Originally Posted by
Mal
Others have touched on this, but with teams hedging more in the latter part of the season to prevent our kickouts to wide open 3-point shooters, our shot selection has suffered. I haven't looked at numbers, but it sure seems like our 3-point shooting has dropped off, and I feel like we're hoisting off the dribble or with guys in our face more often. From what I saw of the game last night (and it was much more than I would ever have wanted to see - I don't want CBS to feel compelled to broadcast one second of our first round matchup), I think when we saw success toward the end of the game it was through a slightly different tactic. If the opposing defense is going to shade toward the line to close on exterior shooting, let someone take it all the way to the hoop. If his wrist holds up, Henderson is a very good finisher. Let him get 12 early points and rack up fouls on the defense by slashing through the lane, and eventually the perimeter will open up again. Does West Virginia have someone who can stick with him man-to-man, without help down the lane?
Coach K is great at throwing a wrinkle in at the start of a game, that goes off the scouting report and makes the opponent make a tactical change to deal with it, at which point we gain the upper hand. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts against WVU by limiting the kickouts, trying to get to the rim or getting Thomas or someone easy buckets on the dish. Perhaps using the top of the key screen for Henderson more often, while having Singler slice to the lane on the penetration instead of floating down the baseline to the corner so much. It could loosen us up if it works, instead of making it feel like we're just hoping someone magically gets wide open for a 20-footer before the shot clock starts winding down and we panic. Everone's aware that there seems to be a correlation with our shooting <35% from 3 and our losing, so they're devoting a lot of energy to defending the 3. It would be an interesting wrinkle to just termporarily abandon the 3, then, and make them start focusing on something else. Then the 3 will miraculously open up again. Perhaps risky, I guess, going away from your strength. But it hasn't been that much of a strength recently, other than against weak teams like Tech and NC State.
I'm just glad Pittsnoggle's gone.