its not talent, coaching or the zone

[jgeorge322]

the team currently just doesnt have any chemistry on offense. boeheim thinks were getting our normal shots. maybe that is true but i dont like the shots we get and think we can do better. they are too difficult for the most part and dont seem to be in the flow of the game. what i would like to see is the following:

1. grant posted up with his back to the basket. i like his face up game but think he should be posted up much more frequently. we need to exploit this miss match more often
2. call me crazy, but on the contrary to number 1., i think christmas can be a face the basket type of player. he had a nice drive v st johns earlier this year and dont see why he shouldn't be put at the high post. i dont mind him taking that shot if the defense gives it. im not saying this should be done all the time or is the solution to our offensive woes, but i think its an option we can consider when nothing else seems to be working
3. ennis needs to pass to the screener on the pick and roles more often. unfortunately, with christmas in foul trouble, that means passing to keita, which we cant do. so we need christmas to not foul. to expand on this point, ennis needs to not shade away from the basket when using the screens. he needs to force his man to go under.
4. cooney running around like a madman is just senseless. his shots should be off kick outs. we need to force cooney's defender to play help defense. then, cooney can either take the shot or fake and go to the basket
5. cj was forcing it last night. he doesnt typically play well when he does that. the rest of the team then stands and watches.

i guess the overall theme is too much roaming the perimeter on offense with no rhyme or reason. we need to attack the basket either on drives or entry passes. i think the team is forcing everything because it knows it is in a slump, instead of having the game come naturally.

i like our talent level. we should wipe the floor with nc state. we are just in a slump, which we can break out of. nothing better than a sudden death playoff to shake the slump.

lastly, to all the zone haters, what are you talking about? our defense has kept us in games all year. 66 pts isn't unreasonable. we should score more than 66 pts on nc state.

 

[GardenOrange]

This "slump" will not be broken until next year I am afraid. Team has fallen and can't get up. Sweet 16 would be a big achievement at this point, I'm sorry to say. Team would have to play drastically better and more importantly play different to go any further. Not enough cohesion on offense. Guys are just not playing very well.

 

[ImperialOrange]

I think we could do well to use some different players in our current offensive sets. Pick and roll with Grant vs Rak/Keita, get Cooney the ball foul line extended vs CJ, get Grant in some post ups vs Rak, have Rak shoot some 10 footers, etc. For a team that doesn't dribble particularly well we try and do far too much off the bounce.

 

[jgeorge322]

I think we could do well to use some different players in our current offensive sets. Pick and roll with Grant vs Rak/Keita, get Cooney the ball foul line extended vs CJ, get Grant in some post ups vs Rak, have Rak shoot some 10 footers, etc. For a team that doesn't dribble particularly well we try and do far too much off the bounce.

Grant on the pick and roll is a tremendous idea