I see a lot of criticism of Diarra taking bad shots at the end of the shot clock. I don’t think it’s fair. The alpha dogs, Karaban and Ball need to find Diarra when there is 7 seconds left on shot clock and demand the ball. What is happening is UConn runs their sets and they usually work, but when they don’t Hassan is left holding the bag and he does the best he can. While Diarra is awesome at so many parts of the game, creating his own shot at end of shot clock is a weakness. Everyone on their team knows this. They need to come to him and bail him out of that situation. He is constantly left high and dry, and he does make some shots, but he can’t conver that situation at an efficient enough percentage. I think when Liam is healthy he will help a lot with that, because he did often go demand the ball in that situation and take the tough shot. I think when Liam was healthy Hurley wanted Ball just running and looking for threes, but now with Liam out we need a second player who will find Diarra in that situation, take the ball and get a decent percentage shot. I think Ball and Karaban have to be those guys.
Please don’t blame Diarra
- Thread starter Scottobot
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I don't think Ball has shown much of an ability to create his own shot and Karaban is definitely not that guy. In the post-game presser Hurley lamented this team's lack of shot-creators when he was explaining why Hassan has the ball so often at the end of the shot clock. He's certainly craftier off the dribble than both of those guys.
I assume the ball is in Liam's hands at the end of the shot clock when (knock on wood) he's back.
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Correct. What they diagram in the huddle I have no idea but we need 3 options for the clearest shot.
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Exactly. Just tell Hurley to draw something up that gets 3 guys wide open shots. Ideally our best three shooters.
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Fishy
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Diarra tends to end up with the ball by default.
He’s effectively the one person who can move with it, so it tends to find him and everyone else watches - but he does tend to shut down on looking for options too early.
He’s effectively the one person who can move with it, so it tends to find him and everyone else watches - but he does tend to shut down on looking for options too early.
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Why not draw something up that gets all five guys open while he’s at it? Was thinking about a play called the grendade where they all come to the ball and hide it, then quickly dart from the pile while the defense doesn’t know where the ball is. Pretty sure the Globetrotters ran it. Not sure why Hurley doesn’t use it.
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Diarra has been an excellent point guard. Good handle, good vision, very good distributor.
He has not reached his ceiling as a scorer or as three point shooter. It seems he has taken a small step backwards this season in those areas. Also because of the high edge, on occasion, he finds himself in a bad mismatch under the basket.
A little improvement in those areas and he would be on one of the all BE teams.
He has not reached his ceiling as a scorer or as three point shooter. It seems he has taken a small step backwards this season in those areas. Also because of the high edge, on occasion, he finds himself in a bad mismatch under the basket.
A little improvement in those areas and he would be on one of the all BE teams.
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Hassan Diarra started the year as the 6th Man and now he's expected to be the only guy in the starting 5 who can take the ball and make something happen. Even worse, at the end of clocks he's expected to be an isolation scorer
It's not fair to him but he's taken it in stride and done it as well as he can. Even when he plays poorly it's really hard to blame him for being forced into a role 2-3 levels above what it should be
It's not fair to him but he's taken it in stride and done it as well as he can. Even when he plays poorly it's really hard to blame him for being forced into a role 2-3 levels above what it should be
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Some of that is our version of milking the clock. Definitely needs some work.
Huskyforlife
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I think the staff banking an entire season of primary shot creation on Mahaney was a questionable choice. That’s not Diarras fault, but the ball does stick sometimes.
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That’s why the roster construction this season was/is so confusing. The miss (so far) on Mahaney is big, they obviously thought he could be a creator, but we have a ton of wings who aren’t much off the bounce and Diarra as a PG who has never been a guy who gets his own really. A guy like Sion James on Duke would have been perfect for us.
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You would think that perhaps Dan Hurley would consider the option of putting Mahaney out there in these end of game situations along with Diarra. They are the two best at creating their own shots and perhaps having both of them on the court simultaneously could create a favorable match up for one of them.
This decision would be easier if Mahaney was actually consistently finishing off the good looks he creates during the game.
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A lot of good points discussed.
I think the adjustment has to be click management with the pieces we have. We cannot start our set with 12 seconds left and hope we get the last shot.
Start with 20 seconds and get the best early shot available. If that means the other team gets the ball back so be it.
I think the adjustment has to be click management with the pieces we have. We cannot start our set with 12 seconds left and hope we get the last shot.
Start with 20 seconds and get the best early shot available. If that means the other team gets the ball back so be it.
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This is the first year I can remember where we don't have a late in the shot clock takeover type player. That guy could still very well be Liam but he wasn't given that opportunity fully, yet. Last year we had three guys who could do that. Hass does the best he can. He's not a great shooter so teams know he's going to try and drive and far too often he just gets in awful spots and even worse, at times picks up his dribble in really awkward places. It's not his "fault" and I don't blame him. We are not very good in those one possession type situations because our entire offense is built off of movement/screening/cutting not guys being able to iso.
Hass too often takes it all the way to the basket and ends up with a wild shot that gets blocked or completely misses- maybe he’s trying to draw contact to get to free throw line. I’d love to see him more often just take a pull-up jump shot.
6Nattys4Us
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Let's divide this into end of possession few seconds left vs drives to the hoop:
1. end of possession - teams know they can leave Johnson alone outside the paint - he ain't shooting - they cover AK and Solo mainly and we need to space out AK from Solo from Stewart and have them work screens to get open or Diarra has no option but to shoot
2. drives to the hoop - hard to watch him drive and toss the ball up and end of on the floor with no hoop and no offensive rebound. this happened 3x or so in the Butler game and he needs to work the layup, not the hope to get fouled.
#2 is more on him, while #1 is on the team, especially the shooters who aren't getting open.
1. end of possession - teams know they can leave Johnson alone outside the paint - he ain't shooting - they cover AK and Solo mainly and we need to space out AK from Solo from Stewart and have them work screens to get open or Diarra has no option but to shoot
2. drives to the hoop - hard to watch him drive and toss the ball up and end of on the floor with no hoop and no offensive rebound. this happened 3x or so in the Butler game and he needs to work the layup, not the hope to get fouled.
#2 is more on him, while #1 is on the team, especially the shooters who aren't getting open.
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Few years ago wondered why Vitale and Gilbert hogged the ball, especially late in the clock. Watched a few more games and saw it wasn't them, all the other guys that got the ball if it wasn't to take an open shot they gave the ball right back (like Karaban of the prior two years). Need other guys to hunt the ball and their shot and drive late in clock (at 10 seconds not 2 seconds).
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That is a perfect description of whats happening. I think he is a little gun shy to give it up because then there would be the possibility of nothing getting up and at least he will get something. He's not real wrong there, it's a difficult circumstance to be in because teams are all over solo and alex from receiving anything that will allow a look, but you are absolutely right that there have been occasions where it seems that he has made up his mind to keep it a second or two before he needs to.
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In an end of clock scenario his handle just isnt quite solid enough to get to even that spot with everyone overplaying. Otherwise, yes.
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He's done those shots a hand full of times the last few games and as far as I remember he hit every one of them. I don't remember if any of them were at the end of the shot clock.
Diarra is one of the bright spots since Liam has gone down.
I sometimes view basketball - simple analysis.
At the last game, until the 2nd half, I see Samson Johnson sitting at the FT line, camping out, setting screens 20 ft away from the basket. Most of them moving screens…
I see Mahaney comfortable dishing the ball but appearing to not want it back. He runs around, hucks up a shot here or there…
That leaves 3 on 5.
Ball is being face guarded many times.
Alex appears to have, at times, a case of lead feet.
That leave Diarra 1 of 3 many time without may viable options.
When Johnson started cutting to the hoop, Diarra found him.
But we can simply not approach offense with a 3 vs 5 approach. Mahaney, Johnson, and a few others need to stop watching the game from the outside perimeter and join the attack. Whether it’s rebounding, cutting to the hoop, we can’t have them as observers and Diarra shouldn’t get the blame for the things he does to try and overcome this.
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I love Diarra's defense and his vision in the open floor, but he is not the best PG in the half court. As good as he is on the fast break, he's equally not as good feeding the post, but sadly, he's not alone on this team. He is also often slow/hesitant with a pass to a guy curling around a screen.
I think the frustration for me is that he over-penetrates a few times a game in these situations. I know the elbow jumper may not be his strength, but it's better than a few of the shots he has thrown up.
He does get the ball too often late in the shot clock, but like it's been said, it's often not of his creation. I've mentioned in a few posts that there are a few guys on this team who don't really 'hit' guys often with solid picks. To Karaban's credit, he is often looking for contact. Some of the guys just fake the pick and cut too often. I know it's part of the offense, but for it to be effective, you have to body up half of the time instead of always cut to the basket.
Still, he seems to be the litmus test for the team. They tend to go as he does. When he is playing well, the team plays well. When he struggles, they more often than not they struggle.
I think the frustration for me is that he over-penetrates a few times a game in these situations. I know the elbow jumper may not be his strength, but it's better than a few of the shots he has thrown up.
He does get the ball too often late in the shot clock, but like it's been said, it's often not of his creation. I've mentioned in a few posts that there are a few guys on this team who don't really 'hit' guys often with solid picks. To Karaban's credit, he is often looking for contact. Some of the guys just fake the pick and cut too often. I know it's part of the offense, but for it to be effective, you have to body up half of the time instead of always cut to the basket.
Still, he seems to be the litmus test for the team. They tend to go as he does. When he is playing well, the team plays well. When he struggles, they more often than not they struggle.
I don’t disagree but I think with practice I think he will improve and get there. I remember a game against Kansas many years ago … I think it was Rip Hamiltons first year. All of our PGs were either injured or suspended so we had none, and Rip played the point. At first his handle was a little sloppy but he eventually got pretty comfortable and ended up playing a great game at the point. I think this experience really helped him level up. My recollection was he was a bit shaky at start of freshman year, but by the end of the year he was very good.
Here is box score from that 1997 game
http://www.rockchalk.com/games/g199718.
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Like it or not it’s real he ends up taking way too many end of the clock shots. Some are his fault some are coaches. I mean to continuously have him dribbling off times isn’t a good move he’s not that guy but it’s what coach likes, oh well.
Having said that he’s tough, he defends well and he can distribute pretty well. I think the failure to find another good PG has hurt because he’s a great 6th man and would’ve loved to see him there again but Dan Hurley fell short. Considering all of that he’s been great and couldn’t ask for more from HD.
Having said that he’s tough, he defends well and he can distribute pretty well. I think the failure to find another good PG has hurt because he’s a great 6th man and would’ve loved to see him there again but Dan Hurley fell short. Considering all of that he’s been great and couldn’t ask for more from HD.