Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 8, 2010 17:22:44 GMT -5
Didn't see one, and with tip-off less than 48 hours away, it's time to start one.
Regardless of who our opponent is on Wed., a few disturbing trends have to be reversed if we're to win on Wed. and be competitive the rest of the tournament.
1) Clark needs to step up his game. Priority #1 is taking care of the ball: he's averaging 3.3 TO/game over the last 8 games, far more than the 1.7 TO/game he averaged over the first 21 games. A lot of these turnovers are avoidable (lazy passes by midcourt and entry passes into the post). Also important, his 3 point shooting has drastically fallen as well; he's still shooting an excellent 42% from 3 for the year, but over the last 7 games he's 9 for 31 (29%) from beyond the arc.
2) Wright's shooting as a whole has been off. Numbers for the year: 47% from the field, 33% from 3. In the last 11 games: 41% from the field, and 10 for 45 from 3 (22%). Much like many of the perimeter guys on our team, CW included, shot selection overall in the last couple of games just hasn't been bad; they just needs to start making them.
3) Until our win on Saturday, our points in transition and off turnovers have been drastically falling. We need to continue to get easy shots whenever we can get them, whether they come off of turnovers or breaking the press. We did a great job of this in our big wins this season. It's time to get back to that, and that's going to involve a commitment by the team to buckle down on defense to force more turnovers and run fast breaks correctly to finish when the opportunities present themselves.
4) In addition to #3, we need to start limiting our opponents' points in transition and off of turnovers. The team did a great job of getting back on defense on Saturday, and Cinci had 0 fastbreak points for the entire game. The last time we played USF we lost the points in transition battle 8-0 and points off of TOs 15-6.
5) Where is Julian? The rebounding woes have been well-documented, but it's a complete disappearance as of late. His stats in the last 6 games: 4.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 0.5 BPG. Doesn't compare favorably to his season stats of 7.8 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 1.5 BPG. He also only has 3 FT attempts in his last 6 games. JV needs to start getting physical again on both ends of the floor and making decisive moves in the post on offense, whether it's going strong to the hole with a post move or immediately kicking out to a shooter. Once he gets caught in a position where he's desperately pump faking in the paint to fool a defender, it's over for him because defenders don't bite.
Things that need to continue:
1) Greg's positive play. He could still stand to cut down on TOs (4.0 TOs/game in his last 9, 3.0 TOs/game in the first 20), but he has seemed willing and able to take defenders off the dribble when he see single coverage. He needs to keep doing that in order to draw fouls on the opposing frontline and create space for our perimeter shooters. He also needs to continue to be smart with his fouls so he can stay aggressive on defense in the 2nd half of games.
2) Increased minutes for Vee. BMartin has posted several very good posts in other threads detailing how Vee's presence on the floor has resulted in a variety of good things; namely, a reduction in turnovers, hard-nosed defense and superb rebounding numbers for a guard. Going forward I'd be shocked if Vee saw less minutes than Benimon and Sims, even if Greg or Julian were to get into foul trouble. At this point I'm looking for him to see at least 12-14 MPG the rest of the way, especially if he's going to continue to play well.
We're better than both the teams we could realistically match up with on Wed. I don't care that we've already lost to USF. We played badly in that game, and to be honest the loss had more to do with what we didn't do as opposed to what they did. None of the above has anything to do with what our opponent on Wed. does. If we play to our capabilities, we'll win. Hopefully our team and staff have focused on the task at hand in practice the last few days to improve our chances of that happening.
Regardless of who our opponent is on Wed., a few disturbing trends have to be reversed if we're to win on Wed. and be competitive the rest of the tournament.
1) Clark needs to step up his game. Priority #1 is taking care of the ball: he's averaging 3.3 TO/game over the last 8 games, far more than the 1.7 TO/game he averaged over the first 21 games. A lot of these turnovers are avoidable (lazy passes by midcourt and entry passes into the post). Also important, his 3 point shooting has drastically fallen as well; he's still shooting an excellent 42% from 3 for the year, but over the last 7 games he's 9 for 31 (29%) from beyond the arc.
2) Wright's shooting as a whole has been off. Numbers for the year: 47% from the field, 33% from 3. In the last 11 games: 41% from the field, and 10 for 45 from 3 (22%). Much like many of the perimeter guys on our team, CW included, shot selection overall in the last couple of games just hasn't been bad; they just needs to start making them.
3) Until our win on Saturday, our points in transition and off turnovers have been drastically falling. We need to continue to get easy shots whenever we can get them, whether they come off of turnovers or breaking the press. We did a great job of this in our big wins this season. It's time to get back to that, and that's going to involve a commitment by the team to buckle down on defense to force more turnovers and run fast breaks correctly to finish when the opportunities present themselves.
4) In addition to #3, we need to start limiting our opponents' points in transition and off of turnovers. The team did a great job of getting back on defense on Saturday, and Cinci had 0 fastbreak points for the entire game. The last time we played USF we lost the points in transition battle 8-0 and points off of TOs 15-6.
5) Where is Julian? The rebounding woes have been well-documented, but it's a complete disappearance as of late. His stats in the last 6 games: 4.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 0.5 BPG. Doesn't compare favorably to his season stats of 7.8 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 1.5 BPG. He also only has 3 FT attempts in his last 6 games. JV needs to start getting physical again on both ends of the floor and making decisive moves in the post on offense, whether it's going strong to the hole with a post move or immediately kicking out to a shooter. Once he gets caught in a position where he's desperately pump faking in the paint to fool a defender, it's over for him because defenders don't bite.
Things that need to continue:
1) Greg's positive play. He could still stand to cut down on TOs (4.0 TOs/game in his last 9, 3.0 TOs/game in the first 20), but he has seemed willing and able to take defenders off the dribble when he see single coverage. He needs to keep doing that in order to draw fouls on the opposing frontline and create space for our perimeter shooters. He also needs to continue to be smart with his fouls so he can stay aggressive on defense in the 2nd half of games.
2) Increased minutes for Vee. BMartin has posted several very good posts in other threads detailing how Vee's presence on the floor has resulted in a variety of good things; namely, a reduction in turnovers, hard-nosed defense and superb rebounding numbers for a guard. Going forward I'd be shocked if Vee saw less minutes than Benimon and Sims, even if Greg or Julian were to get into foul trouble. At this point I'm looking for him to see at least 12-14 MPG the rest of the way, especially if he's going to continue to play well.
We're better than both the teams we could realistically match up with on Wed. I don't care that we've already lost to USF. We played badly in that game, and to be honest the loss had more to do with what we didn't do as opposed to what they did. None of the above has anything to do with what our opponent on Wed. does. If we play to our capabilities, we'll win. Hopefully our team and staff have focused on the task at hand in practice the last few days to improve our chances of that happening.