We gave up so many wide open 3 point shots while simultaneously giving them back door layups. I don't think I've ever seen a team so consistently out of position on defense. At times we were triple teaming them on perimeter leaving two players wide open.
Our offense was simply attack 1:1 (or realistically 1:3). It resulted in a relentless string of turnovers. But the bigger issue is we have an entire team of players who don't understand their roles. We have the wrong people trying to "create" on the dribble and worse yet bombing 3's early in the shot clock. We have no team play on offense - no movement off the ball, no cutting, no (effective) screens, no ball rotation, no transition game. On offense the ball never moved.
I'm concerned that what we are seeing can't easily be fixed and we will be out of contention for any post season before conference play even starts.
/
Three point defense doesn’t bother me as much as the clear paths to the basket, including the back door layups. Mind you, it still bothers me.
Overall, our defense looked confused. I read that Pastner gave the team the day off the day after Georgia State, and it looked like they hadn’t really practiced. In the first half, the Mercer passed from one side of the arc to a shooter alone behind the other side arc, and three Tech defenders ran over to cover him, leaving two other players totally unguarded behind them. My first thought was “at least three players didn’t know their responsibilities on that play”. On both offense and defense, there’s more individual basketball than team basketball. Throughout the game, the defense followed the ball and left big holes behind them, and left Mercer players uncovered.
Several times, three Tech players were close around the basket, facing it, waiting for a defensive rebound. The ball went past them to a Mercer player who easily flipped it in the basket, undefended because all of our players were facing the other way. It was the second game in a row where most of our baskets looked hard, and most of Mercer’s looked easy.
For three point defense, I’ll tip my hat to the Mercer players who nailed a three from 6 feet+ outside the arc. I am annoyed by the three pointers by the baseline—you know a player is going to camp out there and take that three—somebody should be guarding that guy.
But didn't Stansbury extend Pastner's contract? I may be off base, but I'm starting worry about people in leadership positions.
I don’t think Pastner’s contract got extended the way that Brian Gregory’s did, where the buyout got substantially enlarged when you weren’t happy with performance.
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I’ll start by saying, I’m not a super deep basketball expert—I just played for fun, and mostly wrestled growing up.
On offense, both Mercer and Tech were mostly running a 4 out 1 in motion offense, but as
@YlJacket said in chat, “we were running ours in name only, and were playing mostly 1:1 iso”. Moses played the 5.
When Mercer was on offense, they kept moving and cutting and running plays (that looked like plays) until our defense stretched and shifted enough that there was a gap and somebody had an open shot. They passed with a purpose. They screened much more often than we screened.
We only had a couple of plays that looked like plays. Mostly, it was “Devoe or Bubba or Jose dribble and make something happen”, and they’d get surrounded by 2-3 guys. The offensive strategy seemed mostly “individually win your matchup and you’ll get a basket”.
When your best players are your guards, I’m used to seeing your 5 stay on the weak side. Instead, Moses would either set up near the low post on one side (often starting on the strong side, but picking one side and staying there). Sometimes, he’d be in the high post, and would largely stay there. He mostly kept out of the paint.
Sometimes, if your 5 is your best player, you’ll run your offense through him and they’ll pass and distribute from inside. We didn’t do that, either.
On a play, we’d have maybe two players moving, and two would stake a claim at a fixed point outside the arc, and hardly move. I remember seeing a ton of that two years ago. It doesn’t seem accidental.
Moses is more of a 4 than a 5, but we’re playing him at the 5. When we play him at the 4, we’re weak at the 3 and the 5 on offense (and it seems like we’re weak there on defense too). The people you see scoring are Jose, Devoe, and Moses. When we play Moses at the 5, I see Bubba, Jose, and Devoe score, but we’re still not great at the 5 and we lose our best 4.
A few more stats. Our defensive numbers are terrible.
| Rk | Player | FG% | 2P% | 3P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS | | ORtg | DRtg |
|---|
| 2 | Moses Wright | .500 | .500 | .500 | .609 | 14.6 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 29.8 | | 120.7 | 111.8 |
| 3 | Jordan Usher | .476 | .600 | .167 | .625 | 15.0 | 3.5 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 22.9 | | 99.4 | 110.3 |
| 4 | Michael Devoe | .382 | .471 | .294 | .778 | 10.0 | 3.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.5 | 4.1 | 22.5 | | 91.3 | 116.1 |
| 5 | Jose Alvarado | .367 | .421 | .273 | .923 | 7.9 | 6.6 | 4.2 | 0.0 | 3.6 | 5.4 | 22.4 | | 112.6 | 108.6 |
| 6 | Bubba Parham | .455 | .700 | .250 | .714 | 5.0 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 5.0 | 20.1 | | 119.5 | 113.8 |
| 7 | Rodney Howard | .333 | .333 | | 1.000 | 12.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.6 | 5.1 | 7.7 | 15.4 | | 74.5 | 108.7 |
| 8 | Khalid Moore | .111 | .200 | .000 | .625 | 9.8 | 0.0 | 3.7 | 2.4 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 8.6 | | 61.8 | 106.1 |
| 9 | Saba Gigiberia | | | | | 15.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 7.7 | 0.0 | | 215.1 | 115.2 |
| 10 | Jordan Meka | .000 | .000 | | | 6.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | | 0.0 | 116.9 |
| 11 | Kyle Sturdivant | .000 | .000 | .000 | | 9.0 | 4.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.5 | 0.0 | | 55.9 | 118.1 |
[thead]
[/thead]
Provided by
CBB at Sports Reference:
View Original Table
Generated 11/28/2020.
In contrast, here are Mercer’s
| Rk | Player | FG% | 2P% | 3P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS | | ORtg | DRtg |
|---|
| 1 | Maciej Bender | .571 | .571 | | .667 | 11.2 | 1.6 | 3.2 | 6.4 | 1.6 | 4.8 | 28.7 | | 120.9 | 75.2 |
| 2 | Neftali Alvarez | .381 | .357 | .429 | .867 | 8.9 | 13.3 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 8.0 | 1.8 | 28.4 | | 108.4 | 87.0 |
| 3 | Leon Ayers III | .474 | .636 | .250 | 1.000 | 15.1 | 3.8 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 3.8 | 6.3 | 27.7 | | 106.0 | 82.1 |
| 4 | Ross Cummings | .647 | .714 | .600 | 1.000 | 3.5 | 4.4 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 27.1 | | 150.1 | 90.4 |
| 5 | James Glisson III | .545 | .600 | .000 | 1.000 | 12.4 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 3.1 | 21.7 | | 136.8 | 83.5 |
| 6 | Shannon Grant | .750 | .750 | | | 18.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.6 | 7.2 | 21.7 | | 112.1 | 84.6 |
| 7 | Felipe Haase | .375 | .300 | .429 | .500 | 17.2 | 6.0 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 21.5 | | 97.8 | 81.0 |
| 8 | Jacksen Greco | .333 | | .333 | | 15.9 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 0.0 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 9.6 | | 83.4 | 77.0 |
| 9 | Jeffrey Gary | .333 | .000 | .500 | 1.000 | 3.4 | 5.2 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 9.5 | | 106.9 | 82.5 |
| 10 | Diego Rivera | .000 | | .000 | | 18.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | | 0.0 | 83.1 |
| 11 | Patrick Urey | | | | | 27.1 | 13.5 | 13.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | | 236.2 | 47.5 |
[thead]
[/thead]
Provided by
CBB at Sports Reference:
View Original Table
Generated 11/28/2020.
