pay by nailing some wide open Js. Daniels completely lost his man on one play in the first half. AD wandered considerably too far out to help and failed to get back a few times. I realize that Cincy had some stretches where they shot the ball very well from deep with a UConn player either in their face or closely defended, but a good portion of their 3s were wide open due to poor defensive execution.

Poor offensive efficiency from the Bigs - They were horrible at converting in traffic last night. AD delivered a couple horrible passes when he should have taken the shots. Now that doesn't tell the whole story. I don't think the perimeter players did a good job of delivering them the ball in good scoring positions. Not sure if the blame is in what they were running, or the bigs not fighting hard for good post position or the guards not looking enough for them or delivering the ball to them. I'm inclined to think it's a combination of all 3. One thing that I keep thinking about is if the bigs had simply converted just 2 of their inside shots, they win that game.

Not handling the perimeter pressure well and either turning it over or letting it disrupt their half-court execution - Granted Bazz and Lamb had to play a lot of minutes and Bazz is clearly banged up. Last night was a classic live and die by the same player. Bazz made some terrific shots, drives and passes that kept UConn in the game. But he again was sloppy with the ball and at some inopportune times in the game. He seemed to struggle to get the team to run it's offense with conviction. Unlike the last 8 minutes of the WVU game where they were flying around on both ends of the court, executing their O and D with a lot of energy, last night it looked like they were stuck in quicksand on offense.

Fell a momentum play or two short of taking over the game - As big a momentum builder a big shot can be, a poorly timed turnover or defensive mistake can be an even more devistating momentum killer. They had the ball at least once up by 2 late in that game, and couldn't make that one play to stretch it to that important 2 possession game. Last year, thanks mainly to Kemba, they were very good at making that extra-momentum or 2-possession-gaining late play that made teams have to make more than one big play of their own to beat us. Last season it seemed they get up by 4 or more, sometimes giving up part of that late where the other team simply couldn't make that 2nd play to beat us. There were some where they did, but often leaving enough time for one more UConn possession (Pitt & the other BE game that escapes me where Kemba dished to Lamb for the winning basket) for Kemba to do his magic. This team was playing from behind most of the night, and has been getting behind in the first half and playing from behind a lot lately. They had multiple opportunities in the 2nd half to stretch the lead while up by one or two, but simply couldn't connect on that knee buckling blow.

This was one of those games where the team that had more individual talent simply made too many mistakes and squandered what should have been a W.

 

[nimzovich]

This team was playing from behind most of the night, and has been getting behind in the first half and playing from behind a lot lately. They had multiple opportunities in the 2nd half to stretch the lead while up by one or two, but simply couldn't connect on that knee buckling blow.

first sentence is correct. 2nd sentence is not.

as far as i can tell UConn had only one possession in each half to stretch a lead.
UConn had the ball up 2-0 in the first half and turned it over.
UConn had the ball up 52-50 in the second half and AO missed a jumper

Cincy answered every other UConn lead by retaking the lead.

 

[businesslawyer]

Certainly Shabazz deserves some of the criticism he's getting. He's frequently taking too much time off the clock before getting the offense started. In part, this is because his teammates are standing around, or running in endless circles. And his two big men are playing like they're the smallest guys on the court. But at least some of this blame has to go to our coaches.

Drummond still has absolutely no idea how to get himself in position for a pass in the post and clear space around him, nor does he know how to set an effective screen (they're soft, and he releases too soon). The coaches need to step up and focus some attention on these two basic big-man fundamentals.

Have you noticed that wvery team is playing the same defensive strategy against us - double teaming the ball at the top of the circle. And they're all doing it effectively. This tells me we need some counter strategies. We're just too vanilla on offense, and poorly executing the vanilla offense we have.

What we are doing is fine if you have a player, or two, that is capable of creating his own offense, but Lamb can't, or won't, take on defenders, and Shabazz looks like a ball hog if he does it too often.

JC and his staff need to focus attention on getting the big men to play like big men. Alex has been more agressive, but he still forgets, or doesn't recognize, that he's the strongest guy on the floor. His role on offense should be clearly defined - Dunk Everything, and get in postion to rebound everything that doesn't go in the basket so you can dunk some more.

As for Andre, he's standing outside the lane with his arms down, and not making contact with a defender with the intent of posting up. But it's mostly not his fault. He's raw. Where are the coaches? How in the hell can a projected NBA center not be learning how to play the post. He's got great hands, but he's never in position in the paint to get the ball passed to him. He's also not creating any space around himself to give the passer some security. The coaches are failing this kid right now. They also need to teach him how to screen effectively, and when to release and roll. His screens are soft and he often releases too soon letting the defender slip through and negating the benefit of the screen.

And then there is Lamb. Sometimes I think he needs to be yanked out of the game. He runs around in arcs rather than making abrubt changes of direction. He's as easy to follow as a GPS. He also gives up to easily on offense, refusing to take on defenders. He's not making quick, direct moves, everything is an arc. Again, the coaches need to get some of the blame.

I'll probably get lots of flack for this post - How dare I critcize a HOF coach? - but the players are taking all the blame and it's not entirely their fault.

A large part of Shabazz standing outside pounding the ball into the ground is Drummond's utter refusal or, more likely, inability, to set one damn solid screen on the perimeter.

 

[ConnEd]

I agree with what you said about Lamb. He often smoothly runs around trying to get open. He'd likely get open more often if he worked on sharper cuts and misdirection with quickly decisive screens set by his teammates. Whatever they were trying to run last night over and over again to free him simply didn't work.

I think part of the problem for Lamb last night was the 4 guard defense they faced. When he comes off the screen, he usually either have his defender following him around it or going under the screen. In the first case, he takes it to the basket if the screener's defender doesn't hedge well. In the latter case, he drifts back for an open shot as the defender goes under the screen. But I think last night, Cincy chased him and let the screener's defender - who was usually another guard - switch onto Lamb. If that happens normally, you've got him against a big outside, plus our big/screener rolling to the hoop on a smaller guy. But I think with another small coming out on him, he had no advantage and rarely got to drift out into a shooting position behind the screen because of the quick hedge/switch of the screener's defender. I bet last year when Jeremy beat a defender to the hoop for one of his floaters, it was usually a big he drove past. Not last night.

 

[freescooter]

My view on Drummond is he ought to play 15-20 minutes tops for a while and see if putting Oriahki back in the middle gets him back to live. His play late last year was superior to anything Drummond has given us to date. Lots of people thought alex deserved the MVP of final four. Not many UCONN fans I'll gran t you, but others.

 

[BarkingDog]

If Calhoun deserves any criticism of last night's game is that he should have called a time out when Napier hit the three to tie so he could set the defense. But he never does. Which is why I was confused when he called time after Cincy took the lead with 2.5 to go. I think he picked the wrong to let them play and the wrong time to stop play. But, easy to say now.
Big picture, Calhoun will have this team playing good ball before the end of the regular season. Yes, there's still a lot to learn for this group, but there's too much talent and they work hard. Color me glass half full.

 

[Huskybass]

I'd be all for some uptempo and just blow other teams off the court. What team is going to run with Napier, Lamb, Daniels, Roscoe and Drummond? We would score 85 points easily and most games would be won with ease.

 

[willie99]

I concur, the coaches do a great job of keeping us a top tier team with amazing consistency

thank you coaches, don't ever change a thing

 

[UCweCONN]

I"m sure they're just as frustrated as us regarding certain issues.... unfortunately, the ncaa hamstrung us, we weren't setting good screens and we seemed to overhelp more than usual last night... hopefully you'll start to see some real improvement in 2 of the 3 once we get back the boatshow

Sorry, did Boatright play in the Rutgers and Seton Hall games? Boatright is not the reason this team wins or loses. It's a team problem and there is a ton of talent on this team. I hate hearing players on the team talking about missing Boatright or posters here saying we would have won if we had Boatright. Each player on this team needs to man up, forget about Kemba and Boatright not being there, do a gut check and improve the areas of their games they need to improve and cut out the excuses. Like the saying goes, "There are three kinds of people. Ones that make things happen, ones that watch things happen, and the ones that say, "What just happened??" Let's hope these Huskies become the former of these, but I'm seeing the majority being in the later two groups.

 

[wpq4elamin]

Sorry, did Boatright play in the Rutgers and Seton Hall games? Boatright is not the reason this team wins or loses. It's a team problem and there is a ton of talent on this team. I hate hearing players on the team talking about missing Boatright or posters here saying we would have won if we had Boatright. Each player on this team needs to man up, forget about Kemba and Boatright not being there, do a gut check and improve the areas of their games they need to improve and cut out the excuses. Like the saying goes, "There are three kinds of people. Ones that make things happen, ones that watch things happen, and the ones that say, "What just happened??" Let's hope these Huskies become the former of these, but I'm seeing the majority being in the later two groups.

it was the problem in the cincy game, regardless of the fact they played poorly in the SH and Rutgers games...

having 1 guy to handle the ball all game against a 4 guard lineup is a recipe for disaster... bazz was having trouble handling in the cincy game and boatright def makes a 3 point difference in that game

I'm not saying he's the whole team, but you can't say a team plays the same way without all their parts... plus it's gotta be annoying thinking they're done with that NCAA nonsense and then having to deal with it again... it's gotta be a huge letdown right as they were starting to play pretty well in spurts

 

[The Funster]

I think there are still too many dynamics that have to solidy. Lamb is having to learn how to deal with additional defensive attention. Napier still has to learn how to be the man and he does not have a consistent running partner with Boatright's playing status always up in the air. Drummond is playing like a freshman and Oriakhi has done nothing to demand more minutes than he has gotten.

I think the OP has some good analysis but thge biggest factor in correcting the issues is TIME. Yeah, some tweaking will need to be done and I think our big men need to be more assertive going up but the biggest factor is the time it will take some time to gel.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I've watched 3 National Championships that have absolutely required lockdown defense, made free throws, and reduced turnovers in order to win 6 NCAA tournament games. I don't really care about offense, other than that it's fun to watch, made more so when the other team can't score. That was the best part of the WVU comeback, breaking ND's home winning streak, and coming back from a 12 point deficit against Cincinnati.

I've been reading complaints for years about point guards dribbling too late into the shot clock, motionless offense, not pounding the ball inside, not boxing out, and so on. I've come to wish for and love when the other guys can't add points.

 

[freescooter]

it was the problem in the cincy game, regardless of the fact they played poorly in the SH and Rutgers games...

having 1 guy to handle the ball all game against a 4 guard lineup is a recipe for disaster... bazz was having trouble handling in the cincy game and boatright def makes a 3 point difference in that game

I'm not saying he's the whole team, but you can't say a team plays the same way without all their parts... plus it's gotta be annoying thinking they're done with that NCAA nonsense and then having to deal with it again... it's gotta be a huge letdown right as they were starting to play pretty well in spurts

You can't blame this on the NCAA. Boatright screwed up. maybe UCONN did too in not vetting him as closely as they should have, but either way, no Boatright wasn't the problem last night. We had a 6-10 guy whose supposed to be a 1st round pick and a 6-9 guy and they got pushed around under the basket by smaller players. The way you beat the 4 guard offense is to crash the boards, and get the ball to your bigs inside and make the smaller team pay dearly. We got 6 points and 12 rebounds from the 2 of them combined. Of course you have a problem if you don't take advantage of the mis-matches. Boatright wasn't going to make that difference.

 

[dogpause]

Exactly. If a 4-guard lineup was the forumula for success, us midgets might have a chance in the NBA.

As for Boatright, right again. Unless this charge is fraudulant, it's Boat, not the NCAA that we should be upset with.

 

[DogMania]

first sentence is correct. 2nd sentence is not.

as far as i can tell UConn had only one possession in each half to stretch a lead.
UConn had the ball up 2-0 in the first half and turned it over.
UConn had the ball up 52-50 in the second half and AO missed a jumper

Cincy answered every other UConn lead by retaking the lead.

I didn't say they had multiple offensive possessions to stretch the lead but multiple opportunities in the 2nd half to stretch the lead. Yeah, semantics. I do see your point though. But in order to stretch a lead, you need to get a stop or stops to do so first, so the point I was trying to make is still valid.

Take a look at the game log: UConn-Cincy Game Log

They were up 3 times in the 2nd half though only got one stop after one of those 3:

UConn up 52-50 between 10:36 (Scoe layup) and 9:16 (Dixon 3 pointer) - UConn had one possession in between those two.

UConn up 54-53 between 8:39 (Giffey Layup) and 7:57 (Parker Jumper) - In this case they needed a stop in order to stretch the lead, but instead gave up points on the next posession.

UConn up 57-55 between 6:52 (Lamb 3 FTs) and 6:36 (Wright 3 pointer) - Like the last lead they needed a stop. I remember this sequence clearly. After knocking down 3 FTs, Lamb (or was it Bazz...maybe not so clearly ) completely blew his assignment giving up a relatively quick wide open 3.

Between the 6:52 and 1:29 mark, UConn couldn't buy a basket nor get many stops and fell behind by 8, until at that 1:29 mark Bazz hit the first of his three 3 pointers and converting 1 of 2 FTs. Sprinkled between those 10 pints were 2 made FTs by Cincy, which gets you to 67 All w/ just under 10 seconds to go leading up to the Kilpatrick 3 pt kill shot for the W with 2.5 to go. Ugh!

So UConn had leads in the 2nd half and IMO 3 chances to stretch the lead if they could have made some stops and then scored during any of the subsequent possessions, where in this game, they had just one stop and one offensive trip to do so as you pointed out. I can't remember exactly the stat that JC game a week or two back, but it was something to the fact that UConn usually wins when they get 3 consecutive stops 3 (?) times during a game. I know the 3 consecutive stops is right, but I don't remember how many times a game. I'm not going to bother, but I wonder how many time they got 3 consecutive stops in that game. Anyone care to check the log? I would settled for one or two stops after taking the lead, but credit Cincy for taking a punch and punching right back.

 

[DogMania]

I think part of the problem for Lamb last night was the 4 guard defense they faced. When he comes off the screen, he usually either have his defender following him around it or going under the screen. In the first case, he takes it to the basket if the screener's defender doesn't hedge well. In the latter case, he drifts back for an open shot as the defender goes under the screen. But I think last night, Cincy chased him and let the screener's defender - who was usually another guard - switch onto Lamb. If that happens normally, you've got him against a big outside, plus our big/screener rolling to the hoop on a smaller guy. But I think with another small coming out on him, he had no advantage and rarely got to drift out into a shooting position behind the screen because of the quick hedge/switch of the screener's defender. I bet last year when Jeremy beat a defender to the hoop for one of his floaters, it was usually a big he drove past. Not last night.

Nice observation and analysis. I guess I didn't watch close enough that they switched that often on Lamb. I do recall how Cinci had a lot of interchangeable parts and were switching a lot in general, but didn't really put that much thought into how they were likely switching on Lamb a great deal. With that said, it did seem that Jeremy could benefit from taking sharper cuts. I've mentioned before that he really doesn't have a quick first step, which is why he struggles to take his man off the dribble from the top of the key. He tends to be at his best moving with or without the ball coming in from an angle by the elbow. It's when he's go no momentum toward the basket with his man directly in front of him where he tends to struggle. I'm inclined to think that he needs to work on his ability to change directions.

I remember playing hoops back in the day, and although I was the fastest player on the team, end to end, I wasn't the fastest in shuttled type drills. Some of my teammates were simply faster at changing direction than me. One would think that a player who's fast for a short distance like full or half-court dash would be the quickest at starts and stops, but that is clearly not the case. I think Bazz is a player who has a good, maybe not great, first step or two, but tops out at a moderate speed, while someone like Boatright is not only lightning quick off the blocks but can blow by anyone on the court end to end. Maybe ESPN should do one of those sports science things on this if they haven't already done so.

 

[HuskyHawk]

This team is short on point guards. The bigs are athletic, but mediocre in half court sets. Only Olander has a reliable short jumper. On the other hand, we have wings on top of wings. Lamb, Giffey, Daniels, Smith...all can run, have length and can be disruptive. I don't understanding why this team hasn't been coached to play the same pressing style as the 99 team. They have the perfect athletes to do this. Drummond and even AO are tremendous on the break, and AD and TO have good outlet passes. They need to run that 2-2-1 zone press a lot more. They have the bodies...they can run these guys to the ground and rotate them in and out. It's a huge depth advantage that goes wasted almost every week.

Once Boat is back, I'd never have him and Bazz on the court at the same time. I'd want these guys dripping with sweat and gasping for air when they get subbed for. I thought JC was building the team with this style in mind, but then the "dominant center" fell in his lap and we're back to the same stagnant half court style.

 

[ctchamps]

Sorry, did Boatright play in the Rutgers and Seton Hall games? Boatright is not the reason this team wins or loses. It's a team problem and there is a ton of talent on this team. I hate hearing players on the team talking about missing Boatright or posters here saying we would have won if we had Boatright. Each player on this team needs to man up, forget about Kemba and Boatright not being there, do a gut check and improve the areas of their games they need to improve and cut out the excuses. Like the saying goes, "There are three kinds of people. Ones that make things happen, ones that watch things happen, and the ones that say, "What just happened??" Let's hope these Huskies become the former of these, but I'm seeing the majority being in the later two groups.

Where does that put us?