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I was thinking about this the other day as it relates to our offense being so consistently horrible through the better part of the Ollie era. Even in the later Calhoun years, scoring points was often a struggle. You watch some of these other teams - North Carolina is typically the best example of this - generate paint buckets so effortlessly just by dumping it into the post and it really drills the point home. Everything is a grind for us because Ollie's offense is predicated on guys being able to take advantage of switches and score one on one but we don't have anybody who can do that. Our best players - Jalen, D-Ham, even Boat and Bazz - have been either play-makers or shot-makers. There is a big difference between a shot-maker and somebody who can play above the rim and/or in the post. Even when things have clicked for us it's been more "OK let's keep running high ball screens" than "get it into the post or take it to the rim." The one exception to this was when we had Shonn Miller and you felt confident that you were going to get something good - his chronic foul trouble and limited passing ability tempered those benefits, but he was still a damn good player who kept us above water on offense a lot of the time.
Save for a couple days in Hartford at the AAC tournament last year, Jalen has done a lot of his damage in garbage time. He has his moments where I think he has the potential to be that dynamic scorer for us, but against structured defenses in the half-court his jumper has been spotty and he hasn't demonstrated the ability to finish in heavy traffic at the rim.
What is amazing to consider is how much a guy like Gavin Edwards would help this team. He was a much maligned player from a much maligned team, but man, compared to what we've seen, he sure knew how to play basketball and how to score in the post. Dude shot 59% from the floor and 78% from the line his senior season - in hindsight, we should have fed him the ball more, but the point stands that even on a wretched team that went to the NIT (doesn't seem so wretched now), we still had a guy who made us feel like we could score points when we needed to.
Jeremy Lamb is another example. He shot 60% from two his sophomore year. Not sure of anybody else in recent history who could convert two point field goals at that rate. Even Daniels was at just 49% his junior year (Bazz was at 44%, Jalen is currently at 50% and 47% for his career). Larrier was at 57% in a limited sample last season and has plunged to 42% this year.
It's been a while folks. You could maybe talk me into Kemba (once we factor in free throws) or Thabeet (I think he was a better post player than people remember), but beyond that you're probably going back to the Boone/Charlie/Hilton teams. Meanwhile Carolina has gone from Brice Johnson (62%) to Kennedy Meeks (56%) to Luke Maye (58%) in the span of three years. Roy clearly has a great system but it sure helps that he knows how to identify and teach his players, too. With our coach I'm more worried about the second and third than I am the first.
Save for a couple days in Hartford at the AAC tournament last year, Jalen has done a lot of his damage in garbage time. He has his moments where I think he has the potential to be that dynamic scorer for us, but against structured defenses in the half-court his jumper has been spotty and he hasn't demonstrated the ability to finish in heavy traffic at the rim.
What is amazing to consider is how much a guy like Gavin Edwards would help this team. He was a much maligned player from a much maligned team, but man, compared to what we've seen, he sure knew how to play basketball and how to score in the post. Dude shot 59% from the floor and 78% from the line his senior season - in hindsight, we should have fed him the ball more, but the point stands that even on a wretched team that went to the NIT (doesn't seem so wretched now), we still had a guy who made us feel like we could score points when we needed to.
Jeremy Lamb is another example. He shot 60% from two his sophomore year. Not sure of anybody else in recent history who could convert two point field goals at that rate. Even Daniels was at just 49% his junior year (Bazz was at 44%, Jalen is currently at 50% and 47% for his career). Larrier was at 57% in a limited sample last season and has plunged to 42% this year.
It's been a while folks. You could maybe talk me into Kemba (once we factor in free throws) or Thabeet (I think he was a better post player than people remember), but beyond that you're probably going back to the Boone/Charlie/Hilton teams. Meanwhile Carolina has gone from Brice Johnson (62%) to Kennedy Meeks (56%) to Luke Maye (58%) in the span of three years. Roy clearly has a great system but it sure helps that he knows how to identify and teach his players, too. With our coach I'm more worried about the second and third than I am the first.
