GTbball2016
Helluva Engineer
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I love Usher’s post game comments. Just a great representative of the university.
Nice summary YlJacket.Went to Chapel Thrill and watched this abomination from behind the basket. Got a chance to see more of the court and goings on than I normally get on the TV. Be it live or on TV, it is hard to find much positive about tonight. To start out though I will try:
The team generally played hard all game
Usher is a baller - and a baller I hope gets an NBA chance. I will be rooting for him.
Now the other side - and this is the abbreviated version
Our defense sucked tonight - be it the zone or man to man.
When we went man with the small lineup we switched everthing everywhere and ended up with Smith/Sturdivant or Devoe trying to guard Bacot routinely. The first act was for Usher to switch off of Bacot and then it went downhill from there. I can sort of understand a lot of switching in the small lineup but not making a quick easy switch of Usher off of Bacot at the very start of any set. We were in such mismatches across the board we had no shot. Devon trying to guard Bacot and Khalid trying to find a guard he was supposed to switch off on. Didn't guard either level.
When Saba came in I thought we would go to a more traditional defensive mindset and have him hedge and then stay on Bacot. Instead we did the same damn thing and had him switch off of Bacot at the mere hint of a screen and ended up with him trying to guard a perimeter player and still had Devon trying to guard Bacot. I couldn't believe it. I actually do try not to say much about coaching but the defensive scheme tonight was off the charts bad. You can get away with switching everthing against a ND who has 5 guys primarily playing the perimeter but UNC has well defined perimeter and bigs who play that way but we played into their hands and gave them mismatches across the board that they could take advantage of.
Quite honestly Bacot "only" had 29 points because he was lazy much of the time and didn't go demand the ball as much as he should have. If he had been more assertive he could have easily had 40.
On the other side our modified princeton set is a bunch of horse manure. It needs to go away until we have a big who can run it. Even with Usher at the elbow, it doesn't help anyone get an easy shot. Yes Usher could go one on whomever was trying to guard him - and he balled out of his mind tonight - but it doesn't help anyone else. Unlike our D on UNC, our offense didn't cause UNC to have to switch much if any at all. So while UNC was parsing through whatever mismatch they wanted to exploit, we generally were unable to create any switches or easy baskets so our guys were almost always trying to go one on one against their primary defender at the end of the clock. You could tell Usher was just saying "**** it" and took advantage of being guarded by a bigger guy. Smith had the athleticism to do some good. Devoe on the other hand had Leaky Black living in his jock and we didn't do a damn thing to either create a switch off of him or help Devoe get anything easy. They guys I was with actually started laughing any time Devoe drove to the basket because every UNC big plus half the bench and the water boy all collapsed into the paint to make him go one on the whole team.
I have no idea why Pastner continues to feature the modified Princeton. It doesn't do anything to help the players we have get shots. We end up playing offense in a phone booth without moving the ball side to side and doing anything to create switches or mismatches. Watch VT or multiple other teams run a perimeter based offense with pin downs. curls, and ball movement side to side - none of which we have. If you look at our team really only Usher has the ability to create his own shot against athletic opponents like UNC - and maybe add Smith. Most of our other guys are spot up shooters. We don't do a damn thing to help them get shots. Trying to run an offense through Saba at this stage of his development is malpractice. Even the offense we run through Usher doesn't help anyone else.
I do think that we have talent that will be ACC level talent in Deebo, Smith and even Saba, Miles, etc. But watching the last couple of games certainly leaves one with a major concern that they either won't maximize their talents next year or will top out at solid role players but not "playmakers". IMHO we will need BOTH an influx of talent from the portal and a change/improvement in the way Pastner deploys this talent through schemes better suited to what he has.
Way too long a post but tonight was simply a muck up at the most basic levels.
Agreed. Said the same thing last year too. Even when winning last year, felt like games were closer than they needed to be because of the lack of offensive diversity (and the lack of tempo - never understood why we walked the ball up the floor so much). I love the point series stuff, and the other Princeton actions we run. And of course there are counters built in to the whole offense which gives it some healthy diversity within itself, yet it still is not enough in my mind - last year and this year. I say that as a fan of Princeton as our base offense. I believe we are the only ACC team that utilizes it as our primary/base offense, which is wise, imo, just like the hybrid zone. But we need to be a tougher offensive scout. Adding Horns STS for Mike only takes 2 minutes of scout/prep time for an opponent. It needs to be far deeper than that.On the offensive end, I’m a fan of the Princeton point series stuff that we run, but it has become waaaaaayyy to predictable at this point. And, it’s even worse because our 5 men really aren’t very good at all at the high post and above. If this series was a wrinkle that we ran sometimes, I think it would be very effective, but running it almost every time down the floor, the way we do it, with our limited personnel, I think it is way too easy to scout and prepare for.
Good stuff & I totally agree. I said from the beginning our crippling point is our offense & until we change it with the same alignment as the defense we will continue to be in dog fights with the games we’re supposed too win & get drummed by the teams were supposed too lose. Again #1 any offense, you have to have willing passers we are averaging about 6 assists as a team. You had Maxwell, Coleman, & Devoe all on the floor at the same time & we did not spread them out, Babcot & Manek never really had to guard outside of the paint, not sure why staff wasn’t suggesting trying to get them in P&R situations more. I’m willing to bet that neither of those 2 could guard Devoe or Coleman on the perimeter with the floor spaced out. I thgt we would have went to a more 5 out offense (Princeton variation since JP is so favored to it) nope.Went to Chapel Thrill and watched this abomination from behind the basket. Got a chance to see more of the court and goings on than I normally get on the TV. Be it live or on TV, it is hard to find much positive about tonight. To start out though I will try:
The team generally played hard all game
Usher is a baller - and a baller I hope gets an NBA chance. I will be rooting for him.
Now the other side - and this is the abbreviated version
Our defense sucked tonight - be it the zone or man to man.
When we went man with the small lineup we switched everthing everywhere and ended up with Smith/Sturdivant or Devoe trying to guard Bacot routinely. The first act was for Usher to switch off of Bacot and then it went downhill from there. I can sort of understand a lot of switching in the small lineup but not making a quick easy switch of Usher off of Bacot at the very start of any set. We were in such mismatches across the board we had no shot. Devon trying to guard Bacot and Khalid trying to find a guard he was supposed to switch off on. Didn't guard either level.
When Saba came in I thought we would go to a more traditional defensive mindset and have him hedge and then stay on Bacot. Instead we did the same damn thing and had him switch off of Bacot at the mere hint of a screen and ended up with him trying to guard a perimeter player and still had Devon trying to guard Bacot. I couldn't believe it. I actually do try not to say much about coaching but the defensive scheme tonight was off the charts bad. You can get away with switching everthing against a ND who has 5 guys primarily playing the perimeter but UNC has well defined perimeter and bigs who play that way but we played into their hands and gave them mismatches across the board that they could take advantage of.
Quite honestly Bacot "only" had 29 points because he was lazy much of the time and didn't go demand the ball as much as he should have. If he had been more assertive he could have easily had 40.
On the other side our modified princeton set is a bunch of horse manure. It needs to go away until we have a big who can run it. Even with Usher at the elbow, it doesn't help anyone get an easy shot. Yes Usher could go one on whomever was trying to guard him - and he balled out of his mind tonight - but it doesn't help anyone else. Unlike our D on UNC, our offense didn't cause UNC to have to switch much if any at all. So while UNC was parsing through whatever mismatch they wanted to exploit, we generally were unable to create any switches or easy baskets so our guys were almost always trying to go one on one against their primary defender at the end of the clock. You could tell Usher was just saying "**** it" and took advantage of being guarded by a bigger guy. Smith had the athleticism to do some good. Devoe on the other hand had Leaky Black living in his jock and we didn't do a damn thing to either create a switch off of him or help Devoe get anything easy. They guys I was with actually started laughing any time Devoe drove to the basket because every UNC big plus half the bench and the water boy all collapsed into the paint to make him go one on the whole team.
I have no idea why Pastner continues to feature the modified Princeton. It doesn't do anything to help the players we have get shots. We end up playing offense in a phone booth without moving the ball side to side and doing anything to create switches or mismatches. Watch VT or multiple other teams run a perimeter based offense with pin downs. curls, and ball movement side to side - none of which we have. If you look at our team really only Usher has the ability to create his own shot against athletic opponents like UNC - and maybe add Smith. Most of our other guys are spot up shooters. We don't do a damn thing to help them get shots. Trying to run an offense through Saba at this stage of his development is malpractice. Even the offense we run through Usher doesn't help anyone else.
I do think that we have talent that will be ACC level talent in Deebo, Smith and even Saba, Miles, etc. But watching the last couple of games certainly leaves one with a major concern that they either won't maximize their talents next year or will top out at solid role players but not "playmakers". IMHO we will need BOTH an influx of talent from the portal and a change/improvement in the way Pastner deploys this talent through schemes better suited to what he has.
Way too long a post but tonight was simply a muck up at the most basic levels.
flex offense... that line made me lol... i know it was mostly TIC, but a great window into how *desperately* you want to see off-ball screens.Good stuff & I totally agree. I said from the beginning our crippling point is our offense & until we change it with the same alignment as the defense we will continue to be in dog fights with the games we’re supposed too win & get drummed by the teams were supposed too lose. Again #1 any offense, you have to have willing passers we are averaging about 6 assists as a team. You had Maxwell, Coleman, & Devoe all on the floor at the same time & we did not spread them out, Babcot & Manek never really had to guard outside of the paint, not sure why staff wasn’t suggesting trying to get them in P&R situations more. I’m willing to bet that neither of those 2 could guard Devoe or Coleman on the perimeter with the floor spaced out. I thgt we would have went to a more 5 out offense (Princeton variation since JP is so favored to it) nope.
Our offense is not conducive to the skill set of our players & when I say that I speaking in regards to there strengths. We shouldn’t be as stalled on getting easy looks for guys that have proven that they can score. Contrary to popular belief we can be a balanced scoring team Devoe and others driving in the paint taking majority shots against 3 collapsed defenders while proven spot up shooters on the perimeter waiting for kick out is just another recipe for defeats. We do not get easy shots 80%.
Trying not to make a long post, but until our offense changes we will continue to get on here & talk about how our future looks dim b/c we are losing a lot & our younger guys are not ACC level talent. The game is changing the NBA is more small ball we can get a way small ball, but we have to be just as schematic on offense as we are trying to be defensively. I here the commentators & analysts talk about how chaotic we are defensively & it’s hard to game plan against b/c of how we can switch it up so quick. Our offense is predictable that’s that it is what it is. We can do some very basic stuff P&R, DHO’s, pin down screens, hell I’m not even opposed to the Flex Offense at least there are some screens & more ball movement being made. We work too hard defensively & the other teams are not working hard defensively
I will give Pastner benefit of the doubt for starting the small lineup. Lot of coaches simply try to get their best 5 players on the court almost regardless of position. I've done it myself. And he was making the same bet he made against BC that he could score his way to a win. I just don't get the defensive scheme to have the primary Bacot defender jump the first screen first time and every time. Usher actually did an OK job on Bacot when he was guarding him as he was strong and energetic enough to front him effectively. Saba tried hard when he guarded Bacot but he kept getting caught on the high side and Bacot simply rode him up the lane to create a passing lane and driving lane to the basket.Nice summary YlJacket.
Not starting with a center in the game and then continuing to play large chunks of time throughout the game without a center in the game was a head scratcher on Pastner’s part, to put it mildly. The result was predictable. Literally, multiple posters on this board predicted exactly what would happen and did end up happening… easy dunks by Bacot and our smaller perimeter players giving away fouls (and free throws) unnecessarily.
Then when Saba was in the game, the switching was just plain stupid. Because of the stupid switching, we ended up with at least 2 guys in a mismatch guarding out of position on every possession instead of just one, so it was kind of like playing 5 v 3. Saba should have simply camped out at the basket and challenged shots at the rim, whether from Bacot or a perimeter player driving or cutting. Saba should never have left the restricted arc.
On the offensive end, I’m a fan of the Princeton point series stuff that we run, but it has become waaaaaayyy to predictable at this point. And, it’s even worse because our 5 men really aren’t very good at all at the high post and above. If this series was a wrinkle that we ran sometimes, I think it would be very effective, but running it almost every time down the floor, the way we do it, with our limited personnel, I think it is way too easy to scout and prepare for.
Usher was a beast, and smith had a good game. Everyone else, including the coaching staff, got their tails whipped and looked pretty helpless in the process.
flex offense... that line made me lol... i know it was mostly TIC, but a great window into how *desperately* you want to see off-ball screens.
Thanks so much for your insight.It looked the same on TV. I'm afraid that we will see a duplication of this game a LOT next yr ( especially w/o Ush and Mike ) unless we get some "big" talent.Went to Chapel Thrill and watched this abomination from behind the basket. Got a chance to see more of the court and goings on than I normally get on the TV. Be it live or on TV, it is hard to find much positive about tonight. To start out though I will try:
The team generally played hard all game
Usher is a baller - and a baller I hope gets an NBA chance. I will be rooting for him.
Now the other side - and this is the abbreviated version
Our defense sucked tonight - be it the zone or man to man.
When we went man with the small lineup we switched everthing everywhere and ended up with Smith/Sturdivant or Devoe trying to guard Bacot routinely. The first act was for Usher to switch off of Bacot and then it went downhill from there. I can sort of understand a lot of switching in the small lineup but not making a quick easy switch of Usher off of Bacot at the very start of any set. We were in such mismatches across the board we had no shot. Devon trying to guard Bacot and Khalid trying to find a guard he was supposed to switch off on. Didn't guard either level.
When Saba came in I thought we would go to a more traditional defensive mindset and have him hedge and then stay on Bacot. Instead we did the same damn thing and had him switch off of Bacot at the mere hint of a screen and ended up with him trying to guard a perimeter player and still had Devon trying to guard Bacot. I couldn't believe it. I actually do try not to say much about coaching but the defensive scheme tonight was off the charts bad. You can get away with switching everthing against a ND who has 5 guys primarily playing the perimeter but UNC has well defined perimeter and bigs who play that way but we played into their hands and gave them mismatches across the board that they could take advantage of.
Quite honestly Bacot "only" had 29 points because he was lazy much of the time and didn't go demand the ball as much as he should have. If he had been more assertive he could have easily had 40.
On the other side our modified princeton set is a bunch of horse manure. It needs to go away until we have a big who can run it. Even with Usher at the elbow, it doesn't help anyone get an easy shot. Yes Usher could go one on whomever was trying to guard him - and he balled out of his mind tonight - but it doesn't help anyone else. Unlike our D on UNC, our offense didn't cause UNC to have to switch much if any at all. So while UNC was parsing through whatever mismatch they wanted to exploit, we generally were unable to create any switches or easy baskets so our guys were almost always trying to go one on one against their primary defender at the end of the clock. You could tell Usher was just saying "**** it" and took advantage of being guarded by a bigger guy. Smith had the athleticism to do some good. Devoe on the other hand had Leaky Black living in his jock and we didn't do a damn thing to either create a switch off of him or help Devoe get anything easy. They guys I was with actually started laughing any time Devoe drove to the basket because every UNC big plus half the bench and the water boy all collapsed into the paint to make him go one on the whole team.
I have no idea why Pastner continues to feature the modified Princeton. It doesn't do anything to help the players we have get shots. We end up playing offense in a phone booth without moving the ball side to side and doing anything to create switches or mismatches. Watch VT or multiple other teams run a perimeter based offense with pin downs. curls, and ball movement side to side - none of which we have. If you look at our team really only Usher has the ability to create his own shot against athletic opponents like UNC - and maybe add Smith. Most of our other guys are spot up shooters. We don't do a damn thing to help them get shots. Trying to run an offense through Saba at this stage of his development is malpractice. Even the offense we run through Usher doesn't help anyone else.
I do think that we have talent that will be ACC level talent in Deebo, Smith and even Saba, Miles, etc. But watching the last couple of games certainly leaves one with a major concern that they either won't maximize their talents next year or will top out at solid role players but not "playmakers". IMHO we will need BOTH an influx of talent from the portal and a change/improvement in the way Pastner deploys this talent through schemes better suited to what he has.
Way too long a post but tonight was simply a muck up at the most basic levels.
Found it...I love Usher’s post game comments. Just a great representative of the university.
Found it...
In regards to your experience, it sounds like an awesome. I definitely plan to make those away games as well.I feel like that’s Pastner’s calling card and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen at McCamish.
How would you rank them?Would love to see a game in every ACC gym. I've made it to several, but the list keeps getting longer with expansion. I've done McCamish & AMC, Littlejohn, Cameron, Reynolds, Dean Dome and Carmichael, and Joel. I saw one in Cole Field House but f*ck them. Leaves a lot of work to do.
How would you rank them?
Is it the intimacy of Cameron?In terms of atmosphere and crowd…
Cameron
Reynolds (wish they still played here)
AMC (in the early 90s)
Carmichael
Littlejohn (only for a big game, sucks for OOC game)
Joel
Dean Dome
McCamish
My hope is that McCamish will get back to the old AMC noise and crowd engagement level when the team is consistently good. Even some of the Hewitt years had really great games there. Remember the Chris Paul game? Something like 103-102? Great game and the place was rocking. I miss that