The 2nd Half - In Detail

[auror]

So I was stewing about the 2nd half and decided to do a rewatch asap of just the 2nd half (first half was tied, less important). My initial thoughts before starting the re-watch was that the players sucked with execution and focus, and the coaching staff went to the wrong zone (should've gone 2/3), So this is a stream of consciousness description of each possession, similar to when I make notes for my charting.

• Newton bad pass alley-oop to Jackson.
• Pinzon makes midrange pull-up, pump fake step through. Jackson fooled by pump, so the shot was open.
• Jackson/Hawkins miscommunication pass out of bounds. Hawkins had open lane but cut back towards Jackson to give him help that wasn't needed.
• Pinzon makes midrange floater. Over/around Jackson.
• Open Hawkins 3, miss, Hawkins oreb, found Sanogo all alone for dunk.
• Storr makes midrange pull-up over good Hawkins contest.
• Newton keeps Alexander in front, he misses pull-up midrange jumper. Soriano oreb over Sanogo. Jackson blankets Pinzon 3 miss.
• Sanogo early clock open 3 miss.
• In transition Newton casual defense, but we let the right guy open and Alexander misses 3.
• Jackson casual curling floater from the paint miss.
• Addae-Wusu pushes in transition for layup. Karaban not in position after going for oreb and no communication and no one stops ball in time
• Timeout Hurley.
• ATO play Sanogo commits moving screen.
• Soriano gets ball poked away, picks it back up and throws up a wild hook that goes in.
• Newton finds Karaban for pick and pop 3, good.
• Sanogo falls asleep on help D. Addae Wusu cuts right by him.
• Karaban misses open 3.
• Soriano with ball out of the paint on the wing. Jackson man Pinzon cuts back door and he fouls him on the catch.
• Newton digs help on drive and forces turnover.
• Jackson drives and draws foul.
• Soriano makes moving Kareem-esque 10 ft hook.
• They pick a Hawkins pocket PnR pass off and go the other way. Curbelo leaks out and beats Newton, but drops it behind him to trailer. Jackson jumps before the guy even has control of the ball from his side and fouls him. 4th foul on Jackson, 14:02 to go. St. John's 7 point lead after FTs.
• Diarra drives and dumps to Sanogo for free layup.
• Curbelo mishandles a bit and Diarra starts pressing him 30 feet from basket, Curbelo goes by him. Help comes, but he makes a nice floater.
• Hawkins misses wide open 3. Calcaterra oreb. St. John's late double Sanogo, he finds Diarra who finds Calcaterra for wide open 3, miss. Hawkins oreb, makes putback.
• 1-3-1 zone. Karaban foul 25 feet from hoop. Then Sanogo bad positioning leads to easy Curbelo layup.
• Calcaterra GREAT pass to Karaban for and-1 layup. Misses FT.
• Man D again. Calcaterra goes under the dribble handoff but still puts two hands on Posh as he starts to turn the corner for easy foul call.
• Clingan presence forces ugly baseline Curbelo floater.
• Curbelo and Posh pressure on Diarra/Calcaterra force turnover in backcourt. Clingan goaltends.
• Clingan fouled on roll.
• Hawkins hit quick release 3 off inbound.
• Hawkins backscreened, doesn’t seem to be any communication on it, so he’s beat. Clingan a little slow to help and Curbelo off the backboard over him.
• Hawkins pass on pick and roll doesn’t connect with Clingan, stolen.
• 4 on 3 in transition the other way, they miss open 3.
• Diarra pushes in transition, Hawkins is out of bounds on catch.
• Back to 1-3-1, Karaban gambles and almost gets pass, but instead Pinzon drives and draws foul on Clingan.
• Clingan called for questionable moving screen. Announcer blamed Newton, but seems like Clingan’s fault to me. The guy is coming right at him, Clingan sees him, and still takes another step towards him and tries to change the angle of the screen. Wasn’t necessary. Soft call either way, seemed like they were switching it. Clingan’s 4th foul. 10 min to go. Johnnies up 7.
• Sanogo gambles in 1-3-1, but Calcaterra good help to contest Curbelo hook. (Announcer says this may have been our first look at 1-3-1. This guy is blind or senile).
• Hawkins draws touch foul.
• Sanogo PnR roll draws attention freeing up Karaban for an open 3, miss. Calcaterra long oreb. Newton step-in rhythm catch and shoot wide open 3 from wing, off the backboard/side rim. Sanogo oreb and putback.
• Johnnies push hard after make, Newton good contest. Rebound into transition with momentum and crowd up for once.
• Calcaterra steps out of bounds on pass catch in transition.
• 1-3-1. They clank a 3-pointer, but get oreb. Curbelo throws up spinning lane floater, miss. Hawkins gets hand on it but batted back court to Johnnies (Calcaterra also hands on it). Blocking foul on Hawkins.1 and 1 with 8:31 to go (actually the 8th foul).
• Diarra pass stolen by Pinzon but ball knocked out off them. Jackson subs back in with 4 fouls.
• Jackson drives and kicks to open Calcaterra for 3, miss. Hawkins oreb and putback. Crowd comes alive a bit.
• 1-3-1 but has poor shape since Jackson didn’t get back (can see Hawkins yelling at him to get back, Jackson thinks picking up full court?). Hawkins falls for pump fake and fouls.
• Hawkins draws touch foul.
• Hawkins tough midrange pull up. Calcaterra long oreb. Takes runner, air ball. Karaban fouled uncalled. Scramble Jackson saves it to Calcaterra. He takes a runner, brick.
• They rebound, we have 5 guys rebounding/out of bounds and no one on contain, one guy leaks out and gets dunk. 4-point swing.
• Sanogo doubled, he spins baseline and ball knocked oob with 3 sec left. Jackson asks him why he didn’t kick out to double, Sanogo and Jackson shown talking after, Sanogo seems to be indicating he wanted Jackson to cut because a defender was guarding both he and Hawkins and Jackson had an open lane.
• Hawkins misses quick low clock 3. Karaban called for over the back. Double bonus FTs for Johnnies.
• Diarra to Karaban for the same pick and pop 3 play, but he misses wide open 3.
• Still 1-3-1, they miss jacked 3.
• Diarra goes 1 on 3 with no help or rebounders and throws up a prayer out of control layup that misses.
• They throw up a quick semi-transition 3, miss.
• Hawkins drives and draws foul.
• ATO play Jackson misses fairly close floater.
• Soriano draws foul in post play against Sanogo.
• Jackson fancy through the legs dribbling and drives towards screen and is called for pushing his defender into the screen. Borderline call. Watched both angles 10x. Definitely had arm extended on the guy’s chest and guided him into the screen and probably had a slight push.
• Man to man D. Clingan wards off paint, Hawkins good contest on Curbelo.
• Alleyne misses straight on 3.
• Soriano hits FT line extended jumper over Clingan. Johnnies up 13
• Alleyne takes another quick 3, off the backboard. Karaban oreb and draws shooting foul.
• Full court trap. They jack a 3 and miss.
• Clingan is coming to set a screen and Diarra throws him a pass. Recovered by them.
• Fast break 2 on 1. Hawkins soft reach And-1.
• Hawkins bad handle turnover.
• Addae Wusu travel/push-off in transition.
• Calcaterra takes a 6 foot fadeaway, miss.
• Posh falls down. Diarra goes to help/try to steal and then Posh gets up and cuts behind him for layup.
• Hawkins drives baseline reverse layup is good.
• 1:43 left, game is basically over. We start fouling. Calcaterra makes 2 3's. Sanogo gets T. They get a dunk. Curbelo fouls Hawk and gets T. Game over. Lose by 11.

So what are the conclusions and takeaways? We made so many dumb, dumb plays.

In one half we:

• Stepped out of bounds catching a pass in transition... twice.
• Committed two moving screens and 1 offensive push into a screen foul.
• Didn't stop ball in semi-transition once and gave up a free leak in transition once.
• Fell for a bunch of pump fakes and usually committed dumb fouls as a result.
• Went 2/7 from 3 to start the half, then missed 7 straight to get to 2/14 before Calcaterra made the 2 meaningless ones at the end.
• Got cut backdoor three times for layups or fouls (only 1 due to overplay, 2 not paying attention).
• Had 3 pick and roll passes stolen.
• Threw the ball to air or to a guy not ready for a pass for a turnover an additional three times.
• Missed all 6 floaters/runners/midrange j's we took (they made at least 6 or 7).
• Put them in the FT bonus with 8 minutes to go (pretty much all legit fouls outside of a moving screen maybe).

Again that was all in one half.

Bonus individual blunders:

• Hawkins just lost his dribble one time like it was midseason last year and also fouled a guy so softly in transition he still made the layup.
• Diarra went 1 on 3 out of control once and heavily pressured a non-shooter 25 feet from the hole.
• Karaban over the back when we were in double bonus.
• Clingan goaltended.
• Jackson the all league defender got out-dueled by Rafael Pinzon on back to back possessions and also at one point didn't know what D we were running.
• Newton was beat back or acted casually several times in transition D.
• Sanogo tried to take on a double team at one point instead of kicking out. And obviously got ejected.

The 1-3-1 was a mixed bag. They didn't necessarily kill it with their execution or drive right through it by any means. We did force a bunch of bad 3s from them while in it. But also we were out of position in it several times due to poor execution which led to scores or fouls.

Another random note. I don't think we hard hedged at all that half that I saw. Went under most screens.

The Buck stops with Hurley. But there was some real dumb, crappy Buck in this one from the whole team.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Great summary. Everyone on the team should heed it.

 

[ucp990411]

Alot of negative stuff here. I thought we were only supposed to post positive things

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Thanks for suffering through that. Hope your eyesight is intact.

That 2nd half (really the whole game) was a foolproof gameplan for how to lose to a mediocre BE team at home.

Really didn’t think this team had a game like this in them, but life is full of surprises…both good and bad.

Desperately need a strong fundamental bounce back game at SH on Wednesday.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Over the last few years, I’ve been left scratching my head with the many, many mental lapses (I’ve used the term boneheaded plays but I’m trying to soften up) that have happened throughout each game. I didn’t see much of it early on this year when we were undefeated, but we’re going backward. The better Big East competition may have something to do with it but there have been more and more mental mistakes creeping in. Mistakes that my 9 year-old makes, but should never happen on a high level Division I basketball court.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Over the last few years, I’ve been left scratching my head with the many, many mental lapses (I’ve used the term boneheaded plays but I’m trying to soften up) that have happened throughout each game. I didn’t see much of it early on this year when we were undefeated, but we’re going backward. The better Big East competition may have something to do with it but there have been more and more mental mistakes creeping in. Mistakes that my 9 year-old makes, but should never happen on a high level Division I basketball court.

Hurley is a player's coach and let's them work through mental mistakes.

Very rarely does Hurley use the quick hook method of reinforcing practice and game prep techniques when players make mental mistakes or don't do what coaches have been coaching players to do.

 

[RichCTBB]

Hurley is a player's coach and let's them work through mental mistakes.

Very rarely does Hurley use the quick hook method of reinforcing practice and game prep techniques when players make mental mistakes or don't do what coaches have been coaching players to do.

I don’t think the quick hook would work with today’s players. Too many quick hooks with these guys and they probably mail in the rest of the season and hit the portal.

 

[storrsroars]

Am watching end of 2nd half replay right now, instead of local news. Diarra, Alleyne, and Hawk were are major liabilities in 2nd half, especially last 10 minutes when game was still winnable. Dumb passes into the paint, lazy passes intercepted, ball handlers susceptible to steals, stepping OOB, and what seemed like a lack of communication (anyone at the game can confirm or deny). And let's just throw in a couple of phantom foul calls for good measure.

What I don't want to hear is that the entire team quit. Certainly Clingan and Karaban didn't. What I will say is that there seemed a lot of disorganization on D, allowing SJU too many easy cuts to the hoop. SJU has players who can break down a defender (as AJax learned) but there was no help. And Soriano's ability to hit mid-range stuff made things even more difficult for Clingan and Sanogo.

It was basically an undisciplined mess. And that's odd coming from this team and this coach. I'm confident it can be fixed, but I worry about the value of both Diarra and Alleyne when we need smart guard play down the stretch.

 

[Icehawk]

I wonder if some of this is due to DH having such intense preseason training that we peaked at PKI and now we're sliding down as other teams follow a more typical path of ramping up slowly over the season. Hopefully we can peak again and right this ship because right now... it's all gone wrong. I find it hard to believe that BE games are so different we can't win them but the stats for BE play are like from another team.

Normally when I watch SJU I think "wow, Anderson, his guys just ignore whatever he says" but that last game it was like reverso world, especially considering DH said in the post-game that they DID plan to cover the paint more and perimeter less.

I'm with the guy who said everyone should be running laps, stairs, whatever. Some pain to get some focus back.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

I wonder if some of this is due to DH having such intense preseason training that we peaked at PKI and now we're sliding down as other teams follow a more typical path of ramping up slowly over the season. Hopefully we can peak again and right this ship because right now... it's all gone wrong. I find it hard to believe that BE games are so different we can't win them but the stats for BE play are like from another team.

Normally when I watch SJU I think "wow, Anderson, his guys just ignore whatever he says" but that last game it was like reverso world, especially considering DH said in the post-game that they DID plan to cover the paint more and perimeter less.

I'm with the guy who said everyone should be running laps, stairs, whatever. Some pain to get some focus back.

Again...

 

[August_West]

Again...

"Again"

 

[Chin Diesel]

Am watching end of 2nd half replay right now, instead of local news. Diarra, Alleyne, and Hawk were are major liabilities in 2nd half, especially last 10 minutes when game was still winnable. Dumb passes into the paint, lazy passes intercepted, ball handlers susceptible to steals, stepping OOB, and what seemed like a lack of communication (anyone at the game can confirm or deny). And let's just throw in a couple of phantom foul calls for good measure.

What I don't want to hear is that the entire team quit. Certainly Clingan and Karaban didn't. What I will say is that there seemed a lot of disorganization on D, allowing SJU too many easy cuts to the hoop. SJU has players who can break down a defender (as AJax learned) but there was no help. And Soriano's ability to hit mid-range stuff made things even more difficult for Clingan and Sanogo.

It was basically an undisciplined mess. And that's odd coming from this team and this coach. I'm confident it can be fixed, but I worry about the value of both Diarra and Alleyne when we need smart guard play down the stretch.

Let me overread in to this on several levels.

Karaban absolutely showed up for the whole game.

I don't think it was an accident Karaban and Hawkins had time at the mic for the post-game presser. I don't know if anyone else was made available.

Karaban mentioned listening to the coaches and doing what they coach the players to do.

Karaban seems to get several real good looks from 3 each game. This could be lack of film and scouting but by now BE teams should know his tendencies.

Adding that all up to summarize the over reading and poor analysis. Maybe Karaban is doing exactly what the coaches want and how they want it and it's been resulting in him getting good looks. Even in the loss at X he had several misses when he was open and had a good look at the rim.

 

[mauconnfan]

So I was stewing about the 2nd half and decided to do a rewatch asap of just the 2nd half (first half was tied, less important). My initial thoughts before starting the re-watch was that the players sucked with execution and focus, and the coaching staff went to the wrong zone (should've gone 2/3), So this is a stream of consciousness description of each possession, similar to when I make notes for my charting.


So what are the conclusions and takeaways? We made so many dumb, dumb plays.

In one half we:

• Stepped out of bounds catching a pass in transition... twice.
• Committed two moving screens and 1 offensive push into a screen foul.
• Didn't stop ball in semi-transition once and gave up a free leak in transition once.
• Fell for a bunch of pump fakes and usually committed dumb fouls as a result.
• Went 2/7 from 3 to start the half, then missed 7 straight to get to 2/14 before Calcaterra made the 2 meaningless ones at the end.
• Got cut backdoor three times for layups or fouls (only 1 due to overplay, 2 not paying attention).
• Had 3 pick and roll passes stolen.
• Threw the ball to air or to a guy not ready for a pass for a turnover an additional three times.
• Missed all 6 floaters/runners/midrange j's we took (they made at least 6 or 7).
• Put them in the FT bonus with 8 minutes to go (pretty much all legit fouls outside of a moving screen maybe).

Again that was all in one half.

Bonus individual blunders:

• Hawkins just lost his dribble one time like it was midseason last year and also fouled a guy so softly in transition he still made the layup.
• Diarra went 1 on 3 out of control once and heavily pressured a non-shooter 25 feet from the hole.
• Karaban over the back when we were in double bonus.
• Clingan goaltended.
• Jackson the all league defender got out-dueled by Rafael Pinzon on back to back possessions and also at one point didn't know what D we were running.
• Newton was beat back or acted casually several times in transition D.
• Sanogo tried to take on a double team at one point instead of kicking out. And obviously got ejected.

The 1-3-1 was a mixed bag. They didn't necessarily kill it with their execution or drive right through it by any means. We did force a bunch of bad 3s from them while in it. But also we were out of position in it several times due to poor execution which led to scores or fouls.

Another random note. I don't think we hard hedged at all that half that I saw. Went under most screens.

The Buck stops with Hurley. But there was some real dumb, crappy Buck in this one from the whole team.

Add Sanogo's goaltend after a whistle for a foul on what would have been a brick off the backboard but you do have a nice summary of mistakes and blunders. I believed they "Purvis'd" a total of 3 times although one may have been in the first half.

And I will add the backdoor to start the 2nd half was completely prepared for by the Johnnies and the pass should have never left his hand because they saw it coming. Maybe a new play from Danny would work a bit better and be a little less obvious.

 

[uconnfan68]

Add Sanogo's goaltend after a whistle for a foul on what would have been a brick off the backboard but you do have a nice summary of mistakes and blunders. I believed they "Purvis'd" a total of 3 times although one may have been in the first half.

And I will add the backdoor to start the 2nd half was completely prepared for by the Johnnies and the pass should have never left his hand because they saw it coming. Maybe a new play from Danny would work a bit better and be a little less obvious.

A new word for Webster.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I don’t think the quick hook would work with today’s players. Too many quick hooks with these guys and they probably mail in the rest of the season and hit the portal.

I explained it a bit different in another thread. It's not just pull and put on bench. I don't believe a high caliber D1 college player is so frail that any attempt by a coaching staff to refocus them on what the team is trying to accomplish. If they are that frail then the coaches did a poor job evaluating the player's abilities (And "abilities" includes being able to be coached and accept critique of your performance).


"That is currently one of Hurley's biggest flaws in his coaching style. He player substitutions seem to be based on predetermined player rotations or foul trouble rather than players being yanked because they aren't doing what coached prepped the player to do.

And no, I'm not advocating just benching a player and letting them sulk. One of the assistants should be next to that player explaining exactly why they were pulled and linking that to specific things which were discussed in practice or film room. Then (hopefully) show the player on the bench how his replacement is correctly doing what the coaches want players to do.

Or, in the instance of players hugging non-shooters on the 3-point line, call an immediate TO and emphasize to every player in the huddle who gets closed out on and who gets slack off of as per the game plan."

 

[auror]

I explained it a bit different in another thread. It's not just pull and put on bench. I don't believe a high caliber D1 college player is so frail that any attempt by a coaching staff to refocus them on what the team is trying to accomplish. If they are that frail then the coaches did a poor job evaluating the player's abilities (And "abilities" includes being able to be coached and accept critique of your performance).


"That is currently one of Hurley's biggest flaws in his coaching style. He player substitutions seem to be based on predetermined player rotations or foul trouble rather than players being yanked because they aren't doing what coached prepped the player to do.

And no, I'm not advocating just benching a player and letting them sulk. One of the assistants should be next to that player explaining exactly why they were pulled and linking that to specific things which were discussed in practice or film room. Then (hopefully) show the player on the bench how his replacement is correctly doing what the coaches want players to do.

Or, in the instance of players hugging non-shooters on the 3-point line, call an immediate TO and emphasize to every player in the huddle who gets closed out on and who gets slack off of as per the game plan."

Hurley's style is maniac in practice and positive in games. He needed to be a lot less positive on the guys and their focus in the 2nd half, for sure.

Just looking back through. Pretty sure he hooked Hawkins after back to back turnovers with 10:30 left. Put him back in 30 seconds later. Also hooked Diarra after his wild layup.