Chris Wright

[RockawayHoya]

Jan 9, 2011 16:16:03 GMT -5 the_way said:

Jan 9, 2011 15:03:28 GMT -5 NCHoya said:

Those stats are terrible, and his shot looked awful yesterday in person, flat and clearly off. However, I do not think this is a CW problem alone. His fellow senior backcourt mate is not exactly lighting it up either. Chris is probably pressing too much because he feels like he has to carry the team offensively. As the PG to a degree that is true, but he does need help out there and he is not getting it. Let's not keep everyone else free from citicism, CW is not the only one playing like crap right now.

Very important point.

Wright has to play near perfect every game for us to win. Same with Clark and Freeman.

None of the 3 perimeter players can have a bad game really. We can't afford to now in conference play.

Thats a lot of pressure....too much really, when it all comes from the perimeter.

Meanwhile, the criticism of our frontcourt/interior guys is as silent as their performances in the paint.

Why is this? As noted above, maybe Chris tries to force the issue at times because he knows he isn't getting much help besides a few garbage points from the big guys?

Aren't we supposed to be "Big Man U"?

Hasn't looked like it since Hibbert left.

Maybe thats why opposing teams get more foul shots than we do.

Chris' job is to run the offense, but its kinda hard to do when Chris is also 1/3 of his team's offense and his options are limited to who he can pass the ball to for some points.

I'll go ahead and disagree with some of these points.

Our numbers during the three recent losses for our guards:

vs. ND
CW: 34 min, 1-9 FG, 0-5 from 3, 1-3 FT, 3 pts 1 reb 6 asts 3 TOs
AF: 36 min, 9-16 FG, 1-4 from 3, 2-4 FT, 21 pts 3 rebs 3 asts 4 TOs
JC: 35 min, 3-9 FG, 2-8 from 3, 0-0 FT, 8 pts 5 rebs 2 asts 2 TOs

vs. SJU
CW: 37 min, 3-9 FG, 1-7 from 3, 0-0 FT, 7 pts 1 reb 4 asts 2 TOs
AF: 36 min, 2-10 FG, 1-5 from 3, 1-1 FT, 6 pts 4 rebs 2 asts 4 TOs
JC: 30 min, 2-6 FG, 0-1 from 3, 3-3 FT , 7 pts 7 rebs 1 ast 1 TO

vs. WVU
CW: 35 min, 3-13 FG, 1-7 from 3, 2-2 FT, 9 pts 3 rebs 2 asts 5 TOs
AF: 33 min, 3-8 FG, 2-6 from 3, 3-4 FT, 11 pts 2 rebs 1 ast 1 TO
JC: 31 min, 7-10 FG, 1-2 from 3, 1-1 FT, 16 pts 5 rebs 1 st 4 TO

I think we can agree that from an offensive standpoint, AF had a good game against ND, JC had a good game against WVU, and everything else was pretty much terrible (we're not even talking halfway decent games).

Because of this, I don't think we need all 3 guards to avoid bad games or Wright to play perfect in order to win. We had all 3 guards pull a no-show against SJU and lost by 3 on the road. And we had both CW and AF play terrible against WVU and lost by 6 (with numerous chances late in the game to steal it).

You're probably right that we'll need all 3 to be on the top of their game in order to beat the elite teams in CBB. But in order to beat basically anyone outside of the top 5-8 teams, I'd argue we just need 2 of the 3 to have good games. It certainly would have given us wins against SJU and WVU, and it would have made the ND game competitive. It isn't asking for everything under the sun to have 2 of our 3 guards have good games at the same time.

As for the productivity from the bigs; I agree they haven't given us much as of late. But regardless of how productive the bigs are, there is a distinct difference between CW and the rest of our backcourt making good decisions and bad decisions. Shooting 3 pointers from 4-5 feet behind the 3 pt line (especially early in the shot clock) is poor decision making. Forcing drives when they aren't there instead of finding a better shot for someone else (not necessarily a big) is poor decision making. Not making sure easy passes along the wings 30 feet from the basket aren't deflected or intercepted is poor decision making.

Had we given ourselves 4-5 more possessions against SJU and WVU by avoiding stupid turnovers, there's a decent chance we would have won both of those games, despite how poorly we played in other facets of the game. And neither SJU or WVU are going to be in the bottom third of the conference this year.

So I think the margin for error that this team has in order to win and be competitive is not as small as you're suggesting, but rather the problem is that we've been completely exhausting that margin for error in the last couple of games, and it's cost us. However, as long as our guards keep putting more and more pressure on themselves to have "perfect games," the deeper into their slump they're going to get, and it is a vicious endless cycle. They need to start trusting each other as well as their own abilities. They are good players, they just need to start believing it.

[SFHoya99]

+1 Rockaway. There's nothing systematic to this losing streak, in the sense that despite whatever shortcomings you may think the roster/system/coaching/players may have, we would have won those games if many of our players had just played to level they have generally played at in the past.

[strummer8526]

Jan 9, 2011 17:06:05 GMT -5 RockawayHoya said:

vs. ND
CW: 34 min, 1-9 FG, 0-5 from 3, 1-3 FT, 3 pts 1 reb 6 asts 3 TOs
AF: 36 min, 9-16 FG, 1-4 from 3, 2-4 FT, 21 pts 3 rebs 3 asts 4 TOs
JC: 35 min, 3-9 FG, 2-8 from 3, 0-0 FT, 8 pts 5 rebs 2 asts 2 TOs

I think we can agree that from an offensive standpoint, AF had a good game against ND.

I don't agree with that at all. If you look, I bet 3 or 4 of his FGs came in garbage time. At the end of the game when we were fouling, I actually said to the people around me, "I think we're just doing this so Freeman can pad his stats."

[RockawayHoya]

You're right Strummer, and I think that only furthers my argument. If you wanted to say none of the three guards had a good game offensively (garbage time notwithstanding) against ND, I'd agree with that. But I still think ND is one of those teams where we don't necessarily need all 3 guards to shoot well simultaneously to win.

Now Wednesday, this may be a different story. And I highly doubt Pitt will allow all 3 to go off at the same time, which means we'll only be able to win if 2 of the 3 guards shoot well and a Hollis or JV gives us double digits as well.

[the_way]

Rockaway, you have no argument. You agree with me.

We are nothing without Austin, Wright, and Clark.

We go as far as they go.

You know this, I know this, Austin, Wright and Clark know this.

Their pressure to perform as best they can each game isn't self-imposed. Thats why they get the bulk of the criticism on here, twitter, etc. and our bigs get little.

That is the reality of the cards they are dealt.

Its why Huggins can run dummy defenses and still stifle our team.

when you have options beside perimeter players, you can't do that.

I truly wonder how Wright would have developed at PG with a Green, Hibbert and PE2 in his frontcourt like Wallace had.

He'd be a much different and better player.

[RockawayHoya]

Jan 9, 2011 20:31:00 GMT -5 the_way said:

Rockaway, you have no argument. You agree with me.

We are nothing without Austin, Wright, and Clark.

We go as far as they go.

You know this, I know this, Austin, Wright and Clark know this.

Their pressure to perform as best they can each game isn't self-imposed. Thats why they get the bulk of the criticism on here, twitter, etc. and our bigs get little.

That is the reality of the cards they are dealt.

Its why Huggins can run dummy defenses and still stifle our team.

when you have options beside perimeter players, you can't do that.

I truly wonder how Wright would have developed at PG with a Green, Hibbert and PE2 in his frontcourt like Wallace had.

He'd be a much different and better player.

The pressure to perform at their best isn't self-imposed? How do you know this? If you speak to the players regularly, fine. But I'm guessing you don't.

They might say publicly that they're not feeling pressure and they're not pressing, but their play speaks otherwise. Earlier in the season, it was effortless for AF to get 20. Now it looks like he's trying twice as hard on the offensive end on the possessions he does end up shooting. That's pressing.

Now, if you're saying that we as fans are imposing pressure on them, that's true. And the guards certainly should not be immune to criticism right now.

My initial disagreement with your argument is that it's far too extreme. We don't need all 3 guys to be firing on all cylinders to win. We don't need CW to "play perfect" to win. We just need a higher level of production than next to nothing, which is what we've been given by them during our last 3 losses. Doesn't mean we need 20 apiece by them to be competitive. But we're going to need more than 20 combined.

I don't disagree about the hypothetical comment about CW's development. But you could say the same thing about virtually any PG who would have the opportunity to play with 3 NBA-caliber players.

[tashoya]

We don't need all three to have great games. Also, if one doesn't have a great game, Hollis is more than capable of picking up the slack if he's put in the position to do so. Additionally, depending on the matchups, Henry and Julian are plenty capable of pulling their weight. We rarely take advantage of mismatches in the interior and it hurts us.

Also, if Chris isn't facilitating like he can and should, Austin isn't scoring like he can and should. Simple. If Chris doesn't do his job, Austin can't do his. So if Chris is the one having the off night, we immediately have 2 guys struggling. That's a problem.

[Eurostar]

way, youre point is that our THREE superstars feel too much pressure to perform at a high level? are you serious? ask kemba walker how he feels.

your point is that each one feels pressure to do everything himself? do you realize your point self destructs because if we have 3 people that are all feeling that, then they must realize there are 2 other people that can help them shoulder the scoring burden? even if they felt individual pressure, its saying something that they arent able to handle this pressure and elevate their game because of it.

the problem with this team isnt pressure because of no bigs. Nate has played great lately. Vaughn and Sims are serviceable. The problem is that our superstars have sucked in our losses. Chris takes 30ft threes and drives into triple teams. Austin disappears. Clarke turns it over and gets burned on defense.

[the_way]

I'll say it again:

When you have more options on offense, it makes it easier for all involved and opens things up.

When you are restricted on offense, it hinders what adjustments you can make, and make it easier for opponents to defend you.

Saying Chris Wright, Freeman, and Clark just need to play better makes Captain Obvious blink.

There is a reason why they aren't playing better lately. Teams are defending them well or getting enough defensive pressure on them to make them struggle.

Why is that? Because the bigs are no serious threat to hurt them. You can't keep opposing defenses honest when they know where and who the bulk of the scoring is coming from.

I love Wright, Freeman, and Clark, but let's not kid ourselves that they are Iverson, Reggie Williams, and David Wingate reincarnated? Our "big" 3 can be defended and will be prone to struggle.

They need help. Our team needs help. Our bigs are doing the best they can, but the team needs more or the pressure on Wright, Freeman, and Clark to perform won't relent, and the struggles may continue. I hoping one or two of our bigs can step up and take the load off of our "3 amigos".

I'm just tired of the constant piling on of Chris Wright, very few have worked harder and sacrificed more of his game to help his team win than he has in the JTIII era. Yet, he gets piled on. Freeman carried this team last year. The young man has diabetes. he is battling that. Clark has improved from year-to-year since he has been on the Hilltop.

Let's keep things in perspective. Our guys are just as frustrated. The effort is there, the results have not been there as of late. Some of it has to do with our own mistakes, a lot of it has to do with the opponents we have played and the conference we are playing in, compounding those mistakes.

Toto, we're not in eh....Oz....anymore.

[harlemhoya]

Somebody needs to tell the_way that Wallace was not the second coming of Isaiah Thomas. The love affair with Wallace is ridiculous.

[bmartin]

Wallace had composure. He did not panic and never played out of control. In the last four minutes of a close game, he settled down the team, ran the offense, and made sure we got a good shot on each possession. He was a 40% 3-point shooter but would pass up open shots early in the clock to try to get a better shot for the team. If he got late in the clock he would not panic and would work a simple two-man game with Jeff or Roy or Sapp so that one of them got a decent shot. The whole team played with confidence that in late game situations, we would get better shots on our possessions than the other team. Also, while Wallace was not a great on ball defender, he knew how to position himself to take away an opponent's strength and he fought through screens, rotated into passing lanes, etc. He was not a great one-on-one superstar, but he was a great basketball player.

[TBird41]

Jan 10, 2011 9:24:15 GMT -5 bmartin said:

Wallace had composure. He did not panic and never played out of control. In the last four minutes of a close game, he settled down the team, ran the offense, and made sure we got a good shot on each possession. He was a 40% 3-point shooter but would pass up open shots early in the clock to try to get a better shot for the team. If he got late in the clock he would not panic and would work a simple two-man game with Jeff or Roy or Sapp so that one of them got a decent shot. The whole team played with confidence that in late game situations, we would get better shots on our possessions than the other team. Also, while Wallace was not a great on ball defender, he knew how to position himself to take away an opponent's strength and he fought through screens, rotated into passing lanes, etc. He was not a great one-on-one superstar, but he was a great basketball player.

He also had a 7'2 behemoth to clean up after his mistakes.

[gtowndynasty]

I understand what WAY is saying and it makes sense. We have no bigs so teams can dismiss the idea of having to gameplan or devote any energy whatsoever to Julian. It is a fair point.

However, I think when you look at teams like the Nova team a couple years ago it weakens that stance. THey had no bigs and were completely reliant on their guards, but they had a wonderful season. There are numerous other examples as colleges are not littered with quality bigs.

Also, we have been in all our games, but for ND with a chance to win. Bad decision making and lazy defense has led to our demise. That has nothing to do with Julian's inadequacies on offense.

I said it before the season that we would be fine if CW did not revert and have that light bulb moment "I am a senior and this is my last chance. THus, I need to go out and kill." Well, it looks like as if that is happening. The wild drives to the basket in prayer of a foul just are not going to work. He is in a slump and appears to be trying to shoot himself out of it. Well, that is just not good for the team. I know he is frustrated but the way to get back on track is not to try and break yourself out of it by taking/making more shots.

Lock up on D, be a good floor general, be enthusiastic and not visibly pouting (moreso Austin), and bring the team together as a senior captain should and get this back on track. Winning cures all. Even if he is not putting up gaudy numbers, leading a team to WINS is as important when you are the pg that makes the team go.

[FrazierFanatic]

Duke won a national title with a "Big 3 " of perimeter players last year. Those 3 averaged 53 of their 77 points per game; ours are averaging 42 of our 77 points a game. I don't know whether the diference is that our system requires more production from the bigs to succeed, or whether our guys are just pressing too hard because they perceive the need to produce. And of course we don't know what the end result of this season will be, we could still have a high ceiling if we can figure this out, cut down on the mistakes, and hit some more shots. I do know that Way is right in stating that Chris gets too much of the criticism when there has been plenty to go around lately. But that most likely will not change, since he is the leader of this team. He needs to take a breath, trust his teammates, not try to do quite so much by himself. We have to trust that he can do that, he is a smart kid and a tough kid(and he is still a kid, even as a senior). I have a feeling good things will start to happen soon,maybe even Wednesday, and we will shake our heads at some of the arguments in this thread down the road.

[SFHoya99]

Jan 10, 2011 11:44:05 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

Duke won a national title with a "Big 3 " of perimeter players last year. Those 3 averaged 53 of their 77 points per game; ours are averaging 42 of our 77 points a game. I don't know whether the diference is that our system requires more production from the bigs to succeed, or whether our gusy are just pressing too hard because they perceive the need to produce. And of course we don't know what the end result of this season will be, we could still have a high ceiling if we can figure this out, cut down on the mistakes, and hit some more shots. I do know that Way is right in stating that Chris gets too much of the criticism when there has been plenty to go around lately. But that most likely will not change, since he is the leader of this team. He needs to take a breath, trust his teammates, not try to do quite so much by himself. We have to trust that he can do that, he is a smart kid and a tough kid(and he is still a kid, even as a senior). I have a feeling good things will start to happen soon,maybe even Wednesday, and we will shake our heads at some of the arguments in this thread down the road.

Duke wasn't on line to win the title earlier in the year. While their perimeter players were the scorers, it was the emergence of their frontline as the year wore on that put them over the top.

Namely, Brian Zoubek started to play really freaking well. He gathered 25% of D rebounds, and 20% of O rebounds. Basically, he turned into a DeJuan Blair type with better D (and less minutes).

When he was out they still had two 6'10" guys in the Plumlees who were decent rebounders and defenders.

If Julian Vaughn were 4 inches taller, I'd feel a lot different about our peak.

[Dhall]

The other difference with Duke: Coach K didn't ask Zoubek to run the offense at the top of the key. For some reason on Saturday (and other times), Julian Vaughn was asked to do that. I understand the system, but that is just not right with his skill set. I feel bad for Julian - he has done the best he could with what has been asked of him, but he probably should have stayed at Florida State.

[SFHoya99]

Jan 10, 2011 11:57:45 GMT -5 Dhall said:

The other difference with Duke: Coach K didn't ask Zoubek to run the offense at the top of the key. For some reason on Saturday (and other times), Julian Vaughn was asked to do that. I understand the system, but that is just not right with his skill set. I feel bad for Julian - he has done the best he could with what has been asked of him, but he probably should have stayed at Florida State.

Zoubek wasn't a part of the offense at all. They basically told him to offensive rebound. I really don't think your comment highlights some massive difference between our team and Duke last year -- you seem to be implying that if Julian were used in some other manner he'd be as good as Zoubek was.

Julian gets tons of low post touches -- his conversion rate is not strong and he doesn't demand a double team. If you are saying he's best served as a complementary player, I agree. But if you are saying Julian is performing wildly below his potential, I think you are crazy.

As for staying at FSU, he's not exactly the kind of big they use there, either.

[FrazierFanatic]

Jan 10, 2011 11:51:17 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Jan 10, 2011 11:44:05 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

Duke won a national title with a "Big 3 " of perimeter players last year. Those 3 averaged 53 of their 77 points per game; ours are averaging 42 of our 77 points a game. I don't know whether the diference is that our system requires more production from the bigs to succeed, or whether our gusy are just pressing too hard because they perceive the need to produce. And of course we don't know what the end result of this season will be, we could still have a high ceiling if we can figure this out, cut down on the mistakes, and hit some more shots. I do know that Way is right in stating that Chris gets too much of the criticism when there has been plenty to go around lately. But that most likely will not change, since he is the leader of this team. He needs to take a breath, trust his teammates, not try to do quite so much by himself. We have to trust that he can do that, he is a smart kid and a tough kid(and he is still a kid, even as a senior). I have a feeling good things will start to happen soon,maybe even Wednesday, and we will shake our heads at some of the arguments in this thread down the road.

Duke wasn't on line to win the title earlier in the year. While their perimeter players were the scorers, it was the emergence of their frontline as the year wore on that put them over the top.

Namely, Brian Zoubek started to play really freaking well. He gathered 25% of D rebounds, and 20% of O rebounds. Basically, he turned into a DeJuan Blair type with better D (and less minutes).

When he was out they still had two 6'10" guys in the Plumlees who were decent rebounders and defenders.

If Julian Vaughn were 4 inches taller, I'd feel a lot different about our peak.

A Dejuan Blair type with better D? That may be the exaggeration of the year. Zoubek certainly improved and gave them some strength underneath, but he was not even a small part of their offensive scheme, that was still the big 3, and I believe it was the offensive problems that Way was primarily discussing. And you are absolutely right that Duke had its own problems last year until they started to come together as the year went on. That was part of my point - they gelled as a team even with the vast part of their scoring coming from 3 guys. We can do the same. We can get some boards from Julian, Henry and Nate. We can become a much better team. I'm not saying we are national title material, but we can be far better than we have been the last 2 weeks.

[SFHoya99]

I merely meant rebounding. He wasn't as good as Blair on the boards, but Blair's strength was his O rebounding.

Zoubek grabbed a ton of offensive boards in the second half of the season while being 7' in the middle. It took Duke to another level.

Yes, we can get much better -- I agree. We better or I'm going to be depressed until May. But teams that win get good big man play, and so far ours has been erratic.

But yes, this slump is mostly on the guards and they need to simply stop making dumb mistakes and decisions.

[FrazierFanatic]

Jan 10, 2011 11:57:45 GMT -5 Dhall said:

The other difference with Duke: Coach K didn't ask Zoubek to run the offense at the top of the key. For some reason on Saturday (and other times), Julian Vaughn was asked to do that. I understand the system, but that is just not right with his skill set. I feel bad for Julian - he has done the best he could with what has been asked of him, but he probably should have stayed at Florida State.

I don't feel bad for Julian at all,he has become a better player, he starts on a team that has been in the Top 25 all year(so far), and he is getting a great education. Julian has his limits, he was never going to be a first-team Big East (or ACC) player, but he works hard and is a positive asset. And remember he came here because of a family medical issue, so staying at FSU was not an option.