Maybe give Sims less run?

[KHoyaNYC]

Might be time to rest the big fella more so he can relax and let the game come to him. Feel like he is forcing it out there and he looks out of sync - also seems to be fading away when shooting even more than he used to. His plus/minus in Big East games is -6.4 which is by far the worst of our regulars and a putrid number for a starting center. He is regressing when we need him to be reaching his peak, I'm not saying have him come off the bench but I might give others more run until he finds his groove again.

[SFHoya99]

He's been terrible on offense in the Big East. The problem is that he's still very good most of the time on D, and he's one of the few guys on the team that can get a pretty good shot off for himself or others.

You'd love to cut his minutes to see if that helps -- and maybe Hop can fill in a few more minutes. But Lubick's obsession with fouling isn't helping and when Sims isn't in there -- or is cutting back on using offensive possessions, who takes them?

I'd route the offense more through Clark because I think he's the one guy who can and will take more shots, but he's not great at getting others involved.

The idea's not a bad one, but there isn't a clear solution. Worth a try.

[Boz]

Except that Mikael isn't ready yet, Tyler has health problems and can't play, Moses is out for the season, and Nate isn't a 5.*


*Though, I have thought there have been some good things, from time to time when we've used a front court of Hollis, Otto and Nate. So maybe we could try going with that lineup a bit more.

[HometownHoya]

Henry's issues have always been one of confidence. That said, I think benching would hurt even more. The question remains, how can we get more out of Henry? Maybe its just time for Coach to stress to Henry that his strength is passing, not shooting! Many times yesterday, Henry started a move, was double-teamed and lost the ball trying to finish through the double team, he needs to pass the ball to an open shooter!!

[gtowndynasty]

This is an interesting query and where not having a pg that you can run your O thru, or that can create O for himself or others leaves you in a real pickle.

I mean jason can do it, but his handle isnt that great so you may be able to get away with inserting some pick and roll sets in the O. Anything to give it some diversity. ONE game this season, we ran Hollis off picks, UConn I believe it was. It was effective. Never went back to it, which is a major headscrather. But Henry has been brutally bad as of late and we need a spark offensively. When you hold a team to 25% shooting, that is a game you are supposed to win by 25-30, not 10.

[KHoyaNYC]

I would give the lion's share of his reduced minutes to Porter by the way, I agree Hopkins isn't ready. I also acknoweldge this could lead to some matchup issues for us so we would need to be flexible, I'm not suggesting a drastic reduction, but enough to see if it will jump start his game (and our offense in general). -6.4 is rough......

[DallasHoya]

One of the things the Georgetown/Princeton offense does horribly (at least the way we run it) is the pick and roll. Now I'm spoiled watching the Mavericks' Dirk and JKidd or Jason Terry run it the way it's supposed to about 25 times a game, but Clark and Starks have no clue what to do when one of our bigs sets a pick and rolls to the basket. Sims did it about three times last night and was wide open and never saw the ball. Of course, I have no illusions that Sims would actually finish at the room, but I'll take my chances on that instead of Starks jacking up another three after passing it around the perimeter for 30 seconds.

[NCHoya]

Feb 22, 2012 16:57:01 GMT -5 HometownHoya said:

Henry's issues have always been one of confidence. That said, I think benching would hurt even more. The question remains, how can we get more out of Henry? Maybe its just time for Coach to stress to Henry that his strength is passing, not shooting! Many times yesterday, Henry started a move, was double-teamed and lost the ball trying to finish through the double team, he needs to pass the ball to an open shooter!!

Totally agree. Sims is a gifted passer, he should emphasize that. It feels like when Henry is facilitating out of the high post the offense runs its best. However, he still needs to try to take it to the basket to keep the defense honest, even FTs and drawing an opposing foul is worth it.

Hopkins is not ready, he dropped two well placed passes last night in the first half that should have resulted in points. I think he has very good possibilities but he does not have good hands right now.

[kghoya]

Maybe give Starks less run?

That's the biggest change I'd make. He's not effective against any type of pressure and he hasn't figured out when, and from where, he should take shots.

[RDF]

Feb 22, 2012 20:02:36 GMT -5 kghoya said:

Maybe give Starks less run?

That's the biggest change I'd make. He's not effective against any type of pressure and he hasn't figured out when, and from where, he should take shots.

Agree with this adjustment. Starks is type of guy you can tell within opening 4 minutes how he'll play. He was incapable of defending Theodore and made one of Hoyas 3 offensive threats have to chase/defend and it effected his confidence/performance for the worse-and Starks responded by trying to pick up the scoring and threw up bad shot after bad shot.

Sims is hitting the wall because he's not that good. Really think he's maxed out his SR year--but this is a lesson for all players to not be a goofball for 3 years and to take things seriously or you'll regret it. Henry should've been at this level as a Sophomore--not a SR with 5 guaranteed games left in his career. III can use his story as a compliment-I look at it and wonder what could've been. Just cannot have him fade and stink like Julian did at end of last year--that killed the team who desperately needed him to play well and he was worn down and failed to do anything offensively.

[HoyaFanNY]

henry is beyond frustrating lately on offense. teams give him the 15-18 ft jumper and he's not making it consistently anymore. he's been a turnover machine in big east play BUT he's our only option right now. hopkins is ok in short spurts but he makes too many mistakes. nate is a liability defensively at center. our only hope is that henry realizes he's trying to do too much offensively at times.

[KHoyaNYC]

It's the "Julian fade" that makes me think some less time for Sims is in order.

[aleutianhoya]

I really think the issue is he's just not scoring the ball, and part of the issue is his lack of easy baskets. He's not hitting the wide-open fifteen footers anymore. And because defenders aren't guarding those closely, he no longer is able to drive to the basket from the elbow or top of the key. Those relatively easy driving baskets were key for his confidence and key to the offensive efficiency as a whole.

Of course, without hitting those outside shots, as we all know, the passing lanes get far more clogged. That was a big problem last year, too. So, it takes away from his facilitating easy baskets for others.

[hoyasaxa2003]

Feb 22, 2012 17:46:21 GMT -5 KHoyaNYC said:

I would give the lion's share of his reduced minutes to Porter by the way, I agree Hopkins isn't ready. I also acknoweldge this could lead to some matchup issues for us so we would need to be flexible, I'm not suggesting a drastic reduction, but enough to see if it will jump start his game (and our offense in general). -6.4 is rough......

Porter is already averaging 28.1 minutes a game, so I don't think he can take any minutes from Henry. Historically, it's rare for John Thompson III to use a player much more than 30-32 minutes a game (except for 2009-2010), so I don't think Porter is going to get any more minutes from Henry.

Alternatively, I would suggest that Henry's minutes stay constant, but that his usage rate should decrease. I think he should be a facilitator, but I don't think he should be taking as many shots because he simply isn't as efficient as other options (Clark, Hollis).

I think the single way the team could improve their offensive efficiency would be to run more plays for Hollis Thompson (and to a lesser extent, Clark). Sims usage rate is about 29% and Hollis' is about 20% - considering that Hollis is the more efficient scorer, I think more offense should go through him.

The added benefit of keeping Sims' minutes steady is that it allows him to contribute on defense. I think the zone is much stronger with him playing than without.

[glidehoyas (Inactive)]

Are you serious? Do you know the game of basketball? Tell me what made you think of this! Such FOOLERY!

[glidehoyas (Inactive)]

Feb 23, 2012 1:15:00 GMT -5 RDF said:

Feb 22, 2012 20:02:36 GMT -5 kghoya said:

Maybe give Starks less run?

That's the biggest change I'd make. He's not effective against any type of pressure and he hasn't figured out when, and from where, he should take shots.

Agree with this adjustment. Starks is type of guy you can tell within opening 4 minutes how he'll play. He was incapable of defending Theodore and made one of Hoyas 3 offensive threats have to chase/defend and it effected his confidence/performance for the worse-and Starks responded by trying to pick up the scoring and threw up bad shot after bad shot.

Sims is hitting the wall because he's not that good. Really think he's maxed out his SR year--but this is a lesson for all players to not be a goofball for 3 years and to take things seriously or you'll regret it. Henry should've been at this level as a Sophomore--not a SR with 5 guaranteed games left in his career. III can use his story as a compliment-I look at it and wonder what could've been. Just cannot have him fade and stink like Julian did at end of last year--that killed the team who desperately needed him to play well and he was worn down and failed to do anything offensively.

Starks should be attacking or pounding the ball into the post right from the start of the game. Should of, could've, would've the fact remains Big Hank is fine and will bounce back and again prove the doubter/haters wrong!

[kettlehill]

Yeah, I agree that development-wise henry is somewhere in his soph. year. He is makiing those silly mistakes that if he had been into it all 4 years, he would be beyond. Having said that, he does give his max out there. Can't remember which game it was, a month or so ago, but Otto and Nate were on the floor together for extended minutes and they looked great.

[williambraskyiii]

Feb 23, 2012 10:32:02 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

Feb 22, 2012 17:46:21 GMT -5 KHoyaNYC said:

I would give the lion's share of his reduced minutes to Porter by the way, I agree Hopkins isn't ready. I also acknoweldge this could lead to some matchup issues for us so we would need to be flexible, I'm not suggesting a drastic reduction, but enough to see if it will jump start his game (and our offense in general). -6.4 is rough......

Porter is already averaging 28.1 minutes a game, so I don't think he can take any minutes from Henry. Historically, it's rare for John Thompson III to use a player much more than 30-32 minutes a game (except for 2009-2010), so I don't think Porter is going to get any more minutes from Henry.

Alternatively, I would suggest that Henry's minutes stay constant, but that his usage rate should decrease. I think he should be a facilitator, but I don't think he should be taking as many shots because he simply isn't as efficient as other options (Clark, Hollis).

I think the single way the team could improve their offensive efficiency would be to run more plays for Hollis Thompson (and to a lesser extent, Clark). Sims usage rate is about 29% and Hollis' is about 20% - considering that Hollis is the more efficient scorer, I think more offense should go through him.

The added benefit of keeping Sims' minutes steady is that it allows him to contribute on defense. I think the zone is much stronger with him playing than without.

Nice post -- I agree with this though so many of the defenses key on clark and hollis, we often need Henry to convert with the 1 on 1 coverage in the paint and he just doesn't do it at a high enough clip. So it is a bit of a catch-22.

[NCHoya]

Defense is where we need Henry the most right now. We are better with him on the court on defense and so his minutes should not decrease. However, I would tell him to take 2-3 shots less per game and look for the open man. He seems to be trying to do too much scoring and it simply is not his strong suit. To echo RDF, he is 2 years behind and should be an example of squandered talent for III to use to motivate guys like Hopkins. That said, Henry remains the biggest reason the Hoyas are well ahead of preseason expectations.

[prhoya]

To the Hoyaprospectus posters:
Is there a Hoyaprospectus breakdown of Henry's FG attempts by distance/% somewhere in your site? It's pretty obvious that Henry's range is out to about one feet past the FT line, but I would like to see the numbers, if possible.

Henry keeps taking those 17 to 19 footers that smart coaches are daring/giving him. Instead, he should penetrate or post up to try to get to the line more frequently. At 72% FT (improved from 50% last year...kudos!), Henry needs to forget (and JT3 should remind him) about the long jumper, focus on 16 ft in, and try to get to line as much as possible.

As long as we're analizing his game:

When was the last time Henry tried a hook shot? He had it at the beginning of the season. I know he gets pushed around a lot in the BE, but there have been plenty of opportunities to try it again.

Why does he fade away on his jumpshot (and free throws)? Who is he imitating? He should look no further than Hollis for the perfect shooting form.