Murry doesn’t trust the 3. He discourages this team from shooting it. I think that’s a mistake, and it’s costing us.
Granted – this team is not a great 3 point shooting team. But anytime you’re hitting about .330, it’s equivalent to .50% from 2 and a useful tool.
When you’re a marginal 3 point shooting team, it’s like a football team running the ball and only averaging 3 yards a carry. You can’t just say “Hey, it’s not working – let’s just pass”. The other team loads up on pass rushes and squashes your passing. You need to make them respect the run – to keep driving it at them so that they will be off balance.
Teams are backing it in on us and daring us to shoot the 3 – Jacksonville certainly did last night. We need to make them respect the 3.
Murry’s use of Micah and Jarvis can be understood mostly by his aversion to 3’s. Use them only if they’re redhot – take them out immediately at the first sign of cooling. Or even before – can’t risk missing a 3.
You’ve got to coach taking three’s, and encourage your team to take it with confidence. If Murry sends them out for the second half saying “don’t settle for 3’s” it is a recipe for failure. We will do exactly what we did last night: pass up open 3’s. And when we do take them, it will be without confidence, looking over our shoulder at the coach.
We attempted 11 three's in regulation - the worst shooting team in the A-Sun, UNF, averages 15 per game.
We were 1-4 from 3 in the second half. Attempt only 4 from three in a half and you are using only half of your offense. It will cost you.
I think that this has gotten serious enough to be worth a separate thread.
Good point. Is this the problem w/ Courtney being in a funk? Not giving him the green light to shoot the 3? You have people than can hit it - use it. Geez, Micah was a good example of that last night. This whole thing could sink this team.
Another thing, and this really makes me angry at Bartow. In the Press this morning he is quoted as saying (paraphrasing) 'we just pray he (Adam Sollazzo) can hit 1 of 2 when he goes to the free throw line.' Now wait a minute. 1) Don't say that in the paper! 2) Free throws are really about confidence in shooting them. Any confidence Adam may have is now shot. 3) Can't you teach him HOW to shoot free throws? The guy hit a 14 footer w/ 30 ticks left, meaning he can shoot halfway decent. I mean, the guy is no Dillion Sneed. This blows me away. The kid didn't have a great stat line, but you don't do that to him in the paper the next day. MAYBE, Murry, he shouldn't have been in their in the first place to miss the free throws!
So North Florida beats Upstate last night. Granted, we should win easily, but they are playing better. Don't come out flat.... But I bet we do.
In reference to Bartow-
Don't get upset about his quote on Sollazzo.
Think about this- don't you think Bartow has got on Sollazzo in practice for his free throw shooting? All he's being in the paper is honest.
Which is refreshing coming from ETSU for a change.
If Bartow says anything else about Sollazzo's free throw shooting, he's lost credibility.
(01-31-2009 10:17 AM)GoBucsGo Wrote: [ -> ]Good point. Is this the problem w/ Courtney being in a funk? Not giving him the green light to shoot the 3? You have people than can hit it - use it. Geez, Micah was a good example of that last night. This whole thing could sink this team.
Another thing, and this really makes me angry at Bartow. In the Press this morning he is quoted as saying (paraphrasing) 'we just pray he (Adam Sollazzo) can hit 1 of 2 when he goes to the free throw line.' Now wait a minute. 1) Don't say that in the paper! 2) Free throws are really about confidence in shooting them. Any confidence Adam may have is now shot. 3) Can't you teach him HOW to shoot free throws? The guy hit a 14 footer w/ 30 ticks left, meaning he can shoot halfway decent. I mean, the guy is no Dillion Sneed. This blows me away. The kid didn't have a great stat line, but you don't do that to him in the paper the next day. MAYBE, Murry, he shouldn't have been in their in the first place to miss the free throws!
So North Florida beats Upstate last night. Granted, we should win easily, but they are playing better. Don't come out flat.... But I bet we do.
(01-31-2009 10:40 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote: [ -> ]In reference to Bartow-
Don't get upset about his quote on Sollazzo.
Think about this- don't you think Bartow has got on Sollazzo in practice for his free throw shooting? All he's being in the paper is honest.
Which is refreshing coming from ETSU for a change.
If Bartow says anything else about Sollazzo's free throw shooting, he's lost credibility.
(01-31-2009 10:17 AM)GoBucsGo Wrote: [ -> ]Good point. Is this the problem w/ Courtney being in a funk? Not giving him the green light to shoot the 3? You have people than can hit it - use it. Geez, Micah was a good example of that last night. This whole thing could sink this team.
Another thing, and this really makes me angry at Bartow. In the Press this morning he is quoted as saying (paraphrasing) 'we just pray he (Adam Sollazzo) can hit 1 of 2 when he goes to the free throw line.' Now wait a minute. 1) Don't say that in the paper! 2) Free throws are really about confidence in shooting them. Any confidence Adam may have is now shot. 3) Can't you teach him HOW to shoot free throws? The guy hit a 14 footer w/ 30 ticks left, meaning he can shoot halfway decent. I mean, the guy is no Dillion Sneed. This blows me away. The kid didn't have a great stat line, but you don't do that to him in the paper the next day. MAYBE, Murry, he shouldn't have been in their in the first place to miss the free throws!
So North Florida beats Upstate last night. Granted, we should win easily, but they are playing better. Don't come out flat.... But I bet we do.
Don't know this as fact, but I would bet that Sollazzo is a good FT shooter in practice. He admitted after the last time we played Jacksonville and he clanked two FT's that he got nervous. If he can't handle the pressure at the end of games he doesn't need to be in the game late. I hope Murry hasn't been telling Adam that we only want you to hit 1-2. We can't have a PG out on the floor late in games that is a 48% FT shooter, can't do it.
Sollazzo is a big boy now and should be able to take justified criticism - there is plenty of that to go around from last night - from the coach and team leaders on down.
He showed more gumption than Courtney & Tiggs in going to the hoop for baskets - that's a big plus.
But his free throw shooting is a liability that needs work. Period.
And last night his ballhandling was shaky against quick, physical, aggressive defense - too many turnovers and a failure to create offensive opportunities. You expect this with a freshman from time to time - but we need him to do better.
Does anyone know if Adam was a good foul shooter in high school?
If he hits that last one last night..we probably win.. but, I really like the way he is playing..much more confident.. he had a lot to do with our being in a position to win..if our two big guns..top scorers in the league had shot their average, we would have won going away.. even if one of them had, we probably win... instead of the bucs.. maybe JU will have a let down after that and lose the next one..we have to have them slip up somewhere..
(01-31-2009 09:06 PM)bucfan1968 Wrote: [ -> ]Does anyone know if Adam was a good foul shooter in high school?
If he hits that last one last night..we probably win.. but, I really like the way he is playing..much more confident.. he had a lot to do with our being in a position to win..if our two big guns..top scorers in the league had shot their average, we would have won going away.. even if one of them had, we probably win... instead of the bucs.. maybe JU will have a let down after that and lose the next one..we have to have them slip up somewhere..
No - he was not great. Around 60% if I remember correctly.
By the by - I did not intend for this to be a 'rag on Sollazzo' thread - his play has been GREAT this year, unexpectedly so. His IMPROVEMENT has been great this year - also unexpectedly so. Without him we don't beat Stetson or Lipscomb. When he's on, he gives us a great new dimension. And I have written several glowing posts about this.
There is NO reason he cannot become a better free throw shooter. There is NO reason he cannot handle the ball better against pressure - we have all seen him do it. But I agree with PIttbuc that it is absolutely fair - and even our duty - to point out these things.
Even last night, it was great to see him looking aggressively and effectively to score. I wish Courtney and TIggs had done so well.
Had we not been 1-4 from three in the second half - had we taken another three or 2, and hit only 1 more - then we would all be posting about our big win. It wasn't our only problem - had our second half rebounding been as good as our first half, we win by 5 or 6. So why wasn't it better - Kevin - Courtney - Isiah?? Each of you had 0 rebounds in the second half. Rebounds are mostly effort and desire.
But what I thought was worth a separate thread here was Coach's failure to use the three point shooting skill that we have.
not sure i would classify a team shooting 33% from three point range and 47% overall a very good shooting team.
(02-01-2009 08:54 AM)Bucfaithful Wrote: [ -> ]Sollazzo was a good FT shooter in H.S.: 136-176, 77% (see link below, which btw, is an excellent site for player stats in h.s.)
Seems to me that the young man has simply lost his mo jo at the line.
http://www.maxpreps.com/florida/basketba...cal,player
Our 3 point field goal percentage has shrunk to 32.7 with a rank of 227th nationally and 7th in the A-Sun.
Our 3 point field goal’s attempted totals 370, which ranks 188th nationally and 6th in the A-Sun.
The trend in these numbers has been downward since about the Belmont game – a trend which coincides with Murry’s comments discouraging 3 point shots. For example, we went into the Lipscomb game averaging .412 from three in our first 6 conference games. Hard to say which was ‘cause’ and which was ‘effect’, but the comments and the downward trend are part of a self-reinforcing cycle.
My point is not that we are a great 3 point shooting. But I think that, properly used, we should be at least an average 3 point team, with 2 guys (Tiggs and Smith) well above .330.
Give up on the 3’s and you give up on half of your offense. You simplify your opponents’ problem of how to defend your team. In our recent great freezeup against Jacksonville, we stopped shooting 3’s in the second half. It wasn’t because other aspects of our offense were going particularly well, and it
certainly did not help us generate offense elsewhere.
The example that I used was not of a great running football team, but a MARGINAL running team, averaging 3 yards per carry. The conventional football wisdom there is clear – you must keep up a significant running attack, even if it is not highly productive, or your opponent will simply focus on shutting down other aspects of your offense.
I believe that the same logic applies to a team that is average to marginal from 3: you must keep the 3 as a significant part of your attack or ALL of your offense will suffer. I’ll say again – making only 4 attempts from 3 in the second half is unnecessarily limiting your offense and will cost you.
PS – sorry about the Sollazzo high school freethrow stats – my son posted that one under my name without checking his figures. I do try to check before I make a claim about stats. Thanks for correcting us. It makes it all the more clear that Sollazzo can and should be hitting his free throws.
7 seconds to go. 3 point lead. 4 defenders under the bucket and only one outside
the arc. Coaches must have gone brain dead. All 5 defenders should have been at
the half line. Should have fouled as soon as they cross midcourt. They make two and
we get ball back with 1 point lead and almost no time remaining. Bartow can blame
anyone he wants to but needs to take a long look in the mirror.
roll of the dice either way. not to mention we had a pretty good shot to win on our own.uote='bukup' pid='3945861' dateline='1233518114']
7 seconds to go. 3 point lead. 4 defenders under the bucket and only one outside
the arc. Coaches must have gone brain dead. All 5 defenders should have been at
the half line. Should have fouled as soon as they cross midcourt. They make two and
we get ball back with 1 point lead and almost no time remaining. Bartow can blame
anyone he wants to but needs to take a long look in the mirror.
[/quote]
I saw two games on Saturday with similar situations as the ETSU/JU game, and both teams that were up 3 fouled and put the guy on the line (I think one was the Xavier game, can't remember the other). In both cases, the team that was up by 3 won the game. I think the odds would have been in our favor to win had we fouled. I know, hindsight is 20/20....
ETSU's neglect of the 3 point shot got even worse at North Florida: 2-6 from three. 3 attempts in each half. 6 three point attempts for the entire game. One of those was a Courtney Pigram three that finally put us ahead to stay.
That's following on the heels of only 13 attempts at Jacksonville.
What goes on here? For a while we were getting 6-8 made three pointers a game. Belmont did not stop taking 3's when they went through a stretch of games averaging 27%. We have been rather good from 3 at times, and are certainly no worse than average.
We will not win many more games taking only 6 three point shots.