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(01-31-2013 02:26 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  And not many people are. We were lucky having Squeaky and AJ back to back. Most teams aren't going to have one of the better PG's in the school's history on them.

Actually not back to back. How can you forget PDIII

Was this win a sign that the team has "gelled" and will go on to improve and win even more games? Or was the game just a blessed game where UAB didn't "lose it" quite as badly as UTEP? We will get a chance to find out Saturday.

Q was very solid in the second half. He didn't score to speak of but he got the ball to guys who could.

Yep. A good point guard can take over a game without scoring a point.

(01-31-2013 03:32 PM)58-56 Wrote:  And on the subject of turnovers, I hope we've seen the last throw-in by Alexander Scotland-Williamson.

(01-31-2013 03:02 PM)BlazrDawg Wrote:  

(01-31-2013 02:13 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  Steve Mitchell mentioned it in the radio broadcast, but you need to get the ball to your PG's whenever possible.

There was a time late when Robert Williams was bringing the ball up & ended up turning it over.

The guards need to go after the ball & demand the ball.

Mitchell certainly would have done that as well as Squeaky, AJ or any good guard.

There were several instances when non-ball handlers were bringing up the ball and more times than not, it resulted in turnovers. I got pretty pi$$ed about that sort of sloppy play last night ( and in other games as well) and blame the coaches for not developing schemes that get implemented consistently to keep the ball in the hands of the right guys when getting the ball inbounds and/or upcourt.

Our primary PGs are Quincy and TJ. Someone will probably blast me for saying this without looking at the stats, but I've watched every game this year and those two turn it over more than anyone.

We just don't have a great ball handler on roster. I can't say that for certain about Hoopy bc we havent seen much of him, but obviously he's not that great or Haase would be playing him instead of watching us turn it over 16 times a game.

All I know is I have seen Q and TJ dribble it out of bounds/off their feet more times than I could ever have imagined possible.

(01-31-2013 06:34 PM)amsterdam1702 Wrote:  

(01-31-2013 03:02 PM)BlazrDawg Wrote:  

(01-31-2013 02:13 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  Steve Mitchell mentioned it in the radio broadcast, but you need to get the ball to your PG's whenever possible.

There was a time late when Robert Williams was bringing the ball up & ended up turning it over.

The guards need to go after the ball & demand the ball.

Mitchell certainly would have done that as well as Squeaky, AJ or any good guard.

There were several instances when non-ball handlers were bringing up the ball and more times than not, it resulted in turnovers. I got pretty pi$$ed about that sort of sloppy play last night ( and in other games as well) and blame the coaches for not developing schemes that get implemented consistently to keep the ball in the hands of the right guys when getting the ball inbounds and/or upcourt.

Our primary PGs are Quincy and TJ. Someone will probably blast me for saying this without looking at the stats, but I've watched every game this year and those two turn it over more than anyone.

We just don't have a great ball handler on roster. I can't say that for certain about Hoopy bc we havent seen much of him, but obviously he's not that great or Haase would be playing him instead of watching us turn it over 16 times a game.

All I know is I have seen Q and TJ dribble it out of bounds/off their feet more times than I could ever have imagined possible.

Rod Rucker and Robert Williams both turn the ball over more than Quincy.

Say what you will about turnovers...and we know they are bad.

But this team has a better assist/turnover ratio right now than the 2009-2010 team, and the same as 2007-2008.

We are averaging 3 assists per game better than the year Aaron Johnson was leading the nation in assists.

It's not as bad as we think. And it is getting better.

TJ has played almost twice as many minutes as QT. TJ leads the team in turnovers with 70. QT has 34.

Rucker is second with 53 turnovers. Williams is third with 50.

I'll look into normalizing the data by minutes played/turnovers.

Here you go.

ASW 5.92 mins per turnover
TJ 8.72
QT 10.52
Williams 10.72
Rucker 12.90
Purifoy 14.31
Hoopy 16.85
Swing 19.68
Ali 19.73

Personally, I think QT is a pure point guard and least more so of one than TJ. Quincy has been a really good (and possibly underrated) on ball defender and plays with a lot of effort on the defensive end. Even though his turnover's are a lot less than TJ's (with the data not being normalized), it seems to me that he has tended to make a lot of unforced turnovers, and while TJ has as well, TJ's a better/more aggressive scorer, and I think that's why he's been getting more minutes. Quincy has improved a lot recently, and I hope it continues...we really need him to play well as a point guard for our team to be successful in our remaining games, in my opinion.

Sidenote: I don't think I've ever seen a team make so many unforced turnovers, i.e. stepping over the inbounds line to pass it in, passing it right to the other team when they aren't pressing. We did a better job avoiding those kind of mistakes in the 2nd half last night, and I think we'll do much better in the rest of our C-USA if avoid those stupid, stupid mistakes. (Not that that isn't obvious, but I felt it needed to be stated).

Unforced turnovers is very much the difference.

Cutting down on them really would help.

Even if Hoopy isn't 100%, he's no ASW. This team is short on bodies. I think he should be getting some minutes, until he absolutely proves that he doesn't deserve them. I'm still not impressed with QT. TJ is doing the best he can as an off guard with a scorer's mentality playing point.

Not to stir the pot, but AJ turned the ball over 3.5 times per game his last season. I think some people forget how many poor turnovers he had as well.(I specifically remember Memphis taking the ball from him when he was staring at Davis because I noted that this was eventually going to happen a couple of games before it did) He just had many, many more assists than our two PGs now.

(01-31-2013 06:48 PM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(01-31-2013 06:34 PM)amsterdam1702 Wrote:  

(01-31-2013 03:02 PM)BlazrDawg Wrote:  

(01-31-2013 02:13 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  Steve Mitchell mentioned it in the radio broadcast, but you need to get the ball to your PG's whenever possible.

There was a time late when Robert Williams was bringing the ball up & ended up turning it over.

The guards need to go after the ball & demand the ball.

Mitchell certainly would have done that as well as Squeaky, AJ or any good guard.

There were several instances when non-ball handlers were bringing up the ball and more times than not, it resulted in turnovers. I got pretty pi$$ed about that sort of sloppy play last night ( and in other games as well) and blame the coaches for not developing schemes that get implemented consistently to keep the ball in the hands of the right guys when getting the ball inbounds and/or upcourt.

Our primary PGs are Quincy and TJ. Someone will probably blast me for saying this without looking at the stats, but I've watched every game this year and those two turn it over more than anyone.

We just don't have a great ball handler on roster. I can't say that for certain about Hoopy bc we havent seen much of him, but obviously he's not that great or Haase would be playing him instead of watching us turn it over 16 times a game.

All I know is I have seen Q and TJ dribble it out of bounds/off their feet more times than I could ever have imagined possible.

Rod Rucker and Robert Williams both turn the ball over more than Quincy.

Say what you will about turnovers...and we know they are bad.

But this team has a better assist/turnover ratio right now than the 2009-2010 team, and the same as 2007-2008.

We are averaging 3 assists per game better than the year Aaron Johnson was leading the nation in assists.

It's not as bad as we think. And it is getting better.

This is an example of where statistics can paint an inaccurate picture.

Quincy and TJ both average more turnovers per minute than either Rod or Rob. Now, you can make the valid argument that the PGs would have more turnovers by virtue of handling the ball more often, but it's the type of turnovers they make that are the distinction. I would say the majority of Rob and Rod's turnovers are when they're going toward the basket in an attempt to make a play. QT and TJ make turnovers before we even initiate plays effectively taking away possessions.

If you compare the assist/turnover ratio of the point guards for the two seasons you mentioned, the current season's ratio is lower. Also, the 2007-2008 team had freshman AJ and Ed Berrios as the point guards. 2009-2010 was mostly AJ with Jamarr mixed in. Those teams had guys who could create their own shots as well. Those factors make the current season look even worse.

I'm not surprised to hear we are averaging more assists than during AJ's nation leading year. AJ was the primary playmaker, so he probably had the bulk of the entire team's assists, while Haase's team shares the ball more as a team. We're basically comparing a team to a player in this situation[/php]. I don't have the numbers, but I know we average more possessions per game with Haase's system than Davis's watch the paint dry system. I'm sure if you look at assists per possession, the AJ season would far surpass the current season.

So it is as bad as we think, but I think it is getting better.

(02-01-2013 08:57 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Not to stir the pot, but AJ turned the ball over 3.5 times per game his last season. I think some people forget how many poor turnovers he had as well.(I specifically remember Memphis taking the ball from him when he was staring at Davis because I noted that this was eventually going to happen a couple of games before it did) He just had many, many more assists than our two PGs now.

You said it yourself. AJ turned the ball over 3.5 times a game, but he averaged 7.7 assists per game.

We are averaging 16 turnovers a game. Our opponents are averaging 17.3 TO's a game.

Last year, we averaged 14.2 turnovers, but our opponents had only 11.7 turnovers. Turnovers were virtually even at 12.5 in our CUSA championship year.

So we are having two or three more per game, which is probably attributed to our faster pace, but our opponents are turning it over much more than in the past.

(02-01-2013 10:18 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  We are averaging 16 turnovers a game. Our opponents are averaging 17.3 TO's a game.

Last year, we averaged 14.2 turnovers, but our opponents had only 11.7 turnovers. Turnovers were virtually even at 12.5 in our CUSA championship year.

So we are having two or three more per game, which is probably attributed to our faster pace, but our opponents are turning it over much more than in the past.

This, plus the biggest problem that I see is "putting ball in basket" which is the simplified objective of basketball. I believe that the lid may have come off against UTEP, let us hope that it stays off.

Look, if we simply shoot a little better and make a few more free throws we are sitting here with at least 4 more wins right now.

(02-01-2013 10:51 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  Look, if we simply shoot a little better and make a few more free throws we are sitting here with at least 4 more wins right now.

Yep. That's why I'm not completely upset with the way this season is going. There has been a lot of good, just a bunch of simple mistakes that have really hurt. I'm happy to see open shots and layups and putbacks. I'm not happy to see this missed too frequently. Everything will come together in time. This group of Juniors mixed with the new recruiting class should be able to do some things.

As I stated before, QT has played in 21 games and yet he has only taken 7 free throws. I would like to see him be a little more aggressive when he has the ball. I believe he is a good free throw shooter.

(02-01-2013 10:51 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  Look, if we simply shoot a little better and make a few more free throws we are sitting here with at least 4 more wins right now.

We are already one of the best free throw shooting team we have had in years. 74% and the best ever was 88-89 around 76%. And 7 of our 12 losses have been by 11 or more points. We are not losing close.