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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    20 Minutes From The Heaven That Is Cameron Indoor

    Phase III FSU Through Pitt 2

    Let the real season begin! It's time for the wars that are conference play. Though we played the one conference game with the loss at BC, that to me, was the next to last game in the-ACC opening half of the season. I also attribute that loss to scheduling more than anything else but it did put us in a small hole conference wise. Let's just hope we quickly pop up out of the hole and soar to the top of the standings.

    Before I get into the Phase categories, let's briefly assess who we are right now. Short version: An offensive juggernaut for sure, with the ability to score in numerous ways night in and night out. Loaded with weapons big, small, and inbetween. Strengths include offensive rebounding, post scoring, attacking the basket, and not blinking when the other team builds a big lead on them, no matter the time left on the clock... but too youthful and inmature to figure out how not to dig that hole to begin with. Not good defensively yet, especially early in games. They have shown potential on the defensive end, have looked good in the zone defenses, but have much work to do to become good enough at man to man defense to achieve the stated goals of the season. So lets see how much progress they make defensively in this Phase. With that I give you Phase III.

    1. Health
    - Though some hate listing this as a category, I remind you injuries have derailed oh about 5 seasons at least in the last 8 years, especially last season when injuries turned a potential juggernaut into a good but not great team. We have had a few minor injuries so far with Grayson's wrist and Javin's hammy, but knock on wood, nothing major or season ending just yet. Let's hope we stay fully healthy the remainder of the way.

    2, Deeeefense
    - To me this is the single most important category for this team. We currently sit at #71 in Kenpom. That has to improve to get where we want to go. Say what you want, but K wants these kids to be good enough to beat anyone with man to man defense. He despises playing zone, though if a win is desperately needed and zone is the only way to do it, he will bend and roll with it. Having played only one game in the past 21 days, and with school out for 10 of those, you can bet the house they have had lots and lots of practices with the focus being on man to man defense. During this phase let's try to note a few things. 1. How much improvement there has been on man to man, and how often (or not) K bails them out by changing to zone. 2. How many quality wins we get using mostly man to man with little to no zone.

    3. Rotation- Who's In, Who's Out
    - Ah the most polarizing topic of all for my fellow DBR family members. This is the year K plays 10 guys!!! Yes!! vs Forget it, K will play 6, 6.5, 7 max. Well, what we seemed to have learned in the first half of the season is that the starting 5 is locked and solid as stone in Duval, Grayson, Gary, Bags, Carter. There appear to be two locks to play regularly off the bench game in and game out, those being Javin, and Bolden. (Their minutes will vary depending on match ups, and how well they are playing when in there.). Here is where it gets interesting. Alex has shown quite frankly that he can freaking play on the offensive side of the ball. K likes rotating Alex in for Gary, especially in games where Gary's shot is not falling. He can sometimes be instant offense off the bench. He must improve defensively though to get consistent PT. I think his minutes will fluxuate the most coming off the bench. He could play 3 minutes one night and 18 the next. Just depends. So we are now at 8 guys, or 7.5 if you will. We all know K is just not cool with going beyond that amount of players from Jan to April. However, one Mr. Jordan Goldwire has shown the ability to go out there when Duval needs to sit, and run the team very effectively, playing good defense, and knock down the occasional 3. Also, like one Tyler Thornton and many others before him, JG seems to be one of those unique players with lesser skills that K falls in love with and has no problem rolling with them against any opponent. We saw that against Mich St and others. In fairness, there were also several games where K gave JG DNP's and used Grayson as the sole backup PG when Duval sat. I assume K reviewed all games from both scenarios, ran the analytics and will real soon decide on one or the other strategy. Another thing to chart during this Phase. How many minutes will Alex and Goldwire see during Phase 3?

    4. Grayson
    - A couple of things to mention here. Prior to the wrist injury his 3P FG% was north of 50% and the kid was just killing it. After the injury his numbers dropped quite a bit, however he seemed to return to form against Evansville. This team needs his points, especially from 3 to give the big guys more space inside to operate (more on that below) The other thing, which is maybe uncomfortable but requires watching, ACC teams are going to go at this kid very hard. That is a given. As will their fans though that doesnt worry me at all to be honest. I'm positive he either tunes it out totally, haves fun with it, uses it to fuel him, or any all of the above. Opposing players though... they are going to jaw at him, bump him, foul him hard, bait, instigate, you name it. Grayson will have to show tremendous restraint but make no mistake he takes no crap off nobody, which to be honest I have no problem with that, at all. He just needs to be smart and harness it enough that he doesn't do anything to cause a distraction. A championship team doesn't need distractions. Let's see how he performs and how he handles the junk that is surely coming his way during this Phase.

    5. 3 Point Shooting For Balance
    - This has been discussed since the summer. Can we be a good 3 point shooting team? Bagley, Carter, and Bolden really need the other guys to shoot it well enough from deep that defenses can't just ignore everyone but Grayson out there and pack it in against the bigs both stifling post scores as well as blocking driving lanes for the perimeter guys to drive it and attack. Grayson is money. We know that. Trent has been hot and cold but certainly shows promise. Alex has also shown a good stroke from out there, but will he be on the floor to even take them? The next best option surprisingly seems to be Carter. He has shown a very nice stroke. Bagley has also hit a few though I have to admit I cringe each time Bagley launches one. Goldwire has hit a few timely 3's as well but like Alex, will he be on the floor to take them. In my mind this is going to be a very important aspect of this team's success. Phase 3 should give us a decent amount of data to assess with. (It should be noted that we are currently #1 in Kenpom Offense, so we are knocking down enough 3's to be successful, which is why I didn't list offense as a category)

    So there you have it. It starts tomorrow when a very good and talented FSU team rolls into Cameron. Getting a win will not be easy but it is certainly needed. I for one do not want to start conference play 0-2 including a loss at home.

    I look forward to the communities thoughts on these categories and others if I left out something you feel is important.

  2. #2
    Nice job, Mark. You hit all the high points. The only addition I'd make is in this phase I'm interested in seeing how our young team deals with the physicality of ACC-caliber teams. Michigan State, Texas, Florida, Indiana, and BC all knocked us back a bit, at least early, in large part because they were physical and didn't back down. This is especially true when it comes to Wendell, who had 4 or more fouls against each of Michigan State, Texas, Florida, and Indiana, but averaged fewer than 2 fouls in our other 9 games (including 0 against BC, so maybe he's learning). It's something to watch for, anyway.

    Quote Originally Posted by Newton_14 View Post
    3. Rotation- Who's In, Who's Out
    - Ah the most polarizing topic of all for my fellow DBR family members. This is the year K plays 10 guys!!! Yes!! vs Forget it, K will play 6, 6.5, 7 max. Well, what we seemed to have learned in the first half of the season is that the starting 5 is locked and solid as stone in Duval, Grayson, Gary, Bags, Carter. There appear to be two locks to play regularly off the bench game in and game out, those being Javin, and Bolden. (Their minutes will vary depending on match ups, and how well they are playing when in there.). Here is where it gets interesting. Alex has shown quite frankly that he can freaking play on the offensive side of the ball. K likes rotating Alex in for Gary, especially in games where Gary's shot is not falling. He can sometimes be instant offense off the bench. He must improve defensively though to get consistent PT. I think his minutes will fluxuate the most coming off the bench. He could play 3 minutes one night and 18 the next. Just depends. So we are now at 8 guys, or 7.5 if you will. We all know K is just not cool with going beyond that amount of players from Jan to April. However, one Mr. Jordan Goldwire has shown the ability to go out there when Duval needs to sit, and run the team very effectively, playing good defense, and knock down the occasional 3. Also, like one Tyler Thornton and many others before him, JG seems to be one of those unique players with lesser skills that K falls in love with and has no problem rolling with them against any opponent. We saw that against Mich St and others. In fairness, there were also several games where K gave JG DNP's and used Grayson as the sole backup PG when Duval sat. I assume K reviewed all games from both scenarios, ran the analytics and will real soon decide on one or the other strategy. Another thing to chart during this Phase. How many minutes will Alex and Goldwire see during Phase 3?
    In the two 60-point blowouts of St. Francis and Evansville, Jordan Goldwire had an eFG% of 71.4%, with 12 assists against 0 turnovers. In all the other games, he had an eFG% of 27.3% with 7 assists against 7 turnovers. I predict that going forward he'll play almost exclusively in garbage time.

    Alex O'Connell is another story. So far he's played 167 minutes while Javin has played 169 and Marques 151 (though Javin and Marques have each missed a game). Since defense is our biggest need, I think Javin's minutes should go up at the expense of the other two. But I'm not sure K agrees with that. I expect we end up either with basically a 6-man rotation with both Marques and Alex playing 8 or fewer mpg (in competitive games) or that we end up with a pretty close to 8-man rotation with all three of Javin, Alex, and Marques playing 12+ mpg. With K's history, I'd lean toward the 6-man rotation but really I think it's even money which way it's going to go.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    DC and DE Beach

    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by Newton_14 View Post
    Let the real season begin! It's time for the wars that are conference play. Though we played the one conference game with the loss at BC, that to me, was the next to last game in the-ACC opening half of the season. I also attribute that loss to scheduling more than anything else but it did put us in a small hole conference wise. Let's just hope we quickly pop up out of the hole and soar to the top of the standings.

    Before I get into the Phase categories, let's briefly assess who we are right now. Short version: An offensive juggernaut for sure, with the ability to score in numerous ways night in and night out. Loaded with weapons big, small, and inbetween. Strengths include offensive rebounding, post scoring, attacking the basket, and not blinking when the other team builds a big lead on them, no matter the time left on the clock... but too youthful and inmature to figure out how not to dig that hole to begin with. Not good defensively yet, especially early in games. They have shown potential on the defensive end, have looked good in the zone defenses, but have much work to do to become good enough at man to man defense to achieve the stated goals of the season. So lets see how much progress they make defensively in this Phase. With that I give you Phase III.

    1. Health
    - Though some hate listing this as a category, I remind you injuries have derailed oh about 5 seasons at least in the last 8 years, especially last season when injuries turned a potential juggernaut into a good but not great team. We have had a few minor injuries so far with Grayson's wrist and Javin's hammy, but knock on wood, nothing major or season ending just yet. Let's hope we stay fully healthy the remainder of the way.

    2, Deeeefense
    - To me this is the single most important category for this team. We currently sit at #71 in Kenpom. That has to improve to get where we want to go. Say what you want, but K wants these kids to be good enough to beat anyone with man to man defense. He despises playing zone, though if a win is desperately needed and zone is the only way to do it, he will bend and roll with it. Having played only one game in the past 21 days, and with school out for 10 of those, you can bet the house they have had lots and lots of practices with the focus being on man to man defense. During this phase let's try to note a few things. 1. How much improvement there has been on man to man, and how often (or not) K bails them out by changing to zone. 2. How many quality wins we get using mostly man to man with little to no zone.

    3. Rotation- Who's In, Who's Out
    - Ah the most polarizing topic of all for my fellow DBR family members. This is the year K plays 10 guys!!! Yes!! vs Forget it, K will play 6, 6.5, 7 max. Well, what we seemed to have learned in the first half of the season is that the starting 5 is locked and solid as stone in Duval, Grayson, Gary, Bags, Carter. There appear to be two locks to play regularly off the bench game in and game out, those being Javin, and Bolden. (Their minutes will vary depending on match ups, and how well they are playing when in there.). Here is where it gets interesting. Alex has shown quite frankly that he can freaking play on the offensive side of the ball. K likes rotating Alex in for Gary, especially in games where Gary's shot is not falling. He can sometimes be instant offense off the bench. He must improve defensively though to get consistent PT. I think his minutes will fluxuate the most coming off the bench. He could play 3 minutes one night and 18 the next. Just depends. So we are now at 8 guys, or 7.5 if you will. We all know K is just not cool with going beyond that amount of players from Jan to April. However, one Mr. Jordan Goldwire has shown the ability to go out there when Duval needs to sit, and run the team very effectively, playing good defense, and knock down the occasional 3. Also, like one Tyler Thornton and many others before him, JG seems to be one of those unique players with lesser skills that K falls in love with and has no problem rolling with them against any opponent. We saw that against Mich St and others. In fairness, there were also several games where K gave JG DNP's and used Grayson as the sole backup PG when Duval sat. I assume K reviewed all games from both scenarios, ran the analytics and will real soon decide on one or the other strategy. Another thing to chart during this Phase. How many minutes will Alex and Goldwire see during Phase 3?

    4. Grayson
    - A couple of things to mention here. Prior to the wrist injury his 3P FG% was north of 50% and the kid was just killing it. After the injury his numbers dropped quite a bit, however he seemed to return to form against Evansville. This team needs his points, especially from 3 to give the big guys more space inside to operate (more on that below) The other thing, which is maybe uncomfortable but requires watching, ACC teams are going to go at this kid very hard. That is a given. As will their fans though that doesnt worry me at all to be honest. I'm positive he either tunes it out totally, haves fun with it, uses it to fuel him, or any all of the above. Opposing players though... they are going to jaw at him, bump him, foul him hard, bait, instigate, you name it. Grayson will have to show tremendous restraint but make no mistake he takes no crap off nobody, which to be honest I have no problem with that, at all. He just needs to be smart and harness it enough that he doesn't do anything to cause a distraction. A championship team doesn't need distractions. Let's see how he performs and how he handles the junk that is surely coming his way during this Phase.

    5. 3 Point Shooting For Balance
    - This has been discussed since the summer. Can we be a good 3 point shooting team? Bagley, Carter, and Bolden really need the other guys to shoot it well enough from deep that defenses can't just ignore everyone but Grayson out there and pack it in against the bigs both stifling post scores as well as blocking driving lanes for the perimeter guys to drive it and attack. Grayson is money. We know that. Trent has been hot and cold but certainly shows promise. Alex has also shown a good stroke from out there, but will he be on the floor to even take them? The next best option surprisingly seems to be Carter. He has shown a very nice stroke. Bagley has also hit a few though I have to admit I cringe each time Bagley launches one. Goldwire has hit a few timely 3's as well but like Alex, will he be on the floor to take them. In my mind this is going to be a very important aspect of this team's success. Phase 3 should give us a decent amount of data to assess with. (It should be noted that we are currently #1 in Kenpom Offense, so we are knocking down enough 3's to be successful, which is why I didn't list offense as a category)

    So there you have it. It starts tomorrow when a very good and talented FSU team rolls into Cameron. Getting a win will not be easy but it is certainly needed. I for one do not want to start conference play 0-2 including a loss at home.

    I look forward to the communities thoughts on these categories and others if I left out something you feel is important.

    Nothing much to argue with here . Good work, Newton_14. We will soon see how much off-time has helped the m2m.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Newton_14 View Post
    3. Rotation- Who's In, Who's Out
    - Ah the most polarizing topic of all for my fellow DBR family members. This is the year K plays 10 guys!!! Yes!! vs Forget it, K will play 6, 6.5, 7 max. Well, what we seemed to have learned in the first half of the season is that the starting 5 is locked and solid as stone in Duval, Grayson, Gary, Bags, Carter. There appear to be two locks to play regularly off the bench game in and game out, those being Javin, and Bolden. (Their minutes will vary depending on match ups, and how well they are playing when in there.). Here is where it gets interesting. Alex has shown quite frankly that he can freaking play on the offensive side of the ball. K likes rotating Alex in for Gary, especially in games where Gary's shot is not falling. He can sometimes be instant offense off the bench. He must improve defensively though to get consistent PT. I think his minutes will fluxuate the most coming off the bench. He could play 3 minutes one night and 18 the next. Just depends. So we are now at 8 guys, or 7.5 if you will. We all know K is just not cool with going beyond that amount of players from Jan to April. However, one Mr. Jordan Goldwire has shown the ability to go out there when Duval needs to sit, and run the team very effectively, playing good defense, and knock down the occasional 3. Also, like one Tyler Thornton and many others before him, JG seems to be one of those unique players with lesser skills that K falls in love with and has no problem rolling with them against any opponent. We saw that against Mich St and others. In fairness, there were also several games where K gave JG DNP's and used Grayson as the sole backup PG when Duval sat. I assume K reviewed all games from both scenarios, ran the analytics and will real soon decide on one or the other strategy. Another thing to chart during this Phase. How many minutes will Alex and Goldwire see during Phase 3?


    5. 3 Point Shooting For Balance
    - This has been discussed since the summer. Can we be a good 3 point shooting team? Bagley, Carter, and Bolden really need the other guys to shoot it well enough from deep that defenses can't just ignore everyone but Grayson out there and pack it in against the bigs both stifling post scores as well as blocking driving lanes for the perimeter guys to drive it and attack. Grayson is money. We know that. Trent has been hot and cold but certainly shows promise. Alex has also shown a good stroke from out there, but will he be on the floor to even take them? The next best option surprisingly seems to be Carter. He has shown a very nice stroke. Bagley has also hit a few though I have to admit I cringe each time Bagley launches one. Goldwire has hit a few timely 3's as well but like Alex, will he be on the floor to take them. In my mind this is going to be a very important aspect of this team's success. Phase 3 should give us a decent amount of data to assess with. (It should be noted that we are currently #1 in Kenpom Offense, so we are knocking down enough 3's to be successful, which is why I didn't list offense as a category)

    So there you have it. It starts tomorrow when a very good and talented FSU team rolls into Cameron. Getting a win will not be easy but it is certainly needed. I for one do not want to start conference play 0-2 including a loss at home.

    I look forward to the community's thoughts on these categories and others if I left out something you feel is important.
    I think that Defense is the main thing i'm really gonna be looking at in this Phase. Duke's length and athleticism caused MSU real problems when we zoned them, but zone hasn't been as effective vs other teams. Duke's m2m has been erratic. So does one win out over the other? Does K stick to m2m unless he absolutely has to abandon it? Will it be a strategic decision prior to the game (as i suspect it was vs MSU)?
    Balance, if not abundance, in 3pt shooting (aside from Grayson and GTJr) will also be interesting to watch, which only Alex and Wendell have shown a penchant for so far. Marvin's 3FG% ain't bad, and it would be a bit better with better selection and awareness. Just like Tatum's fade away 3s last year, if Duke's coaching staff can ween Marvin off of the dribble-into-the-3 shot, he'll do much better, as that shot is terrible.
    I was kind of surprised to see you mention J-Gold's 3pt shooting twice in the Phase post, as he has not really shown any penchant for it yet, shooting just 25% on limited attempts. He really struggled with everything except dribbling as a PG in his first few appearances, but seems to have improved some in the more recent games. That may have been in response to the quality of teams Duke played, several good to very-good teams early and more mediocre to low-quality teams later.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    NC
    Grreat thread Newton_14! I would only add one thing, one which I still think may be our most critical piece of the championship puzzle: Duval’s development.

    In Duval’s first six games, he averaged 15 ppg on 1.286 points per shot, 6.7 apg with a 3.55 a/to ratio, and 2.3 spg, for an average game score of 13.8. In his last seven games, those numbers are 8.9 pg on 1.000 points per shot, 6.9 apg with a 2.7 a/to ratio, and 1.6 spg, for an average game score of 6.9.

    Duval certainly hasn’t been bad (in fact, still pretty good), but he hasn’t been the game-changing player he was early on. As the quality of comp and the importance of the games rise, I would like to see him return closer to the early-season superstud. If he gets back there, we become almost unbeatable.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    North Carolina
    In regards 3 point shooting one thing has to be if Gary can improve or not. He is at 38% which in fact is not too far ahead of Bagley who is at 35%. Alex is our best 3 point shooter this year @50% but takes a lot less shots. I think Bagley still keeps shooting at the rate he is shooting now because I suspect the coaches are telling him to do so.
    Kyle gets BUCKETS!
    https://youtu.be/NJWPASQZqLc

  7. #7
    All are good points– Thank you Newton-14 for the thoughtful post. Of course the key is going to be how we do in our conference. Most teams have large, athletic bruisers. I think a point of importance is how we contend with these athletes without significant fouls of our starters.

  8. #8
    3. Rotation- Who's In, Who's Out
    - Ah the most polarizing topic of all for my fellow DBR family members. This is the year K plays 10 guys!!! Yes!! vs Forget it, K will play 6, 6.5, 7 max. Well, what we seemed to have learned in the first half of the season is that the starting 5 is locked and solid as stone in Duval, Grayson, Gary, Bags, Carter. There appear to be two locks to play regularly off the bench game in and game out, those being Javin, and Bolden. (Their minutes will vary depending on match ups, and how well they are playing when in there.). Here is where it gets interesting. Alex has shown quite frankly that he can freaking play on the offensive side of the ball. K likes rotating Alex in for Gary, especially in games where Gary's shot is not falling. He can sometimes be instant offense off the bench. He must improve defensively though to get consistent PT. I think his minutes will fluxuate the most coming off the bench. He could play 3 minutes one night and 18 the next. Just depends. So we are now at 8 guys, or 7.5 if you will. We all know K is just not cool with going beyond that amount of players from Jan to April. However, one Mr. Jordan Goldwire has shown the ability to go out there when Duval needs to sit, and run the team very effectively, playing good defense, and knock down the occasional 3. Also, like one Tyler Thornton and many others before him, JG seems to be one of those unique players with lesser skills that K falls in love with and has no problem rolling with them against any opponent. We saw that against Mich St and others. In fairness, there were also several games where K gave JG DNP's and used Grayson as the sole backup PG when Duval sat. I assume K reviewed all games from both scenarios, ran the analytics and will real soon decide on one or the other strategy. Another thing to chart during this Phase. How many minutes will Alex and Goldwire see during Phase 3?

    My view is that young players have a lot of upside as they learn to play at DIV I level. I am thinking of Alex in particular, as he is long, quick and has gifts offensively. He remains thin and probably not very strong but I expect his defense will continue to improve rapidly during the season, which may put him in the top 7 of the rotation. His last game defense was impressive, but it was against a much weaker opponent. I can't see Bolden getting big minutes if the opponents go with a smaller quicker lineup. My guess is Javin and Alex will make up the 6th and 7th man rotation going forward.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington DC
    Quote Originally Posted by Kedsy View Post
    Nice job, Mark. You hit all the high points. The only addition I'd make is in this phase I'm interested in seeing how our young team deals with the physicality of ACC-caliber teams. Michigan State, Texas, Florida, Indiana, and BC all knocked us back a bit, at least early, in large part because they were physical and didn't back down. This is especially true when it comes to Wendell, who had 4 or more fouls against each of Michigan State, Texas, Florida, and Indiana, but averaged fewer than 2 fouls in our other 9 games (including 0 against BC, so maybe he's learning). It's something to watch for, anyway.

    Alex O'Connell is another story. So far he's played 167 minutes while Javin has played 169 and Marques 151 (though Javin and Marques have each missed a game). Since defense is our biggest need, I think Javin's minutes should go up at the expense of the other two. But I'm not sure K agrees with that. I expect we end up either with basically a 6-man rotation with both Marques and Alex playing 8 or fewer mpg (in competitive games) or that we end up with a pretty close to 8-man rotation with all three of Javin, Alex, and Marques playing 12+ mpg. With K's history, I'd lean toward the 6-man rotation but really I think it's even money which way it's going to go.
    Wendell is averaging 24 minutes. I expect Marques to continue to get 8+ just so Marvin does not have to play the 5 on the defensive end. I would bet Coach K doesnt want Marvin to have to guard the more physical 5's or to risk foul trouble. My bet is that Coach K will do everything possible to maximize Marvin's minutes, and Marques at the 5 is a better option than Javin.

    If Wendell can avoid foul trouble while still playing aggressive defense, this may not matter, but we are not there yet.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    NC
    And the last 4 minutes is why Duval is SO important. He dominated the game down the stretch. Such a difference when he is playing well.

    Duval was borderline nonexistent for the first 35 minutes due to foul trouble. But the talent is there. I just hope he can harness enough of it by season’s end. If so, watch out world!

  11. #11
    I'm thinking that this team just needs to shoot fewer 3s overall. When the shot is the result of a pass/drive that collapses the defense for a pass back out or an Oboard, then i think it's a good shot to take. We even missed quite a few of those today. I just don't see volume 3pt shooting being a good thing for this team.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Washington, D.C.

    Maybe

    Quote Originally Posted by DukieInBrasil View Post
    I'm thinking that this team just needs to shoot fewer 3s overall. When the shot is the result of a pass/drive that collapses the defense for a pass back out or an Oboard, then i think it's a good shot to take. We even missed quite a few of those today. I just don't see volume 3pt shooting being a good thing for this team.
    Could be. OTOH, if they hit a few more, it will really open things up. And it’s still December. This team and the coaches are learning what they can do.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
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    Winston Salem, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by DukieInBrasil View Post
    I'm thinking that this team just needs to shoot fewer 3s overall. When the shot is the result of a pass/drive that collapses the defense for a pass back out or an Oboard, then i think it's a good shot to take. We even missed quite a few of those today. I just don't see volume 3pt shooting being a good thing for this team.
    I would like to see some of the guys shoot FTs better. I was so impressed with the way Carter shot the 3 ball against Evansville and today, he was bad at the line(2-6). Marvin was even worse(5-11). When players shoot like that from the FT line, I hold my breath when they take a 3 pointer. Just me. GoDuke!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    NC
    Quote Originally Posted by MChambers View Post
    Could be. OTOH, if they hit a few more, it will really open things up. And it’s still December. This team and the coaches are learning what they can do.
    Yeah, I think we have to keep shooting them. Teams are going to crowd the lane as much as possible otherwise. So if Trent and Allen can get open looks, they should take them.

    Not saying we should force up 3s. The start should be looking inside. But if teams are going to overplay the paint (and theyvwill), we should take those 3s when open.

  15. #15
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    Feb 2008
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    Oregon
    Quote Originally Posted by Newton_14 View Post

    2, Deeeefense
    - To me this is the single most important category for this team. We currently sit at #71 in Kenpom. That has to improve to get where we want to go. Say what you want, but K wants these kids to be good enough to beat anyone with man to man defense. He despises playing zone, though if a win is desperately needed and zone is the only way to do it, he will bend and roll with it. Having played only one game in the past 21 days, and with school out for 10 of those, you can bet the house they have had lots and lots of practices with the focus being on man to man defense. During this phase let's try to note a few things. 1. How much improvement there has been on man to man, and how often (or not) K bails them out by changing to zone. 2. How many quality wins we get using mostly man to man with little to no zone.
    Gotta disagree regarding the zone. K has shown remarkable adaptability for an old guy like me. (We can get set in our ways.) Saying he "detests zone" makes it sound like he has some emotional dislike for it. I would rather think he has learned from experience that M2M, when properly played, is superior. And now he's learning, that this team, being mostly freshmen, aren't as good at M2M as teams of the past that included more upperclassmen. But I think he also sees, with the length and athleticism this team has, it's going to be quite good at zone D. For now, he's doing the rational thing, trying both. If, by the end of this phase, we are not playing 100% M2M, I won't consider that a failure. Please see my post in the FSU post-game thread for how the Zone "bailed us out" vs. FSU. I'll take it!

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Atlanta
    Quote Originally Posted by jv001 View Post
    I would like to see some of the guys shoot FTs better. I was so impressed with the way Carter shot the 3 ball against Evansville and today, he was bad at the line(2-6). Marvin was even worse(5-11). When players shoot like that from the FT line, I hold my breath when they take a 3 pointer. Just me. GoDuke!
    There's that new math again, when 5-11 (45%) is "even worse" than 2-6 (33%).

    Or, in this day and age is it considered alternative math?

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