2 funky stats from last night

[CusefanATL]

1. Maryland assisted on their first 22 made shots of the night. The 23rd made FG was the red mamba's 7th 3 of the game with 7 seconds to go and was the only unassisted made FG of the game. Not sure a team has ever gone 39:53 seconds with 100% assist/FG ratio or heck even 22/22 A/FG ratio.

2. 72-70 is the same score from the Syracuse-Maryland NCAA tournament game.
2a. 36-35 Cuse was the scoring in both the 1st and 2nd half last night.

Ammunition for you water cooler chats today. You're Welcome.

 

[OttoMets]

Wow, cool stat.

They're awfully generous with assists these days - I could stand to see the film, but looking back I find it hard to believe that #1's pair of fast-break layups involved a pass that could be called an assist.

Still, their ball movement was pretty good and that's a phenomenal ratio.

 

[DonLightfoot]

Incredible

 

[Dave85]

Ammunition for you water cooler chats today. You're Welcome.

I only talk smack after we win. I'm very superstitious and talking smack before the game makes me think I am jinxing the team.

 

[Cheriehoop]

They made great use of their foul line post players finding players underneath or passing it back outside for shots and assists. In fact I was thinking if their foul line jumpers had been taken and falling more, we'd have been in real trouble because we couldn't seem to stop them from attacking from there most of the game.

 

[bballbeadle]

I only talk smack after we win. I'm very superstitious and talking smack before the game makes me think I am jinxing the team.

You only THINK?

 

[reedny]

The most important stat is that we won the game. It was good to see FH playing confidently against a quality opponent. Although he went 1-7 from 3, he was unstoppable on the drive and was able to finish against a very big UM front line. TB, even at 50%, took over the game down the stretch and scored the last 9 points. Kid is money.

Some other stats to be concerned about:

Rebounding: We knew Chukwu and Sidibe would get pushed around against better opponents. But this game exposed them. 5 rebounds between them in a combined 40 minutes of play ... disappointing. The surprise was Mr. pogo-stick, Oshae Brissett. Wow. Against a brusing 6-10/7 foot combo, he hauled in 13 rebounds and gave us a +6 advantage on the glass. Without those possessions (especially the 5 ORB's), we lose a tight game like this. No question about it. His shot (confidence) is not there. But the potential is scary for Oshae.

Bench play is a mixed bag. On the positive side, Dolezaj had another excellent performance with 10 points and 7 rb's. He's taking minutes from MM, who looked overmatched against this opponent (9 minutes with 0's across the board). Thorpe also looked like a deer in the headlights. Only 4 minutes and turned it over twice without scoring. That's not going to get him playing time.

Overall, we may not have much beef in the middle, but we have two functional guys that can score (14 points combined) and protect the rim. They didn't rebound it well against UM's front line, but neither did UM's front line guys. We kept them in check and the scoring and rebounding at the 5 was pretty much a draw.

Can't say the same about depth at forward and guard. It's unsustainable to have FH and TB playing 40 minutes every night. We need Thorpe to come in and give those guys a blow, and he's just not up to it right now. Hopefully that changes. Same with MM. Dolezaj is a bright spot on the bench and his offense is slowly coming around. Good to see. But we're limited pretty much to a 7 man rotation with only Doleazaj and Sidibe providing quality bench minutes.

 

[OrangeYaGladi]

Amazing. Just...amazing.

 

[SU94]

Rebounding: We knew Chukwu and Sidibe would get pushed around against better opponents. But this game exposed them. 5 rebounds in a combined 40 minutes of play ... disappointing.

Personally, I am not terribly concerned with the rebounding. Maryland is one of the bigger/taller/stronger teams in the country. As you stated, we out rebounded them, 39-33 (+6). And on top of that, the Terps shot well (45%), so there were not quite as many rebounds available to corral as usual.

Granted, it was one game, but I am very encouraged by what I see from the Sidibe/Chukwu combo, on BOTH ends of the floor.

 

[Delmar]

No unassisted field goals means they didn't have a put back FG the whole game. That's an interesting statistic in itself.

 

[Knicks411]

The rebounding has been about as good as you could have hoped for. We got 19/39 offensive rebounds last night; that's fantastic. And we got 20/33 defensive rebounds; that's not exactly good, (actually it's kinda bad tbh) but we are never really good at defensive rebounding. If we continue to pound the offensive glass and force turnovers, it's not going to be as big an issue.

 

[690West]

Can someone explain what Moyer is doing on defense to get yanked so quick? Is he out of position in his spot in the zone? I haven't paid attention.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Can someone explain what Moyer is doing on defense to get yanked so quick? Is he out of position in his spot in the zone? I haven't paid attention.

Gave up a wide open 3 to start the second half. He doesn’t push up on shooters.

 

[UnderHisOwnPower]

The rebounding has been about as good as you could have hoped for. We got 19/39 offensive rebounds last night; that's fantastic. And we got 20/33 defensive rebounds; that's not exactly good, (actually it's kinda bad tbh) but we are never really good at defensive rebounding. If we continue to pound the offensive glass and force turnovers, it's not going to be as big an issue.

In the presser, what I saw from JB as he discussed his teams rebounding prowess was nothing short of shock. He glowed when asked about OBs biggest surprise being his rebounding, and went on about how UM is a big tough team, and we handled them. He is pleasantly surprised how much of an asset rebounding will be this year, bodes well for seeing a few shut down defensive performances against some offensively challenged teams down the road.

 

[Knicks411]

In the presser, what I saw from JB as he discussed his teams rebounding prowess was nothing short of shock. He glowed when asked about OBs biggest surprise being his rebounding, and went on about how UM is a big tough team, and we handled them. He is pleasantly surprised how much of an asset rebounding will be this year, bodes well for seeing a few shut down defensive performances against some offensively challenged teams down the road.

It seems to me we're going to be really good on the offensive glass this year. We're usually pretty good, could be elite now though. We have 4 guys with offensive rebound% over 10%, so it's not just one or two guys who do it. We're going to have at least 2 guys who get after it on the offensive glass on the court at all times.


Also something I didn;t notice before today; Maryland is really good on the offensive glass. So our performance last night on def rebounding wasn't as not good as I thought.

 

[br801]

No unassisted field goals means they didn't have a put back FG the whole game. That's an interesting statistic in itself.

Excellent point. And while Maryland did have 13 offensive rebounds, they weren't able to quickly convert any of them which speaks well for SU's interior defense.

 

[shermstheman]

I only talk smack after we win. I'm very superstitious and talking smack before the game makes me think I am jinxingt the team.

That’s a fact borne out by science. Don’t ever do it.

 

[upperdeck]

what makes Marek a good off. rebounder is the same thing thats a liability on the defensive end.. Really hard to understand why 2 centers as active as our dont get more rebounds.. some of it is going for so many blocks and going out to the corners but still they need to get 3-5 more per game if we want to effective as a D.

 

[br801]

what makes Marek a good off. rebounder is the same thing thats a liability on the defensive end.. Really hard to understand why 2 centers as active as our dont get more rebounds.. some of it is going for so many blocks and going out to the corners but still they need to get 3-5 more per game if we want to effective as a D.

So far Brissett, Dolezaj and Moyer are all pulling down about 10-11 rebounds per 40 minutes, so there haven't been too many left for the centers. Despite that, Chukwu and Sidibe are also rebounding at about that same rate. I don't think rebounding (at least on the offensive end) will be an issue for this team.

 

[upperdeck]

offensive rebounding is much easier for undersized guys than defense rebounding, we need to continue to get those to make up for what might be an issue on D

 

[reedny]

It seems to me we're going to be really good on the offensive glass this year. We're usually pretty good, could be elite now though. We have 4 guys with offensive rebound% over 10%, so it's not just one or two guys who do it. We're going to have at least 2 guys who get after it on the offensive glass on the court at all times.


Also something I didn;t notice before today; Maryland is really good on the offensive glass. So our performance last night on def rebounding wasn't as not good as I thought.

SU and UM are both top 10 nationally in rebound margin. Maryland's a big team, as SU94 points out. So we did well to hold their bigs to a draw inside (roughly) in points and rebounds. The difference was Oshae.

The bad news coming up to this weekend is, we're one of the worst 3 point shooting teams in the country. And are we're not especially good at defending the 3 either (average overall, weaker against better teams of late). With our size inside, teams are going to rain 3's. Huerter went off on us, and we repeatedly failed to find him and get a hand in his face. If we do that against UK, we'll lose by 30. They have 5 guys that shoot as well, or significantly better, than our best shooter (TB). They have two guards that are about 6'2 or 6'3 that are shooting the lights out, and their outside assassin from the Ukraine is 6'8" and is hitting better than 50%. So this game will really test our perimeter defense because we have no chance of competing with them if we can't contain their outside gunners.

 

[Oakland]

Is it possible that the improved play of our centers is drawing defensive attention and giving an opening to OB on the rebs? This is a real question.

The most important stat is that we won the game. It was good to see FH playing confidently against a quality opponent. Although he went 1-7 from 3, he was unstoppable on the drive and was able to finish against a very big UM front line. TB, even at 50%, took over the game down the stretch and scored the last 9 points. Kid is money.

Some other stats to be concerned about:

Rebounding: We knew Chukwu and Sidibe would get pushed around against better opponents. But this game exposed them. 5 rebounds between them in a combined 40 minutes of play ... disappointing. The surprise was Mr. pogo-stick, Oshae Brissett. Wow. Against a brusing 6-10/7 foot combo, he hauled in 13 rebounds and gave us a +6 advantage on the glass. Without those possessions (especially the 5 ORB's), we lose a tight game like this. No question about it. His shot (confidence) is not there. But the potential is scary for Oshae.

Bench play is a mixed bag. On the positive side, Dolezaj had another excellent performance with 10 points and 7 rb's. He's taking minutes from MM, who looked overmatched against this opponent (9 minutes with 0's across the board). Thorpe also looked like a deer in the headlights. Only 4 minutes and turned it over twice without scoring. That's not going to get him playing time.

Overall, we may not have much beef in the middle, but we have two functional guys that can score (14 points combined) and protect the rim. They didn't rebound it well against UM's front line, but neither did UM's front line guys. We kept them in check and the scoring and rebounding at the 5 was pretty much a draw.

Can't say the same about depth at forward and guard. It's unsustainable to have FH and TB playing 40 minutes every night. We need Thorpe to come in and give those guys a blow, and he's just not up to it right now. Hopefully that changes. Same with MM. Dolezaj is a bright spot on the bench and his offense is slowly coming around. Good to see. But we're limited pretty much to a 7 man rotation with only Doleazaj and Sidibe providing quality bench minutes.

 

[reedny]

Is it possible that the improved play of our centers is drawing defensive attention and giving an opening to OB on the rebs? This is a real question.

To my eye, our inside guys are tall enough to keep rebounds in the air and away from opposing front line players. But they're not (yet) strong enough to grab the ball and hold on to it. That's why there are often so many tips available ... Oshae is outstanding at getting those because of his leaping ability.

 

[FrancoPizza]

we're not especially good at defending the 3 either (average overall, weaker against better teams of late). With our size inside, teams are going to rain 3's. So this game will really test our perimeter defense because we have no chance of competing with them if we can't contain their outside gunners.

The zone has been better simply by virtue of improved defensive rebounding, but in the games I've seen shooters are being left open consistently enough that it's going to be a problem against better teams. It's a function of a system that is not evolving to adapt to teams having 3 and 4 shooters with extended range. You can't bring both forwards up high AND at the same time defend the post, so something has to give. One solution is to stop collapsing to defend the post when the entry pass is made... this is when the shooters get free every single time. We're also not very good at denying the entry pass, so stop trying to sell out on it. Not many teams have the personnel specialized for the midrange game so give them that shot all night. Extend past the 3 point arc and let our shot blocker protect the rim. I'd like to see Bagley beat us with 15 footers all night.

 

[reedny]

The zone has been better simply by virtue of improved defensive rebounding, but in the games I've seen shooters are being left open consistently enough that it's going to be a problem against better teams. It's a function of a system that is not evolving to adapt to teams having 3 and 4 shooters with extended range. One solution is to stop collapsing to defend the post. The zone breaks down when the guards turn their back to provide help D once the post once the entry pass is made... this is when the shooters get open every single time. We're also not very good at denying the entry pass, so stop trying to sell out on it. Not many teams have the personnel specialized for the midrange game so give them that shot all night. Extend past the 3 point arc and let our shot blocker protect the rim. I'd like to see Bagley beat us with 15 footers all night instead of chasing the ball around the perimeter.

I agree that teams are making the entry pass to the foul line (common way of attacking the zone). On the other hand, I haven't seen that shot go in a lot because Sidibe and Chukwu have been coming up to defend it.

The problem comes, as you mention, with close-outs ... when the ball comes into the the foul line and then back out to shooters. TB is pretty good at hustling out. FH needs some work on that and MM has failed to close a bunch of times and has been getting the hook. There's no excuse for that with his minutes. But with our starting guards, it's tough to close out against good teams that know how to move the ball when you're playing the entire game with little if any rest.