The idea of scheme is to put guys in position to exploit what they do best and minimize the impact of their weaknesses. There is a limit to this, however. At the end of the day you need guys who can physically match-up and also you need guys with some skills. If you have guys on the floor who can't shoot, that is a problem regardless of scheme.
I see some suggestions that Howard is not well suited to play the Princeton set because he can't shoot. Fair enough. But Howard actually seemed most comfortable with the ball at the elbow. He doesn't seem comfortable establishing position in the paint with his back to the basket. he doesn't look like a threat from there, either. So, what scheme is good for him?
Then we tried to play with both Howard and Khalid Moore on the floor at the same time. That didn't work at all. Defenses could leave two guys un-guarded and put five defenders on Devoe and Usher.
Howard had a few games where he looked good on offense. But to call him inconsistent would be an understatement. But the real problem here is on defense. We were playing three point shooters tight (and we were successful in keeping three ponnt percentage low), but that left our perimeter defenders vulnerable to getting beat off the dribble. In the past, that had been okay because we hand Lammers and then Banks on the backside to make it hard for penetrators to finish around the rim.
One of the big reasons the team struggled last year was because of how poor we were on weakside rotations. When our guys got beat by dribble penetration, the paint was left wide-open. Where Banks and, especially, Lammers were able to react quickly to dribble penetration, last year we did not.
We had Devoe and Usher back last and each produced about what was expected. So why did we go from 4th place ACC team to next to last? The easy answer is to say because we lost Alvarado and Wright, but that doesn't really answer the question because how a team performs is the result of the guys who are playing on the floor. The team went from being ranked 44th in the country in offensive efficiency to one ranked around 277. That is a huge drop. What happened?
This is going to be harsh, but there were, besides Devoe and Usher, three other guys who were going to need to step-up last year for the team to perform okay:
1. On one level, it was unfair to expect Howard to be a key guy because his development had not progressed very far. Ideally, he would not have been expected to fill such an important role so soon as a project player. But that was the reality. He got off to a slow start but then started to show life on the offensive end. Then he hurt his ankle, missed time and when he came back, he was non-productive for several games. On defense, he showed no particular acumen on the boards or as a shot blocker and his weak-side rotations were pretty much non-existent for the entire year. The coach can't scheme around this. Big guys develop slow, so maybe he will be better.
2. Deebo Coleman was a top 50 recruit and was a big strong kid who could shoot. It may not be fair to have to count on a true Freshman but that was the reality last season. But Coleman was far too passive to be a key cog. His cuts were lazy, he mostly liked to sit on the wing or just swing the ball around the perimeter. His most promising moments were when he bulled his way into the paint, but I could count on one hand the number of times I saw him do that. For a 210 lbs player, his rebounding numbers were horrid. His defense was uninspired. We needed him to be a productive player as a Freshman and he was not.
3. Kyle Sturdivant was well groomed to fill a big role on the team. He got lots of key minutes on the Championship team and had the time in the program and the minutes and shot a decent percentage so, one would have expected that he would have been in line to pick-up his production. But he seemed content to be solid. I don't know if his approach to the game was ordered by the staff or if it was just his predisposition. Either way, he came up far short of the numbers that would have been necessary for last year's team to be decent. He didn't shoot enough, score enough, drive enough create and dish enough, shoot enough free throws, rebound enough, deflect enough passes or make enough steals. All of that was deficient. He was content to safely get the ball up the court and then lope through his cuts and just get the ball to Devoe and watch Devoe take on the entire defense. He flashed but then would disappear for 10 minutes. No Bueno.
And this was the story of the team. Too many guys going through the motions, content to be the guy who did not make mistakes, who did not miss the shot, who would not leave his mark to rotate on defense; and not enough guys aggressively hunting opportunities to impact the game. Were thy coached to play it safe or were they passive players?
