Game Thread - dook, 1/8/2020

[AE 87]

I love your positive attitude, but unfortunately we play Louisville twice. Home 2/12 and @UL on 1/22.

This doesn't scare me as much as it would have 3 weeks ago. I've moved from only being optimistic during irrational-fan game prep to thinking we might not be that bad.

I mean it's possible that everybody's just having a bad game against us because they came in not expecting much. That's possible. But we played with FSU for most of that game, beat UNC, and played with Duke for even more of that game.

And we did that without anybody having an unlikely to be repeated break-out game. On the contrary, we did that while having some guys under-perform what they seem capable of. I mean, if Devoe and Usher can fit-in with the rest of the team and be as productive as we've seen evidence for, we might not just play with the best teams in conference, we might beat some.

 

[alagold]

Looking at the stats ,what was Usher doing? He had almost NO stats for 25 minutes. of play.It looked on paper like he played only 10 mins.Is he the designated DEF guy so his energy goes there?
Overall to me--On paper (stats) Tech played as well as possible vs such a good team.

 

[StingU2]

Am I wrong in what I (and the others that sit around me at the games) see, but does that not go for Devoe as well? It seems more often than not, when he has the ball and drives, it ends up in him getting trapped and leads to a turnover, or he throws up a very wild-a**ed, off balance shot that has almost zero chance of going in? When it’s gotten to the point that the fans (at least those im usually around) let out an audible groan when he takes off toward the basket, I think there’s an issue there too.

I swear I'm going to pull what little hair I have left on head If I see Devoe attempt to dribble in traffic!

 

[StingU2]

If Jose plays the entire year, we may have lost 3 games and would be sitting pretty. We could play what-if all day, but I agree with you in that this is a different team.

The thing that I am looking for here is consistency. As Iv20 pointed out, I think that how we come out and play on Saturday will tell us a lot about our season.

Jose has missed significant time each year he's been here, the issue is Pastner has not recruited a PG that can fill in such cases as injuries.

 

[gte447f]

Looking at the stats ,what was Usher doing? He had almost NO stats for 25 minutes. of play.It looked on paper like he played only 10 mins.Is he the designated DEF guy so his energy goes there?
Overall to me--On paper (stats) Tech played as well as possible vs such a good team.

Usher had an 18 point game in Hawaii and has made a few athletic finishes at the rim here and there, but hasn’t really produced on the court other than that. He plays with great energy but he plays a bit out of control, and he has a quick trigger (he’s never seen a shot he doesn’t like), but so far he hasn’t been a particularly good shooter. We’ll see. I hope he improves and excels, but I am not convinced his ceiling is much higher than what we’ve seen so far.

 

[MWBATL]

We're still in a good spot to go on a run, and frankly it's silly to make a final judgment on this team based on their overall record in January with the #2 SOS.

The proof will be in the pudding.....I will wait to see if we "go on a run". Like some others, I have been somewhat burned out by GT basketball's decade plus slump....

 

[MWBATL]

Jose has missed significant time each year he's been here, the issue is Pastner has not recruited a PG that can fill in such cases as injuries.

This is true and quite an indictment. I also believe we have been pressed into using Parham as a PG when in fact his true value would be as a SG....wasting a good talent there imho.

 

[YlJacket]

Jose has missed significant time each year he's been here, the issue is Pastner has not recruited a PG that can fill in such cases as injuries.

Or we haven't devised a scheme that allows us to beat a Ball State level team with the talent we do have at the time.

 

[glandon1960]

What I think is very important to note is the structure of the half court offense has changed - moved away from the high post 'point center' (which Banks is not nearly as good at as was Lammers). You are now seeing two players (mostly Banks/Wright) move and one set or fake a high pick/roll with one of the guards creating off that - and two players in the corner (one in each) to threaten the three or cut to the basket (i.e. Cole at UNC). It creates less movement but most of the movement was not productive leading to bad shots and lack of spacing.
It puts the ball in Alvarado, Devoe, and lesser degree Parham's hands to make decisions - and - spreads the other team out which has helped with turnovers and getting better shots (and more inside looks). I do think this fits the players we currently have better.

I felt in mid-December the offenseive scheme needed to change - and glad to see it has.

I was at the game last night and two Duke people next to me said GT outplayed them, but Duke just made shots that GT did not ... pretty much agree with that.
Not a fan of moral victories, but was pleased with the effort/motor (especially Banks ... if only he could finish better!).
I also went to the FSU game (my oldest daughter graduated from FSU so we try to go when GT plays there) - I thought the offensive scheme was good - FSU is just really long and plays great defense. Either team could have won that one with 7 minutes left. Last night Duke played a lot with Goldwire and Jones both on court for defense - good move by K.

 

[gte447f]

Am I wrong in what I (and the others that sit around me at the games) see, but does that not go for Devoe as well? It seems more often than not, when he has the ball and drives, it ends up in him getting trapped and leads to a turnover, or he throws up a very wild-a**ed, off balance shot that has almost zero chance of going in? When it’s gotten to the point that the fans (at least those im usually around) let out an audible groan when he takes off toward the basket, I think there’s an issue there too.

I swear I'm going to pull what little hair I have left on head If I see Devoe attempt to dribble in traffic!

I disagree about Devoe. In my opinion he has the best dribble handle on the team and it’s still getting better. His problem with operating in traffic and finishing at the rim seems to me to be his athleticism or seeming lack there of. For whatever reason he doesn’t play vertical. I suspect he just doesn’t have a great vertical (can’t jump). So, instead he has to create and finish drives using craftiness, footwork and slight of hand. He is really good at it, but the more bodies there are around him the harder it is to fake them all out.

 

[CuseJacket]

 

[gt02]

So here's my question. We did not look like a poorly coached team against Duke. And this is not the first time. There have been several times where we have looked like a better coached and came in with a much better game plan.

It's not like with prior coaches, where we just couldn't figure out how to inbound, or how to get an entry pass to our bigs. Nor is it like other teams where we have had a player get hot and carry us. With this staff, we have some games where we know what we are doing, and others where we don't. It is absolutely head scratching. Maybe its a result of, with Alvarado out, not having the right players to execute the strategy and gameplan. But I have no other explanation for it.

 

[gtpi]

Coach K. versus coach P. 1st 4 years we need to coach on o

 

[gte447f]

So here's my question. We did not look like a poorly coached team against Duke. And this is not the first time. There have been several times where we have looked like a better coached and came in with a much better game plan.

It's not like with prior coaches, where we just couldn't figure out how to inbound, or how to get an entry pass to our bigs. Nor is it like other teams where we have had a player get hot and carry us. With this staff, we have some games where we know what we are doing, and others where we don't. It is absolutely head scratching. Maybe its a result of, with Alvarado out, not having the right players to execute the strategy and gameplan. But I have no other explanation for it.

We played a good game, and I’m not indicting the coach on this game, but their are always situations that can be linked to coaching input. In this game, I can think of 2 plays immediately that should not have happened because the players should have known better as a result of having been coached on what not to do. One was Moses taking that corner 3 on one of our last possessions of the game when we needed to score stay in the game. The other was when Duke was inbounding under their own basket and we left the lane wide open for an alley-oop dunk on the inbounds pass. These are errors made by the players, but when you see such basic errors you can question coaching input and effectiveness. Maybe it was just players screwing up in the heat of the moment, but it’s not like we saw flawless execution and perfect situational awareness.

 

[Techster]

So here's my question. We did not look like a poorly coached team against Duke. And this is not the first time. There have been several times where we have looked like a better coached and came in with a much better game plan.

It's not like with prior coaches, where we just couldn't figure out how to inbound, or how to get an entry pass to our bigs. Nor is it like other teams where we have had a player get hot and carry us. With this staff, we have some games where we know what we are doing, and others where we don't. It is absolutely head scratching. Maybe its a result of, with Alvarado out, not having the right players to execute the strategy and gameplan. But I have no other explanation for it.

Couple of things. If you look at @ESPNjacket clip, I believe we began to run the set recently. I don't remember running that early in the season, but I could be mistaken. It think the coaches are figuring out how to maximize two post players in Wright and Banks and not have their skillsets clash. Look for us to run complementary sets off that as other coaches are no doubt scouting that in their game plan.

Also, Alvarado is back. He makes our offense look SOOO much better. His ability to distribute, run our offense, and involve everyone is night and day when we have him.

Duke is a tough game to gauge our team's "turnaround" because they are a really good team that plays smart, plays well together, and can out talent pretty much any team in the nation including us. We played well against them, but we needed to play close to perfect...which we did in spurts but not enough to win.

It will be interesting to see us over the next few games. BC and ND are beatable, and UVA is looking very winnable as well. If we play like we did against UNC and Duke, I don't see why we can't be 3-0 heading into Louisville on 1/22.

 

[LibertyTurns]

We played a good game, and I’m not indicting the coach on this game, but their are always situations that can be linked to coaching input. In this game, I can think of 2 plays immediately that should not have happened because the players should have known better as a result of having been coached on what not to do. One was Moses taking that corner 3 on one of our last possessions of the game when we needed to score stay in the game. The other was when Duke was inbounding under their own basket and we left the lane wide open for an alley-oop dunk on the inbounds pass. These are errors made by the players, but when you see such basic errors you can question coaching input and effectiveness. Maybe it was just players screwing up in the heat of the moment, but it’s not like we saw flawless execution and perfect situational awareness.

Yeah but when you go from a long string of games where we were 5-25 on a scale of 1 to 100, then have two games in a row where you’re 75-80 it looks damn near flawless to those of stunned at what we’ve been watching.

 

[gte447f]

Yeah but when you go from a long string of games where we were 5-25 on a scale of 1 to 100, then have two games in a row where you’re 75-80 it looks damn near flawless to those of stunned at what we’ve been watching.

You’re right. It was certainly a welcome change. If we could play like we have the last 2 games for 30 games, I would take that every time.

 

[THWG16]

We haven't played like that with Jose in the line-up. Completely different team.

We should beat ball state with our 3rd string

 

[gtpi]

whats the sos of games with alvarod0 and w/o? win loss wise the record is similar but i think the games we played with him at the helm have been more difficult. putting an exclamation point on the difference he makes.

would be beat ugag now? theyre not looking so great right now. i guess in the grand scheme of things. its how we end up. but i just crap my pants anytime we lose to them in anything. grrrrrrrrrrr

and it does look like the two bigs are learning to play to each others strengths. i really like cole. he is under utilized imo. he does a lot of nice things.

go jackets

 

[lv20gt]

whats the sos of games with alvarod0 and w/o? win loss wise the record is similar but i think the games we played with him at the helm have been more difficult. putting an exclamation point on the difference he makes.

Dunno, but there is probably a pretty big difference.

The RPI of teams when we haven't had Jose are 332, 10,278,178,131,50,201 (average 168.57)

The RPI of teams when we have had Jose are 70,99,48,172,5,117,4,103 (avg = 77.25)

and UGA is 43 where he was playing hurt and then went out.