Georgetown @ Creighton 2/14/22 Discussion

[DanMcQ]

They say Omaha is lovely this time of year. Hope Georgetown brings a team that has made some adjustments based on yesterday.

[daveg023]

God bless you Dan. You are keeping this on the rails the best you can…

I’ll assume Hawkins can’t be as hot and maybe we’ll get a game like that from Rice. This is the only game over the next 10 days I think we even have a shot in.

[hoyas212]

A media member in yesterday’s post game press opined that Creighton had too much success with alley oops. Never heard of that being a recurring problem in a basketball game until yesterday. Will there be any adjustments to pnr defense? Ryan Hawkins attempted 18 3’s yesterday, many of them wide open. Will the defensive strategy appear to acknowledge his willingness and ability to shoot 3’s?

[RockawayHoya]

Feb 13, 2022 9:06:56 GMT -5 daveg023 said:

God bless you Dan. You are keeping this on the rails the best you can…

I’ll assume Hawkins can’t be as hot and maybe we’ll get a game like that from Rice. This is the only game over the next 10 days I think we even have a shot in.

But the thing is, Hawkins really wasn't even that hot (8-18 from 3, 44%). With as many open looks from deep as he had, that's probably about as good as we could've hoped for.

Hoyas have to figure out what they want to take away. It can't be nothing. Faceguard Hawkins with Aminu, drop in the PnR coverage at all times to defend lobs and let the rest of the chips fall where they may. If someone else beats us, so be it.

Creighton's offense is very patient, but would still like us to test their patience with a 21-22 second shot clock as opposed to 30 by using the press as much as possible. Team/staff needs to understand that it can still work and be effective even if they don't come up with a turnover in the backcourt.

[hoyalove4ever]

True- but that is a different press than we run. Ours is focused on forcing turnovers rather than slowing down the pace.

[RockawayHoya]

Feb 13, 2022 11:18:25 GMT -5 hoyalove4ever said:

True- but that is a different press than we run. Ours is focused on forcing turnovers rather than slowing down the pace.

Which is fine, but as long as Creighton isn't breaking the more aggressive press for easy baskets more than once every so often, even if they break it and settle into the halfcourt it will accomplish the same goal.

If it were me, subbing would be much more frequent because I'd want guys to go 100 mph for short spurts to sustain pressure knowing they will: A) get rest, and B) get back into game soon. Use timeouts to give key players a breather instead of stopping mini 5-2 runs like yesterday, and maybe they have enough energy to avoid the bigger runs later.

It's on the staff to help manage their players' energy levels effectively to get the most out of them. They're not good at it, but it really doesn't take a whole lot to get better at it if you acknowledge it as a problem and work to fix it. That's the bigger overarching frustration.

[vv83]

I don't know if there is any web site/data analyst that breaks down defensive efficiency per possession based on what type of defense a team plays on each possession. But I would bet our defensive "points per possession" (PPP) when using the full court press is significantly better than when we use any other defense. Our press PPP might not be especially good. But our PPP when playing our half court man defense or (especially) in transition is absolutely awful. Given our talent limitations, we probably can't press a whole lot more than we already do. It would mean playing exhausted starters late in the game, or playing guys who are not yet good enough for extended minutes far more minutes than they can handle.. But we really should be pressing as much as we can without exhausting the starters or overexposing the talent/experience limitations of the bench.

As bad as our half court D is, I don't think the horrific nature of our transition D gets enough attention. We have always been bad at transition D under Ewing, but we have taken it to a whole new level of ugly his year. Coaches know this - they are trying to push the ball up court as fast as possible even after our made shots. Some of it is guys not busting their butts to get back. But I think the bigger problem comes from our offense. The offense is such a random mess of "pick and roll" and isolation that we never have any floor balance when we put a shot up. We always have too many players around the basket/baseline. Any team that runs hard and pushes the ball can get a good transition opportunity after almost every shot we miss. Add in all the live ball turnovers we give up, again with the floor poorly balanced - and we give up an absurd number of successful transition opportunities.

On offense - when we get into transition, I always watch to see if/when we pass the ball. The player with the ball almost never passes it. And on the rare occasion there is a pass, it usually does not come until after the player with the ball has been stopped in their effort to drive to the hoop, with the pass thrown at/inside the foul line. Our transition conversion percentage has to be awful. The ball moves much faster when you pass it ahead, and you force the defense to react - creating open space that can be exploited with more passing.

They really do look very poorly coached in almost every phase of the game, in the half court and the full court. 5 seasons of watching the same issues over and over, with everything being worse in year 5 than it was in year 1 - it is beyond depressing.

[bamahoya11]

It’s unusual to play a team back-to-back like this. It wouldn’t stun me for us to play a close game. We have the benefit of seeing what they do, and Creighton could come out flat playing the same bad team twice in a game they’re heavily favored to win.

I’m concerned it’ll be a blowout, though. Creighton figured us out defensively and was able to score pretty much at will for most of the game. We have struggled to adjust at the half, much less from game to game. Our defense is so bad that I just don’t see us being able to surprise them. Maybe if we could press effectively for much longer stretches, but we have not shown that so far. I hope for a close game but fear this one will get ugly.

[SSHoya]

Let's see if the coaching staff changes anything. IMHO, it's a good test of the coaching staff's ability or lack thereof to adjust and improve. Thus, far I don't think it has shown much.

[iowa80]

Despite Hawkins, Saturday would have been considerably closer if Kalkbrenner hadn't basically doubled his season numbers at 22 and 15. Wilson, Igoefe, Mutombo, and Billingsley committed a total of four fouls among them. We need to be a lot more physical underneath.

[hoyasaxa2003]

Feb 13, 2022 12:52:44 GMT -5 bamahoya11 said:

It’s unusual to play a team back-to-back like this. It wouldn’t stun me for us to play a close game. We have the benefit of seeing what they do, and Creighton could come out flat playing the same bad team twice in a game they’re heavily favored to win.

I’m concerned it’ll be a blowout, though. Creighton figured us out defensively and was able to score pretty much at will for most of the game. We have struggled to adjust at the half, much less from game to game. Our defense is so bad that I just don’t see us being able to surprise them. Maybe if we could press effectively for much longer stretches, but we have not shown that so far. I hope for a close game but fear this one will get ugly.

McDermott has always been a great offensive coach. While this year's Creighton team actually is struggling on the offensive end (easily McDermott's worst offense by far), you can still see how well they are instructed by the discipline they show on the offensive end. They are deliberate, constantly moving, making a lot of passes, and working for good quality open shots. Unlike our offense, which takes way too many long twos, Creighton almost never takes them and specifically works to avoid them.

When talking about big men, there is also a tendency to misunderstand the "modern" big man role. While it's true that role is definitely diminishing in the NBA, there is still a role for well skilled big men who play part of a structured offense. The days of throwing it in to the big guy, and letting him go to work in the post are really obsolete in most instances. Post-ups are simply not high quality shots unless you are among the best players in college basketball (if you think about it, by definition, a post up will always yield a defended shot, it's rare to have a post-up that is a wide open shot, as it essentially requires a total defensive breakdown). But watch how Creighton used Kalkbrenner on Saturday. He got tons of good, close to the basket, high quality shots. That's a great example of a good use of the modern big man.

While Creighton's offense has been a struggle this year, they have a really good defense. Creighton is just a really bad matchup for us, or put more bluntly, they are a lot better than us.

[EtomicB]

Feb 13, 2022 12:59:07 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Let's see if the coaching staff changes anything. IMHO, it's a good test of the coaching staff's ability or lack thereof to adjust and improve. Thus, far I don't think it has shown much.

Make Nembhard be more of a shooter instead of a facilitator, he took just 4 shots in 38 minutes yesterday …

[SSHoya]

Feb 13, 2022 17:31:48 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

Feb 13, 2022 12:59:07 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Let's see if the coaching staff changes anything. IMHO, it's a good test of the coaching staff's ability or lack thereof to adjust and improve. Thus, far I don't think it has shown much.

Make Nembhard be more of a shooter instead of a facilitator, he took just 4 shots in 38 minutes yesterday …

Defensively, can they stop the PnR?

[prhoya]

Here’s a clue on how to stop the dunks:

[hoyainla]

Feb 13, 2022 10:50:17 GMT -5 RockawayHoya said:

Feb 13, 2022 9:06:56 GMT -5 daveg023 said:

God bless you Dan. You are keeping this on the rails the best you can…

I’ll assume Hawkins can’t be as hot and maybe we’ll get a game like that from Rice. This is the only game over the next 10 days I think we even have a shot in.

But the thing is, Hawkins really wasn't even that hot (8-18 from 3, 44%). With as many open looks from deep as he had, that's probably about as good as we could've hoped for.

Hoyas have to figure out what they want to take away. It can't be nothing. Faceguard Hawkins with Aminu, drop in the PnR coverage at all times to defend lobs and let the rest of the chips fall where they may. If someone else beats us, so be it.

Creighton's offense is very patient, but would still like us to test their patience with a 21-22 second shot clock as opposed to 30 by using the press as much as possible. Team/staff needs to understand that it can still work and be effective even if they don't come up with a turnover in the backcourt.

I'll vote for full court press on all makes and a box and 1 with Aminu on Hawkins. It won't happen but I guarantee it would be better than what we do currently.

[EtomicB]

Feb 13, 2022 17:53:04 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Feb 13, 2022 17:31:48 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

Make Nembhard be more of a shooter instead of a facilitator, he took just 4 shots in 38 minutes yesterday …

Defensively, can they stop the PnR?

I don’t see why not with the correct directions, this poster is on point with their thoughts…

[tafkashfsee]

Feb 13, 2022 18:19:57 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

Feb 13, 2022 17:53:04 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Defensively, can they stop the PnR?

I don’t see why not with the correct directions, this poster is on point with their thoughts…

We beat Creighton by almost 30 points.  Patrick Ewing can't coach defense


Time and time again, Creighton struggled with the pnr.  They tried it from different angles and wasn't too successful on most of them.  Q, just like Pat said, headed off the point guard before he got downhill.  Blair, picked up the center and allowed Q to get back to his man and Blair got to his man before he could hit the three.  Just a few of the ways, I saw in this video of how Georgetown stopped the pnr of Creighton and blew them out the waters.  Now tell me, what is the difference between this year and last year.  I'll wait.

[EtomicB]

Feb 13, 2022 19:16:29 GMT -5 tafkashfsee said:

Feb 13, 2022 18:19:57 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

I don’t see why not with the correct directions, this poster is on point with their thoughts…

We beat Creighton by almost 30 points.  Patrick Ewing can't coach defense


Time and time again, Creighton struggled with the pnr.  They tried it from different angles and wasn't too successful on most of them.  Q, just like Pat said, headed off the point guard before he got downhill.  Blair, picked up the center and allowed Q to get back to his man and Blair got to his man before he could hit the three.  Just a few of the ways, I saw in this video of how Georgetown stopped the pnr of Creighton and blew them out the waters.  Now tell me, what is the difference between this year and last year.  I'll wait.

From looking at the game from when it was 16-15 Creighton until it was 21-15 Gtown(approx. 4 defensive possessions) I saw Wahab planted in the lane each time Creighton tried to run the PnR…

I get that Wahab is much better than any of Gtowns current centers but having them make an adjustment after an opponent continues to get easy buckets shouldn’t be too much to ask in my view

[hoyajmw]

11-12 point underdogs (different sites seem to have different numbers). Fun fact, which I could have noticed Saturday but didn’t (it is on one of the betting sites):  team leading scorer, rebounder and assist man (3 different guys) for Creighton all have the first name Ryan. I’m sure there is a witty nickname in there somwhere, but the very lame “Ryan Expressway” is all this Chicago boy can come up with…

[gunny]

How far into the game do the announcers use Covid as an excuse for the teams winless Big East record? I am tired of hearing that one. Simpkins and Marshall have both used it in the past couple games.