rhw485
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Post by rhw485 on Jan 24, 2020 8:29:44 GMT -5
Any takeaways for those who don't subscribe? Sure I'll try to post a few: - Title of article was "In the struggle". Ewing was asked who are some of the better Big East defenders (admittedly innocuous throw-away question), and his response (paraphrasing) was basically that there's a lot of good defenders, but when you're in the heat of the battle, in the struggle, it's hard to single out. Author took it as I dont have time for this question, have enough to worry about - Despite result against Xavier, highlights defense has been the problem. In BE play, worst defensive efficiency and 6th offensive efficiency - Ewing quote: “Take away last night,” Ewing said Thursday, “and for the most part, we can score with anyone in the country. Our Achilles heel is that we’re not very good defensively right now, in my opinion. We have to continue to get better. If you look at the teams that win, yeah, you also have to be able to score, but if you can’t get stops, or two, three, four, five stops in a row, it’s going to be tough to win.” - Basically Butler is close to a must win. Everyone agrees 9-9 gets us dancing, but is 7-11 more likely? (where KenPom projects us) The rest is basically rehashing everything you know about transfers, playing well w shortened rotation, now struggling on road in BE play
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calhoya
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Post by calhoya on Jan 24, 2020 8:40:50 GMT -5
At this point 7-11 may be a stretch. Forecasting the remainder of the season is very tricky particularly for a short-handed and inconsistent team. However, I believe that DePaul remains a good team that can beat anyone and think that they could easily sweep the Hoyas. Ditto for Marquette, Seton Hall, and Nova.
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rhw485
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
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Post by rhw485 on Jan 24, 2020 9:38:03 GMT -5
Another link from Athletic.... theathletic.com/1546357/2020/01/20/arkansas-eric-musselman-basketball-coach-behind-scenes/Really interesting and fun article about how Musselman is changing Arkansas basketball - They don't start anyone taller than 6'6'' and are 11th in defensive efficiency. Their tempo is 65th, ours is 48th, not crazy far off - For prep for the Kentucky game (quote from article): After some cleanup work on the Vanderbilt game, the players then see scouting reports on every Wildcat. Each Kentucky player is assigned a color based on his 3-point shooting ability; non-shooters are blue, while mediocre ones are yellow and marksmen are red. These colors correspond to those on the scout team jerseys. The same notes on each opposing player are also written on posters that are strewn across the gym walls, so they are constantly in the Razorbacks’ line of sight. - Quote: By the end of Friday’s practice, the players agree to go with Paintball (don't leave paint guarding Hagans and dare him to shoot). If Hagans makes a few shots from outside early, they’ll go back to their normal defense, which involves hedging hard on ball screens. If both plans fail, Option C is to switch everything. Now they just have to see if Paintball works. I've criticized the hard hedge and we can debate whether it should be our base defense (Arkansas is super fast across the board because they're small so the hard hedge / recover actually makes more sense for them but that wasn't my point). I think my frustration is more that we haven't shown we're willing to try anything else. Arkansas clearly puts so much attention to detail on shooters and went into a game with three distinct defensive plans. I still have yet to see different game plans on the defensive end on a game to game basis
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drquigley
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Post by drquigley on Jan 24, 2020 11:09:09 GMT -5
We have 6 days to prepare for Butler. We'll be underdogs and will probably lose. But whether we win or lose I'd be really disappointed if we don't experiment with new (zone) defenses and different lineups. What's that about "doing the same thing and expecting different results"? I agree with you, but nothing that we have seen over the past few years indicates that any drastic changes like that will happen. For the record, the limited amount of zone we have seen under Ewing has been pretty bad, so I am not sure it would help on defense anyway, but we are already defending the 3 so poorly, I am not sure a zone with holes would be that much worse. Butler will be a favorite, but not extreme. According to KenPom we are 44%, projection of a 71-69 Butler win. I think one could argue that overstates our odds of winning, but I think the spread will probably be similar when it comes out. If we play well and get a little bit of poor play from Butler, it's winnable. On the different lineups, I am not sure I agree. What else can Ewing do? I mean, he's got the 5 starters, Blair, and Wahab. There just aren't that many combinations out there. Maybe we will see Tim Ighoefe if there's foul trouble. When we had our full roster, I complained plenty about the lineups (the full lineup changes...remember those quaint days?), but I really don't think we can do much here. I know a lot of people want to see the "twin towers" type of lineups, but we don't have the roster for that, as we have a bunch of 5's and no 4's other than Pickett (who is really closer to a 3).
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drquigley
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Post by drquigley on Jan 24, 2020 11:18:53 GMT -5
I agree with you, but nothing that we have seen over the past few years indicates that any drastic changes like that will happen. For the record, the limited amount of zone we have seen under Ewing has been pretty bad, so I am not sure it would help on defense anyway, but we are already defending the 3 so poorly, I am not sure a zone with holes would be that much worse. Butler will be a favorite, but not extreme. According to KenPom we are 44%, projection of a 71-69 Butler win. I think one could argue that overstates our odds of winning, but I think the spread will probably be similar when it comes out. If we play well and get a little bit of poor play from Butler, it's winnable. On the different lineups, I am not sure I agree. What else can Ewing do? I mean, he's got the 5 starters, Blair, and Wahab. There just aren't that many combinations out there. Maybe we will see Tim Ighoefe if there's foul trouble. When we had our full roster, I complained plenty about the lineups (the full lineup changes...remember those quaint days?), but I really don't think we can do much here. I know a lot of people want to see the "twin towers" type of lineups, but we don't have the roster for that, as we have a bunch of 5's and no 4's other than Pickett (who is really closer to a 3). I've said before I'm not an x's and o's guy. But it's obvious that Yurt is more comfortable playing outside the paint and Wahab is tougher inside the paint. I can see how the downside might be that they both pick up two fouls in the first five minutes. If we lose to Butler next Tuesday our season will be effectively over. Why not try something different? What have we got to lose, another NIT bid?
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madgesiq92
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Post by madgesiq92 on Jan 24, 2020 12:05:34 GMT -5
Any takeaways for those who don't subscribe? Sure I'll try to post a few: - Title of article was "In the struggle". Ewing was asked who are some of the better Big East defenders (admittedly innocuous throw-away question), and his response (paraphrasing) was basically that there's a lot of good defenders, but when you're in the heat of the battle, in the struggle, it's hard to single out. Author took it as I dont have time for this question, have enough to worry about I read this a different way--I thought Ewing was saying that he has enough to worry about with how we are playing that he's not really worried about what other teams/players are doing defensively. "If we run our stuff well, let them try to stop us." Our offense has been good overall since defections, so I understand his point. However, when Xavier came out with something we didn't expect we didn't seem to have a Plan B. However, our only PG was also on the bench with 2 fouls during that stretch, too, which definitely exacerbated the problem.
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madgesiq92
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
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Post by madgesiq92 on Jan 24, 2020 12:06:12 GMT -5
I've said before I'm not an x's and o's guy. But it's obvious that Yurt is more comfortable playing outside the paint and Wahab is tougher inside the paint. I can see how the downside might be that they both pick up two fouls in the first five minutes. If we lose to Butler next Tuesday our season will be effectively over. Why not try something different? What have we got to lose, another NIT bid? We would have to play zone to play them on court at same time.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Jan 24, 2020 12:16:46 GMT -5
I've said before I'm not an x's and o's guy. But it's obvious that Yurt is more comfortable playing outside the paint and Wahab is tougher inside the paint. I can see how the downside might be that they both pick up two fouls in the first five minutes. If we lose to Butler next Tuesday our season will be effectively over. Why not try something different? What have we got to lose, another NIT bid? I would love to see Yurtseven on the perimeter more and taking more threes. I know it's unclear whether Yurtseven could hit them at a high rate, but it would not hurt to try, and he has good shooting form. Wahab is definitely built better for playing in the paint physically.
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Post by johnnysnowplow on Jan 24, 2020 12:37:44 GMT -5
I've said before I'm not an x's and o's guy. But it's obvious that Yurt is more comfortable playing outside the paint and Wahab is tougher inside the paint. I can see how the downside might be that they both pick up two fouls in the first five minutes. If we lose to Butler next Tuesday our season will be effectively over. Why not try something different? What have we got to lose, another NIT bid? We would have to play zone to play them on court at same time. So why not give it a shot? I would think a zone with a back line of wahab yurt Pickett could be pretty effective.
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EtomicB
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by EtomicB on Jan 24, 2020 12:42:33 GMT -5
Sure I'll try to post a few: - Title of article was "In the struggle". Ewing was asked who are some of the better Big East defenders (admittedly innocuous throw-away question), and his response (paraphrasing) was basically that there's a lot of good defenders, but when you're in the heat of the battle, in the struggle, it's hard to single out. Author took it as I dont have time for this question, have enough to worry about I read this a different way--I thought Ewing was saying that he has enough to worry about with how we are playing that he's not really worried about what other teams/players are doing defensively. "If we run our stuff well, let them try to stop us." Our offense has been good overall since defections, so I understand his point. However, when Xavier came out with something we didn't expect we didn't seem to have a Plan B. However, our only PG was also on the bench with 2 fouls during that stretch, too, which definitely exacerbated the problem. I hope this isn't his thought process, the team isn't talented enough to pull this off. Also makes me wonder if this is the philosophy on defense as well... As for the question seems to me he should be able to answer it without much thought considering the amount of game film he must watch to prepare the team for games right?
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madgesiq92
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Post by madgesiq92 on Jan 24, 2020 12:43:49 GMT -5
We would have to play zone to play them on court at same time. So why not give it a shot? I would think a zone with a back line of wahab yurt Pickett could be pretty effective. I don't disagree but the other night we played for one possession, gave up an offensive rebound and that was it.
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madgesiq92
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Post by madgesiq92 on Jan 24, 2020 12:44:59 GMT -5
I read this a different way--I thought Ewing was saying that he has enough to worry about with how we are playing that he's not really worried about what other teams/players are doing defensively. "If we run our stuff well, let them try to stop us." Our offense has been good overall since defections, so I understand his point. However, when Xavier came out with something we didn't expect we didn't seem to have a Plan B. However, our only PG was also on the bench with 2 fouls during that stretch, too, which definitely exacerbated the problem. I hope this isn't his thought process, the team isn't talented enough to pull this off. Also makes me wonder if this is the philosophy on defense as well... As for the question seems to me he should be able to answer it without much thought considering the amount of game film he must watch to prepare the team for games right? To make it clear, the bolded is the way I read the article and not a quote from Ewing.
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EtomicB
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Post by EtomicB on Jan 24, 2020 12:52:21 GMT -5
I hope this isn't his thought process, the team isn't talented enough to pull this off. Also makes me wonder if this is the philosophy on defense as well... As for the question seems to me he should be able to answer it without much thought considering the amount of game film he must watch to prepare the team for games right? To make it clear, the bolded is the way I read the article and not a quote from Ewing. I understood that
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bostonfan
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Post by bostonfan on Jan 24, 2020 12:57:03 GMT -5
I've said before I'm not an x's and o's guy. But it's obvious that Yurt is more comfortable playing outside the paint and Wahab is tougher inside the paint. I can see how the downside might be that they both pick up two fouls in the first five minutes. If we lose to Butler next Tuesday our season will be effectively over. Why not try something different? What have we got to lose, another NIT bid? We would have to play zone to play them on court at same time. I completely agree with this. If you are going to have both of these guys on the floor together, you need to utilize some zone defense. I think it could work well for a few minutes each game and should help with the rebounding issues the team is having lately.
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Post by FrazierFanatic on Jan 24, 2020 13:03:50 GMT -5
We would have to play zone to play them on court at same time. So why not give it a shot? I would think a zone with a back line of wahab yurt Pickett could be pretty effective. We can't defend the 3 now. Playing zone without taller guards who can get to and affect the outside shot will just exacerbate that. I am not against it for a possession or two now and then as a change of pace, but we don't have the personnel to play it for stretches of time.
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Post by johnnysnowplow on Jan 24, 2020 15:08:27 GMT -5
So why not give it a shot? I would think a zone with a back line of wahab yurt Pickett could be pretty effective. We can't defend the 3 now. Playing zone without taller guards who can get to and affect the outside shot will just exacerbate that. I am not against it for a possession or two now and then as a change of pace, but we don't have the personnel to play it for stretches of time. We don’t have the personnel to play whatever defense we’re playing right now either. We’re the worst defensive team in the BE by a country mile. How could trying something new possibly make it worse? Edit: Just to provide a couple numbers - we’re currently allowing 52.1% eFg% and just under 39% on 3s. These are horrid numbers. So again I say, how can a slight shift in personnel and defensive scheme possibly make it worse?
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EtomicB
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Post by EtomicB on Jan 24, 2020 15:19:07 GMT -5
We would have to play zone to play them on court at same time. So why not give it a shot? I would think a zone with a back line of wahab yurt Pickett could be pretty effective. Who sits Mac, Allen or Mosely?
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Post by johnnysnowplow on Jan 24, 2020 15:20:19 GMT -5
So why not give it a shot? I would think a zone with a back line of wahab yurt Pickett could be pretty effective. Who sits Allen or Mosely? Why do either have to sit? Why not go to wahab and the big lineup when Mac gets a rest?
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Post by johnnysnowplow on Jan 24, 2020 15:21:50 GMT -5
So why not give it a shot? I would think a zone with a back line of wahab yurt Pickett could be pretty effective. Who sits Mac, Allen or Mosely? Ah see you made the edit after I started quoting you already lol
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madgesiq92
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Post by madgesiq92 on Jan 24, 2020 15:22:23 GMT -5
So why not give it a shot? I would think a zone with a back line of wahab yurt Pickett could be pretty effective. Who sits Mac, Allen or Mosely? The one thing we don't have to worry about are guys getting frustrated because of sitting--any combination of the normal lineup with anyone from Allen, Mosely, or Mac getting a rest.
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