|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 8, 2019 11:46:11 GMT -5
This year's team has struggled to play zone. Part of it is overall athleticism, or lack thereof. Part of it is just personnel issues; we don't have the size at key spots to make the zone as effective as it could be.
A larger part of it is coaching. The instruction is not there right now for this team to understand what to do in zone, what to try to accomplish in forcing an offense to do, how to communicate, etc. You'd think with at least one person on the staff that has had extensive experience with it that we could be better than we have been. But we're not. That's a problem.
On top of that, when we do go zone, it's always done as a last-ditch attempt to try to change momentum after we've fallen behind by a lot. It's never used to make the opponent uncomfortable or to confuse them. Any opposing coach worth his salt will know to warn his team to expect zone if they've just gone on a big run to put us down double digits. The same goes for the press. Because both are predictable, both are less effective than they could be.
I agree we need to at least be able to show a competent zone in spurts next year. The inability to adapt to certain game situations that necessitate it will hold this team back until this issue is resolved.
Minor side note about pressing: the ability to press is entirely dependent on whether or not you can score. We couldn't press against Depaul because we couldn't score. The bigger issue for tomorrow will be executing smartly in the halfcourt offense and making sure we at least play them even in the transition game. Don't do both and we lose for sure.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 7, 2019 11:26:42 GMT -5
You're not going to get the horses if you can't show recruits you can win. Playing time alone is not going to convince anybody talented that they should come here. It's the opportunity to play on the big stage (NCAA tournament, conference finals, etc.) and to get developed for the next level that will be attractive to recruits. Some people will point to the strides that Derrickson made last year as proof Ewing can develop players for the NBA, but for every Marcus there's another Pickett or Blair (his guys too) that have regressed or stagnated. For all the talk about cleaning up the program and tightening ship (which he has), he's also wasted resources on guys like Walker, Sodom, etc. This team needed a postseason berth to at least prove to IMPACT recruits that we were trending in the right direction. That's why yesterday's loss was so damaging to the program. We are generally playing high quality basketball! We have skill deficiencies, height deficiencies at key positions. We did miss Kaleb last night but he alone would not have helped. We need some skilled dawgs that can handle the rigor or Georgetown. I cannot say that he wasted Walker or Sodom! It seems those guys demonstrated character deficiencies too much dawg,not enough self discipline! A team should be exhibiting towards the end of the season the type of development that has accumulated as the year has progressed. If what you've seen in the last 2 games (a win even vs. SHU and last night) qualifies as "high quality basketball" to you, then we're going to have to respectfully disagree. Skill deficiencies I'll give you, but I don't think height is a concern. No one would confuse Georgetown with a team that's too small to play at this level. Strength from top to bottom is a much greater concern. Some of it is youth (esp. the freshman). Some of it is that our strength and conditioning program still isn't where we need it to be. Agree on Kaleb. He would've helped but he's not 30 points worth of difference. Re: Walker and Sodom, if you recruit guys with character deficiencies, you deserve some of the blame when they reach a boiling point. I get that Patrick was under the gun and didn't have many options early on, but that's still a strike against him even if he was willing to dole out the discipline that was necessary. Again, in order to successfully recruit the guys you are describing, you have to demonstrate to them that you can win here. 18-14 (8-10 BE) and playing on Wed. in NYC again with a late season flame out and no NIT berth does not qualify as progress in my book. It won't in the eyes of impact recruits either.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 7, 2019 10:41:04 GMT -5
If you don't have the horses no amount of game planning will help. Isn't that evident? You're not going to get the horses if you can't show recruits you can win. Playing time alone is not going to convince anybody talented that they should come here. It's the opportunity to play on the big stage (NCAA tournament, conference finals, etc.) and to get developed for the next level that will be attractive to recruits. Some people will point to the strides that Derrickson made last year as proof Ewing can develop players for the NBA, but for every Marcus there's another Pickett or Blair (his guys too) that have regressed or stagnated. For all the talk about cleaning up the program and tightening ship (which he has), he's also wasted resources on guys like Walker, Sodom, etc. This team needed a postseason berth to at least prove to IMPACT recruits that we were trending in the right direction. That's why yesterday's loss was so damaging to the program.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 7, 2019 0:40:35 GMT -5
Just got back from Wintrust.
Let me preface what I'm about to say with this. I've been a fan of this program for 18 years. I may not remember the old glory days of the 80s like some of you other posters do, but I do remember the 2006-2008 teams, Jeff, Roy, Otto, etc. A lot of happy moments. I also was there for the worst of the worst (at least since JTII). Being one of 20-30 students to show up to what would be an inevitable slaughter at home by the likes of a peak UConn. Trying to figure out how Matt Causey could become a savior of this program one day (hint: he wasn't). Rationalizing a loss against St. John's walk-ons post strip-club scandal. I was at VCU and FGCU. Got kicked out of my girlfriend's apartment after Ohio. A lot of low moments too.
Until today, I have never ever seen a team with so much to play for show so little heart, effort and pride.
I don't care if you're a senior who's got a handful of games left in his career or a freshman with untapped potential but doesn't have the experience to go along with it. You don't wear the colors of that jersey and represent the school, OUR school, like you did tonight. That Georgetown across your chest should mean a lot more to you than what you displayed on the court tonight. It means a lot to us.
I've seen some posts come across on this thread trying to downplay it as just a game. Maybe so. This isn't life or death. Far from it. And I get that. But basketball is a major part of this school. It's why we come back to DC to visit friends we've not seen for quite some time. It's why people travel out hundreds of miles just to see them play on the road. It's what we're proud of. When someone from the outside hears Georgetown, a lot of positive things may come to mind, but one of them is always basketball.
So when I say as an alum that tonight was one of the most embarrassing nights I've ever had as a fan, I hope you understand where I'm coming from. Is there shame in losing? No (maybe to Depaul, a little bit). Is there shame in not playing your best? No. Is there shame in not competing and taking some pride in representing the University the way it was meant to be represented? Yes.
I don't care if Jessie got poked in the eye. I don't care if Max Strus got hot. And I don't care if we had 13 underclassmen on the roster tonight. You don't go down to EditedING Depaul by 40. Ever.
I obviously don't expect a win on Saturday to resuscitate essentially what are dead NCAA hopes. But I expect to see some goddamn pride.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 6, 2019 16:39:59 GMT -5
Oh, come on. Be fair. Mac cheated to his left, without knowing that Govan was near the free throw line and looking towards the other side of the half-court, not keeping an eye on the ball. The "seas parted" (as the announcer said) and Govan never saw him until the Creighton guard (Mintz?) was passed him and within six feet of the basket. Meanwhile, Pickett was guarding a player at the arc on the same side, saw and followed Mintz inside, but stopped and held back from fouling him. Wonder why he was keeping his fouls instead of clobbering Mintz. Yes, Mac exposed his right side to the drive, but Mintz wouldn't have tried it if Govan wasn't blowing bubbles somewhere else. A lot of blame to go around... That ends next year. So Govan shouldn't be out on the perimeter covering(trying to anyway)Kramplej? Govan should know where the ball is at all times, regardless of whether or not he's focusing on his man on the perimeter or helping on penetrating guards. Basic ball you man principle. That's actually an excellent point you bring up though about Pickett holding back from fouling. I know the rules are stricter now, but would it kill some of our guys to hammer someone driving to the rim just to send a message? Too many opposing players do this at will simply because there is no fear of physical harm. That needs to change.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 6, 2019 15:58:41 GMT -5
The point on both plays Nolan posted is that Pickett fails to box out and rebound on both of them and continues to float on the perimeter (which he has a tendency to always do). That's just not acceptable at this point in the season. It's not enough to just be long and contest some shots here and there while being a total 0 on offense. At some point you have to bring more to the table or your minutes will go elsewhere.
I'm not going to pretend to know what the potential personal issues may be, so I won't speculate as to whether or not it SHOULD impact his play. That would be unfair. But as Ewing said, right now we're fighting for our lives and we need to put guys on the floor that give us the best chance to win. Jagan has shown he's capable thus far; he's earned the trust of Pat to continue getting more minutes until that changes. I've got no problem with it.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 23:07:48 GMT -5
Oklahoma destroys Kansas. Hard to imagine a 19 win B12 team with 4 Q1 wins and no bad losses missing now, even with a mediocre conference record.
Bama loses at home to Auburn; they very well could be the team we need to fall out of the bracket to get in.
Colorado St. misses a golden opportunity to take down Utah St. Think Utah St. is safe now even with an early exit in the MWC tourney.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 22:45:27 GMT -5
Winning three games in NYC is increasingly becoming the only path for this team. Bubble is a lot smaller than we think. I think it would be close with a win at Marquette and then another neutral win vs. Nova/Marquette in the BET semis. But save that, I agree. Too many bubble teams putting up Q1 wins and that would be the only way to keep pace.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 22:13:41 GMT -5
Toledo wins but it probably doesn't matter with how tonight's results are going.
Minnesota gets a huge Q1 win (maybe courtesy of a late blown call) vs. Purdue.
Bama and Oklahoma both up double digits at halftime.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 20:00:33 GMT -5
For any of the brackets that had Xavier slightly ahead of us due to their recent winning streak, think we'll swap spots back for sure now.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 19:55:58 GMT -5
Hoyas alone in 3rd now. Enormous result.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 17:53:42 GMT -5
He has already proven to have a strong eye for talent - he might have been Mac's biggest believer short of the Rutgers staff nationally. He was right, many were wrong. His style of play is as attractive as you can have at the college level given the pace and freedom he allows. The last missing part has been winning - and hopefully the next 2 weeks gives that a jolt. It'll be noticed.I question how helpful his staff can ultimately be - Kirby is connected but with kids who will always be a tough pull out of the South. Waheed is an unknown it still feels and Orr...well..it was never his strong suit to begin with and I can't imagine age has helped in that regard now. This. Winning these next few games will be absolutely critical in attracting talent to come here. An NCAA berth will go a long ways towards convincing kids that this program is on the upswing. A strong March could be what shows recruits that Ewing is the right guy to learn under and develop their games for the next level. A run into the tourney could be what convinces kids to decide that they could be the missing piece to something special for next year. I hope to God it doesn't happen, but in a doomsday scenario where we drop our last 3 games here in ugly fashion and limp home with an 18-14 record and an 8-9 seed in the BE (again) that ends in a Wed. defeat and no NIT... it would be hard to convince me that we've made enough progress to be satisfied at this point in time. It can't be overstated how important these next 2 weeks are for Pat as a recruiter.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 13:17:48 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 11:15:44 GMT -5
I don't have direct access to KenPom's individual ratings. But if Jagan is 5th in ORtg in BE games only, that wouldn't shock me. His numbers are wildly higher in BE games than in the season overall. Almost a 3:1 A/TO. 92% from the line, 37% from 3 and 50% from the field. A decent number of rebounds too. Obviously he is an extraordinarily low usage rate guy, so no one sane would argue he's anything even remotely approaching the fifth most valuable offensive player in the league or anything. (I wouldn't be surprised if Kaleb's O Rating is pretty good in BE games also....) Exactly my point. Jagan's usage has dropped over 60% since last year in conference, but his ORtg is way up. Kaleb's ORtg is just behind Jagan, but his usage rates have stayed the same (about 50% higher than JN). Is that better? Probably. Who knows? Maybe your best role is to play 15mpg and not use that many possessions - and that's why you're more "efficient". Or maybe you're bad, but there's not enough data to confirm that at those rates. Unless your minutes and usage are both very high, ORtg is nonsense. And even when it's qualified by production, it still doesn't tell you very much. What it tells you is that while these guys aren't huge impact guys, they're guys you can trust to not hurt you when they're eating up minutes and spelling the starters. This wasn't the case last year or even earlier this season. That's all you can reasonably ask for from bench guys: come in, do your job and hold the fort. They've done more than that the past 5-6 games. And with Pickett's disappearance, it necessitated the move to see if someone we could trust could play more minutes. So far, the answer's been yes.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 9:37:26 GMT -5
Tonight's bubble games: 7th to last team in: Utah St. at Colorado St. (would be a very bad loss that could erase the Nevada win, hopefully this is a trap game for them) 5th to last team in: Minnesota vs. Purdue (Boilers need to keep Minny from getting a third Q1 win) 3rd to last team in: Alabama vs. Auburn (need to keep Alabama at 2 Q1 wins and push them closer to the cut line) 10th team out: Toledo vs. Western Michigan (a bubble popping game and likely they all are the rest of the way, we could also stand to jump them in NET if we get results this week) 11th team out: Xavier at Butler (Butler is completely off the matrix and we need this for BET seeding purposes) I’d add Kansas over Oklahoma and Kentucky over Mississippi to the list of bubble impact games tonight. Yup, those are two good ones. I think unfortunately Ole Miss is safe since the worst they do is 9-9 SEC and 4 Q1 wins, plus losing to Kentucky won't hurt them. Oklahoma, however, is very much in the same boat as TCU (with one more Q1 win). It would be a tough sell for the committee to explain why they took a 6-12 B12 team over a number of other candidates.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 9:20:36 GMT -5
Tonight's bubble games:
7th to last team in: Utah St. at Colorado St. (would be a very bad loss that could erase the Nevada win, hopefully this is a trap game for them) 5th to last team in: Minnesota vs. Purdue (Boilers need to keep Minny from getting a third Q1 win) 3rd to last team in: Alabama vs. Auburn (need to keep Alabama at 2 Q1 wins and push them closer to the cut line) 10th team out: Toledo vs. Western Michigan (a bubble popping game and likely they all are the rest of the way, we could also stand to jump them in NET if we get results this week) 11th team out: Xavier at Butler (Butler is completely off the matrix and we need this for BET seeding purposes)
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 5, 2019 9:08:27 GMT -5
TCU and Texas both getting handled by Kansas State and Texas Tech. Good for Hoyas... Those two losses last night do help the Hoyas, and other teams on the bubble. I really don't understand how TCU and Oklahoma are even considered on the bubble. They are both going to end up with a losing record in their conference and while the Big 12 is not bad this year, it is not like they are playing in the ACC. Even Texas, who it seems people are saying are comfortably in the field are confusing to me. They have a .500 record in conference and just barely a winning record overall but they re considered a 10/11 seed!!! Texas could easily end up below 500 in conference and with just a .500 record overall, but everyone still thinks they should make the tournament? In many recent years you needed to be above .500 to even be considered for the NIT, I guess that has changed lately with the NCAA. Bottom line is the Hoyas just need to keep winning and they should be OK. If they finished 10-8 in conference, which would mean a win at Marquette, I would have to believe it would be really tough to keep them out. Even with a loss at Marquette, they should have a good chance if they can win 2 BET games, as long as they take care of DePaul this week. The B12 is actually #1 in both conference NET and RPI (the latter by a substantial margin). warrennolan.com/basketball/2019/conferencenetwarrennolan.com/basketball/2019/conferencerpiAs luck would have it, Texas actually ends up hosting TCU to end the regular season. We probably won't be able to keep both out of the tourney given the strength of the conference's computer numbers, but a Texas win should knock out TCU (barring a long run in the conference tourney).
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 4, 2019 23:17:20 GMT -5
TCU and Texas both getting handled by Kansas State and Texas Tech. Good for Hoyas... And both go on to lose by large margins. That bubble is getting mighty crowded.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 4, 2019 11:32:32 GMT -5
Great point. Several posters here have alluded to some "Mac Effect" and that it will enhance our chances with the committee simply because they want to see him in the tourney. The average college basketball fan is much more excited to see what Ja can do on the big stage; kid is a top 5 pick in June. I don't think the committee will be selecting teams just to try to get a big name into the tourney, but if they were, Murray St. would be the team to include over us. I've seen Lipscomb on a bunch of lists too; I would not rule them out of the at-large discussion either in addition to the teams you've mentioned. Speaking of TCU, a loss tonight puts them at 6-11 in the B12, and they have already slid into a bunch of last four ins on several brackets. That is a big game for us tonight. I realize the selection process changes pretty much every year with what the most important criteria is for the committee, but how are some of these teams that will absolutely have losing records in their conference still getting so much consideration? I am baffled as to why TCU and Indiana are still considered "on the bubble". I get they had some good Quad 1 wins but they are both going to be in the bottom half of their conferences. It will be a really interesting selection process this year and there may be some really annoyed teams that get bumped for teams that have mediocre records. I don't think Indiana gets in without sweeping their final 2 (Illinois and Rutgers) and winning at least 1 in the B10 tourney. They do that (they should) and at least they've finished 9th in a 14 team conference. Would not be dissimilar to the BE receiving 11 bids out of 16 teams in 2011 as far as ratios are concerned. Oddly enough I think TCU's resume is even dicier than Indiana's. Only 2-7 vs the Q1 (worse than us) and in a highly plausible scenario they lose vs. K St. and at Texas, that puts them at 6-12 in conference. Even with no bad losses, I just can't see that being good enough to make it. At least Texas has the 5 Q1 wins. If the B12 gets 8 out of 10 teams in with that kind of mediocrity, the committee will get far more questions about that on Selection Sunday vs. taking a high performing mid major.
|
|
|
Post by RockawayHoya on Mar 4, 2019 10:56:57 GMT -5
The most interesting thing to me is what the committee will do with the usual 1 bid conferences that have 2 or 3 worthy teams this year. For instance assuming Belmont beats Murray State will Murray State and Ja get in. If Wofford beats the UNCG-Furman winner will that loser get in? Their NETs show they are more worthy than say we are right now but mid majors just keep getting killed every week that results are calculated so will it be enough to hand on. Will the committee treat them differently than they have in the past? I don't want to it to come at our expense but I would much rather watch a tourney with those tiny schools getting the chance to pull an upset over a mediocre major conference team. Who here would really rather watch TCU vs Alabama than one of those other teams i mentioned. Great point. Several posters here have alluded to some "Mac Effect" and that it will enhance our chances with the committee simply because they want to see him in the tourney. The average college basketball fan is much more excited to see what Ja can do on the big stage; kid is a top 5 pick in June. I don't think the committee will be selecting teams just to try to get a big name into the tourney, but if they were, Murray St. would be the team to include over us. I've seen Lipscomb on a bunch of lists too; I would not rule them out of the at-large discussion either in addition to the teams you've mentioned. Speaking of TCU, a loss tonight puts them at 6-11 in the B12, and they have already slid into a bunch of last four ins on several brackets. That is a big game for us tonight.
|
|