The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(03-22-2018 04:26 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  

(03-22-2018 01:33 PM)JJMonarch Wrote:  

(03-22-2018 01:14 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  I used basketball reference because I really didn't care if he's listed at 6-8 or 7-4 and I'm not going to spend the time searching several avenues and reconciling a number that is meaningless. Carver is listed at like 6-7 or something crazy, fwiw.

Yes, Purdue has multiple big men that can play. So does Kentucky and Texas A&M. Many of the others on the list do not. If Wagner goes down, Michigan is not going to get much from their big(s).

I don't think we can blame only scheme on the freshman not playing. Some of it was them just not being good enough to get into the rotation as freshman.

Exactly, we pushed the ball at every opportunity. Even in the conference tournament game we lost, the sideline commentator mentioned after a timeout that Jones was telling his team in the huddle to push the ball more when the opportunity was there. He was happy with the defense we were playing but wanted us to be more aggressive on offense. Gilesfan is exactly right about the playing time our freshmen guards received. Whether we agree with Jones or not, the coach believed we were a better team on the floor with the guys he played. The scheme was not the reason our freshmen didn't play against WKY.

If you failed to see Jeff's "scheme" in play during the last game against WKU then I'm not likely to change your mind, however that doesn't mean it wasn't evident.

Exhibit (A) - Jeff starts the game in a zone defense - which he has admitted this season he isn't nearly as comfortable playing - and ODU jumps out to a 5-7 point lead in the first 7-10 minutes. He then reverts to what he is comfortable with - Jeff's defense scheme - and switches to a man-to-man. Not only does everyone realize that WKU plays much worse offensively against a zone, but it was providing noticeable results, yet Jeff abandoned it anyway. WKU blitzed ODU the remainder of the half, got us in foul trouble with their drives inside, and led by several points going into halftime. To his credit, he opened with the zone again in the 2nd half and eventually overcame the halftime deficit to take a 1 point lead. Still lost, but it is a real head scratcher as to why he left what was working, especially since he had yet to defeat WKU in two prior tries playing mostly his man-to-man. He couldn't get away from his comfort zone (no pun intended).

Exhibit (B) - How many 3 point attempts did ODU make against WKU in the Conference Tournament (very few)? What was their shooting percentage from 3 that game (pathetic)? How many points did their anemic offence put up (49)? Did ODU's best three point shooters play in the game (NO)? Why not, especially since the offense was struggling to score? The answer is fairly simple - they don't fit Jeff's defensive man-to-man scheme since they apparently don't play it as well as he wants them to. Because of that he doesn't play them. If they were at Marshall each would have possibly averaged double figures and gone to the NCAA Tournament because they play a different scheme where 3 point shooting is a highly desired commodity. Yes, Jeff's scheme did play into their lack of playing time. It's not all Jeff's fault though since he has played the same style since he has been here and they should know that coming in. Jeff did give the guys more leeway in increasing the tempo, but we in no way could be confused with playing like Marshall offensively. They are two totally different styles/schemes that puts a premium on different skill sets.

You are correct in that I am not changing my mind and I am sure you are not changing yours. However, I am fairly certain both of our freshman guards would not have averaged double figures playing for Marshall. Of course that is debatable but Marshall had two very solid guards in Burkes and Elmore. I think they both averaged over 20 PPG so I doubt Hueitt and Godwin would have averaged double figures. Plus you admitted yourself that we played a lot of zone against Western so the man to man scheme is not why our freshmen didn't get into the game. As I mentioned in my first comments, we might not agree with who Jones played but the bottom line is he thought we had a better chance to win with the players he put on the floor. Our offense went south in that game, no doubt about that. Would I have liked to see him throw in Godwin and Hueitt to see what they could do? Absolutely, but that didn't happen. I think one of his schemes is that we hit some threes and knock down our foul shots with the players that got us there. Easy to sit back now and be critical. We all watched our Monarchs all season and everyone within earshot heard him telling our players all year to push the ball. Heck, when Hueitt and Godwin were in the game he ran plays for them it seemed on almost every possession. But for anyone to suggest they would average double figures for Marshall is highly questionable.