A few monmouth thoughts

[billsin01]

• Didn't get a chance to actually see the game until last night. Figured I'd put a few thoughts together as we head into Houston.

Things I didn't like

• Rebounding is not awesome and FT shooting is atrocious. I won't say much about either as they've been covered here, but I will say playing a pressure defense is great but draws bigs out of rebounding position frequently, so that's a part of it.
  
  
• Red's end-of-half, end-of-game coaching. It's an issue. His taking a tech when we're on a 9-0 run was not ideal either, though I understand his frustration.
  
  
• Donnie's offensive game (in general) is weird to me and his defensive game against Monmouth was brutal. Their big dude was eating him alive down low and he had 4 or 5 slow rotations on the perimeter. Not sure if he's hurt, but it was a poor defensive display. Offensively, I don't know what his go-to is. He struggles putting the ball on the floor, but when he's successful I feel like he's often just looking to draw contact vs. finish the play strong. He has some nice moves -- a little lefty floater on one and another baby hook shot on another, but he got blocked from behind on a jumper and i thought got bailed out on a few foul calls to score from the line. Kid always seems to get his numbers and if his shot starts falling, that would be huge, but his game isn't as far along offensively as I hoped it would be.

Things I liked

• Want to give some credit to Monmouth here. I think we shot ourselves in the foot a few times when we had a chance to kind of put that game out of reach. Don't think it was going to be a 30-point win, but could have been a more comfortable 10-12-point win if we took care of business. But Monmouth did a nice job of moving the ball and moving without the ball to limit our effectiveness with the pressure man we like to play. They only got caught over-dribbling on a few possessions when we made a bit of a run midway through the second half, but otherwise stuck to their offense and took care of the ball. 12 turnovers, but just four live ball turnovers and, while we got out in transition on some blocks and rebounds off bad shots, they really limited that too. They also stuck with what worked -- kept riding their big guy down low and kept the ball in Ray's hands a lot. They played a really good game, which I mention because I didn't finish watching it and think it was a lackluster effort on our part.
  
  
• JJ had a good game on both ends. The FTs are a disaster and really something watch in terms of how that plays out, but I thought it was about the best game I've seen him play defensively -- good on-ball, and very aware of help and recovery. Didn't force things offensively. Hit a huge three for us.
  
  
• The Nates/Naits were excellent. George's ability to attack the defense when they blitz the high ball-screen by retreating and then getting by one of the defenders is huge. Looked really good doing that. Shot pretty well also. Kingz was really active on both ends. Nice to see him knock down a couple shots, but thought he really was our best two-way player in a lot of ways.
  
  
• Kiyan struggled, for sure, but I thought his only real force was the drive pretty late in the game where he got swallowed up from behind. It's fine for a freshman to have some struggles so hopefully he learns from it. But really, I thought he was making decent decisions and I'm impressed with how he's worked defensively. Didn't think that would be the case after the scrimmages.
  
  
• We still only ran a few set plays in the half-court but I thought our offense there was solid. We moved the ball well and looked much more in-sync than earlier in the season. Wasn't the best we've played but I like that it's not just a ton of one-on-one for this group thus far. We'll see if we can continue that against Houston.

that's pretty much it. interesting game -- don't think anyone needs to find a bridge to jump off after that and my hope is that it was an eye-opener that will get this team to understand it has to play the full 40 mins and constantly take care of the little things. But the energy and unselfishness as well as the overall talent still looks light years better to me than the past several seasons.

 

[Orangezoo]

• Didn't get a chance to actually see the game until last night. Figured I'd put a few thoughts together as we head into Houston.

Things I didn't like

• Rebounding is not awesome and FT shooting is atrocious. I won't say much about either as they've been covered here, but I will say playing a pressure defense is great but draws bigs out of rebounding position frequently, so that's a part of it.
  
  
• Red's end-of-half, end-of-game coaching. It's an issue. His taking a tech when we're on a 9-0 run was not ideal either, though I understand his frustration.
  
  
• Donnie's offensive game (in general) is weird to me and his defensive game against Monmouth was brutal. Their big dude was eating him alive down low and he had 4 or 5 slow rotations on the perimeter. Not sure if he's hurt, but it was a poor defensive display. Offensively, I don't know what his go-to is. He struggles putting the ball on the floor, but when he's successful I feel like he's often just looking to draw contact vs. finish the play strong. He has some nice moves -- a little lefty floater on one and another baby hook shot on another, but he got blocked from behind on a jumper and i thought got bailed out on a few foul calls to score from the line. Kid always seems to get his numbers and if his shot starts falling, that would be huge, but his game isn't as far along offensively as I hoped it would be.

Things I liked

• Want to give some credit to Monmouth here. I think we shot ourselves in the foot a few times when we had a chance to kind of put that game out of reach. Don't think it was going to be a 30-point win, but could have been a more comfortable 10-12-point win if we took care of business. But Monmouth did a nice job of moving the ball and moving without the ball to limit our effectiveness with the pressure man we like to play. They only got caught over-dribbling on a few possessions when we made a bit of a run midway through the second half, but otherwise stuck to their offense and took care of the ball. 12 turnovers, but just four live ball turnovers and, while we got out in transition on some blocks and rebounds off bad shots, they really limited that too. They also stuck with what worked -- kept riding their big guy down low and kept the ball in Ray's hands a lot. They played a really good game, which I mention because I didn't finish watching it and think it was a lackluster effort on our part.
  
  
• JJ had a good game on both ends. The FTs are a disaster and really something watch in terms of how that plays out, but I thought it was about the best game I've seen him play defensively -- good on-ball, and very aware of help and recovery. Didn't force things offensively. Hit a huge three for us.
  
  
• The Nates/Naits were excellent. George's ability to attack the defense when they blitz the high ball-screen by retreating and then getting by one of the defenders is huge. Looked really good doing that. Shot pretty well also. Kingz was really active on both ends. Nice to see him knock down a couple shots, but thought he really was our best two-way player in a lot of ways.
  
  
• Kiyan struggled, for sure, but I thought his only real force was the drive pretty late in the game where he got swallowed up from behind. It's fine for a freshman to have some struggles so hopefully he learns from it. But really, I thought he was making decent decisions and I'm impressed with how he's worked defensively. Didn't think that would be the case after the scrimmages.
  
  
• We still only ran a few set plays in the half-court but I thought our offense there was solid. We moved the ball well and looked much more in-sync than earlier in the season. Wasn't the best we've played but I like that it's not just a ton of one-on-one for this group thus far. We'll see if we can continue that against Houston.

that's pretty much it. interesting game -- don't think anyone needs to find a bridge to jump off after that and my hope is that it was an eye-opener that will get this team to understand it has to play the full 40 mins and constantly take care of the little things. But the energy and unselfishness as well as the overall talent still looks light years better to me than the past several seasons.

Good stuff. Donnie has that sort of quirky and at times wild looking approach to offense kind of the way Brissett did when he was here. It’s still pretty effective but it doesn’t fit into the mold of many guys at the next level at his position.

 

[SoBristol]

Good points.
Donnie needs to stop taking those fade away shots. Just make a pass if he can’t get a shot facing the basket or make a strong inside move. Big talent - lots of room to play smarter.

I agree that Monmouth deserves some credit. They led Seton Hall by 7 at the end of the first half. Spartalis can play. Ray was out of his mind from 3. They played hard.

The issue for SU was closing out this game when the team had a good lead inside 4 minutes. It will be tough for Red (or anyone) to get the right five on the floor in end game situations, and sub offense/defense, with the mix of guards we have. He was subbing out Kyle for Anthony (good move) but as a team we need George and Kingz and Freeman to handle the ball and be the players to get fouled in obvious fouling situations. Lesson learned?

 

[CardiacCuse]

i think the guys were a bit unprepared for the fact that monmouth covers the rim very well and doesnt give up anything easy in close. thats the first time that happened this season and it threw the guys off...they were used to just finishig easy every time they got close. i think red was telling them to go to the rim and it wasnt working out well. monmouth is one of the top teams in block % in the country. the way to beat them wouldve been to hit 3s and open up the lane...but red wasnt prepared for that bc layups and dunks was the thing that won the first 3 and the 3s hadnt been falling.

i really wanna see george more in control. more shot volume and dictating what shots are taken more. i have the feeling he can get an assist/shot on almost every play if he wants to but he kinda just blends in and defers a lot. i want him to play more of a qb role...thing is theres a lot of alphas on the team but hes the alpha that I want in control bc thats how the offense is going to be best

this team is very good passing and does very well when they make that key pass...however, they have many iso type possessions where a player just puts his head down and decides hes shooting no matter what. i think if they can get in a ryhtym of scoring off of passes, they will do very well on offense...problem is, the hierarchy on the team is kinda up for grabs and theres a lot of guys that wanna be the main guy. so when they get the ball they just decide to shoot. its good these guys can all score in iso...but its not the most efficient team basketball.

houston will do everything monmouth did on defense, just better. for me, sadiq is the key to the defense. hes the best defender on the team and i think the player with the highest potential. i hope he has a big role vs houston, he will need to.

rebounding is going to be huge vs houston, obviously. on both ends. they didnt crash the offensive glass at all vs monmouth, it seemed. wanna see these guys go after it more...

Good points.
Donnie needs to stop taking those fade away shots. Just make a pass if he can’t get a shot facing the basket or make a strong inside move. Big talent - lots of room to play smarter.

I agree that Monmouth deserves some credit. They led Seton Hall by 7 at the end of the first half. Spartalis can play. Ray was out of his mind from 3. They played hard.

The issue for SU was closing out this game when the team had a good lead inside 4 minutes. It will be tough for Red (or anyone) to get the right five on the floor in end game situations, and sub offense/defense, with the mix of guards we have. He was subbing out Kyle for Anthony (good move) but as a team we need George and Kingz and Freeman to handle the ball and be the players to get fouled in obvious fouling situations. Lesson learned?

i aggre ...donnie needs to play in the paint more. and not fade away. would be awesome if he could finish on contact. i think he missed at least 5 shots while fouled and didnt make any. and didnt look close to scoring on any of them.

did seem to be limping a bit...which is bad news...didnt rotate on his man well and got the ball stripped out of his hands several times...not sure whats up with that...but he needs to play stronger.

i like getting him the ball very close to the basket. but not when hes 15 feet away...would also like to see him on pick roll...we havent seen much of that yet.

 

[upperdeck]

We have a habit of when I guy makes up his mind he is going to shoot the others just watch. If we moved a bit more and Donnie would dump out and get it back he would have a better chance to set his feet and make some moves.