USF game thoughts

[ctchamps]

Noted that related type comment made in Georgetown vs. Louisville game where one of announcers said a big factor in winning was Georgetown didn't over help on Siva's drives late in game so he had to make/take hard shots rather than get passes out to open jump shots. Not sure why seems like opponents drives give Uconn much more problems re switching and opponents getting to the rim than other way around. Maybe I'm being too critical of Uconn (remembering all the Uconn bad plays and not the good), but sure seems that way.

The guards are not only concerned about the person driving to the basket. They are involved in rebounding as well. Early in the season teams were getting a lot of offensive rebounds against UConn. That has been greatly reduced as the season progressed. We are only discussing the half empty part of the guards play. You can be certain they are only doing what JC and the coaches want. And JC is emphasizing rebounding.

As an aside, when UConn was up by five, the USF player missed a shot and if not for a heads up play by SN in hedging to the basket, USF would have gotten the ball.

 

[Waquoit]

As an aside, when UConn was up by five, the USF player missed a shot and if not for a heads up play by SN in hedging to the basket, USF would have gotten the ball.

That was a heads-up play, but it wouldn't have been necessary if Roscoe had held on to the rebound. My quibble is that we pulled away late with a line-up of Lamb, Bazz, Boat, TO and AD. Then Blaney decides to take out AD for Scoe. I understand that AD is trouble from the line, but AD was playing great D in the 2nd half. He was sticking to his guy outside while still patrolling the lane. Roscoe did make 2 FT's but he lost his man for an open 3, hacked a guy that was almost an "and 1" and boxed around that rebound. Blaney should have went offense/defense with RS/AD at the very least.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

If Drummond and Oriakhi are gonna play together, at least one of them should learn how to guard a smaller player out on the perimeter.

 

[ctchamps]

That was a heads-up play, but it wouldn't have been necessary if Roscoe had held on to the rebound. My quibble is that we pulled away late with a line-up of Lamb, Bazz, Boat, TO and AD. Then Blaney decides to take out AD for Scoe. I understand that AD is trouble from the line, but AD was playing great D in the 2nd half. He was sticking to his guy outside while still patrolling the lane. Roscoe did make 2 FT's but he lost his man for an open 3, hacked a guy that was almost an "and 1" and boxed around that rebound. Blaney should have went offense/defense with RS/AD at the very least.

I was thinking the same thing regarding the offense, defense substitution at the end of the game with RS and AD.

 

[ctchamps]

If Drummond and Oriakhi are gonna play together, at least one of them should learn how to guard a smaller player out on the perimeter.

I thought there was a big change in the way AD played FitzPatrick in the second half. One of my biggest complaints about Blaney is that he didn't call a time out in the first half until the last 35 seconds. There were a lot of plays by the bigs that made no sense, including AD not knowing if he should stay with FitzPatrick or stay in the paint. There were times when AD and AO were both at the top of the key on offense, and there were times when two post players came out to set screens. That type of confusion should have merited a TO somewhere.

 

[OkaForPrez]

The guards are not only concerned about the person driving to the basket. They are involved in rebounding as well. Early in the season teams were getting a lot of offensive rebounds against UConn. That has been greatly reduced as the season progressed. We are only discussing the half empty part of the guards play. You can be certain they are only doing what JC and the coaches want. And JC is emphasizing rebounding.

As an aside, when UConn was up by five, the USF player missed a shot and if not for a heads up play by SN in hedging to the basket, USF would have gotten the ball.

Sorry while boat was not real good his defense was pretty good and drove #5 nuts a few times when he had the ball. in case you didnt notice collins got by everyone who guard him or tried. I thought the old rutgers coach wentzel made a great point in the fact we olayed collins too close from too far away. He is an awful shooter and no threat whatsoever out there so give him space and take the drive away.

I like this discussion, hopefully you'll bare with me while I try to bring it all together. I'm interested in the varying views on what are the give and takes of backcourt defense. I admit I've never played the game on any organized level, so if you have please weigh in. I think we've collectively touched on 4 different roles for backcourt defense all of which are critical to "doing the job right." These 4 are:

• On the ball defense
  • What we as basketball novices typically tend to focus on the most and I believe what you are mentioning Mau in terms of Boatright harassing the point.
• Off ball defense (shooters on curls)
  • This is where I think we are particularly poor in the early season year in and year out
  • I tend to believe this is focus related and not strategic
    • If it is strategic, why would we rather go underneath and concede a shot where the +1 point advantage can allow for a much poorer shooting % netting even to a higher shooting % from 2 point range?
    • 3 point shots also seem to lend themselves to offensive rebounds with long bounces off the rim (and also might point to why our guards are active on the defensive glass)
    • If you go above the screen, the shooter is forced to put the ball on the floor and penetrate which does put the interior defense at risk for foul trouble when they are forced to help. This is where I'm advocating we trust our bigs and force the offense to make a play. Blocked shots start fast breaks, one of the reasons I believe we over help with weakside defense on the inside and concede easy buckets on the extra interior pass
• Off Ball defense (Post)
  • Here is where GMan's point comes in and I completely agree, our wings sag off the opp wings but not really enough to frazzle the low block, just enough to get caught in no mans land and give enough distance to shoot over the top. We have really sound defensive bigs in Drummond and AO, would like to see them left alone more often.
• Rebounding
  • Agreed that the Bazz O board kick out to boatright was one of the most important plays of the game coming out of the time out.
  • Agree that this is one area that we have done well
  • Don't understand how being in position for rebounding has anything to do with the other three roles fleud

 

[Waquoit]

^^ Could be the best use of bullet points in the history of the 'Yard!

 

[ctchamps]

I like this discussion, hopefully you'll bare with me while I try to bring it all together. I'm interested in the varying views on what are the give and takes of backcourt defense. I admit I've never played the game on any organized level, so if you have please weigh in. I think we've collectively touched on 4 different roles for backcourt defense all of which are critical to "doing the job right." These 4 are:

• On the ball defense
  • What we as basketball novices typically tend to focus on the most and I believe what you are mentioning Mau in terms of Boatright harassing the point.
• Off ball defense (shooters on curls)
  • This is where I think we are particularly poor in the early season year in and year out
  • I tend to believe this is focus related and not strategic
    • If it is strategic, why would we rather go underneath and concede a shot where the +1 point advantage can allow for a much poorer shooting % netting even to a higher shooting % from 2 point range?
    • 3 point shots also seem to lend themselves to offensive rebounds with long bounces off the rim (and also might point to why our guards are active on the defensive glass)
    • If you go above the screen, the shooter is forced to put the ball on the floor and penetrate which does put the interior defense at risk for foul trouble when they are forced to help. This is where I'm advocating we trust our bigs and force the offense to make a play. Blocked shots start fast breaks, one of the reasons I believe we over help with weakside defense on the inside and concede easy buckets on the extra interior pass
• Off Ball defense (Post)
  • Here is where GMan's point comes in and I completely agree, our wings sag off the opp wings but not really enough to frazzle the low block, just enough to get caught in no mans land and give enough distance to shoot over the top. We have really sound defensive bigs in Drummond and AO, would like to see them left alone more often.
• Rebounding
  • Agreed that the Bazz O board kick out to boatright was one of the most important plays of the game coming out of the time out.
  • Agree that this is one area that we have done well
  • Don't understand how being in position for rebounding has anything to do with the other three roles fleud

Nice analysis.

It doesn't. I read a lot of threads and took the opportunity in this thread to respond to what someone wrote in another thread about SN playing off his man. I should have quoted that post.

 

[Giddyup5]

Great analysis.

I think rebounding can be affected when the defense is scrambling because of poor help defense.

Generally speaking, in a man to man defense you have a specific man responsibility to box out. There are times when a defender gets out of position or gets beat off the dribble or over helps on a post player that ultimately causes an imbalance on defense that a efficient offence can exploit. Especially on long range shots, not knowing who to box out often leads to offensive rebounds for the other team.

 

[ctchamps]

I like this discussion, hopefully you'll bare with me while I try to bring it all together. I'm interested in the varying views on what are the give and takes of backcourt defense. I admit I've never played the game on any organized level, so if you have please weigh in. I think we've collectively touched on 4 different roles for backcourt defense all of which are critical to "doing the job right." These 4 are:

• Off ball defense (shooters on curls)
  • This is where I think we are particularly poor in the early season year in and year out
  • I tend to believe this is focus related and not strategic
    • If it is strategic, why would we rather go underneath and concede a shot where the +1 point advantage can allow for a much poorer shooting % netting even to a higher shooting % from 2 point range?
    • 3 point shots also seem to lend themselves to offensive rebounds with long bounces off the rim (and also might point to why our guards are active on the defensive glass)
    • If you go above the screen, the shooter is forced to put the ball on the floor and penetrate which does put the interior defense at risk for foul trouble when they are forced to help. This is where I'm advocating we trust our bigs and force the offense to make a play. Blocked shots start fast breaks, one of the reasons I believe we over help with weakside defense on the inside and concede easy buckets on the extra interior pass

Outside of the clutch winners and maybe even more than those clutch shots, this is what the team misses most from Kemba. He played the shooters tight and was abel to get past most screens.

 

[3rdbass]

My thoughts:

3) The box score doesn't show it, but I thought Boatwright was terrible defensively last night. If Collins was a little more experienced and hit a few more open shots, we would have had a problem, because Collins could beat Boatwright pretty much any time he wanted. Boatwright completely loses contact with his man if he is picked, and seemed to get off balance when he was playing on-the-ball D, so that his guy could just blow by him. Happened 3-4 times last night. Boatwright is fun to watch, but there are several experienced players that are more athletic and better defensively than Boatwright on this team. Why is he playing so much? 20+ minute games should be the exception with Boatwright, not the rule.
.

Not sure about this statement. Boatwright is one of the most athletic players(dunk contest winner and also great quickness). His problem is his lack of experience. He will be fine and is exciting to watch. Now SN is the one that really lacks quickness and it showed against the USF PG last night as he could never beat him off the dribble. I believe RB will be fine with time as he adjusts to the higher competition and being in more half court sets offensively as well as defensively.

 

[mets1090]

Being able to dunk doesn't make you a good athlete

 

[Chief00]

I agree with most of DM's observations. Bottom-line win and move on. Now quite frankly from a coach's perspective we do need much more movement on offense. The offense needs to go through Lamb but he doesn't need to be the main ball handler. He is the guy who will command the double team which frees up others - plus he can really score the ball.

I agree that Alex needs to hold his screens longer and set bigger ones. I do think he attempted to use his big body, which is a starting point. I was surprise Blaney went with Roscoe as much - but he did hit some foul shots. The two guys I would like to see get more playing time are Daniels and Giffey but where do you get the minutes from????

Now that Collins kid is a player; let's give him some credit for his D on Shabazz.

I also agree with the poster who says let's help less on D. Against Butler we played them straight up except interior shot blocking - but they shot under 40% so our D wasn't terriable - but from a coaches perspective that's what you focus on coming out of the gate. In the 1st half too many second shots and not enough fast breaks.

Some talk the Boatshow may be back in town Saturday - we will see. Ryan likes to play in front of his Chicago crew.

 

[DogMania]

went to the game, nice UConn contingent there, shocked that almost no USF fans were there, 5k ppl for a big east opener against the reigning national champions??? Joke.

It was a grind out game but the ball movement, particularly from the inside out was almost non-existent.

Interesting observation. Now that you mention it, the inside out ball movement was lacking. They have a ways to go with their half court offense.