Who we are

[walski]

This is a team that has a lot of strengths but some massive weaknesses that are being exploited over and over again. Yes I know we got outshot in the first half but also we got outplayed because most of their shots were just higher quality shots. But Xavier ran the same playbook against us that keeps working.

Defense

• We are terrible at man to man defense, keeping ball handlers from getting to the basket. I don't think worth singling anyone out. Not just because we can't keep the other team from getting past us but because we do not hedge and help well once the first guy is blown past. Sanogo is especially bad at help defense, while we know that Clingan is probably top 3 in the country as 2nd line of defense. Having him in the middle makes the blow-bys way less of a problem and makes other teams question if they should try it in the first place.
• We only run the zone defense when we are in trouble but it seems to be very very effective. Having Jackson out there pestering hte ball handler with Newton, Hawkins, Diarra, Karaban trapping is so powerful in a few ways. First of all, it seems to just stop the other team from scoring. 2nd, it creates turnovers. 3rd, it gets our players energy levels up which always seems to transfer to the offensive side. Maybe we just don't practice a zone defense enough because the Hurley mantra is that we are tough strong defense. It doesn't look like it when we are in man-to-man coverage. We should be running zone press the whole game and using our 10 man rotation to wear down every other teams.
  

Offense

• We do not have anyone who can reliably beat someone off the dribble in man-to-man defense, like the other teams are doing to us. I applaud the recent push by Newton to penetrate but far too often he either is just trying to get fouled or just doesn't have a plan at all to get to the rim. Last night his penetration was effective but of course he still had 6 turnovers including offensive foul when it mattered. I also applaud Hawkins because now when he's coming off screens he's at least starting to look at just taking the ball downhill towards the basket. Everyone needs to be doing this. At crunch time if we need a basket with 15 seconds on the clock, what is our plan? Because we don't have that guy who can create his own shot we end up passing around until the clock expires, often turning the ball over or getting a terrible shot off by one of our role players. I think Jordan needs to be that guy, and not just using 3 screens. Clear out for him.
• Last game vs Butler was probably first time all season I saw us running back-door cuts. It worked and I think we scored 3 baskets that way. It's not just that we can score baskets that way but it also makes other teams stop just defending against the 3 pointer. If you can just face guard Hawkins and stop him from getting an open shot, that is relatively easy. But if he goes the other way around screens and is fed the ball for layups, you need to adjust. We didn't try that last night at all nor most of the season.
• Everyone in the country knows Sanogo is great when he gets the ball one-on-one inside 8 feet, but he's a black hole when you can get him double teamed or farther from the hoop. High likelihood of turning the ball over or getting off a terrible shot that we aren't close to rebounding. I truly feel like we have more dynamism on offense with Clingan in the game now that Sanogo has been solved for by the opposition, even if he can score 15-20 in most games.
• Sanogo and Clingan on the floor together only one game. The only reasonable explanation for not seeing more of them together is that neither of them have learned the 4 position in their offensive playbook. The football analogy is you can't put a wide receiver in the tight end position because he doesn't know all the blocking assignments or routes to run. But this is unacceptable. On offense, if we pound the post w/ Sanogo they can't double him anymore bc he can just throw the ball up for Clingan.

My Coaching Moves
Zone press from the start of the game, run the other team off the floor and get the crowd involved early
Clingan starting and playing 25+ minutes, sharing the floor with Sanogo
Offensive sets incorporate way more backdoor cuts and penetration

But who asked me. At this point something new needs to be tried. We have same starting 5 from game 1, with very little change in who is getting the minutes, or what they are doing during those minutes. So you need to blame the coaching staff for not flipping the script. We have talented players but man-to-man defense and motion offense without the threat of beating the other team off the dribble is not going to get it done with the guys we have. I'm still hopeful for this team but not with the current gameplan.

 

[navery12]

Yes I know we got outshot in the first half but also we got outplayed because most of their shots were just higher quality shots

This is not accurate

 

[prankster]

"You are what your record says you are.". Bill Parcells

 

[RayRay]

This is not accurate

View attachment 83496

I’m not sure I fully get this. This seems to be at least the second game (@Providence) where the other team took bad shots but just made everything. Is this indicating that our luck just sucks so far this year in these big games?

Someone else also pointed out that our luck number on Kenpom is one of the worst in the country. Not trying to blame everything on luck obviously but seeing interesting stats like this in two big games is definitely frustrating and one of those, nothing you can do about it, type things.

 

[Kolumbo]

They keep breaking my heart

 

[Billy Jack]

I’m not sure I fully get this. This seems to be at least the second game (@Providence) where the other team took bad shots but just made everything. Is this indicating that our luck just sucks so far this year in these big games?

Someone else also pointed out that our luck number on Kenpom is one of the worst in the country. Not trying to blame everything on luck obviously but seeing interesting stats like this in two big games is definitely frustrating and one of those, nothing you can do about it, type things.

Luck tends to even out over a full season. Let’s hope that we’re the ones getting the breaks in the 2nd half of the BE season.

 

[cullaville]

I’m not sure I fully get this. This seems to be at least the second game (@Providence) where the other team took bad shots but just made everything. Is this indicating that our luck just sucks so far this year in these big games?

Someone else also pointed out that our luck number on Kenpom is one of the worst in the country. Not trying to blame everything on luck obviously but seeing interesting stats like this in two big games is definitely frustrating and one of those, nothing you can do about it, type things.

If it goes in it is not a bad shot

 

[Drfla]

This is a team that has a lot of strengths but some massive weaknesses that are being exploited over and over again. Yes I know we got outshot in the first half but also we got outplayed because most of their shots were just higher quality shots. But Xavier ran the same playbook against us that keeps working.

Defense

• We are terrible at man to man defense, keeping ball handlers from getting to the basket. I don't think worth singling anyone out. Not just because we can't keep the other team from getting past us but because we do not hedge and help well once the first guy is blown past. Sanogo is especially bad at help defense, while we know that Clingan is probably top 3 in the country as 2nd line of defense. Having him in the middle makes the blow-bys way less of a problem and makes other teams question if they should try it in the first place.
• We only run the zone defense when we are in trouble but it seems to be very very effective. Having Jackson out there pestering hte ball handler with Newton, Hawkins, Diarra, Karaban trapping is so powerful in a few ways. First of all, it seems to just stop the other team from scoring. 2nd, it creates turnovers. 3rd, it gets our players energy levels up which always seems to transfer to the offensive side. Maybe we just don't practice a zone defense enough because the Hurley mantra is that we are tough strong defense. It doesn't look like it when we are in man-to-man coverage. We should be running zone press the whole game and using our 10 man rotation to wear down every other teams.

Offense

• We do not have anyone who can reliably beat someone off the dribble in man-to-man defense, like the other teams are doing to us. I applaud the recent push by Newton to penetrate but far too often he either is just trying to get fouled or just doesn't have a plan at all to get to the rim. Last night his penetration was effective but of course he still had 6 turnovers including offensive foul when it mattered. I also applaud Hawkins because now when he's coming off screens he's at least starting to look at just taking the ball downhill towards the basket. Everyone needs to be doing this. At crunch time if we need a basket with 15 seconds on the clock, what is our plan? Because we don't have that guy who can create his own shot we end up passing around until the clock expires, often turning the ball over or getting a terrible shot off by one of our role players. I think Jordan needs to be that guy, and not just using 3 screens. Clear out for him.
• Last game vs Butler was probably first time all season I saw us running back-door cuts. It worked and I think we scored 3 baskets that way. It's not just that we can score baskets that way but it also makes other teams stop just defending against the 3 pointer. If you can just face guard Hawkins and stop him from getting an open shot, that is relatively easy. But if he goes the other way around screens and is fed the ball for layups, you need to adjust. We didn't try that last night at all nor most of the season.
• Everyone in the country knows Sanogo is great when he gets the ball one-on-one inside 8 feet, but he's a black hole when you can get him double teamed or farther from the hoop. High likelihood of turning the ball over or getting off a terrible shot that we aren't close to rebounding. I truly feel like we have more dynamism on offense with Clingan in the game now that Sanogo has been solved for by the opposition, even if he can score 15-20 in most games.
• Sanogo and Clingan on the floor together only one game. The only reasonable explanation for not seeing more of them together is that neither of them have learned the 4 position in their offensive playbook. The football analogy is you can't put a wide receiver in the tight end position because he doesn't know all the blocking assignments or routes to run. But this is unacceptable. On offense, if we pound the post w/ Sanogo they can't double him anymore bc he can just throw the ball up for Clingan.

My Coaching Moves
Zone press from the start of the game, run the other team off the floor and get the crowd involved early
Clingan starting and playing 25+ minutes, sharing the floor with Sanogo
Offensive sets incorporate way more backdoor cuts and penetration

But who asked me. At this point something new needs to be tried. We have same starting 5 from game 1, with very little change in who is getting the minutes, or what they are doing during those minutes. So you need to blame the coaching staff for not flipping the script. We have talented players but man-to-man defense and motion offense without the threat of beating the other team off the dribble is not going to get it done with the guys we have. I'm still hopeful for this team but not with the current gameplan.

Most of their shots were not higher quality.They just shot better.
Agree we need a go to guy down the stretch. Sanogo is not that guy. Hawkins and Newton are our best possibilities. Also think in the last 3 minutes of a close game Clingan rather than Sanogo should be on the court. He’s a better rebounder, better defender and a better lob option if the guard needs help.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

This is not accurate

View attachment 83496

Agreed. The first half was ugly, but it was not because of bad shots. They were mostly good shots that just did not go in. Obviously there were a few shots, from Jackson in particular, that were not the shots you want him taking.

 

[Billy Jack]

This is a team that has a lot of strengths but some massive weaknesses that are being exploited over and over again. Yes I know we got outshot in the first half but also we got outplayed because most of their shots were just higher quality shots. But Xavier ran the same playbook against us that keeps working.

Defense

• We are terrible at man to man defense, keeping ball handlers from getting to the basket. I don't think worth singling anyone out. Not just because we can't keep the other team from getting past us but because we do not hedge and help well once the first guy is blown past. Sanogo is especially bad at help defense, while we know that Clingan is probably top 3 in the country as 2nd line of defense. Having him in the middle makes the blow-bys way less of a problem and makes other teams question if they should try it in the first place.
• We only run the zone defense when we are in trouble but it seems to be very very effective. Having Jackson out there pestering hte ball handler with Newton, Hawkins, Diarra, Karaban trapping is so powerful in a few ways. First of all, it seems to just stop the other team from scoring. 2nd, it creates turnovers. 3rd, it gets our players energy levels up which always seems to transfer to the offensive side. Maybe we just don't practice a zone defense enough because the Hurley mantra is that we are tough strong defense. It doesn't look like it when we are in man-to-man coverage. We should be running zone press the whole game and using our 10 man rotation to wear down every other teams.

Offense

• We do not have anyone who can reliably beat someone off the dribble in man-to-man defense, like the other teams are doing to us. I applaud the recent push by Newton to penetrate but far too often he either is just trying to get fouled or just doesn't have a plan at all to get to the rim. Last night his penetration was effective but of course he still had 6 turnovers including offensive foul when it mattered. I also applaud Hawkins because now when he's coming off screens he's at least starting to look at just taking the ball downhill towards the basket. Everyone needs to be doing this. At crunch time if we need a basket with 15 seconds on the clock, what is our plan? Because we don't have that guy who can create his own shot we end up passing around until the clock expires, often turning the ball over or getting a terrible shot off by one of our role players. I think Jordan needs to be that guy, and not just using 3 screens. Clear out for him.
• Last game vs Butler was probably first time all season I saw us running back-door cuts. It worked and I think we scored 3 baskets that way. It's not just that we can score baskets that way but it also makes other teams stop just defending against the 3 pointer. If you can just face guard Hawkins and stop him from getting an open shot, that is relatively easy. But if he goes the other way around screens and is fed the ball for layups, you need to adjust. We didn't try that last night at all nor most of the season.
• Everyone in the country knows Sanogo is great when he gets the ball one-on-one inside 8 feet, but he's a black hole when you can get him double teamed or farther from the hoop. High likelihood of turning the ball over or getting off a terrible shot that we aren't close to rebounding. I truly feel like we have more dynamism on offense with Clingan in the game now that Sanogo has been solved for by the opposition, even if he can score 15-20 in most games.
• Sanogo and Clingan on the floor together only one game. The only reasonable explanation for not seeing more of them together is that neither of them have learned the 4 position in their offensive playbook. The football analogy is you can't put a wide receiver in the tight end position because he doesn't know all the blocking assignments or routes to run. But this is unacceptable. On offense, if we pound the post w/ Sanogo they can't double him anymore bc he can just throw the ball up for Clingan.

My Coaching Moves
Zone press from the start of the game, run the other team off the floor and get the crowd involved early
Clingan starting and playing 25+ minutes, sharing the floor with Sanogo
Offensive sets incorporate way more backdoor cuts and penetration

But who asked me. At this point something new needs to be tried. We have same starting 5 from game 1, with very little change in who is getting the minutes, or what they are doing during those minutes. So you need to blame the coaching staff for not flipping the script. We have talented players but man-to-man defense and motion offense without the threat of beating the other team off the dribble is not going to get it done with the guys we have. I'm still hopeful for this team but not with the current gameplan.

I agree with your assessment and think you did a really good job capturing many of the issues. The fundamentals of position defense do seem to be lacking, i.e. the idea of playing D with your feet and not your hands. Probably one of the reasons we’ve been getting so many fouls called against us.

I certainly agree that they should run a zone press from the opening of the game to become the aggressor. It should be our personality. John Wooden had a 1-1–2-1 zone press that he used at UCLA very effectively. Having Clingan at the back of that kind of press would be a killer - sort of like having Walton or Kareem back there as the goalie if the other team beats the press.

I saw them use at least 2 different zones against X in the 2nd half. They didn’t just draw that up in the locker room during half time. So, I have to think they’ve been practicing it. Maybe they just unveiled it in this game because Hurley finally had confidence that they could do it based on what he was seeing in practice.

I agree with everything you said in Defense #2. I would add to that that the zone pressure is not just our best defense, it’s our best offense. It ramps up the pace of the game so that the other team doesn’t have time to set up their defense when we hit them wit our transition game. It has the other team’s defense scrambling so that we’ are the aggressor on O as well as on D.

With regard to the offense, Wed night Captured it perfectly. In the first half Newton was forcing the ball into a clogged up middle. The guards can’t penetrate unless the middle is open. The defense backing off Jackson certainly contributed to that. As valuable as he is on defense, he’s got to come out in that scenario in favor of someone who’s at least a threat to score so that they will legitimately defend that guard. In the second half, hitting the 3’s had the added benefit of opening the middle for penetration. They have to take what the defense will give them. With that in mind, the shot selection was so much better in the second half. Bringing Sanogo out high also helped to open up the middle.

To improve the offense they have to become a better passing team. Half court motion offense depends on crisp cuts and crisp passes. Getting both ball movement and players moving better without the ball are key. Otherwise, we get players standing in place. Even if they’re passing the ball, nothing is happening. I’m not going to get into the 2 bugs issue, but it will only work if they too can pass the ball effectively and move without the ball effectively. Hurley has seen them in practice. He knows better than I do if they have what it takes to make that work.

Just elaborating on some of the themes you introduced.. thanks for the analysis.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I’m not sure I fully get this. This seems to be at least the second game (@Providence) where the other team took bad shots but just made everything. Is this indicating that our luck just sucks so far this year in these big games?

Someone else also pointed out that our luck number on Kenpom is one of the worst in the country. Not trying to blame everything on luck obviously but seeing interesting stats like this in two big games is definitely frustrating and one of those, nothing you can do about it, type things.

Since big east play started, it seems like the other teams are making a ton more shots than before big east play. Good shots or bad shots, they’re making them. Defense has been atrocious

 

[UConnSwag11]

I agree with your assessment and think you did a really good job capturing many of the issues. The fundamentals of position defense do seem to be lacking, i.e. the idea of playing D with your feet and not your hands. Probably one of the reasons we’ve been getting so many fouls called against us.

I certainly agree that they should run a zone press from the opening of the game to become the aggressor. It should be our personality. John Wooden had a 1-1–2-1 zone press that he used at UCLA very effectively. Having Clingan at the back of that kind of press would be a killer - sort of like having Walton or Kareem back there as the goalie if the other team beats the press.

I saw them use at least 2 different zones against X in the 2nd half. They didn’t just draw that up in the locker room during half time. So, I have to think they’ve been practicing it. Maybe they just unveiled it in this game because Hurley finally had confidence that they could do it based on what he was seeing in practice.

I agree with everything you said in Defense #2. I would add to that that the zone pressure is not just our best defense, it’s our best offense. It ramps up the pace of the game so that the other team doesn’t have time to set up their defense when we hit them wit our transition game. It has the other team’s defense scrambling so that we’ are the aggressor on O as well as on D.

With regard to the offense, Wed night Captured it perfectly. In the first half Newton was forcing the ball into a clogged up middle. The guards can’t penetrate unless the middle is open. The defense backing off Jackson certainly contributed to that. As valuable as he is on defense, he’s got to come out in that scenario in favor of someone who’s at least a threat to score so that they will legitimately defend that guard. In the second half, hitting the 3’s had the added benefit of opening the middle for penetration. They have to take what the defense will give them. With that in mind, the shot selection was so much better in the second half. Bringing Sanogo out high also helped to open up the middle.

To improve the offense they have to become a better passing team. Half court motion offense depends on crisp cuts and crisp passes. Getting both ball movement and players moving better without the ball are key. Otherwise, we get players standing in place. Even if they’re passing the ball, nothing is happening. I’m not going to get into the 2 bugs issue, but it will only work if they too can pass the ball effectively and move without the ball effectively. Hurley has seen them in practice. He knows better than I do if they have what it takes to make that work.

Just elaborating on some of the themes you introduced.. thanks for the analysis.

I wouldn’t mind pressing but I don’t think playing zone is going to help at this point IMO

 

[Billy Jack]

I wouldn’t mind pressing but I don’t think playing zone is going to help at this point IMO

It helped Wednesday night.

 

[UConnSwag11]

It helped Wednesday night.

Xavier scored more in the second half than first

 

[McLovin]

Xavier scored more in the second half than first

True, but the second half was played at a much faster pace and it also led to a ton a turnovers and easy baskets for us.

I think we can use it as a change of pace weapon to generate some transition points when we start to struggle in the half court in the short term. I agree it shouldn’t be our primary D.

The zone looked pretty bad. The only reason it worked is because X was totally unprepared for it. The more we use it, the more other teams will prepare and the less effective it will be over time.

 

[Billy Jack]

Xavier scored more in the second half than first

But they scored fewer points than we did in the 2nd half. That’s what matters.

 

[Billy Jack]

True, but the second half was played at a much faster pace and it also led to a ton a turnovers and easy baskets for us.

I think we can use it as a change of pace weapon to generate some transition points when we start to struggle in the half court in the short term. I agree it shouldn’t be our primary D.

The zone looked pretty bad. The only reason it worked is because X was totally unprepared for it. The more we use it, the more other teams will prepare and the less effective it will be over time.

There wasn’t just one zone. I saw them switching from a 1-3-1 to a 2-3. Throw in the option of mixing in man to man and that’s pretty difficult to prepare for. There’s also the fact that the zones fueled their offense, so the other teams don’t just have to plan their offense differently but their defense differently as well.

 

[jdb50]

1-3-1 with Newton in the back was a bad decision as he was forced to try and cover Nunje at times.
Interesting that our last play was an inbound pass by Jackson to CLINGAN who came back for the pass corralled it and and got it to Tristen for a shot. Sanogo would not have caught that pass. Clingan needs to be on the floor more this season. Hurley is too loyal to Sanogo. It is a major weakness of Hurley.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

They keep breaking my heart

Some posters dislike when I comment on affect, attitudes, emotions, and the risks of too much crowd-sourced anxious tension, but this thread makes me question the ones who challenge me to contribute by talking basketball.

Do you really need or want me for that? Don't we have it covered? We just need more good ideas to get to the coaches, and then leave it up to the players to execute, so they can make us happy.
OK...happier.
Or less unhappy.
Yeah, that's it, the last one.

Maybe basketball reverses the percentages. Winning cures all.

 

[uconngb]

Agreed. The first half was ugly, but it was not because of bad shots. They were mostly good shots that just did not go in. Obviously there were a few shots, from Jackson in particular, that were not the shots you want him taking.

EVERY shot from Jackson was a bad shot in the first half. He should have no more than 2-4 shot attempts per game and they should never be from more than 5 feet away.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

EVERY shot from Jackson was a bad shot in the first half. He should have no more than 2-4 shot attempts per game and they should never be from more than 5 feet away.

He was missing those too.