Game Thread: 1/2/19 7:30 USC Upstate

[gte447f]

Very strange game. We shot lights out (for us... 58% FG... our best of the season), and they shot terribly (30% FG, 22% 3PT on 7/31 from 3), and yet the game was much closer than it should have been. We only outscored them by 8 in each half, and it was a 1 point game until about a minute or so to go in the first half. The reason they were able to keep it close despite the disparity in shooting percentages appears to be that they took 15 more shots than we did, I think mainly because they beat us 14-3 on the offensive glass and we turned it over 6 more times than they did. The turnovers (16 of them) hurt us, but getting dominated on the offensive glass by this team is more concerning to me. They didn't have a dominant player that was hurting us on the glass. There was no excuse for it. Coach needs to put some focus on rebounding. Jose, with a bum ankle (he was literally hopping on one foot at times during the game) again was 2nd leading rebounder (tied with Gueye and Cole with 5). Banks only had 6.

 

[Ramblingon]

We're still not playing as a team, but its getting a little better. Pluses were the play of Cole and Devoe. This would be a real good time for their games to kick in.

 

[Jazzchaz]

. The game gave Devoe extended minutes and hope it helped his confidence. Also hope AD & Cole get some beneficial carryover from their performances tonight.

I posted about the Cole-Gueye connection after the KSU game. Tonight was a repeat performance! USCU kept hanging around until the first time the two played together around the 15 minute mark in the 2nd half(as best as I can remember). Within the same minute, Gueye assisted on two Cole layups followed by a Cole assist of a Gueye shot. The lead stretched out and USCU was never a threat again. Now if these guys can do this against teams with heighth, it will be a welcome bonus. I think they can! But with the way those two pick up fouls, I doubt it's something we can count on for more than a half. Cole scored 8 of his 16 points in a three and a half minute span
Devoe continues to improve and at times shows some real quickness leaving his his defender standing still on the way to the hoop. He's going to be a fun one to watch.

 

[senoiajacket]

We look tentative on offense on occasions.
I didn’t recognize the defense we were playing for stretches of the first half but it wasn’t working. It started out looking like a 2-3 zone but when USC would swing the ball on the top our guard would “chase” the ball all the way across the top, essentially resulting in the guards switching positions. It didn’t look like a match up zone or any kind of box +1 or triangle +2. It resulted in us having to chase the ball a lot and gave them many open looks from 3. If they would have shot a decent % from 3 we would have been in trouble. I also think it resulted in poor defensive rebounding positions as several times we ended up w/ 4 defenders on one side of the floor and they would have a 2 on 1 backside rebounding advantage. Can someone explain what type of defense that is and what it is supposed to accomplish?

 

[MiracleWhips]

We look tentative on offense on occasions.
I didn’t recognize the defense we were playing for stretches of the first half but it wasn’t working. It started out looking like a 2-3 zone but when USC would swing the ball on the top our guard would “chase” the ball all the way across the top, essentially resulting in the guards switching positions. It didn’t look like a match up zone or any kind of box +1 or triangle +2. It resulted in us having to chase the ball a lot and gave them many open looks from 3. If they would have shot a decent % from 3 we would have been in trouble. I also think it resulted in poor defensive rebounding positions as several times we ended up w/ 4 defenders on one side of the floor and they would have a 2 on 1 backside rebounding advantage. Can someone explain what type of defense that is and what it is supposed to accomplish?

I believe we were playing some variation of a 1-3-1

 

[slugboy]

I saw a 3-2 zone defense for some of the game last night.

If it was accidental, it was still three guards in front and two forwards in back and looked to be pretty textbook


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Connell62]

Very strange game. We shot lights out (for us... 58% FG... our best of the season), and they shot terribly (30% FG, 22% 3PT on 7/31 from 3), and yet the game was much closer than it should have been. We only outscored them by 8 in each half, and it was a 1 point game until about a minute or so to go in the first half. The reason they were able to keep it close despite the disparity in shooting percentages appears to be that they took 15 more shots than we did, I think mainly because they beat us 14-3 on the offensive glass and we turned it over 6 more times than they did. The turnovers (16 of them) hurt us, but getting dominated on the offensive glass by this team is more concerning to me. They didn't have a dominant player that was hurting us on the glass. There was no excuse for it. Coach needs to put some focus on rebounding. Jose, with a bum ankle (he was literally hopping on one foot at times during the game) again was 2nd leading rebounder (tied with Gueye and Cole with 5). Banks only had 6.

I think that you hit the nail on the head. They were able to keep it close due to cheap/easy buckets in the paint. Once we tightened that up and started playing better interior D, we ran the lead out. Cole and AD really gave us a nice lift off the bench. As much as I love him, Mr. Banks was virtually sleep walking in this 1st half. His defensive awareness was really not there.

He was allowing the smaller guys from Upstate to get offensive boards and put backs, dump-off's, etc. It was very similar to his first half performance in the Gardner Webb game which contributed heavily to our loss. That's why he sat so much in the second half. CJP touched on it in his post game presser and mentioned that he needs to be consistent with his effort from game to game. I suspect he bounces back big on Saturday.

Like many others, I was happy to see Cole have a nice game. To me, he is a wild card for this squad. This year and in the years ahead. If he plays well, the team usually plays well. If he continues to develop on the same trajectory, I think that he will be a really solid player over the next couple of years. I just want to see him shoot (and make) more threes.

 

[ramblinwreck1378]

I was at the game last night and have some takeaways:

Good

- Devoe is dangerous with his left hand and finishes well on that side of the basket. As many here have stated, I'd like to see him be more aggressive - several times last night he got a defender on his hip and easily got to the cup. He's a better shooter than he's shown so far, so I expect to see that part of his game come around as the season goes on.

- Evan Cole got more time and played decent. He led the team in scoring, but a lot of those were easy buckets that came on assists. He looks like he's getting back into game shape, which is promising because he'll be needed in ACC play.

Not So Good

- Alvarado was hobbling a lot tonight, which limited his performance.

- It still bothers me how much PT Alston gets - he continues to clog the offense with purposeless dribbling and slow ball movement. He's also a liability on the glass, especially defensively on the weak side.

- Shembari only logged 8 minutes, which is an indication of how he's played so far this season. I didn't think he played poorly last night, but it was admittedly a small sample size.

 

[Peacone36]

Cole was great last night. Plays hard and he’s explosive.

I would love to see us run some double baseline screens for CGB and get him some open looks. His body language is not good right now

 

[der-k]

Concur on CGB. He has the biggest gap between how good I think he can be (Danny Green type) and what we get from him on the squad.

Is Cole actually a stretch guy? He can shoot a little but his real virtue on offense is being tall and limber / cutting to the hoop.

Rebounds: part of it is our defensive schemes, right - think that's a big part of why CJP talks about the need for guards to rebound, as the bigs are sometimes otherwise occupied. (The payoff is in our consistently pretty good defensive field goal percentages.)

Alston kinda drives me crazy in ways that aren't his fault. I don't think that all of the purposeless dribbling is actually purposeless - more like ineffectual prodding. Put him on the second team and more of that stuff pays off. (That said - when he's aggressive + has an advantageous matchup - he's done a nice job.) But!, we've had so many issues with perimeter shooting (among other backcourt things) that we gotta use him to space the floor more than we otherwise might.

 

[gt69hjcollins]

The faster the Pastner era gets over, the better.

We need to give this coach a chance. He has shown us that he is moving the team in the right direction. The team is very young and his recruits are beginning to produce.

 

[alagold]

I believe the reason we keep the opps shooting % down but give up OFF rebs is that we are in "off-balance" def.Moving quick but not under control and rushing to annoy the shot but NOT in position to get the miss.There needs to be coordination AND guys who FUNDAMENTALLY know where to go to get an DEF reb. -or coached on it.Doesn't do a lot to stop the first shot if you don't/can't stop the 2nd and it goes in.

 

[Connell62]

We need to give this coach a chance. He has shown us that he is moving the team in the right direction. The team is very young and his recruits are beginning to produce.

I put Trollwood on Ignore a while back, so I didn’t see the message, but I agree, I see the needle moving. It’s hard to see some times and it’s not moving as quickly as some want, but it’s moving.

It will be interesting to see how the year plays out, but I can see guys developing. For anyone that thinks he can’t coach, have a look at our defensive numbers, there some of the best in the conference/nation.

 

[alagold]

Is this Wake game CRITICAL for the yr? Right now we are the 2 bottom feeders.

 

[MiracleWhips]

Is this Wake game CRITICAL for the yr? Right now we are the 2 bottom feeders.

Winning this game keeps the little bit of post season hope alive. Losing this game and our hope goes down the drain.