So what's to be done?

[joober jones]

I still don't know what JA did to get into KO's doghouse (beyond the most vague of descriptions) and he didn't have a very good showing last night. I don't know if Ollie is willing to let bygones be bygones and give him some more burn or not. However, if there's any guy on this team who needs to have a message sent home ASAP, it's Gibbs. He's been poisonous as of late due to selfish play. At this point, is it better to just hope he gets back into reality and keep him as a starter or is it time to foster the development of Adams and let him be the primary point guard on Thursday night? if I know the answer to that question, but I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks.

 

[mauconnfan]

Here's what I see and can only assume. He somehow got in the doghouse from what we think, maybe he's out. KO did say he was happy for him to get that huge rebound so maybe the mending is on it's way. But whatever happened it would seem he has lost a bit of confidence which he had built that last couple games heading into the Temple game. That would come from being afraid now to make mistakes when given that small window of opportunity.

Now here's the real deal, we have to have him as the guy if we are going to be good enough to make any run. I mean Omar getting 14 is great but he does it once every 4-5-6 games. We know Sterling can shoot it but needs someone to handle and free him as we ll as everyone else. Jalen, although he does turn it over, can do things the others can't. He is fast getting to spots and can see the court really well as well as get to the rim. If we are to make a run to get to the dance he needs to play and at the dance he needs to be the DJ for us to make a move.

 

[willie99]

what can be done?

shorten the games to 35 minutes

 

[Hurleyman216]

I still don't know what JA did to get into KO's doghouse (beyond the most vague of descriptions) and he didn't have a very good showing last night. I don't know if Ollie is willing to let bygones be bygones and give him some more burn or not. However, if there's any guy on this team who needs to have a message sent home ASAP, it's Gibbs. He's been poisonous as of late due to selfish play. At this point, is it better to just hope he gets back into reality and keep him as a starter or is it time to foster the development of Adams and let him be the primary point guard on Thursday night? if I know the answer to that question, but I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks.

Sometimes I wonder whether people on this board are watching the same game as I am. Adams has been awful the past 2 games and all you guys can do is crap all over Gibbs instead. We all agree that Adams has more upside and has the chance to be great but he isn't there yet. Overall, the numbers don't lie and we're a better team with Gibbs in and Adams out. Yes Gibbs cannot create for himself off the dribble, but he makes shots and doesn't turn the ball over often. Adams will get there, but if we give him the keys too soon we'll likely be driving the rest of our season off a cliff.

 

[joober jones]

Sometimes I wonder whether people on this board are watching the same game as I am. Adams has been awful the past 2 games and all you guys can do is crap all over Gibbs instead. We all agree that Adams has more upside and has the chance to be great but he isn't there yet. Overall, the numbers don't lie and we're a better team in with Gibbs in and Adams out. Yes Gibbs cannot create for himself off the dribble, but he makes shots and doesn't turn the ball over often. Adams will get there, but if we give him the keys too soon we'll likely be driving the rest of our season off a cliff.

My problem with Gibbs isn't in regard to his abilities, but more with the attitude he's been displaying lately. When he plays his role he's a tremendous asset, but when he opts to run into the teeth of the defense alone instead of passing to a wide open man (which he's been doing consistently as of late, especially with Rodney Purvis) it's a real problem.

 

[huskiesnyc]

This team freezes the last 5-7 minutes against good teams every time. They stop going inside and just pass around the perimeter throwing up hail mary 3's or getting shot clock violations. Sorry but that isn't just poor execution it's coaching. I know Miller was in foul trouble last night but we need to give him touches in the end of these games. Gibbs seems allergic to passing to him.

 

[mauconnfan]

Sometimes I wonder whether people on this board are watching the same game as I am. Adams has been awful the past 2 games and all you guys can do is crap all over Gibbs instead. We all agree that Adams has more upside and has the chance to be great but he isn't there yet. Overall, the numbers don't lie and we're a better team with Gibbs in and Adams out. Yes Gibbs cannot create for himself off the dribble, but he makes shots and doesn't turn the ball over often. Adams will get there, but if we give him the keys too soon we'll likely be driving the rest of our season off a cliff.

I was the biggest defender of Gibbsy when everyone crapped all over him early on and even now I will defend him. I will not defend the fact we are better with him at the point though because we are not. During both of our last 2 lead loss debacles we had many possessions where the ball was in his hands with 4-6 seconds left and we got little or nothing on any of those. I mean some where the clock ran out and some where he's taking 25 foot leaning sideways shots - that's a TO as far as I'm concerned. I do not believe it's his fault, the offense should not be running down to that point and the coaches should have abetter plan. But he's not a great "PG" per se so how can we expect much else. Truth be told I'd prefer to give the keys to Adams if he can get out of the doghouse and get his confidence back so we have a chance to beat real good teams because he is that chance. The fact is whatever happened to him and KO seems to be lingering, I thnk the move is to put him back in the starting lineup say "you're our guy" and throw him the keys. Our best bet!

 

[mauconnfan]

This team freezes the last 5-7 minutes against good teams every time. They stop going inside and just pass around the perimeter throwing up hail mary 3's or getting shot clock violations. Sorry but that isn't just poor execution it's coaching. I know Miller was in foul trouble last night but we need to give him touches in the end of these games. Gibbs seems allergic to passing to him.

In Gibbs defense in the Temple game the read the staffs plan to get it to him, they weren't letting him. But he/they never left the idea alone, they should have reversed the ball and made a secondary call but they didn't. Having said that Miller as stated many times does not get the ball enough, people don't seem to know how to throw interior passes.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I was the biggest defender of Gibbsy when everyone crapped all over him early on and even now I will defend him. I will not defend the fact we are better with him at the point though because we are not.

I think every Gibbs defender acknowledges this (me included). What really frustrates me is that what seems to be standing between this team and a decent run is Adams doing whatever he needs to do to get on the same page as Ollie and the rest of the team. The ball has to be in his hands. That he seems to be the impediment to that happening in crunch time is frustrating. Better players than him have gotten with the program a lot quicker.

 

[mauconnfan]

I think every Gibbs defender acknowledges this (me included). What really frustrates me is that what seems to be standing between this team and a decent run is Adams doing whatever he needs to do to get on the same page as Ollie and the rest of the team. The ball has to be in his hands. That he seems to be the impediment to that happening in crunch time is frustrating. Better players than him have gotten with the program a lot quicker.

Yep agree, needs to happen too - soon! (Thursday preferably)

 

[superjohn]

I think we all agree that for this team to reach the heights we all want we will need Adams running things like he was the few games before the Temple debacle. He had turned the corner and the team was looking the best it had all season with Jalen getting into the lane and making things happen. Whatever is going on with him and Ollie it needs to be ironed out before our next game if we want to finish this season right.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

The burden is on the player to make sure that happens.

 

[gtcam]

In Gibbs defense in the Temple game the read the staffs plan to get it to him, they weren't letting him. But he/they never left the idea alone, they should have reversed the ball and made a secondary call but they didn't. Having said that Miller as stated many times does not get the ball enough, people don't seem to know how to throw interior passes.

Mau - I agree that SM doesn't touch the ball enough but 50% of the reason is his "lazy" play
The guy takes too many plays off and he doesn't go to the ball when the man with the ball is in trouble. Another thing he should be doing is flashing thru the middle via quick runs or by losing his man. I've seen too much of him simply angling his body towards the basket, his stance is spread and he has one hand up and staying in that area.
I like what SM can and does bring but too many times I read that UConn doesn't get him the ball enough but I say he would get it more if he worked harder for it
It was easier in his past life because he was the go to guy and the team always looked to him and the talent level wasn't as competitive.

 

[mauconnfan]

Mau - I agree that SM doesn't touch the ball enough but 50% of the reason is his "lazy" play
The guy takes too many plays off and he doesn't go to the ball when the man with the ball is in trouble. Another thing he should be doing is flashing thru the middle via quick runs or by losing his man. I've seen too much of him simply angling his body towards the basket, his stance is spread and he has one hand up and staying in that area.
I like what SM can and does bring but too many times I read that UConn doesn't get him the ball enough but I say he would get it more if he worked harder for it
It was easier in his past life because he was the go to guy and the team always looked to him and the talent level wasn't as competitive.

Sorry can't read it as "lazy" at all. Part of it the offense which is not really good for interior players honestly and some of it is people not seeing him when he's open. He has to be more frustrated than we could even imagine. Part of our offensive problems stem from no one flashing enough whether it's him, Omar or Dham, anyone we just don't seem to run our offense throught the high post which is usually a weakness. I just don't see him taking plays off, maybe frustration but he plays hard.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

If a bunch of couch potatoes can recognize that Miller is this team's most consistent option on offense I have a hard time imagining that Division One coaches haven't recognized it as well and actively try to prevent it. It's not as simple as saying Miller just needs to work harder.

 

[jibsey]

If a bunch of couch potatoes can recognize that Miller is this team's most consistent option on offense I have a hard time imagining that Division One coaches haven't recognized it as well and actively try to prevent it. It's not as simple as saying Miller just needs to work harder.

You're right, they don't want Miller with the ball and they're willing to let us jack 3's. The question is this, now that everyone knows what's going on what are we (team coaches) going to do about it?

 

[ctchamps]

Sorry can't read it as "lazy" at all. Part of it the offense which is not really good for interior players honestly and some of it is people not seeing him when he's open. He has to be more frustrated than we could even imagine. Part of our offensive problems stem from no one flashing enough whether it's him, Omar or Dham, anyone we just don't seem to run our offense throught the high post which is usually a weakness. I just don't see him taking plays off, maybe frustration but he plays hard.

He's not lazy but he's not flashing or setting picks or whatever it takes to help with the flow of the offense. He parks himself primarily at the baseline waiting for a pass. The big exception was at the start of the second half of the Tulsa game where he flashed to the foul line, the guards gave him the ball and he scored three straight baskets.
And then he stopped doing this.

I'm with you and BigErn. Jalen's development is critical both for this season and beyond. But I'm not sure why people are almost exclusively focusing on Gibbs and ignoring DHam's play on offense. That run in the second half was when he was sitting on the bench. He seems to avoid flashing to the foul line when teams are playing zone. Maybe it's because he's struggling to make his mid range shots but there are entire stretches where he seems hesitant to look for this shot. That puts a lot of burden on the guards, whoever is running the point. And it makes it easy for teams to defend Miller.

 

[Gurleyman]

That run in the second half was when he was sitting on the bench.

Hamilton actually played all 20 minutes in the second half. Not that the overriding point you were making is off base. Hamilton's mid range game has mostly abandoned him - I used to like how he would often show a soft little touch in the 10-12 foot range. It wasn't always there, but it was a weapon. Now he's throwing grenades up there half the time. He had a nice little stretch in the first half where he had a couple soft jumpers, two of which didn't count due to whistles, and a couple which did (one a friendly, soft roll). Would like to see that come back to him consistently.

 

[intlzncster]

I still don't know what JA did to get into KO's doghouse (beyond the most vague of descriptions) and he didn't have a very good showing last night. I don't know if Ollie is willing to let bygones be bygones and give him some more burn or not.

Not knocking you, but would JC let bygones be bygones? If I know JC, I'm fairly certain he would never let a player get one over on him.

 

[donyell34]

We need Jalen plain and simple. We all saw what we saw he was on his way and then along came Temple and the wheels come off. Need to get that situation whatever it is fixed fast.

 

[upstater]

I think every Gibbs defender acknowledges this (me included). What really frustrates me is that what seems to be standing between this team and a decent run is Adams doing whatever he needs to do to get on the same page as Ollie and the rest of the team. The ball has to be in his hands. That he seems to be the impediment to that happening in crunch time is frustrating. Better players than him have gotten with the program a lot quicker.

Ollie has said as much in public recently. He says that Adams is about where he would have been expected to be at this point, but that Ollie personally had higher hopes for him.

 

[upstater]

It's not as if we haven't been experimenting with lineups all season, and although I am not down on Gibbs as some are, I would really like to see a lineup of:

Brimah, Miller, Hamilton, Adams and ... Purvis.

Adams, Purvis and Hamilton can all get to the lane.

Purvis perhaps is not the one to count on to make the right pass once in there.

But when you have 3 slashers on the floor as opposed to just one or two, it creates a new set of problems for the other team.

The thing is, we see these combinations at guard often: Gibbs-Adams, Gibbs-Purvis, but we rarely see this one: Adams-Purvis.

I'd like to see it.

 

[blackbird]

Not knocking you, but would JC let bygones be bygones? If I know JC, I'm fairly certain he would never let a player get one over on him.

JC was advocating for Adams to be playing the point and moving the ball over to Gibbs last night. I'm going to guess he knows whatever Adams did, so think about that.

We don't know who was in the wrong here either, about whether JA even should have gotten punishment, and there are certainly some instances where he shouldn't have. (If it was for a mistake on court for example.)

I hate to be the one to keep harping on this, because in general I'm pretty high on Ollie. I just have not like the way he has handled this. (And even Ollie's positive comments about JA are odd to me.)

 

[intlzncster]

JC was advocating for Adams to be playing the point and moving the ball over to Gibbs last night. I'm going to guess he knows whatever Adams did, so think about that.

Yet we have no idea if he knew at the time. I don't think JC would purposefully undermine Ollie's authority by second guessing a disciplinary matter. But that's just my opinion.

We don't know who was in the wrong here either,
..............
. I just have not like the way he has handled this.

How do these two statements jibe? If we don't even know what happened, how can we say Ollie handled the situation incorrectly?

I mean, I thought the throwing JA back in w a couple min left was really weird. But u have no idea of the context.

 

[huskyharry]

I think it is likely that Adams is out of the doghouse now. This will mean that he can get the minutes that he deserves and that the team needs, but he will also sit after making an egregious mistake, hopefully, this will only be a short duration for him to get some instruction and get back in the game .
The critical point forward is that Shonn Miller needs to limit his fouls. We cannot afford for him to be reaching in when the driver comes past and picking up cheap fouls. He is the most valuable player to the team and when he is out, the team suffers for it. We need him to be available for at least 30, preferably 35 minutes every game.