(11-21-2013 08:40 AM)Overrated Wrote:  

(11-20-2013 10:33 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  I'm glad Mick was pissed. I hated what I saw tonight. They reverted back to last year's offense tonight. Four guys standing and watching the guy with the ball. Shaq cut through the lane many times, every time though he had his head down not looking for a pass. They did not seem to give the effort that they had been giving so far this year.

Lawrence is making me nervous, he looks like a scared puppy out there. Any time he has to think something bad happens. For the moment he reminds me of a more gifted version of Jermaine Sanders.

Like apoe I don't really agree with your complaints. I did see some possessions without the movement we have seen in previous games, but overall they did a really good job at getting to the basket and finishing, resulting in a great shooting percentage. They only shot 33% on 3's, but even that is like shooting 50% on 2's and I thought the vast majority of the looks were good. I even thought they passed up a couple of open looks, but that was mainly KJ who has really been struggling with his shot in games.

I also don't agree with the Lawrence/Sanders comparison at all. Sanders in the past has often seem tentative and slow, afraid to make a mistake. Lawrence has been the exact opposite, almost forcing it too much at times which results in turnovers. His length has resulted in quite a few blocks and put backs though. He just needs to settle into the college game and get stronger, but I think that comparison misses the boat badly.

The problems I saw in this game came on the defensive end of the court. We turned it over too much and shot free throws poorly for the first time all year, but when you score as efficiently as we did, you should absolutely manhandle a team as bad as Campbell. And while that game was never close, it wasn't the beat down it should have been. That was because of how poorly we defended and rebounded. I thought we defended the interior pretty well, although even that go a little lazy in the second half. But our three point defense was terrible. Sometimes a team will make tough shots that will keep them in the game (I thought this happened early against NC State or that game would have gotten out of hand earlier), but last night they were consistently getting open or weakly contested 3's and they hit them consistently. Allowing a team to shoot 11/22 from 3 when you know that's their game is going to infuriate Mick, who takes pride in his staff's ability to scout opponents.

Also, while we rebounded 44% of our misses last night, which is a great number (and has been a strength of ours all season), we allowed them to get 43% of their misses, which is awful, and also has been a problem so far this season. Allowing teams to get what they want on offense and then get a ridiculous amount of the rebounds when they do in fact miss is a great way to piss off our coaching staff. That simply can't happen.

Our defensive numbers this year (beside defensive rebounding) have been good so I'm not sure I agree with BJ. But last night was sure a disappointment on that end of the court.

The fact that Mick is so upset though is a sign that he thinks this team can be really good though. I don't think any of us were sure coming into this season how they would preform and there are still a lot of questions given the weak schedule so far, but our offense to this point has been as good as we have seen it under Mick. If the defense can be as good as he expects it to be (and defensive possessions don't end until we get the ball back), that has the makings of a really good team.

I would agree. This team seems to have a higher ceiling than what I thought it could. And though we really won't know as much until we start playing some better quality competition, I think they are playing better than I expected. If they clean some things up defensively and on the glass this could be a special year.