0.947 ppp

[moqui]

that is SU's offensive efficiency over the last 7 games

that would rank 328 out of 351 schools if it had been maintained for the entire season

prior to the Clemson game, it was 1.181, which currently would be 7th in the nation and was 5th at the time

despite the claim to fame that his 2-3 zone has given him, JB has always been more of an offensive coach. he's got two weeks to get the car rolling again.

 

[NineOneSeven]

More off the ball movement, more transition, less iso, more penetration, less high ball screens with centers.

 

[SoBeCuse]

that is SU's offensive efficiency over the last 7 games

that would rank 328 out of 351 schools if it had been maintained for the entire season

prior to the Clemson game, it was 1.181, which currently would be 7th in the nation and was 5th at the time

despite the claim to fame that his 2-3 zone has given him, JB has always been more of an offensive coach. he's got two weeks to get the car rolling again.

Boom! That is a mammoth plummet. This should stifle those orange-goggled fans who think the offense is fine and we just have to hit a few more shots.

 

[bevosu]

Strange how noticeably worse this team is lately when it comes to getting the basketball to go through the hoop. We've had many open shots. It isn't the defensive intensity of our opposition, we just can't seem to shoot the basketball...and bunnies are even a challenge.

 

[Knicks411]

I was one of the people saying the offense was doing just fine up until the last couple of weeks. It's clearly a serious issue now. We're 13th out of 15 ACC schools in effective FG% in ACC play. We pound the glass and protect the ball, but still aren't making enough shots to make it all work.

In general, CJ doesn't seem quite efficient enough to play the #1/26% usage rate role that he is for this team. That's easy to see in looking at the numbers, but doesn't make it an easy fix. Cooney and Rak should probably get more looks, but it's not as simple as wishing it so.

 

[pfister1]

More off the ball movement, more transition, less iso, more penetration, less high ball screens with centers.

Its a personnel issue at the moment, and with Jerami's health situation in question it won't be easily fixed IMO.

 

[ImperialOrange]

Perhaps we simply need to try something other than the 1 play we use every possession? Perhaps push transition even if it results in a few more TO's or run something in the first 20 seconds of the shot clock?

 

[OttoinGrotto]

That's OttoinGrotto like scoring efficiency right there.*

*That's not a good thing.

 

[Ghost]

More off the ball movement, more transition, less iso, more penetration, less high ball screens with centers.

I think the high ball screens could work for us, but we seem to run them just for the sake of running of them. There is no intent to make the pass, or reverse the ball quickly, it just kills 5 seconds on the shot clock.

 

[mscanlo]

not to add fuel to the fire, but it has been noticeable. i imagine it is a combination of tired legs/injuries (but maybe it is something else). the team doesn't seem as active moving around on offense. in the beginning of the season, you could see the plays being run crisp. now, the offense just looks lackadaisical (i.e. cuts arent as crisp, players moving a little slower) and you can barely tell what the offensive set is

 

[bevosu]

All this theorizing about offensive sets and changing offensive sets seems pointless to me. We've been getting tons of open shots. We don't need to figure out a way to get people open, we're already doing that. We just have to make those shots. Something that we haven't been doing.

I watch the games closely...looks like a pretty simple problem to diagnose. Make the damn open shots. Execution is the problem. We've been shooting the ball terribly.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Perhaps we simply need to try something other than the 1 play we use every possession? Perhaps push transition even if it results in a few more TO's or run something in the first 20 seconds of the shot clock?

Nope, we need to keep stopping our transition game mid runout, run Keita with a high ball screen, pass to trevor off the curl so he can quickly survey D and pass back to Ennis, dribble the shot clock down to 10, pass to Fair to pump fake and then shoot a jumper

 

[Knicks411]

I'm sure we are missing some open shots, because everyone does, but when I watch us play i don't think this is a team generating a lot of easy looks we're missing. It's a struggle out there.
And I'm sure some of that is biased based on the last game, since UVA has a fantastic defense

 

[moqui]

All this theorizing about offensive sets and changing offensive sets seems pointless to me. We've been getting tons of open shots. We don't need to figure out a way to get people open, we're already doing that. We just have to make those shots. Something that we haven't been doing.

I watch the games closely...looks like a pretty simple problem to diagnose. Make the damn open shots. Execution is the problem. We've been shooting the ball terribly.

defenses have been pretty consistent - crowd Cooney and push him off his spots (even when his looks are open, they are not from his preferred spots), and pack everything else in. They are daring SU to hid mid range jumpers and, as you noted, the Orange are not doing so consistently.

 

[anomander]

All this theorizing about offensive sets and changing offensive sets seems pointless to me. We've been getting tons of open shots. We don't need to figure out a way to get people open, we're already doing that. We just have to make those shots. Something that we haven't been doing.

I watch the games closely...looks like a pretty simple problem to diagnose. Make the damn open shots. Execution is the problem. We've been shooting the ball terribly.

Right on. Cooney is missing shots he was making in Nov/Dec. CJ is missing shots he has made his whole career. As simple as it sounds we just have to make shots...and get Jerami back healthy

 

[BuffOrange]

Nope, we need to keep stopping our transition game mid runout, run Keita with a high ball screen, pass to trevor off the curl so he can quickly survey D and pass back to Ennis, dribble the shot clock down to 10, pass to Fair to pump fake and then shoot a jumper

I really don't see how that can end badly.

 

[Bornorange]

that is SU's offensive efficiency over the last 7 games

that would rank 328 out of 351 schools if it had been maintained for the entire season

prior to the Clemson game, it was 1.181, which currently would be 7th in the nation and was 5th at the time

despite the claim to fame that his 2-3 zone has given him, JB has always been more of an offensive coach. he's got two weeks to get the car rolling again.

I would like to see those numbers with the last 5 minutes of each game subtracted.

 

[Dave85]

The nice thing about being ranked 328 out of 351 is we are pretty much at the point where the only place we can go is up. At least, that's what I would like to believe!

 

[RF2044]

All this theorizing about offensive sets and changing offensive sets seems pointless to me. We've been getting tons of open shots. We don't need to figure out a way to get people open, we're already doing that. We just have to make those shots. Something that we haven't been doing.

I watch the games closely...looks like a pretty simple problem to diagnose. Make the damn open shots. Execution is the problem. We've been shooting the ball terribly.

Ding, ding, ding.

 

[Scotch]

I'm sure we are missing some open shots, because everyone does, but when I watch us play i don't think this is a team generating a lot of easy looks we're missing. It's a struggle out there.
And I'm sure some of that is biased based on the last game, since UVA has a fantastic defense

Agreed. Saying we need to "hit more shots" is masking the problem. Opponents are manufacturing higher-quality looks than we are. In some games we've been able to counter that discrepancy with turnovers, offensive boards, or by getting to the line more than our opponents, but that hasn't been happening lately (Grant's injury is a major factor here).

Count me in the group that isn't a huge fan of beginning every offensive possession with Cooney running off of a low ball screen and catching it deep on the wing. Our best possessions involve Ennis getting into the lane. I'm in favor of trying anything it takes to do that earlier in games, earlier in the shot clock, and more often overall.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Agreed. Saying we need to "hit more shots" is masking the problem. Opponents are manufacturing higher-quality looks than we are. In some games we've been able to counter that discrepancy with turnovers, offensive boards, or by getting to the line more than our opponents, but that hasn't been happening lately (Grant's injury is a major factor here).

Count me in the group that isn't a huge fan of beginning every offensive possession with Cooney running off of a low ball screen and catching it deep on the wing. Our best possessions involve Ennis getting into the lane. I'm in favor of trying anything it takes to do that earlier in games, earlier in the shot clock, and more often overall.

Agree. IMO, saying we need to hit more shots is a cop out.

I know I'm beating a dead horse, but I've NEVER seen a team get more open looks against us, maybe in any game all year from any team, than VA got in the second half.

Grant definitely played a role in that, but all of it? Not a chance. I know I just switched gears from O to D, but my point is, it's about getting good looks somewhat consistently.

Hall of fame coach, top notch talent, players with experience, future NBA players. Time to start scoring the damn basketball.

 

[orangefan13]

I am in the chemistry isn't working crowd.
I put it in another post.

1.Lack of triangle offense=lack of team offense. While Ennis and fair are scoring in stretches together, Cooney only goes through stretches alone where he takes over the offense alone since Duke @ home. This can get you to the sweet 16, but you would be lucky to get beyond that. 08-09, 09-10, 11-12 and 12-13 all ran good triangle scoring distribution throughtout the game in march. The one that finished the worst in 10-11 only went to the round of 32 without it.

2.Fair is a game changer he can slow it down to score in isolation, and occasionally speed up his isolation ball when he finds another with a good pass for a quick look. His passing has really improved down the stretch. Ennis also runs a faster isolation game in terms of scoring and passing another big plus.

3.Also, as far as mismatches are concerned, its tough when you only have 3 go to guys. Alot of nights only 2 of them will find a mismatch. Jerami gave us the 4th guy to expose that.

4.On top of that, Rak and Gbinije were starting to knock on the door as our occasional 5th scorer, which was a perfect fit for them. Then Grant went down. Its a hard position asking Rak/Silent G to find mismatches and put up 10-12 every other game instead of 6. They haven't shown they are ready for that yet.

5. We were going through a rough patch with Grant, now its even rougher.

Excellent post Moqui. I am all for resting grant as long as we can if it costs us a few losses oh well.

 

[MikeSU02]

My biggest issue is that it seems like when CJ gets the ball and goes towards the hoop, the ball is going up for a shot no matter what. There is no other option. It's usually a running one-hander and defenders are taking better angles against him. There is no pass out, there is no consistent drawing a foul call, there is nothing else. It's all or nothing.

TC, as Moqui mentioned, has been pushed slightly out of his comfort zone. And when he is getting the ball coming off the screens, he has no other option other than either 1) shooting it or 2) holding it until he can pass it off. There is no fear of him attacking so defenders can be in his grill all day long. To be fair to him, I think if the college game was called like the NBA game, he would have way more freedom of movement and be getting foul calls in his favor because of the way defenders are riding him. He seems to still make smart decisions, but it looks like his legs just aren't there.

I would like this to team to start using more pump fakes and taking more hits and going to the FT line. If we are going to be predictable, let's at least take advantage of the defenses being overly aggressive.

What I don't expect is for our jump shots to start falling consistently. I'd rather have our team attacking the rim and trying to get to the FT line rather than hoping 18 footers start dropping.

Whatever it is, we aren't winning with that PPP right now. Let's get it fixed and make our run. Still are looking at friendly arenas for the first four rounds.

 

[RF2044]

The reasons for our poor offensive performance seem pretty obvious. And unfortunately, while some would like to pin it down onto one magic bullet reason, the truth of the matter is that the problems are multi-dimensional:

• Poor execution: running half court offensive sets is difficult, especially against good defensive teams. Earlier in the season, while we played at a low tempo in terms of # of possessions, we were one of the most efficient offensive teams in the country. We ran our sets more crisply, we screen actively to get guys open, and we were active on the offensive boards which led to lots of put back opportunities [more on this below]. Many of those things have evaporated at this point in the season, which means that we're not getting great looks many possessions, we've become too one-on-one oriented--which doesn't play to the strengths of most of our personnel--and we settle too often for jump shots. Some of this could be attributable to general fatigue / tired legs, but not all of it. We just aren't running our half court sets as efficiently as we were earlier in the season. This obviously needs to change.

• Zero inside scoring: around the time of the North Carolina game, Grant was really beginning to emerge. Not only as a dangerous offensive weapon in our attack, but also as a matchup problem who created nightly mismatches with his versatility and ability to crash the offensive boards. Grant was not only dynamic, he was also our best threat to score inside the paint on a team that lacked inside scoring pop last year. Around that same time, Rakim really started to round into form--not necessarily as a big scorer, but as a guy who could be counted upon to finish the plays that he was supposed to for the first time in his career. Keita can get a few points here and there, but most of his are of the putback variety, and in general he isn't much of a scoring threat. But something happened along the way. Rak started getting saddled with foul trouble, and hasn't been as consistent offensively as he was for his highly effective scoring stretch a few games back. Maybe it was a function of workload, but Grant stopped making highlight reel plays every game and started settling for jumpshots. Obviously, the last few games he's been hampered by injury. Without Grant [and to a lesser extent Rak] providing consistent inside production, we are back to a situation where we have virtually no low post scoring. Compare and contrast that to Uva on saturday, who got dozens of easy scoring opportunities inside--often after we'd forced misses. Getting better looks inside would result in converting more higher percentage shots, which would do wonders for our offensive efficiency, and open things up on the perimeter for shooters. We really need Grant's back to get better, and Rak to settle down and get comfortable again. Will Roberson provide anything, now that Grant has been Wally Pipp'ed?

• Offensive rebounding: through mid-January, we were one of the top offensive rebounding teams in the country--a claim we proved when we kicked a tremendous rebounding team like UNC's a$$e$ on the glass. Given that we aren't a dynamic scoring team, getting those second chance opportunities was HUGE, and an important part of why we were able to beat teams. Then something happened. Starting with the Pitt game, we started getting beaten up inside--a trend which has hampered our production in many games. It's a simple cause-and-effect equation: we just aren't a good enough scoring / shooting team to offset not doing a solid job on the boards. If we were, we can get by. But we're not, so we need to find second and sometimes third-chance scoring opportunities inside on offensive putbacks. We need to address this and get back to rebounding effectively like we were earlier in the season in order to maximize our post-season potential.

• Cooney is the focal point: make no mistake: while perhaps only being the third or fourth most important scoring option, Trevor Cooney's production is essential to how this team performs. He's also the guy that opponents scheme to try to take away. He's shown an expanded game of late with getting into the lane, but we need to do a better job as a team getting him open, through screens and in transition--so that he can't be rendered ineffectual by overzealous defensive schemes. He doesn't have to go 5-9 from three every night, but he needs to knock down 2-3+ per game to keep opposing defenses honest and spread to open driving lanes for Tyler / CJ, and inside room for Grant and Rak. One more thing: he doesn't appear to have the same extreme deep range of someone like Andy Rautins--so quit catching the ball so far out from the line, Trevor, and focus on spacing so that you're getting the ball more where you can do damage.

• Too much one-on-one: one-on-one can work when you have a bunch of guys who excel creating off of the bounce. And to a certain extent, Tyler Ennis can get into the lane and create scoring plays. CJ also can create his own shots to a lesser extent, but when he tries too much to do so he gets away from his main offensive strengths. This ties closely to my first bullet; I'd prefer to see better team offensive execution of our half court offensive sets, and less one-on-one play, except in rare occasions when the plays break down--in which case I'm comfortable with the ball in his hands, and him trying to make a play.

• Dearth of bench scoring: the amazing run we've been on has had one consistent element across the four seasons prior to this one: we had amazing bench scoring. That first year, it was Kris or Scoop--both of whom garnered attention for national 6th man of the year from various publications. Then it was CJ / Dion / Southerland in various combinations over the next three years. That's some pretty serious scoring pop off of the bench--and in some cases, JB had the luxury of bringing in players who were arguably better than the starters. Many of these guys played starter's minutes, bringing talent, fresh legs, outside shooting, and scoring punch to the table. And in cases where a starter was having an off-night? No problem--JB could generally situationally go to a reserve to pick up the slack. Having that kind of bench scoring was a tremendous luxury, and went a long way toward helping us win a lot of games over the previous four years. But this luxury evaporated this year after DeJuan Coleman's injury. Early on, it looked like the trend would continue, as JB was able to bring double-figure scorer / emerging sophomore Jerami Grant off of the bench whenever the team needed an infusion of scoring pop. With Grant in the starting lineup, we have zero scoring punch. Gbinije is good for hitting a few occasional shots, but his scoring is inconsistent. Keita isn't a scorer. No other reserve player has played consistently.

• We just need to make a few more shots: sorry folks--hate to reference this obvious point that makes some posters cringe, but what a difference it would make--both in terms of the scoreboard and in terms of our efficiency. Even just 1 or 2 shots per game would make a huge difference. And we're getting plenty of good looks every game, they just aren't dropping. Right now, we have several shot takers, but we're running short of shot makers. Shots that we were converting earlier in the year [especially mid range] just aren't falling right now. Is it legs? Is it better defense? Is it just bad luck? Settling for jump shots? Not necessarily doing our best to get higher percentage looks? Probably a little of all of the above--which again ties to bullet #1. We just need to do a better job putting the ball in the basket.

• Defense has become lackluster: this isn't about offense, but I'll list it anyway. Earlier in the season, we were a formidable defensive match up. I felt confident playing teams, because I knew that they'd struggle against our length and ability to cover ground in the zone. But we've strayed from the path along the way. Our perimeter defense isn't as good as it was last year--which is no surprise, given how big our backcourt was last season. They were the perfect guards for the zone, and probably the best group we've had since we committed to full time zone. So some growing pains were to be expected. But our top of the zone just hasn't improved enough over the course of the season, and the results are that teams are getting--and hitting--great looks from three point range against us. That has to change. And while we were a very good shot blocking team earlier in the year, deterring lots of shots in the paint, we just haven't been as effective at it over the last 7 games or so. Last year's defense was a huge "weapon" during our NCAA run to the Final Four. Given how we are offensively challenged, we simply have to do a better job defending. UVa exploited our defense; time to wipe the slate clean a la Georgetown 2013 and re-up our commitment to team defense.

 

[AJDavCuse]

Not taking anything away from his great play this year and hoping he gets back asap but I thought Grants outside game was beginning to emerge early in the season and never really progressed and perhaps regressed. He's had a couple games with bad airballs or misses lately which I'll credit to the back problem. Grant consistently hitting the 15-18 foot jumper would have been huge in opening up offense. Run high pick and roll with JG and the low screens to CJ/TC coming off it. Seems to have lost confidence along with others.