hoyarooter
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Post by hoyarooter on Feb 28, 2014 21:17:17 GMT -5
Devante Gardner scored 26 points in 23 minutes last night with one foul. Our not so fearsome foursome of Lubick, Hopkins, Moses and Hayes combined for 13 points and 18 fouls. Big Man U has become Big Man PU. We really need a good center. I know circumstances have worked against us (Adams ill, Moses hurt, Josh doing whatever Josh does), but regardless, we really need a top big man from the 2015 class. 2014 would have been better, but that barn door is shut.
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vv83
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Post by vv83 on Feb 28, 2014 21:38:12 GMT -5
One aspect of the Marquette game, and really much of the second half of the season, that I have not been discussed too much on the board - it seems like we have been looking to push the ball upcourt quite a bit more than in the past. With no low post game, it makes good sense to try to create more transition opportunities for our guards. While we sometimes get concerned that JTIII is too inflexible in his offensive schemes, I think he has shown quite a bit of flexibility this year in trying to squeeze points out of our very limited offensive talent. According to Kenpom, we are 48th in the nation in offense this year, and were 78 last year. This is with the loss of half a season of whittington and a full season of otto, and the addition of a half season of Josh and a full season of Cameron. Our offense was pretty rough last year, but it is still kind of impressive that we have improved pretty significantly after losing the guy who provided the bulk of our offense last year, and adding just a half season of a good offensive big man.
Hopefully this bodes well for continued flexibility/adjustment to talent as we add a group of apparently strong, versatile offensive players next season. Clearly Peak is strong in transition, Campbell likes to push the ball, copeland runs well. And while white is not that fast, he is quite effective in transition because of his ballhandling (for his size) and court vision. I'll be surprised if we don't continue to see some degree of evolution towards a more more transition oriented style of play. The one challenge will be the absence of a true point guard when DSR is playing point (which will probably be most of the time). He is not bad in transition, but he is not fast nor does he have point guard instincts. But he is a decent enough passer. Finishing through contact will be the issue - if he can just get a little stronger/more explosive, and learn to pull up for the little 8 foot jumper he shoots so well more often in transition situations, he should be fine in this role.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Mar 1, 2014 14:31:29 GMT -5
We've given up 70 points in 7 straight games. Only two of those games exceeded 65 possessions and none of them went over seventy.
What the heck happened to our defense?
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FLHoya
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Post by FLHoya on Mar 1, 2014 17:00:31 GMT -5
Hopefully this bodes well for continued flexibility/adjustment to talent as we add a group of apparently strong, versatile offensive players next season. Clearly Peak is strong in transition, Campbell likes to push the ball, copeland runs well. And while white is not that fast, he is quite effective in transition because of his ballhandling (for his size) and court vision. I'll be surprised if we don't continue to see some degree of evolution towards a more more transition oriented style of play. The one challenge will be the absence of a true point guard when DSR is playing point (which will probably be most of the time). He is not bad in transition, but he is not fast nor does he have point guard instincts. But he is a decent enough passer. Finishing through contact will be the issue - if he can just get a little stronger/more explosive, and learn to pull up for the little 8 foot jumper he shoots so well more often in transition situations, he should be fine in this role. The improvement in offensive metrics cited above notwithstanding, I'm excited for whatever the freshman class offers us purely for the sake of change. It'll be nice if the combination of new players plus a possible returning Josh Smith gets our offense more back to normal; things like Hopkins not playing center, having fewer players on the court who won't shoot from most places, and generally forcing a defense to be honest. Right now, the offense we're running is a clunky Rube Goldberg machine designed to get Markel or DSR a driving lane to the basket. I'm cool with how we approached the final possession out of the timeout Thursday night, because that's where we are in terms of scoring threats, but time was in those situations we'd either run any of a number of standard Princeton sets designed to give the ball handler multiple options. Not that you've forgotten this, but Jeff Green could've also thrown the ball to two other open guys against Vanderbilt during that possession.
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hoopsmccan
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Post by hoopsmccan on Mar 1, 2014 17:40:56 GMT -5
We've given up 70 points in 7 straight games. Only two of those games exceeded 65 possessions and none of them went over seventy. What the heck happened to our defense? Not sure, but never really understood how it was good in the first place. Slow footed and short guards, not a great rim protector (though Hopkins has been good at times), ok height, not much depth. Usually not the makings of a very good D. hm
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GIGAFAN99
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Post by GIGAFAN99 on Mar 1, 2014 19:24:15 GMT -5
We've given up 70 points in 7 straight games. Only two of those games exceeded 65 possessions and none of them went over seventy. What the heck happened to our defense? Not sure, but never really understood how it was good in the first place. Slow footed and short guards, not a great rim protector (though Hopkins has been good at times), ok height, not much depth. Usually not the makings of a very good D. hm Exactly. Flying, flailing, and fouling is how we play d. Let's face it 3 guard set and no center for the Hoyas = lousy defense. We haven't figured out that there's no substitute for taking up space the way we play d. The Hoyas can get away with three guards with a big front line. They can get away with no center by going 6'8+ across the 3-5 spots. But you can't be small everywhere and play our crap zone. It just has too many holes.
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Post by michaelgrahmstylie on Mar 1, 2014 19:28:02 GMT -5
I have said before that our priority needs to be getting a legitimate center. This needs to be the top priority. This may not be the '80s, but not having one gives you what you saw the other night.
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Mar 1, 2014 22:16:10 GMT -5
I have said before that our priority needs to be getting a legitimate center. This needs to be the top priority. This may not be the '80s, but not having one gives you what you saw the other night. getting a good center requires early recruiting by competent recruiters with a large personal presence at their games, what assistant coach is impressive to you to handle this task. III just needs to be the closer.
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drquigley
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Post by drquigley on Mar 2, 2014 16:38:08 GMT -5
Not our guards fault. Our lack of big men requires them to constantly sag to help big men. Either they stay with their men and we get eaten up inside, a al Gardner , or we sag and open up outside shooters. Just watched Nova kill Marquette. Novas one big man could control Gardner and Otule and their guards shut down Marquettes outside game. Last time I looked Marquette was shooting 3 for 12 from 3.
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Post by michaelgrahmstylie on Mar 2, 2014 17:26:28 GMT -5
I have said before that our priority needs to be getting a legitimate center. This needs to be the top priority. This may not be the '80s, but not having one gives you what you saw the other night. getting a good center requires early recruiting by competent recruiters with a large personal presence at their games, what assistant coach is impressive to you to handle this task. III just needs to be the closer. Agree to a point. We still have Josh, Moses and Hayes. Let's begin focusing on '15 now. Let's really intensify the development of Moses and Hayes this off-season. Josh needs to envision playing in the NBA in two years. Help him set some realistic goals while dangling the prospect of him playing at the next level. Once we have decided on this as a path forward, then let's go out there and convince a 7 footer that they will own the Verizon Center if they come play for us. We have two years--two years to get it done. Finally, keep those eyes peeled for a transfer or two.
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Mar 2, 2014 19:59:28 GMT -5
getting a good center requires early recruiting by competent recruiters with a large personal presence at their games, what assistant coach is impressive to you to handle this task. III just needs to be the closer. Agree to a point. We still have Josh, Moses and Hayes. Let's begin focusing on '15 now. Let's really intensify the development of Moses and Hayes this off-season. Josh needs to envision playing in the NBA in two years. Help him set some realistic goals while dangling the prospect of him playing at the next level. Once we have decided on this as a path forward, then let's go out there and convince a 7 footer that they will own the Verizon Center if they come play for us. We have two years--two years to get it done. Finally, keep those eyes peeled for a transfer or two. sorry but, I don't think Josh will make it, my gut feeling is that he won't make it back to the team, just like Whit didn't. It is tough to get the grades up and academic progression needed to stay on the team. I went through this with one of my daughter, we sent her to CC to get her credits to re-enroll. This spring we would think III would re-evaluate his players and the Sophs will get an opportunity to move on. It has happened a number of times- Jerelle, Vee Nikita, Jeremiah to name a few. We need to get a JUCO big to come and play, they can play right away.
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dreamhoya
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Post by dreamhoya on Mar 2, 2014 23:04:21 GMT -5
I like that idea, but if GU has Hayes and (possibly) Mourning next year, then it's an upgrade at least defensively.
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