tommy
01-30-2012, 03:21 AM
Nobody was happy with how the last 1/3 or so of this game went. Obviously, K among them. A lot of folks focused on the last 12 minutes of the game, so bearing in mind that many on the boards seem to have come around to the idea that our defensive problems are in large part (not exclusively of course) due to lapses in attention, periodic lack of effort, and other focus-related issues rather than purely physical failings, I took a detailed look at the last 12 minutes (in particular) vs. St. John's and here is every scoring possession they had during that time, with the time listed first:
1204: Harrison catches on deep right wing, drives left into lane, Rivers stays with him pretty well, Harrison kinda sorta turns the corner, but doesn’t really create separation. Rivers still pressuring, Harrison takes little step back jumper from 12 feet, fairly well contested, and makes it. Hairston tries to reach In with help as Harrison is in mid-move but doesn’t get the ball. Miles screened out from helping from underneath – nothing he could do. This was not poor defensive play. Just an aggressive drive and a fairly difficult shot, with some pressure, that went in.
1028: High screen, Mason hedges but just gives up the hedge too quickly, before Austin has had a chance to fight through the screen and get into position. This insufficient “push-out” on the hedge leaves Harrison, who has kept his dribble, wide open for the 3. This one is on Mason. Not an identifiable lack of effort or focus, but just poor defensive execution.
958: Bad pass by us in our offense, ball about to go backcourt, we save it way up in the air, it’s a giant jumpball and we’re called for a foul on it. After we call timeout, Garrett hits 1 of 2.
954: In-bounds play. Harkless gets it on the left, drives into the lane on Mason. Ryan helps, Harkless misses the little jump hook in the lane. Because of Ryan’s help, Seth is stuck with 2 guys on the right side of the floor, deep inside. He doesn’t box out either one. Garrett (Ryan’s man)looked like he was going to get the board but Seth kind of nudges him out of the way from behind, but still Greene (Seth’s original man) is there alone for the easy putback. Can’t blame Ryan for helping, but there was just no way a guy of Seth’s size was going to handle two St John’s guys going strong to the offensive board by himself. Again, I’d say this was a failure of execution, if anything, rather than a mental mistake or lapse.
918: Garrett, on the right wing, drives on Ryan and takes a crazy shot in between Ryan and Mason, which had no chance. But he sliced though them and got to the left side of the rim, and fortunately for him the ball bounced back to him off the bottom of the rim, before Ryan or Andre could get there. Andre was watching the play from the weak side, and some might fault him for not seeing the play developing and getting himself in better position to be involved in the play, but I don’t think that’s fair after reviewing this play a number of times. I think he reasonably assumed that Garrett would never be able to get through the two man wall consisting of Mason and Ryan, and make it all the way over to his side of the hoop, the left side, and be in position to get a rebound of a ball that bounced down off the bottom of the rim. So Garrett gets it back and Austin, apparently assuming Garrett would go back up, sort of drops off of his man at the arc on the left side. Garrett, rather than going back up against Kelly with his hands up, kicks out to Austin’s man (Green) who buries the 3. Garrett was very aggressive and athletic on this play, but had Austin maintained contact with his man, there is no open 3. Have to put this one on him in the mental/focus category. 7 point game. Uh-oh.
804: On a switch, Thornton is on Greene. Takes him left to left side of lane, where he shoots and Mason contests the shot hard. Kelly loses sight of Harkless though, so does not box. Easy putback for Mo. Kelly’s lapse here, whether you want to call it physical or mental, but I tend to think of it more as mental.
721: Good St John’s screen necessitates a switch leaving Mason on Harkless on the right wing. He takes Mason to the hoop and draws a shooting foul. No chance for anyone to help. Hits 1 of 2 throws.
615: Rivers tries to deny 40’ from the hoop, gets beaten backdoor by Harrison. This requires Mason to help out on the driving Harrison. Dumps it to the now-open Achiuwa, who Rivers comes back to foul on the shot. This one is on Rivers for the initial poor overplay. Physical or mental? To me, the decision to overplay way out there is mental, but the poor execution of it once that decision was made was physical.
443: Dawkins on Garrett on the right wing. Greene comes around his top side, Curry trailing him. Dawkins anticipates Garrett dumping off to Greene, which he could’ve done (but didn’t). So Andre shades towards Greene, but Garrett instead keeps it and heads for the hoop. Andre now is about to start trailing his man on the way to the hoop, so Seth grabs Garrett from behind to prevent this from happening. Seth’s foul, but not great defensive execution from either guy, especially Dawkins. Hits both.
418: Harkless grabs defensive board, and as he starts to dribble upcourt to begin a break, Mason fouls him from behind. We’re in the penalty, and Harkless hits 1 of 2.
257: Harkless takes Ryan baseline, Mason comes over and provides very good help. Tough, challenged shot bounces off, and Harkless basically out-athletes Kelly for the board, and puts it back up and in.
200: Harkless has Kelly on an iso left side. Takes him with one dribble into the lane, followed by a very nice spin move back to his left and cans the 10 footer. Sweet individual move and Ryan was right there with him. Hats off.
108: Harkless this time has Mason one-on-one on the left side, takes 2 dribbles into the lane, Dawkins comes over to help and puts his hands up, but Harkless rolls it in anyway. Kid is just a baller, that’s all.
038: High screen and a switch leaves Mason outside on Harkless. Mo just bangs a 3 right in his face. Wow. No matter how we play him, he scores. To quote Al McGuire on Isiah Thomas at age 18: “You canNOT be a freshman!”
023: Lots of switching up high as St. John’s is in desperation mode. Harrison drains a 3 after Mason gets screened and Ryan is flying at him. Another tough shot.
011: Curry does good job contesting Harrison’s full court drive, but Achiuwe outhustles Seth and Mason for the rebound, and is fouled by Rivers. Hits 1 of 2.
OK that’s all their points in the last 12 minutes. Lot of points, to be sure. Before I went over the game again to compile this, I had expected to find that a lot of their hoops were the result of mental lapses, inattention, loss of focus, etc., as we’ve seen in a number of other games. But it really wasn’t. Out of all of these scoring plays, which number 16, I think I count only 3 that were due to mental lapses or lack of effort, and one of those was shaky if that designation is even fair.
St. Johns’s kids are talented, especially Harkness, Garrett, and Harrison, and they played very loose as if they had nothing to lose, because they didn’t. They made a number of tough shots, which you can do when there’s less game pressure on you.
Our defense in the first half and first part of the second half was actually pretty good. We denied, we stayed in front on a lot of moves to the hoop – Curry was especially good in that department, we helped. And like I say, even in the last 12 minutes, while they certainly scored a lot, I really don’t think our D was so bad when it’s broken down play-by-play. Sure, we got out-athleted some; we had some questionable execution on some screen plays; we got beaten into the lane off the dribble, which is nothing new. But it’s not like we weren’t making full effort or that we were unfocused or even that we were playing poorly. St. John’s played well offensively too, causing us to just get beaten more than we would have liked.
The numbers for the bigs are going to look a lot worse than our perimeter guys. Mason and Ryan each gave up 8 baskets, which is a lot. A lot of those – not all, but a fair number – were the result of them switching and having to deal with guys quick off the bounce rather than getting beaten on more traditional post play.
I really don’t understand why Miles didn’t play more, again. He wasn’t great defensively in this game, as he was responsible primarily for 2 hoops and another several plays that resulted in St. John’s free throws, in limited action. But still – I know Mason was dominating the boards, but to have the big man minutes have as big a disparity as they did between Mason and Ryan, on the one hand, and Miles on the other? Miles is our strongest interior defender and it’s not like Mason was killing it offensively like he did against Maryland, and Ryan was playing well, but not so great that Miles should be nailed to the bench. So what gives?
OK below are the stop % numbers for this game. Just when I’m starting to think these numbers don’t tell us all that much, you see something like this. As a team, we got stops on half of St. Johns’ possessions, and they scored on half. I counted it as 36 stops and 38 hoops, for 49%. Curry, Rivers, and Dawkins were all right at that number. So were Mason and Kelly. All of which makes sense, seeing that those 5 got the lions’ share of the minutes.
But then you look at Tyler Thornton at 62% and Quinn Cook at only 33% -- in pretty limited minutes, however – and it does have to make you think, right?
Miles was only at 44%, but again small sample size. If one more possession that he was on the floor for had been a stop instead of a hoop, he’d have been at 50% too.
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
26
28
48%
Rivers
34
35
49%
Dawkins
29
31
48%
Mason
31
31
50%
Thornton
13
8
62%
Kelly
28
28
50%
Miles
8
10
44%
Cook
6
12
33%
Gbinije
0
0
Hairston
5
7
42%
TEAM
36
38
49%
1204: Harrison catches on deep right wing, drives left into lane, Rivers stays with him pretty well, Harrison kinda sorta turns the corner, but doesn’t really create separation. Rivers still pressuring, Harrison takes little step back jumper from 12 feet, fairly well contested, and makes it. Hairston tries to reach In with help as Harrison is in mid-move but doesn’t get the ball. Miles screened out from helping from underneath – nothing he could do. This was not poor defensive play. Just an aggressive drive and a fairly difficult shot, with some pressure, that went in.
1028: High screen, Mason hedges but just gives up the hedge too quickly, before Austin has had a chance to fight through the screen and get into position. This insufficient “push-out” on the hedge leaves Harrison, who has kept his dribble, wide open for the 3. This one is on Mason. Not an identifiable lack of effort or focus, but just poor defensive execution.
958: Bad pass by us in our offense, ball about to go backcourt, we save it way up in the air, it’s a giant jumpball and we’re called for a foul on it. After we call timeout, Garrett hits 1 of 2.
954: In-bounds play. Harkless gets it on the left, drives into the lane on Mason. Ryan helps, Harkless misses the little jump hook in the lane. Because of Ryan’s help, Seth is stuck with 2 guys on the right side of the floor, deep inside. He doesn’t box out either one. Garrett (Ryan’s man)looked like he was going to get the board but Seth kind of nudges him out of the way from behind, but still Greene (Seth’s original man) is there alone for the easy putback. Can’t blame Ryan for helping, but there was just no way a guy of Seth’s size was going to handle two St John’s guys going strong to the offensive board by himself. Again, I’d say this was a failure of execution, if anything, rather than a mental mistake or lapse.
918: Garrett, on the right wing, drives on Ryan and takes a crazy shot in between Ryan and Mason, which had no chance. But he sliced though them and got to the left side of the rim, and fortunately for him the ball bounced back to him off the bottom of the rim, before Ryan or Andre could get there. Andre was watching the play from the weak side, and some might fault him for not seeing the play developing and getting himself in better position to be involved in the play, but I don’t think that’s fair after reviewing this play a number of times. I think he reasonably assumed that Garrett would never be able to get through the two man wall consisting of Mason and Ryan, and make it all the way over to his side of the hoop, the left side, and be in position to get a rebound of a ball that bounced down off the bottom of the rim. So Garrett gets it back and Austin, apparently assuming Garrett would go back up, sort of drops off of his man at the arc on the left side. Garrett, rather than going back up against Kelly with his hands up, kicks out to Austin’s man (Green) who buries the 3. Garrett was very aggressive and athletic on this play, but had Austin maintained contact with his man, there is no open 3. Have to put this one on him in the mental/focus category. 7 point game. Uh-oh.
804: On a switch, Thornton is on Greene. Takes him left to left side of lane, where he shoots and Mason contests the shot hard. Kelly loses sight of Harkless though, so does not box. Easy putback for Mo. Kelly’s lapse here, whether you want to call it physical or mental, but I tend to think of it more as mental.
721: Good St John’s screen necessitates a switch leaving Mason on Harkless on the right wing. He takes Mason to the hoop and draws a shooting foul. No chance for anyone to help. Hits 1 of 2 throws.
615: Rivers tries to deny 40’ from the hoop, gets beaten backdoor by Harrison. This requires Mason to help out on the driving Harrison. Dumps it to the now-open Achiuwa, who Rivers comes back to foul on the shot. This one is on Rivers for the initial poor overplay. Physical or mental? To me, the decision to overplay way out there is mental, but the poor execution of it once that decision was made was physical.
443: Dawkins on Garrett on the right wing. Greene comes around his top side, Curry trailing him. Dawkins anticipates Garrett dumping off to Greene, which he could’ve done (but didn’t). So Andre shades towards Greene, but Garrett instead keeps it and heads for the hoop. Andre now is about to start trailing his man on the way to the hoop, so Seth grabs Garrett from behind to prevent this from happening. Seth’s foul, but not great defensive execution from either guy, especially Dawkins. Hits both.
418: Harkless grabs defensive board, and as he starts to dribble upcourt to begin a break, Mason fouls him from behind. We’re in the penalty, and Harkless hits 1 of 2.
257: Harkless takes Ryan baseline, Mason comes over and provides very good help. Tough, challenged shot bounces off, and Harkless basically out-athletes Kelly for the board, and puts it back up and in.
200: Harkless has Kelly on an iso left side. Takes him with one dribble into the lane, followed by a very nice spin move back to his left and cans the 10 footer. Sweet individual move and Ryan was right there with him. Hats off.
108: Harkless this time has Mason one-on-one on the left side, takes 2 dribbles into the lane, Dawkins comes over to help and puts his hands up, but Harkless rolls it in anyway. Kid is just a baller, that’s all.
038: High screen and a switch leaves Mason outside on Harkless. Mo just bangs a 3 right in his face. Wow. No matter how we play him, he scores. To quote Al McGuire on Isiah Thomas at age 18: “You canNOT be a freshman!”
023: Lots of switching up high as St. John’s is in desperation mode. Harrison drains a 3 after Mason gets screened and Ryan is flying at him. Another tough shot.
011: Curry does good job contesting Harrison’s full court drive, but Achiuwe outhustles Seth and Mason for the rebound, and is fouled by Rivers. Hits 1 of 2.
OK that’s all their points in the last 12 minutes. Lot of points, to be sure. Before I went over the game again to compile this, I had expected to find that a lot of their hoops were the result of mental lapses, inattention, loss of focus, etc., as we’ve seen in a number of other games. But it really wasn’t. Out of all of these scoring plays, which number 16, I think I count only 3 that were due to mental lapses or lack of effort, and one of those was shaky if that designation is even fair.
St. Johns’s kids are talented, especially Harkness, Garrett, and Harrison, and they played very loose as if they had nothing to lose, because they didn’t. They made a number of tough shots, which you can do when there’s less game pressure on you.
Our defense in the first half and first part of the second half was actually pretty good. We denied, we stayed in front on a lot of moves to the hoop – Curry was especially good in that department, we helped. And like I say, even in the last 12 minutes, while they certainly scored a lot, I really don’t think our D was so bad when it’s broken down play-by-play. Sure, we got out-athleted some; we had some questionable execution on some screen plays; we got beaten into the lane off the dribble, which is nothing new. But it’s not like we weren’t making full effort or that we were unfocused or even that we were playing poorly. St. John’s played well offensively too, causing us to just get beaten more than we would have liked.
The numbers for the bigs are going to look a lot worse than our perimeter guys. Mason and Ryan each gave up 8 baskets, which is a lot. A lot of those – not all, but a fair number – were the result of them switching and having to deal with guys quick off the bounce rather than getting beaten on more traditional post play.
I really don’t understand why Miles didn’t play more, again. He wasn’t great defensively in this game, as he was responsible primarily for 2 hoops and another several plays that resulted in St. John’s free throws, in limited action. But still – I know Mason was dominating the boards, but to have the big man minutes have as big a disparity as they did between Mason and Ryan, on the one hand, and Miles on the other? Miles is our strongest interior defender and it’s not like Mason was killing it offensively like he did against Maryland, and Ryan was playing well, but not so great that Miles should be nailed to the bench. So what gives?
OK below are the stop % numbers for this game. Just when I’m starting to think these numbers don’t tell us all that much, you see something like this. As a team, we got stops on half of St. Johns’ possessions, and they scored on half. I counted it as 36 stops and 38 hoops, for 49%. Curry, Rivers, and Dawkins were all right at that number. So were Mason and Kelly. All of which makes sense, seeing that those 5 got the lions’ share of the minutes.
But then you look at Tyler Thornton at 62% and Quinn Cook at only 33% -- in pretty limited minutes, however – and it does have to make you think, right?
Miles was only at 44%, but again small sample size. If one more possession that he was on the floor for had been a stop instead of a hoop, he’d have been at 50% too.
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
26
28
48%
Rivers
34
35
49%
Dawkins
29
31
48%
Mason
31
31
50%
Thornton
13
8
62%
Kelly
28
28
50%
Miles
8
10
44%
Cook
6
12
33%
Gbinije
0
0
Hairston
5
7
42%
TEAM
36
38
49%