What we need in a Big East play

[mbraue]

I just saw that DePaul beat GW by a large margin. To succeed against Marquette and others in Big East play we will need the following and more:

- Solid man-to-man defense using our athleticism to limit opponents' offense. Can't let the gimmick zone be the defense of choice and be shredded like it has been in the past. It must be used only in spurts or when it makes good sense - only in small doses.

- Whitehead needs to improve his shooting percentage and continue to look to dish - not 10 assists a game but 5 to 6 a game should be the norm

- Guards need to continue to attack the rim - we have been feasting at the free throw line and should not abandon the practice. Few defenders can stay with Whitehead, Carrington and Gordon off the dribble drive.

- Carrington can't continue to get in foul trouble - last two games he made silly fouls and had to sit. We can't afford that in Big East play.

- We need to rebound consistently - USF out-rebounded us and we need to do the small things to get the edge on the glass.

- Power forwards must improve free-throw shooting - Nzei and Ish need to bump it up from the line - can't shoot below 55 percent from that position and succeed in the Big East.

- Rodriquez must be a force for us to succeed - he needs to play solid d, create his own offense, and be a factor. Veer Singh is a nice bench player right now - Desi brings too much to the table to be platooned with Veer and his minutes minimized. Desi needs to be featured and on the court a lot for us to be a force in the Big East.

 

[Piratz]

It shows you the depth of the league when St. John's is beating Syracuse and DePaul beating George Washington.

I agree with your points on the team.

To me, the key is we need to be calm and mentally tough. It sounds simple, but you see how we play when we have our head together. A big challenge for a team where the most experienced of players are only going into their second season of BE play and for a coach who has had a lot of trouble coaching up those aspects of his team.

We're not going to run offense like Wisconsin, but we have pieces, talent, and if we can be one of those teams on the same page, we'll be in contention. That is why I thought the win against Wichita State was so promising. We staged a comeback against a quality, experienced team (probably would be Top 3-4 in Big East) and did so without any fluky shooting and the like.

Against WSU, we were totally out of it in the first half, then looked like a team in the second/OT. For example, I think we had something like 0 assists on 8 FG in the first half, then were 11/16 the rest of the way. Exactly what I'm talking about. The two sides of the court play complimentary and we have some good defenders too.

 

[garyshu71]

Like you comment on man to man. We need to play aggressive. The zone puts our guys to sleep!!!

 

[Piratz]

Like you comment on man to man. We need to play aggressive. The zone puts our guys to sleep!!!

And good recognition by Willard to get the heck out of it against Wichita!

 

[TheBluePirate]

Like you comment on man to man. We need to play aggressive. The zone puts our guys to sleep!!!

Completely agree with this.

 

[garyshu71]

And good recognition of it by Willard to get the heck out of it against Wichita!

Don't get too excited about that. He put our athletes in a zone against a great three point shooting team. That makes no sense. Luckily the kids played their hearts out and we won. Can't keep making those kinds of mistakes.

 

[mjs428]

One thing I hate about Willard's defense is when he plays man to man for 20secs and then changes to zone or vice versa. Confuses are our players more than the other team

 

[Piratz]

Switching up defenses can be a very effective tool. It's up to the coach to teach them defense. They shouldn't be so confused. He has to know what his players an handle and can't. The win covers the miscue, but it's concerning that he's still confusing them 10 games into the year.

We were fortunate that miscalculation didn't cost us the game against Wichita State. It easily could have.

 

[shu09]

Here are the biggest things from my point of view:

1) Free throw shooting. This is not just for the big men but for the guards as well. I'd like to see some of our guards increase their free throw percentages by 2-4% in Big East play. We're going to have to live with our big men shooting low percentages so the guards need to do even more than they're already asked to do.

• Gordon is at 62%. He is a career 66% free throw shooter.
• Carrington is shooting 71%. He shot 75% last season.
• Whitehead should look to add 2-3% to his current 74% (pretty much what he shot last year).
• Rodriguez has improved his free throw shooting greatly this year (60% to 72%). That needs to continue.

2) Turnovers. We average 14 per game but the real story is turnover percentage, which we rank 233rd in the country (19.5%). That means nearly 1 out of every 5 possessions ends in a turnover. That's too high and needs to be cut to around 16-17% in league play. It's critical because a turnover is a wasted possession turned into a free possession for the opponent. We've been pretty good at forcing turnovers (44th in the country) to offset this a bit, but it won't be that easy in Big East play.

3) Defensive rebounding. The guards as well as Sanogo and Nzei have to step up here. Delgado ranks 66th in individual defensive rebounding percentage so he isn't the culprit. I think Desi can be a huge asset for us here, depending on how this impacts our transition defense. If we send 3 to the glass, only 2 are back to stop a fast break opportunity. That's up to the coach to decide. But defensive rebounding closes out possessions and limits second chances opportunities. We currently rank 191st nationally which is not good enough. In our league, we rank 9th out of 10 in this statistic.

4) Keep getting to the free throw line. Although we don't shoot a good percentage at the stripe overall, I'd rather shoot 64% getting there 30 times (19 makes) than 75% getting there 10 times (7-8 makes). This is especially important for the guards who are the better free throw shooters and can get into the lane easier this year now that our offense doesn't revolve around the three point shot nearly as much.

This team has a lot of potential. Refine some of the above (and a few other things) and we'll like the results come March.

 

[mbraue]

Switching up defenses can be a very effective tool. It's up to the coach to teach them defense. They shouldn't be so confused. He has to know what his players an handle and can't. The win covers the miscue, but it's concerning that he's still confusing them 10 games into the year.

We were fortunate that miscalculation didn't cost us the game against Wichita State. It easily could have.

Completely agree. Good teams switch defenses, but they know which defense is their bread and butter. Up to Willard and the coaches to teach good defense and rely on the one that yields the best results. Last year teams torched us in the paint because we played so much zone.

Coaches also need to remind the guards that getting ticky tack fouls way outside the 3-point arc doesn't help the team - players can't hurt you out there. We only have 3 guards - need to be aggressive but play smart.

Marquette scored at will against us last year in the paint and outside. A solid man-to-man defense can and should be able to limit their effectiveness. More important, let our guards keep attacking the basket and put the other teams on the defensive. Carrington and Whitehead are legitimate threats from outside - they should be able to use that as a weapon to continue to find lanes to penetrate.

Of course, we need to shoot from the outside reasonably well to have a chance in any of these games. Hopefully Desi and Veer can provide help to Whitehead and Carrington on that front.