1/3 - MBB at FSU

awbuzz

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Beat me!

"The Jackets, who have 19 games remaining, have an NCAA NET ranking of 110 as they begin the new year. They have what might be considered a bad loss (to Massachusetts-Lowell at home), but quality wins over Duke, Mississippi State and UMass.

Of its remaining contests, Tech is scheduled to play 13 opponents currently in the top 75 of the NET rankings. So as the schedule grows tougher over the next two months, Stoudamire will need his team to be tougher, too."

If we can improve our shooting, Kelly drifts back to last year's percentages would be a big help, we have some good improvement in our NET ranking.
 

ESPNjacket

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FSU is the tallest team in the country. They are weak on the defensive glass. They create a lot of steals.

If GT does its usual lazy passing the first 10 minutes, we will likely dig a hole. Take care of the ball early, hit the offensive glass, get out and run a bit and I like our chances.
 

MWBATL

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Simply put, I have NO idea what to expect form this team yet. Some nights good, some great, some not so much. Will watch tot see what tonight brings...
 

awbuzz

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Keep her turn over total under 15 and we have a decent chance... Of course that assumes we shoot with the hill of beans.
 

Techster

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"I'm not giving free minutes." I think we're seeing that.

Those Lance Terry comments are very interesting. Sounds like GT is missing a big piece this season.
 

Peacone36

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This is not the same FSU program we were talking about just a few years ago. They don’t defend that home court with the same dominance that they once did under CLH. Since 2020 the ‘Noles are just 32-19 SU at the Tucker Center. This season they are just 4-3SU at home and 5-4SU as the favored team.
 

AUFC

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Cannot give up a kill shot again tonight. FSU is going to have their best crowd of the season and I believe we've given up at least 1 in each of the 3 road games this season (if you count Hawaii as a road game).

Btw Miles Kelly knocks down 4 3s tonight. Heard it here first.
 
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Techster

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I read GT is 5-1 in our last 6 games against FSU? I know teams are different every year, but considering how FSU has out recruited us over the years, that's a pretty telling stat.

Hopefully, this team is pass the playing down to our opponents level stage of the team development phase.
 

GaTech4ever

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It’s just so hard to know what this team’s potential is when the best player is struggling as much as he has. For some context:

The UMass-Lowell loss doesn’t happen even if Kelly shoots even below average. But it’s almost impossible to overcome a 26/0/33 shooting split on 19 attempts.

Cincinnati loss, fine. It wasn’t on Kelly.

UGA loss, his splits were again terrible 26/25/100 (two FT attempts, 15 FG attempts). I’m not sure if we beat them with Kelly having an average game, but there was no way to beat them with him shooting that poorly.

Nevada loss, I again pin on Kelly. I hate pinning it on one player but that’s what happens when you’re a volume shooter. His splits were 20/11/50 on 15 FG attempts. We beat Nevada with even a below average game from Kelly.

This isn’t news to anyone here, but parsing out his shooting splits in 3 of our 4 losses really showcases how much he’s costing us. He hasn’t won us a single game, but I’m pretty confident stating that 3 of our 4 losses are a direct result of Miles Kelly shooting us out of the game. The fact that those games were so close for the majority (UGA) while being consistently hamstrung by our best scorer is a GOOD thing.

Last thing I’ll say about Kelly. I’ve mentioned him getting significantly stronger this offseason and that playing a role in him temporarily losing his shooting touch/feel. But in my opinion (I’m far from a shooting coach but I do study shot mechanics), there’s two other aspects of his shot that add unnecessary variables. First, Kelly’s shot is flat. When you look at his release point, it’s not only low, but it's flat coming out of his hand. This allows for a better contest and simply the lack of arch always equals inconsistency for any shooter.

Second, it seems to me his guide hand is doing too much and maybe that’s part of the added muscle. But with the added muscle that’s three unnecessary variables with his guide hand and low point of release, which makes it easy to contest and affect his shot. That's why he is inconsistent, and it’s most obvious at the FT line.

In college basketball, FT% is actually the top predictor of future/professional shooting ability. This is anecdotal, but look at Anthony Edwards’ college 3 pt % and you’d on the surface understand the pre-draft concern regarding his outside shooting ability. However, he shot 77% from the FT line on over 5 attempts per game while carrying the entire offensive load (and seemingly exhausted half the time) so it should have been known he wasn’t going to be a poor shooter. He shoots the exact same FT% in the NBA but with a much better 3PT %. And now, we’ve seen Kelly go 72%, 90%, and now 70% from the FT line in his three seasons.
 

Connell62

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Cannot give up a kill shot again tonight. FSU is going to have their best crowd of the season and I believe we've given up at least 1 in each of the 3 road games this season (if you count Hawaii as a road game).

Btw Miles Kelly knocks down 4 3s tonight. Heard it here first.

What exactly is a Kill Shot? You lost me on that one.
 

Connell62

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It’s just so hard to know what this team’s potential is when the best player is struggling as much as he has. For some context:

The UMass-Lowell loss doesn’t happen even if Kelly shoots even below average. But it’s almost impossible to overcome a 26/0/33 shooting split on 19 attempts.

Cincinnati loss, fine. It wasn’t on Kelly.

UGA loss, his splits were again terrible 26/25/100 (two FT attempts, 15 FG attempts). I’m not sure if we beat them with Kelly having an average game, but there was no way to beat them with him shooting that poorly.

Nevada loss, I again pin on Kelly. I hate pinning it on one player but that’s what happens when you’re a volume shooter. His splits were 20/11/50 on 15 FG attempts. We beat Nevada with even a below average game from Kelly.

This isn’t news to anyone here, but parsing out his shooting splits in 3 of our 4 losses really showcases how much he’s costing us. He hasn’t won us a single game, but I’m pretty confident stating that 3 of our 4 losses are a direct result of Miles Kelly shooting us out of the game. The fact that those games were so close for the majority (UGA) while being consistently hamstrung by our best scorer is a GOOD thing.

Last thing I’ll say about Kelly. I’ve mentioned him getting significantly stronger this offseason and that playing a role in him temporarily losing his shooting touch/feel. But in my opinion (I’m far from a shooting coach but I do study shot mechanics), there’s two other aspects of his shot that add unnecessary variables. First, Kelly’s shot is flat. When you look at his release point, it’s not only low, but it's flat coming out of his hand. This allows for a better contest and simply the lack of arch always equals inconsistency for any shooter.

Second, it seems to me his guide hand is doing too much and maybe that’s part of the added muscle. But with the added muscle that’s three unnecessary variables with his guide hand and low point of release, which makes it easy to contest and affect his shot. That's why he is inconsistent, and it’s most obvious at the FT line.

In college basketball, FT% is actually the top predictor of future/professional shooting ability. This is anecdotal, but look at Anthony Edwards’ college 3 pt % and you’d on the surface understand the pre-draft concern regarding his outside shooting ability. However, he shot 77% from the FT line on over 5 attempts per game while carrying the entire offensive load (and seemingly exhausted half the time) so it should have been known he wasn’t going to be a poor shooter. He shoots the exact same FT% in the NBA but with a much better 3PT %. And now, we’ve seen Kelly go 72%, 90%, and now 70% from the FT line in his three seasons.

No offense, but there is some high level mental gymnastics going on here. Are you really going to try and pin our three losses solely on Miles?

Anyone that has ever played the game knows its about WAY more than one player or even a handful of plays during a game. Take him off the team, and we have a lot more than three L's.

Yes, he's struggling shooting the three pointer, but as another font alluded too, he is doing a whole lot of the little things to help win and/or remain in the game.

You want to point to something that has hurt us, point to turnovers, specifically live ball turnovers. Those lead directly to points for the other team, and we have a had a lot of them.
 

GaTech4ever

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No offense, but there is some high level mental gymnastics going on here. Are you really going to try and pin our three losses solely on Miles?

Anyone that has ever played the game knows its about WAY more than one player or even a handful of plays during a game. Take him off the team, and we have a lot more than three L's.

Yes, he's struggling shooting the three pointer, but as another font alluded too, he is doing a whole lot of the little things to help win and/or remain in the game.

You want to point to something that has hurt us, point to turnovers, specifically live ball turnovers. Those lead directly to points for the other team, and we have a had a lot of them.
That’s fair if you want to disagree. I wouldn’t call your opinion mental gymnastics before having discourse, but sure. My question to you would be, is it possible to expect to win competitive games with a player taking 15-20% of the team’s minutes and 25% of the team’s shots while being one of the worst volume shooters in the country?

The live ball turnovers are systemic that are affecting multiple players in a new system. Therefore, asking that to be immediately corrected is not as low hanging of a fruit as asking one of the supposed best shooters in the conference to start shooting at an average level. I also don’t think the little things Kelly does make up for him literally shooting us out of games - if you disagree with that then I’ll call it the mental Simone Biles.

My overarching point is that, through 12 games, we’d have a better record by playing an average ACC SG than we do by playing Miles Kelly. That does not mean I want Miles Kelly to take fewer shots or be less aggressive. I just want him to be better.
 
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Peacone36

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I read GT is 5-1 in our last 6 games against FSU? I know teams are different every year, but considering how FSU has out recruited us over the years, that's a pretty telling stat.

Hopefully, this team is pass the playing down to our opponents level stage of the team development phase.
4-1 in the last five.

The lone loss was the only game of the five in which we played in Tallahassee. However we are 0-5 in our last five visits to the Tucker Center.
 

GaTech4ever

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Take him off the team, and we have a lot more than three L's.
I really have to address this comment specifically because it doesn’t make sense. Of course if we simply took Kelly off the team, the spacing would be horrible and we wouldn’t even have anyone who wants to take a tough shot at the end of the shot clock.

The point is, replace Kelly with an ACC SG playing at an average level through 12 games, and we’d be better. I don’t know how anyone could disagree with that. Every advanced stat and the eye test prove it. The whole reason I brought this up anyway is because Kelly obviously isn’t as bad as he’s been playing this season, and I think even if he got to 35% from 3 and 80% from the stripe it’d pay exponential dividends.
 

Root4GT

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I really have to address this comment specifically because it doesn’t make sense. Of course if we simply took Kelly off the team, the spacing would be horrible and we wouldn’t even have anyone who wants to take a tough shot at the end of the shot clock.

The point is, replace Kelly with an ACC SG playing at an average level through 12 games, and we’d be better. I don’t know how anyone could disagree with that. Every advanced stat and the eye test prove it. The whole reason I brought this up anyway is because Kelly obviously isn’t as bad as he’s been playing this season, and I think even if he got to 35% from 3 and 80% from the stripe it’d pay exponential dividends.
Your numbers would put Kelly in the Top 15 shooters in the conference. His shooting had been far worse this season. His release and shot arch look very similar to last year.

If GT is going to have a winning ACC record Kelly does need to shoot better than he has so far this year,
 
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