CJ is playing in slow motion
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AJDavCuse
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Numbers this year speak for themselves. Worst shooting %, approaching worst 3 point %, most TOs/game of his career in his senior season. I love CJ, always have, but we could be in deep trouble down the stretch given he is really, really struggling with no sense that its an easy fix. Not a good thing to try and reinvent our offense at this point in the season. Really tough to argue CJ couldn't have used a break just to compose himself tonight. JB said last game that he would like to play Roberson a bit more but a tired CJ for 40 mins is better than going to bench for few mins. Not tonight coach. He was guarded by a 6-2 guy and couldn't do anything if it wasn't point blank.
I didn't think BC touched that ball late, but its classic JB, going to a guy for the must-have shot when he is 7-23. It almost seemed like JB was running plays through CJ just to get him going despite the fact it was hurting the team. After his cold start and coming out of a timeout, we started pounding it to Grant and he had success. Then we simply went away from him for no reason and gave it to CJ who proceeded to force or brick shots. That was a coaching decision I don't understand.
JB has always been great at adjustments coming out of halftime. Give BC credit, they adjusted better at halftime and absolutely tore the zone apart and we barely stopped them from doing what they wanted to do in the 2nd half. They got the shots and tempo they wanted.
We lose a couple/few in a row here and we are going to look like a house of cards.
I didn't think BC touched that ball late, but its classic JB, going to a guy for the must-have shot when he is 7-23. It almost seemed like JB was running plays through CJ just to get him going despite the fact it was hurting the team. After his cold start and coming out of a timeout, we started pounding it to Grant and he had success. Then we simply went away from him for no reason and gave it to CJ who proceeded to force or brick shots. That was a coaching decision I don't understand.
JB has always been great at adjustments coming out of halftime. Give BC credit, they adjusted better at halftime and absolutely tore the zone apart and we barely stopped them from doing what they wanted to do in the 2nd half. They got the shots and tempo they wanted.
We lose a couple/few in a row here and we are going to look like a house of cards.
NineOneSeven
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Great post. Against Pitt, CJ got taken out for a few minutes and then came in and hit two huge shots. Not tonight.
Completely agree about the Grant bit. Why we didn't give him the ball is a mystery.
Completely agree about the Grant bit. Why we didn't give him the ball is a mystery.
longislandcuse
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It's almost like he's defiant about it bc he knows ppl are questioning him. CJ needs to get some rest, step up or both. Play G at the 3 if you don't trust Roberson. It's absurd to play someone all game/every game. Especially when they are not effective at all over the course of multiple games.
zeekay
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It's not even rest it's like sit for a min talk to coaches and have them give you feedback on what you need to do, then get back in there. What's the big deal if Roberson has a turnover in those two mins? Can't be worse than keeping CJ out there when he's not in the flow of the offense at all. 0 passes to teammates today from him.
And by the way I'm totally pro CJ and we go as far as he takes us. But even NBA all stars are benched for short stints so coaches can reinforce the offensive flow etc. to them. I just don't get it from JB on this one.
thebigeast44
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I have to agree at this point that JB is being stubborn in not subbing for CJ or it's worse than we thought - we really don't have someone who can do the job even in limited minutes. Personally, I'd like to see Mike G give CJ 4-5 minutes off each night. He played sf tonight and has natural small forward skills. Can't believe we'd be much worse off with him taking 4-5 minutes of CJ's time on the floor.
On the other hand, all players have shooting slumps. CJ could break out of his at any point. But you have to question if part of it is the number of minutes he is playing. And I understand him being the primary scoring option this year. But this is the first year he has played this role and he has had growing pains fulfilling it - particularly in the turnover department. And now in the shooting department.
But I love the kid and as I said above, he could break out of his slump at any time. Hopefully, this Saturday - Let's Go Orange!
On the other hand, all players have shooting slumps. CJ could break out of his at any point. But you have to question if part of it is the number of minutes he is playing. And I understand him being the primary scoring option this year. But this is the first year he has played this role and he has had growing pains fulfilling it - particularly in the turnover department. And now in the shooting department.
But I love the kid and as I said above, he could break out of his slump at any time. Hopefully, this Saturday - Let's Go Orange!
What bothered me the most was even though he was having a bad shooting night, he rarely passed the ball even if there were others open. There were a couple of times CJ had the ball and Rak had sealed his man off and would have had an easy bucket but did not get the pass from CJ and instead Fair would take a wild shot.
zeekay
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Which is exactly when you bench him and go "DID YOU SEE RAK OPEN? PASS!". Then put him back in on next stoppage. But no, let's keep CJ out there so he can do what he's been doing.
85SUAlum
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Actually, at the start of the 2nd half, it looked like we had made some offensive adjustments.
Lots of ball movement and open shots in the lane - that's when we stretched the lead to 13.
And then we got out of it and went back to forced shots against and well, we know how that turned out.
We had an 8 minute stretch from the 13:50 mark where our only pts were 7 FTs.
anomander
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we were running the offense to go through him. it seems that's what we were looking to do. he is going to have turnovers if he is being more aggressive. those are plays CJ usually makes, you can't really fault him. we are just going to have to live with off nights
85SUAlum
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That's what kept driving me nuts - why CJ kept forcing bad shots against 2 or 3 defenders. If he's drawing that many defenders, someone else has GOT to be open.
We're making it way to easy for teams to figure out how to defend us lately because we seem to keep doing the same thing on offense over and over whether it's working or not
anomander
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In defense to CJ I think a lot of people could have predicted an increase in turnovers, and decrease in shooting percentages. For the firs time in his career he was going to be the go to guy. Before the season other then CJ nobody had proven themselves offensively at this level. Think about it Ennis was playing HS ball this time last year, while Cooney, and Grant were barely getting minutes. CJ was going to be the man, and the focal point of all defenses. When you are forced to be more aggressive turnovers happen. Same with shot selection. He no longer had the luxury of letting the offense come to him, he had to go out and make plays for himself. He has made more 1 on 1 moves in conference play this season then he has his whole career. Sure some of the turnovers have been just plain bad plays, but i don't mind seeing some of the turnovers on him because he is forced into being more aggressive. That was going to be the biggest tradeoff with the increased scoring. Not singling you out, but I think people need to put what's expected from him into perspective.
AJDavCuse
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Like I said I love CJ. I think he'll snap out of things. He's in a bad slump right now (shooting sub 40% recently), but everyone has them. We just need him to snap out of things soon, like by saturday at 7pm!
pearl31
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Or, Kris Joseph senior year territory
85SUAlum
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I've had that same thought. Glad that he decided to stay, but I wonder if he regrets not going pro last year, especially since he initially decided to and then changed his mind.
Seems his draft stock has actually dropped further this year than where he was projected to go last year.
AJDavCuse
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He's in a slump. Continuing to run the offense through him as much as we were seemed forced and unnecessary. We posted grant a few times in a row and I think he scored on 2 out of 3. Then that play seemed to disappear the rest of the game. Not saying we aren't going to run things through CJ most of the time, but 23 shots is a lot for him.
longislandcuse
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No, please, for the love of God, no!
KJo in the tourney makes me cringe. CJ cannot go down that road.
