The legendary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp said “you don’t ask dancers to do what they don’t do, you ask dancers to do what they do.”
Kowalczyk has a keen appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of his players and while at times he can be brutally honest about their shortcomings he has proven to be adept at adapting the style and strategy to take advantage of his players capabilities and putting them in position to do what they do best.
Often while watching this season I am disappointed that no one on this team is ever going to do what RayJ Dennis or JT Shumate or Ryan Rollins or Spencer Littleson did best but, to his credit, Kowalczyk has adjusted to the skill set of his players and designed game plans to match their game.
What Raheim Moss, Dante Maddox, Javan Simmons and Tyler Cochrane do best is play tough, physical ball hawking defense and ferocious hard driving take it to the rim offense.
Unfortunately, with Moss, Maddox and Cochrane there is a lot of overlap of skills on this roster and the young reserve players (Lewis, Wilson, Ford, and Brcic) aren’t ready yet to consistently fill complementary roles. I’m still hopeful that Lorrentson with his height, energy and sharpshooting will find his niche in the Rocket rotation. Kowalczyk is pushing Wilson hard so he must see something there I’m missing.
I have never been fond of watching isolation basketball with a lot of dribbling and one on one playmaking but I love to watch a team play pressure defense that creates turnovers and runs the floor in transition. If this cast of players is going to win that is how they will do it.
(01-07-2024 11:25 PM)Sleepy Wrote: [ -> ]The legendary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp said “you don’t ask dancers to do what they don’t do, you ask dancers to do what they do.”
Kowalczyk has a keen appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of his players and while at times he can be brutally honest about their shortcomings he has proven to be adept at adapting the style and strategy to take advantage of his players capabilities and putting them in position to do what they do best.
Often while watching this season I am disappointed that no one on this team is ever going to do what RayJ Dennis or JT Shumate or Ryan Rollins or Spencer Littleson did best but, to his credit, Kowalczyk has adjusted to the skill set of his players and designed game plans to match their game.
What Raheim Moss, Dante Maddox, Javan Simmons and Tyler Cochrane do best is play tough, physical ball hawking defense and ferocious hard driving take it to the rim offense.
Unfortunately, with Moss, Maddox and Cochrane there is a lot of overlap of skills on this roster and the young reserve players (Lewis, Wilson, Ford, and Brcic) aren’t ready yet to consistently fill complementary roles. I’m still hopeful that Lorrentson with his height, energy and sharpshooting will find his niche in the Rocket rotation. Kowalczyk is pushing Wilson hard so he must see something there I’m missing.
I have never been fond of watching isolation basketball with a lot of dribbling and one on one playmaking but I love to watch a team play pressure defense that creates turnovers and runs the floor in transition. If this cast of players is going to win that is how they will do it.
Quite honestly, this is the style that you see successful in the ncaa tourney these days. It’s not pretty a lot of the time but sure seems to be what works for a lot of teams that win those games.
(01-07-2024 11:32 PM)adunifon Wrote: [ -> ] (01-07-2024 11:25 PM)Sleepy Wrote: [ -> ]The legendary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp said “you don’t ask dancers to do what they don’t do, you ask dancers to do what they do.”
Kowalczyk has a keen appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of his players and while at times he can be brutally honest about their shortcomings he has proven to be adept at adapting the style and strategy to take advantage of his players capabilities and putting them in position to do what they do best.
Often while watching this season I am disappointed that no one on this team is ever going to do what RayJ Dennis or JT Shumate or Ryan Rollins or Spencer Littleson did best but, to his credit, Kowalczyk has adjusted to the skill set of his players and designed game plans to match their game.
What Raheim Moss, Dante Maddox, Javan Simmons and Tyler Cochrane do best is play tough, physical ball hawking defense and ferocious hard driving take it to the rim offense.
Unfortunately, with Moss, Maddox and Cochrane there is a lot of overlap of skills on this roster and the young reserve players (Lewis, Wilson, Ford, and Brcic) aren’t ready yet to consistently fill complementary roles. I’m still hopeful that Lorrentson with his height, energy and sharpshooting will find his niche in the Rocket rotation. Kowalczyk is pushing Wilson hard so he must see something there I’m missing.
I have never been fond of watching isolation basketball with a lot of dribbling and one on one playmaking but I love to watch a team play pressure defense that creates turnovers and runs the floor in transition. If this cast of players is going to win that is how they will do it.
Quite honestly, this is the style that you see successful in the ncaa tourney these days. It’s not pretty a lot of the time but sure seems to be what works for a lot of teams that win those games.
It's very Wright State like of years when they won the Horizon. I wouldn't go as far as say we sit down and play good defense though... we aren't the quickest of foot, but rather handsy and like to hit the passing lanes. If Lorenston can step up as a guy who fires 5 threes a game and makes 2 or 3 a game then we will be in better shape for a tourney style team. We don't shoot awesome and we leave a lot of guys open from 3.
(01-07-2024 11:25 PM)Sleepy Wrote: [ -> ]The legendary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp said “you don’t ask dancers to do what they don’t do, you ask dancers to do what they do.”
Kowalczyk has a keen appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of his players and while at times he can be brutally honest about their shortcomings he has proven to be adept at adapting the style and strategy to take advantage of his players capabilities and putting them in position to do what they do best.
Often while watching this season I am disappointed that no one on this team is ever going to do what RayJ Dennis or JT Shumate or Ryan Rollins or Spencer Littleson did best but, to his credit, Kowalczyk has adjusted to the skill set of his players and designed game plans to match their game.
What Raheim Moss, Dante Maddox, Javan Simmons and Tyler Cochrane do best is play tough, physical ball hawking defense and ferocious hard driving take it to the rim offense.
Unfortunately, with Moss, Maddox and Cochrane there is a lot of overlap of skills on this roster and the young reserve players (Lewis, Wilson, Ford, and Brcic) aren’t ready yet to consistently fill complementary roles. I’m still hopeful that Lorrentson with his height, energy and sharpshooting will find his niche in the Rocket rotation. Kowalczyk is pushing Wilson hard so he must see something there I’m missing.
I have never been fond of watching isolation basketball with a lot of dribbling and one on one playmaking but I love to watch a team play pressure defense that creates turnovers and runs the floor in transition. If this cast of players is going to win that is how they will do it.
Thanks Sleepy
This team seems to be the 2nd to 3rd least overall talented team of the TK era outside his first 2 seasons. This team is still lacking major play making chemistry. I don’t see that suddenly erupting out of thin air. The discussion in my season ticket area last game was the lack of a “go to” big time player. This team just feels flat. I know TK was very high on this group preseason- he stated last season we would be better that ‘22 and he was right but he was maybe overconfident this season. I’m not sold on Cochran favoring his game to offense over D but we need the points. I’m hoping this team can CLAW it’s was to 18-19 wins and that seems like a season success. TK will heavily prune roster for ‘25. I think TK thought he was going to get 2 better portal players than we got but we’re here.
Go Rockets!!
(01-08-2024 12:05 PM)IamN2daRockets! Wrote: [ -> ] (01-07-2024 11:25 PM)Sleepy Wrote: [ -> ]The legendary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp said “you don’t ask dancers to do what they don’t do, you ask dancers to do what they do.”
Kowalczyk has a keen appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of his players and while at times he can be brutally honest about their shortcomings he has proven to be adept at adapting the style and strategy to take advantage of his players capabilities and putting them in position to do what they do best.
Often while watching this season I am disappointed that no one on this team is ever going to do what RayJ Dennis or JT Shumate or Ryan Rollins or Spencer Littleson did best but, to his credit, Kowalczyk has adjusted to the skill set of his players and designed game plans to match their game.
What Raheim Moss, Dante Maddox, Javan Simmons and Tyler Cochrane do best is play tough, physical ball hawking defense and ferocious hard driving take it to the rim offense.
Unfortunately, with Moss, Maddox and Cochrane there is a lot of overlap of skills on this roster and the young reserve players (Lewis, Wilson, Ford, and Brcic) aren’t ready yet to consistently fill complementary roles. I’m still hopeful that Lorrentson with his height, energy and sharpshooting will find his niche in the Rocket rotation. Kowalczyk is pushing Wilson hard so he must see something there I’m missing.
I have never been fond of watching isolation basketball with a lot of dribbling and one on one playmaking but I love to watch a team play pressure defense that creates turnovers and runs the floor in transition. If this cast of players is going to win that is how they will do it.
Thanks Sleepy
This team seems to be the 2nd to 3rd least overall talented team of the TK era outside his first 2 seasons. This team is still lacking major play making chemistry. I don’t see that suddenly erupting out of thin air. The discussion in my season ticket area last game was the lack of a “go to” big time player. This team just feels flat. I know TK was very high on this group preseason- he stated last season we would be better that ‘22 and he was right but he was maybe overconfident this season. I’m not sold on Cochran favoring his game to offense over D but we need the points. I’m hoping this team can CLAW it’s was to 18-19 wins and that seems like a season success. TK will heavily prune roster for ‘25. I think TK thought he was going to get 2 better portal players than we got but we’re here.
Go Rockets!!
We lead the conference in points scored, so I think it's just a shock not to have someone average over 17ppg, and not a lack of offense. Our scoring is mostly from pace and amt of possessions, but the league as a whole is pretty poor offensively. Acuff is probably the best offensive player in the MAC.
This board may not be ready for a team with a bunch of 10 to 14 pt scorers and need to win games 65-58 like the majority of NCAA has to. We were extremely blessed the past 3 seasons... it's not always gona be that easy to score 80.
(01-07-2024 11:25 PM)Sleepy Wrote: [ -> ]The legendary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp said “you don’t ask dancers to do what they don’t do, you ask dancers to do what they do.”
Kowalczyk has a keen appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of his players and while at times he can be brutally honest about their shortcomings he has proven to be adept at adapting the style and strategy to take advantage of his players capabilities and putting them in position to do what they do best.
Often while watching this season I am disappointed that no one on this team is ever going to do what RayJ Dennis or JT Shumate or Ryan Rollins or Spencer Littleson did best but, to his credit, Kowalczyk has adjusted to the skill set of his players and designed game plans to match their game.
What Raheim Moss, Dante Maddox, Javan Simmons and Tyler Cochrane do best is play tough, physical ball hawking defense and ferocious hard driving take it to the rim offense.
Unfortunately, with Moss, Maddox and Cochrane there is a lot of overlap of skills on this roster and the young reserve players (Lewis, Wilson, Ford, and Brcic) aren’t ready yet to consistently fill complementary roles. I’m still hopeful that Lorrentson with his height, energy and sharpshooting will find his niche in the Rocket rotation. Kowalczyk is pushing Wilson hard so he must see something there I’m missing.
I have never been fond of watching isolation basketball with a lot of dribbling and one on one playmaking but I love to watch a team play pressure defense that creates turnovers and runs the floor in transition. If this cast of players is going to win that is how they will do it.
I agree as I stated in earlier post, TK has done a nice job adapting his game strategy to the skill set of his roster this season which is completely different than past 3 years. I think we cannot complain too much about how we are playing offensively. It is on the defensive end where we have lacked consistently half to half and game to game. Despite Miami being somewhat challenged offensively, if we can "bottle" that second half defensive effort from Friday night and bring it to the court consistently that would pay huge dividends down the road.
The difference in scoring seems to be bench contributions. Prior years bench scoring was very low. This is a reflection of depth, even though it is young depth. This stat bodes well for the season. A lot of guys score in double digits and the bench contributes.
(01-08-2024 02:07 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote: [ -> ] (01-07-2024 11:25 PM)Sleepy Wrote: [ -> ]The legendary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp said “you don’t ask dancers to do what they don’t do, you ask dancers to do what they do.”
Kowalczyk has a keen appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of his players and while at times he can be brutally honest about their shortcomings he has proven to be adept at adapting the style and strategy to take advantage of his players capabilities and putting them in position to do what they do best.
Often while watching this season I am disappointed that no one on this team is ever going to do what RayJ Dennis or JT Shumate or Ryan Rollins or Spencer Littleson did best but, to his credit, Kowalczyk has adjusted to the skill set of his players and designed game plans to match their game.
What Raheim Moss, Dante Maddox, Javan Simmons and Tyler Cochrane do best is play tough, physical ball hawking defense and ferocious hard driving take it to the rim offense.
Unfortunately, with Moss, Maddox and Cochrane there is a lot of overlap of skills on this roster and the young reserve players (Lewis, Wilson, Ford, and Brcic) aren’t ready yet to consistently fill complementary roles. I’m still hopeful that Lorrentson with his height, energy and sharpshooting will find his niche in the Rocket rotation. Kowalczyk is pushing Wilson hard so he must see something there I’m missing.
I have never been fond of watching isolation basketball with a lot of dribbling and one on one playmaking but I love to watch a team play pressure defense that creates turnovers and runs the floor in transition. If this cast of players is going to win that is how they will do it.
I agree as I stated in earlier post, TK has done a nice job adapting his game strategy to the skill set of his roster this season which is completely different than past 3 years. I think we cannot complain too much about how we are playing offensively. It is on the defensive end where we have lacked consistently half to half and game to game. Despite Miami being somewhat challenged offensively, if we can "bottle" that second half defensive effort from Friday night and bring it to the court consistently that would pay huge dividends down the road.
Agree. Too many defensive lapses. That should improve as the season goes on (we hope). Again, coaching should help that. Too many easy baskets for the other teams. How many by people in the wrong place? Don't know. Would love to be a mouse in film sessions.
I think when Brcic returns it will help. I thought he was on a slow upward trajectory where he would be more helpful by the end of the season, when he got "sick".
Marko is a proven scorer. I have no idea about his defense since he has not played many minutes. I would like to see him get some time in the rotation.
(01-09-2024 09:00 AM)Rocket75 Wrote: [ -> ]Marko is a proven scorer. I have no idea about his defense since he has not played many minutes. I would like to see him get some time in the rotation.
TK keeps his minutes spread pretty tight even with depth. I still have no feel for what Wight can offer this team and even less with Marko.
This team needs Wight and Brcic's height big time as conference play gets underway. We've been talking about UT's drive to the hoop personality this season but with Marko's 3 ball it would seem he and Maddox could open up the floor more for UT to prevent collapsing D's. This team is going to evolve for sure.
Kent game is a big one so early in the season and on the road. Huge game tomorrow! Kent is 1-1 8-6 with a loss at EMU last Saturday. Perhaps UT & K are both down a bit from last season but hard not to be. Long term rivals on the court with Kent getting best of us for most of last 12 years or more. Time for a change.
Go Rockets!