The Backcourt - Shorten The Rotation or Stay the Course? What Say You?

[Improviser]

Move Newton to shooting guard, off the bench. Clingan takes his starter minutes.

AJax needs to be the PG. Can’t continue having Tristan take 15 seconds slowly backing the ball up the court then handing it off. Need AJax pushing the ball up the court in 4 seconds and firing a pass to a wing or dropping a dime inside.

Would speed up the offense and maybe would give Joey and Alex some open looks not now available because Newton takes 15 seconds to bring up the ball.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Here's a few nuggets.

Check out Newton in conference play. Notice anything about the three games with an "L"?

Tristen Newton 2024-25 Stats per Game - NBA - ESPN

The 2024-25 NBA season stats per game for Tristen Newton of the Indiana Pacers on ESPN. Includes full stats, per opponent, for regular and postseason.

www.espn.com

 

[Chin Diesel]

Alleyne in conference play.

Nahiem Alleyne 2023-24 Stats per Game - NCAAM - ESPN

The 2023-24 NCAAM season stats per game for Nahiem Alleyne of the St. John's Red Storm on ESPN. Includes full stats, per opponent, for regular and postseason.

www.espn.com

 

[Chin Diesel]

Diarra.

Hassan Diarra 2023-24 Stats per Game - NCAAM - ESPN

The 2023-24 NCAAM season stats per game for Hassan Diarra of the UConn Huskies on ESPN. Includes full stats, per opponent, for regular and postseason.

www.espn.com

 

[Chin Diesel]

Joey C. Throw out the Gtown game and he has been brutal.

Joey Calcaterra 2022-23 Stats per Game - NCAAM - ESPN

The 2022-23 NCAAM season stats per game for Joey Calcaterra of the UConn Huskies on ESPN. Includes full stats, per opponent, for regular and postseason.

www.espn.com

 

[Chin Diesel]

63 points combined for Diarra, Calcaterra and Alleyne in conference play. That's 9 ppg total or 3 ppg per player.

Newton has 60 points in conference games, about 8.5 per game.

Joey C is 4/20 shooting 3's in conference.
Diarra is 2/9.
Alleyne 5/13
Newton 8/24


There isn't any guard on the roster other than Hawkins who deserves minutes or is playing like they should be taking away another players minutes.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Here's one more.

Jackson. He has played 223 minutes in conference games and has taken 7 FT's and has 32 3-point FGA.

 

[Billy Jack]

Improviser, I don’t know why he can’t do that, but I’ve never seen any evidence that he can. And when he takes a 3, it’s a stand still set shot with his man hanging way off him. To pick and pop, he’d need a 10-15’ jump shot, which I can’t remember ever seeing from him.

 

[superjohn]

If you want your guards to attack the basket, a team needs to spread the floor and open up the middle. Villanova under Jay Wright did this beautifully. They posted up their guards all the time - from Scottie Reynolds’s to Jalen Brunson to Colin Gillespie.

Our problem is not just our guards. Villanova’s centers could almost always pop our onto the perimeter and make shots from out there. Regardless of which center we use, they are both planted on the low post 90% of the time - along with their defender. Which makes it a lot harder to attack the basket because the middle is rarely open.

Centers must be able to pass. They must be able to come out from the low post at least to the foul line to open up lanes to the basket. Our guys do that not so much.

Clingan doesn't have to do that, Sanogo needs to do that. He gets bottled up down low and can't pass out of it for whatever reason. Early in the season he faced up some and he's shown he can hit the open three.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

We have significantly worst guards than any of the top teams in the conference

 

[jake14mw]

We actually have trouble driving, not shooting. The team is built based on "Good Shot" analytics - at the rim and behind the arc. The problem as constructed is if you don't have a 2nd level threat the rest of the offense breaks down. Great defensive teams (which Marquette is one of) can overplay you on the 3rd level so tightly that you can't get a good shot. It also makes it very difficult to make an entry pass (like the one that was picked off when hawk was stumbling) and turns into run outs for the other team.

It's a defensive overplay that is typically punished with dribble penetration. If someone's in your jersey it should be easier to take them off the dribble, turn the corner and open up the offense. We simply haven't been able to.

Newtown doesn't have that gear. Jackson doesn't have that gear. Diarra does but once he goes he's not usually driving to pass.

Providence employed this too. It's the next counter punch to our style. The first was don't guard Jackson and we were starting to break down that countermeasure.

I believe that we will find a way to X and O out of this overplay as well. We just haven't had enough time to install it in practice since we've faced it.
...

I completely agree with this. This is exactly what I have been seeing. The reason why all teams don't just play up on all ballhandlers is that you risk getting blown by to the basket. We don't have a single guy on the roster that can blow by decent defenders. Also, when defenders play up in your face, they are making it much more difficult for you to make a good passes. Not being able to make good passes (combined with delays in initiating the offense) has been the main thing that has caused us to go late in the shot clock so many times.