In my opinion I think the 2 grad student transfers are actually hurting the team. Lyon has the potential to do huge things this year but he looks unsure of what his actual role is out there now that White is on the team. Lyon has taken a back seat and he actually looked a lot better last year. In my opinion part of the reason for that is because of Andrew White. The chemistry out there is not as good and you have 2 new 5th year players who came on to a team that was already established and they both seem like they are out for themselves. Both the grad transfers jack up bad shots at high volume and they are completely taking Lydon out of his game, when he should be the main focal point on this team.
I don't think White takes (many) bad shots. I think he does put up a few, but only after it has been demonstrated that he's not going to get open shots, and that the offense without him is stagnating. He does it out of desperation, when it's clear nothing else is going to happen. And, even so, they're not really the same kind of fading to the side or out of bounds shots we used to see from Cooney and Mal last year. They're just 'contested.'
It's a combination problem. The PG needs to make plays to get him the ball when he doesn't have a defender draped on him. And the staff needs to design plays to enable the PG to do that, and also to have AW in the right spaces. And those spaces don't have to be beyond the line all the time. I was frustrated to see AW ALWAYS on the same side of the court in the first half in the last game. Against UConn's zone, that corner defender always knew where he was, and as soon as our guards had an inkling to shift toward AWIII, their defender was out on him. Can't see how he was supposed to do anything in that scheme. He's got to flash around the perimeter, side to side, front to back, and occasionally across the FT line, and around and around... Jumpshooters need to either be constantly running, or they need to be tall enough to shoot over the defender. He's not tall enough to shoot over a F when he's in the corner against a zone.
Seems like the offense should have known how to work against a 2-3 zone, since they should be seeing it every day... How do teams beat us? They station a decent passer/short jumpshooter at the FT line. Did we do that yesterday? Should be Lydon, White, or even TT in that role, no? But, too often, we had DC with the ball, five feet PAST the 3-pt line, looking around to distribute. What the holy hell is that? Two times in his career he made passes to back-cutting Trevor Cooney for layups. And those were beautiful plays. But, i'm sure he threw 'interceptions' on 3x as many of those plays. That's just a useless set. DC's defender just hangs back and waits for him to come back (to reality).
Demeanors. We don't have a leader, because the most veteran guys are brand new to us. The most veteran of our homegrown kids are DC and roberson. Roberson doesn't speak in private life (we're told), so i can't expect he'd be a leader on the court. DC hasn't played enough, but he's a pretty good leader by demonstration. Last year it was Cooney and G. Seems like it should be someone who controls the ball, so it would be great if it were Frankie, but he's not established enough, in his own mind and in JB's, and he's on the bench too often. So, who's left? Lydon defers and he's not 'on it' yet, but he should be the kind of guy. That's kinda why i think Frank needs to be left out there to make his mistakes and play through them. That kid has the fire. He's competitive. He showed tremendous development on his shot, and i don't think development in his guard play is beyond him. But, that kind of thing you don't pick up in a gym alone. He's got to work against people.
While Lydon maybe should be the 'focal point,' he isn't performing well enough to be right now. Who knows why... He started out in our exhibition and Bunny Schedule by missing a lot of 3s. Now, he's missing 3s as well as all the little chippies in the paint. But, the whole team is missing shots 5' and in. It's kinda bizarre how off we are from in close. I don't know the cause of that kind of thing, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that is predictive of itself over a long period. I think if we made some of those cheap ones, we'd have been in an entirely different mindset for everything else. While we looked awful for three games, i don't think we're
that bad. A few of those shots go our way, and it's a slightly different ballgame, and then that feeds on itself.
