ACC Tipoff 2023

MtnWasp

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
807
Some key quotes:

"basketball comes down to being the mentally tougher team"

"when you're tired... at the end of games, you've got to be able to execute on both ends of the floor"

"You've got to be able to take care of that ball. You've got to be able to box out when you don't want to."

"with my team, I'm not going to skip any steps. I'm just not going to skip any steps with them. I'm not going to do that. If Tatum and Brown and all those guys don't skip steps to success, then I'm not going to allow them to."

"I just came from a place where we were one of the best assisting teams. We had a lot of good players, so you've got to be able to share the ball."

"It's probably the first team that I've ever been a part of where the offense is ahead of the defense."
=======================================================

Some stats to be looking at as the season progresses:

Record in tight games.

Assist to Turnover ratio

Turnover margin

Rebounding margin.
 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,809
Some key quotes:

"basketball comes down to being the mentally tougher team"

"when you're tired... at the end of games, you've got to be able to execute on both ends of the floor"

"You've got to be able to take care of that ball. You've got to be able to box out when you don't want to."

"with my team, I'm not going to skip any steps. I'm just not going to skip any steps with them. I'm not going to do that. If Tatum and Brown and all those guys don't skip steps to success, then I'm not going to allow them to."

"I just came from a place where we were one of the best assisting teams. We had a lot of good players, so you've got to be able to share the ball."

"It's probably the first team that I've ever been a part of where the offense is ahead of the defense."
=======================================================

Some stats to be looking at as the season progresses:

Record in tight games.

Assist to Turnover ratio

Turnover margin

Rebounding margin.
After how we played early in Pastner’s tenure, it’s weird to hear we’re behind in defending
I understand it, but it was our calling card for a while
 

iopjacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
744
I expect more transfers with a coaching change.

That might be naive, but I would think we won’t be as heavily transfers going forward. Probably naive
God, I hope you are not naive. I was just commenting that there is very little Pastner brand on this team. I counted 13 players that left the program since the 2022 season. That might be one for the record books.
 

TechPhi97

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
549
Location
Davidson, NC
After how we played early in Pastner’s tenure, it’s weird to hear we’re behind in defending
I understand it, but it was our calling card for a while
Defense relies more on effective communication and teamwork, it doesn’t surprise me (or worry me) that we have work to do there.
 

MtnWasp

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
807
Stoudamire's responses to questions by the ACC Tip-Off gang is loaded with great info.

He said that he has spent more time over the Summer than on anything else teaching "play after the play." That means when an set has been disrupted, being able to maintain cohesive offensive actions. He said he wants to get away from the playbook.

He said he wants to avoid over-dribbling unless a player proves that he can make plays off of the dribble. I gather that we don't have that guy. He said that the biggest thing going on in the NBA on offense is not allowing the ball to "stick." I think the idea is that over-dribbling is a manner by which the ball "sticks" and the offense becomes stagnant. He said that the NBA mindset is that when the ball sticks, bad stuff happens to the offense on that possession.

Clearly, he wants ball movement ("sharing the Sugar") via passing. Spacing to me means if one guy moves, the rest of the guys have to move in response to maintain their spacing. So, spacing means lots of movement by everyone. In other words, we are looking to get our shooters open by out-working the defense.

There are some echoes here of both Hewitt and Pastner. Hewitt talked a lot about getting away from the playbook and teaching his guys to run based on principles. But the offense was horrendously stagnant in his latter years and the ball really stuck at the top of the key as his sets seemed to start with the PG breaking down his defender. Hopefully, Stoudamire is more detail oriented than that.

Pastner talked a lot about not wanting the ball to stick. His teams were decently dynamic until Alvarado left and his last two seasons the ball stuck quite a bit. So, just because a coach wants the ball to move, doesn't mean his players can or will do it.

So great ball movement is not an uncommon goal. Getting the players to expend the energy to do it is a different matter.

He said that he has multiple players that can handle the ball and said that this can cause some confusion for defenses. So, we may not be seeing traditional PG.

He said that both Ndongo and Gapare can step out and shoot.

He said that Ndongo can make plays from the 5 and that is the position that he expects him to settle at.

He said that both Gapare and Ndongo can defend "1 through 5" and that he was not afraid to put bigs on guards on the defensive end because it is not always the mismatch that people think it is. It sounds like Stoudamire has in mind "positionless" man-to-man defense with lots of switching. He states that we are going to see "lots of mixing and matching" on defense to confuse offenses.

he said that he is going to play 9 to 10 players until he finds his "rhythm" and he finds "his guys."

He called Gapare one of the most talented players in the country because of his length, mobility, ability to run the court, ability to defend 1-5 and his ability to shoot the ball. He said he expects him to be a good player for him. When asked about newcomers, he singled out three players: Ndongo, Gapare and Abram (as a scorer and elite on ball screens but needs to lean how to play with other good players and not make everything about him).

Stoudamire said that when teams fail to share the ball, that is when you see the poor body language.

In both the Tip-Off show and the Tech Talks interview with Andy Demetra, Stoudamire talked quite a bit about Miles Kelly. He wants Kelly to play harder on both ends, movement without the ball, aggressively hunting shots on offense (as opposed to his tendency to stand around) and being more dedicated to defensive responsibilities. He also said he wants Kelly to become a willing screener so that he could get more shots. He talked about "accountability" on defense.

But was of most interest to me here was his saying that guys have to play hard, to the point of exhaustion because that is the point that the mind tells the body what to do. He was not okay with guys pacing themselves. A lot of the practice photos published on the GTAA show guys that are gassed. In competitive situations, the ability to push through mental and physical fatigue is a big determining factor of wins and losses.

I wonder whether Stoudamire's success will come down to being able to get his players to play hard, to break through the mental toughness threshold.

Both of his schemes, spacing and ball movement on offense and mix-and-match switching man to man defense are energy intensive approaches.

Is this going to come down to more about toughness than scheme? Pastner had some tough teams but after Alvarado left, the remaining two teams were very soft (with the exception of the last 10 games last season). With regards to attaining buy-in from the returning players, Stoudamire described it as a "process" and that he has (as he expeted) met with some resistence. Establishing "trust" and overcoming selfishness are vital tasks, I gather.

I have long thought that the success that coach Krzyzewki saw at Duke began with his teams playing with an unusual competitive intensity. Sure, later it was all about the Burger Boys, but for the first 12 years or so, the ascent of the program was due to their playing with a real chip.

I think that this will be the deciding factor whether Stoudamire succeeds here. Maybe someday he will be recruiting 5* guys and we can just run isolations. But to get to that point, the program's breakthrough will be achieved, if I am reading the coach properly, by his getting college level players to break through a toughness barrier and play harder and with more competitive stamina than the competition. That is how his intended schemes will work.

The good news is that the intended style of basketball could, if the players can and will do it, should be fun to watch.

Can he do that with the holdovers? Can he do it at all?
 

57jacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
945
Stoudamire's responses to questions by the ACC Tip-Off gang is loaded with great info.

He said that he has spent more time over the Summer than on anything else teaching "play after the play." That means when an set has been disrupted, being able to maintain cohesive offensive actions. He said he wants to get away from the playbook.

He said he wants to avoid over-dribbling unless a player proves that he can make plays off of the dribble. I gather that we don't have that guy. He said that the biggest thing going on in the NBA on offense is not allowing the ball to "stick." I think the idea is that over-dribbling is a manner by which the ball "sticks" and the offense becomes stagnant. He said that the NBA mindset is that when the ball sticks, bad stuff happens to the offense on that possession.

Clearly, he wants ball movement ("sharing the Sugar") via passing. Spacing to me means if one guy moves, the rest of the guys have to move in response to maintain their spacing. So, spacing means lots of movement by everyone. In other words, we are looking to get our shooters open by out-working the defense.

There are some echoes here of both Hewitt and Pastner. Hewitt talked a lot about getting away from the playbook and teaching his guys to run based on principles. But the offense was horrendously stagnant in his latter years and the ball really stuck at the top of the key as his sets seemed to start with the PG breaking down his defender. Hopefully, Stoudamire is more detail oriented than that.

Pastner talked a lot about not wanting the ball to stick. His teams were decently dynamic until Alvarado left and his last two seasons the ball stuck quite a bit. So, just because a coach wants the ball to move, doesn't mean his players can or will do it.

So great ball movement is not an uncommon goal. Getting the players to expend the energy to do it is a different matter.

He said that he has multiple players that can handle the ball and said that this can cause some confusion for defenses. So, we may not be seeing traditional PG.

He said that both Ndongo and Gapare can step out and shoot.

He said that Ndongo can make plays from the 5 and that is the position that he expects him to settle at.

He said that both Gapare and Ndongo can defend "1 through 5" and that he was not afraid to put bigs on guards on the defensive end because it is not always the mismatch that people think it is. It sounds like Stoudamire has in mind "positionless" man-to-man defense with lots of switching. He states that we are going to see "lots of mixing and matching" on defense to confuse offenses.

he said that he is going to play 9 to 10 players until he finds his "rhythm" and he finds "his guys."

He called Gapare one of the most talented players in the country because of his length, mobility, ability to run the court, ability to defend 1-5 and his ability to shoot the ball. He said he expects him to be a good player for him. When asked about newcomers, he singled out three players: Ndongo, Gapare and Abram (as a scorer and elite on ball screens but needs to lean how to play with other good players and not make everything about him).

Stoudamire said that when teams fail to share the ball, that is when you see the poor body language.

In both the Tip-Off show and the Tech Talks interview with Andy Demetra, Stoudamire talked quite a bit about Miles Kelly. He wants Kelly to play harder on both ends, movement without the ball, aggressively hunting shots on offense (as opposed to his tendency to stand around) and being more dedicated to defensive responsibilities. He also said he wants Kelly to become a willing screener so that he could get more shots. He talked about "accountability" on defense.

But was of most interest to me here was his saying that guys have to play hard, to the point of exhaustion because that is the point that the mind tells the body what to do. He was not okay with guys pacing themselves. A lot of the practice photos published on the GTAA show guys that are gassed. In competitive situations, the ability to push through mental and physical fatigue is a big determining factor of wins and losses.

I wonder whether Stoudamire's success will come down to being able to get his players to play hard, to break through the mental toughness threshold.

Both of his schemes, spacing and ball movement on offense and mix-and-match switching man to man defense are energy intensive approaches.

Is this going to come down to more about toughness than scheme? Pastner had some tough teams but after Alvarado left, the remaining two teams were very soft (with the exception of the last 10 games last season). With regards to attaining buy-in from the returning players, Stoudamire described it as a "process" and that he has (as he expeted) met with some resistence. Establishing "trust" and overcoming selfishness are vital tasks, I gather.

I have long thought that the success that coach Krzyzewki saw at Duke began with his teams playing with an unusual competitive intensity. Sure, later it was all about the Burger Boys, but for the first 12 years or so, the ascent of the program was due to their playing with a real chip.

I think that this will be the deciding factor whether Stoudamire succeeds here. Maybe someday he will be recruiting 5* guys and we can just run isolations. But to get to that point, the program's breakthrough will be achieved, if I am reading the coach properly, by his getting college level players to break through a toughness barrier and play harder and with more competitive stamina than the competition. That is how his intended schemes will work.

The good news is that the intended style of basketball could, if the players can and will do it, should be fun to watch.

Can he do that with the holdovers? Can he do it at all?
Great Post Mtn.... Going to be interesting. I'm suprised with the buy in comment.
 
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