Our bigs...

[Jake]

Are killing us. Hard to play 4-on-5 On the offensive end. Gtown guarded the perimeter and doubled our wings with their "5". Until we get an offensive threat down low we are going to struggle to score if we don't get transition hoops.

Dajuan is the key. We don't need much, but enough to make teams pay for cheating off our "5".

F gtown.

 

[phil77]

I found it very hard to play on offense when you do not get the ball. If 4 guys are going to take all the shots it is hard for the 5th guy to make an impact on the offensive end.

 

[tbonezone]

ayegba had 1 point.hard to say he didn't impact the game altho he didn't score.

 

[Toga]

Exactly why Fair had no room to operate as the game went on.

 

[RF2044]

I found it very hard to play on offense when you do not get the ball. If 4 guys are going to take all the shots it is hard for the 5th guy to make an impact on the offensive end.

I see this excuse for Rak's lack of productivity a lot on this forum, but I think it is a criticism that is off target. If Rak had shown any ability to consistently do something with the ball when he gets it down low, his teammates would incorporate getting him the ball into our half court offensive execution. During the 09-10 season, we made a concerted effort to establish Arinze the first few possessions--so its not like JB eschews utilizing the post. Of course, that's because Arinze could legitimately put the ball in the basket, unlike Rak.

And Rak isn't the only one. Coleman has had an awful year, and Keita isn't that far behind. I said back in October that our season would hinge on whether we establish some semblance of low post game that teams have to respect, and thus far it hasn't happened. The frustrating thing is that Rak has shown flashes of being able to do some damage down low, and I KNOW that Coleman should be able to use that body down low to more devastating effect. A player like Grant has all the tools to be an effective low post scorer, but he's a bit too light right now and more of a face the basket guy; my prediction is that he's going to be our best low post scoring forward since Hak, once he adds a little strength.

I fear that all three will make a pretty solid jump next year, but that it might be one year too late.

 

[OrangeDW]

In a game like yesterday, Grant really can't be an option at all at the 5? We used to go small and play Warrick there once in awhile in 2003, and it seems he was no more of a Center than Grant. It's not like Georgetown has a real center either. Even if they'd scored a little more inside, so what? It's not like they had the ability to really hurt us there much anyway.

Grant can catch the ball and score around the basket. He has good instincts around the hoop. He is a much better rebounder than Keita. Would the improvement offensively not be worth the drop-off defensively...especially when that drop off might not be that noticeable against a team with one perimeter player beating us and no low post threat themselves?

 

[SBU72]

Our bigs are not.

 

[Ghost]

I see this excuse for Rak's lack of productivity a lot on this forum, but I think it is a criticism that is off target. If Rak had shown any ability to consistently do something with the ball when he gets it down low, his teammates would incorporate getting him the ball into our half court offensive execution. During the 09-10 season, we made a concerted effort to establish Arinze the first few possessions. Of course, that's because Arinze could legitimately put the ball in the basket, unlike Rak.

And Rak isn't the only one. Coleman has had an awful year, and Keita isn't that far behind. I said back in October that our season would hinge on whether we establish some semblance of low post game that teams have to respect, and thus far it hasn't happened. The frustrating thing is that Rak has shown flashes of being able to do some damage down low, and I KNOW that Coleman should be able to use that body down low to more devastating effect. A player like Grant has all the tools to be an effective low post scorer, but he's a bit too light right now and more of a face the basket guy; my prediction is that he's going to be our best low post scoring forward since Hak, once he adds a little strength.

I fear that all three will make a pretty solid jump next year, but that it might be one year too late.

I would disagree with this statement.

I think our guards are mental.

 

[Melancer46]

I see this excuse for Rak's lack of productivity a lot on this forum, but I think it is a criticism that is off target. If Rak had shown any ability to consistently do something with the ball when he gets it down low, his teammates would incorporate getting him the ball into our half court offensive execution. During the 09-10 season, we made a concerted effort to establish Arinze the first few possessions. Of course, that's because Arinze could legitimately put the ball in the basket, unlike Rak.

And Rak isn't the only one. Coleman has had an awful year, and Keita isn't that far behind. I said back in October that our season would hinge on whether we establish some semblance of low post game that teams have to respect, and thus far it hasn't happened. The frustrating thing is that Rak has shown flashes of being able to do some damage down low, and I KNOW that Coleman should be able to use that body down low to more devastating effect. A player like Grant has all the tools to be an effective low post scorer, but he's a bit too light right now and more of a face the basket guy; my prediction is that he's going to be our best low post scoring forward since Hak, once he adds a little strength.

I fear that all three will make a pretty solid jump next year, but that it might be one year too late.

At this point, I don't care it they only convert 40-45% of the time they get it. That's still better than our perimeter players. Nobody makes shots so they might as well all get an equal turn. I'd much rather miss a 5 foot hook shot than another 30 footer.

 

[timkay99]

I see this excuse for Rak's lack of productivity a lot on this forum, but I think it is a criticism that is off target. If Rak had shown any ability to consistently do something with the ball when he gets it down low, his teammates would incorporate getting him the ball into our half court offensive execution. During the 09-10 season, we made a concerted effort to establish Arinze the first few possessions. Of course, that's because Arinze could legitimately put the ball in the basket, unlike Rak.

And Rak isn't the only one. Coleman has had an awful year, and Keita isn't that far behind. I said back in October that our season would hinge on whether we establish some semblance of low post game that teams have to respect, and thus far it hasn't happened. The frustrating thing is that Rak has shown flashes of being able to do some damage down low, and I KNOW that Coleman should be able to use that body down low to more devastating effect. A player like Grant has all the tools to be an effective low post scorer, but he's a bit too light right now and more of a face the basket guy; my prediction is that he's going to be our best low post scoring forward since Hak, once he adds a little strength.

I agree with a lot of what you say except that Grant will be an effective low post scorer (meaning, he establishes position down there).

He strikes me more of growing into Kris Joseph when he was a dribble driver first and not a jump shooter (meaning the sophomore version of KJ).

 

[capeorange]

With Rak it's almost a chicken or the egg question. Maybe with more touches he may score more consistently, however I'm not sure that he still wouldn't lower the ball and get it stripped or just drop the pass. The perimeter players may continually miss shots and say that they just need to keep shooting. Rak doesn't have the luxury to keep shooting if the perimeter players don't even try to pass it to him or penetrate and dish it off.

 

[Ghost]

At this point, I don't care it they only convert 40-45% of the time they get it. That's still better than our perimeter players. Nobody makes shots so they might as well all get an equal turn. I'd much rather miss a 5 foot hook shot than another 30 footer.

Ditto.

Give it to DC, give it to Rak - try the post. We won't though.

I know, I know, if they were good down there JB would have them feeding the post...etc...

However, I don't think they're good enough in the post where JB, by any means, is emphasizing it. Which is fair (and I agree with 100%), but I doubt he intended for them to completely IGNORE the position. Yet they do. I also doubt he draws up gameplans revolving around the perimeter players jacking up early threes from 27 feet, but they do that too.

He's said in interviews that they need to get them more involved - so he's at least considered the idea...

Again, Rak/DC are not going to turn the season around, but they are underutilized, and I think on offense the guards are the biggest issue. At times they do ZIP to make players around them better. Zip. Zero. Zilch. It's pretty much, play good defense (check) and hope that Southerland gets hot, or maybe BT from deep. Ugh.

They're decent on the fast break, but otherwise, lack creativity. They're not all that disruptive in the zone either - at least not as disruptive as Dion/Scoop for example.

 

[timkay99]

Ditto.

Again, Rak/DC are not going to turn the season around, but they are underutilized, and I think on offense the guards are the biggest issue. They do ZIP to make players around them better. Zip. Zero. Zilch. They're decent on the fast break, but otherwise, lack creativity. They're not all that disruptive in the zone either - at least not as disruptive as Dion/Scoop for example.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I think against M2M that MCW makes Southerland a lot better.

In zone, they were worthless yesterday.

 

[Melancer46]

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I think against M2M that MCW makes Southerland a lot better.

In zone, they were worthless yesterday.

They still worked together pretty well yesterday (MCW and Southerland). Southerland just wasnt making his shots and he got too greedy. He doesn't have to shoot every time he catches the ball.

 

[jdubs30]

Ditto.

Give it to DC, give it to Rak - try the post. We won't though.

I know, I know, if they were good down there JB would have them feeding the post...etc...

However, I don't think they're good enough in the post where JB, by any means, is emphasizing it. Which is fair (and I agree with 100%), but I doubt he intended for them to completely IGNORE the position. Yet they do. I also doubt he draws up gameplans revolving around the perimeter players jacking up early threes from 27 feet, but they do that too.

He's said in interviews that they need to get them more involved - so he's at least considered the idea...

Again, Rak/DC are not going to turn the season around, but they are underutilized, and I think on offense the guards are the biggest issue. They do ZIP to make players around them better. Zip. Zero. Zilch. It's pretty much, play good defense (check) and hope that Southerland gets hot, or maybe BT from deep. Ugh.

They're decent on the fast break, but otherwise, lack creativity. They're not all that disruptive in the zone either - at least not as disruptive as Dion/Scoop for example.

I agree with everything you said except the last sentence. MCW and Triche are averaging 4.4spg this year, Scoop/Dion averaged 3.2. While MCW certainly can be lazy at times closing out against shooters, Scoop was the same way. Triche isn't as good as Dion was, but he was better than Scoop; MCW/BT are longer, their getting more rebounds, and I think they bother shooters/PGs more than Scoop/Dion did. However Scoop and Dion were better in transition.

 

[Ghost]

I agree with everything you said except the last sentence. MCW and Triche are averaging 4.4spg this year, Scoop/Dion averaged 3.2. While MCW certainly can be lazy at times closing out against shooters, Scoop was the same way. Triche isn't as good as Dion was, but he was better than Scoop; MCW/BT are longer, their getting more rebounds, and I think they bother shooters/PGs more than Scoop/Dion did. However Scoop and Dion were better in transition.

Huh, interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that.

 

[NineOneSeven]

"We need to get Rak going, we need to get the bigs going, we need to utilize the post more and get plays from the bigs." -JB

And yet, we don't. We shoot 30 footers despite being an overall horrendous shooting team. Why? Who is at fault here?

 

[OttosBestFriend]

Our Bigs Are killing us. Hard to play 4-on-5 On the offensive end...

Um, Georgetown essentially played 1-on-5 on the offensive end and still won.

To put this loss on the two bigs when Southerland was hoisting from Erie Blvd., Triche seemingly couldn't a bull in the ass with a banjo, MCW wasn't distributing like he's capable of, and the defense couldn't stop Otto is simply wrong.

Especially when you consider they NEVER get the ball in the low post. Hard to score without the ball.

Again, the Hoyas had ONE guy score 58% of their team's points.

As it is, we had 3 guys score more than 10 - and no one with more than 13... that's just horrendous.

If we had 4 starters (PG, SG, SF, & PF) scoring at or near their averages, we'd have won by 20. And it wouldn't have mattered how much Rak or Baye scored.

 

[RF2044]

I would disagree with this statement.

I think our guards are mental.

What exactly are you disagreeing with? You think that Rak has demonstrated consistent offensive production?

Do you think that he's playing appreciably better than he was last season? We've seen many examples in recent years of big men making a tremendous stride forward with their contributions during their second seasons--do you think that Rak is any further along the developmental curve than he was last season? Adjusting for additional minutes, he isn't providing much more than he did last year.

Sorry, I just don't see the growth that people are pointing to from Rak.

You'll get no argument from me that we need more from the inside players--I just don't think this crew is capable of getting it done on a consistent basis.

 

[RF2044]

I agree with a lot of what you say except that Grant will be an effective low post scorer (meaning, he establishes position down there).

He strikes me more of growing into Kris Joseph when he was a dribble driver first and not a jump shooter (meaning the sophomore version of KJ).

I think he's a four all the way. He just needs to grow into his body. Kid's got a lot of potential--just needs to add a bit more sand to the bucket.

 

[RF2044]

At this point, I don't care it they only convert 40-45% of the time they get it. That's still better than our perimeter players. Nobody makes shots so they might as well all get an equal turn. I'd much rather miss a 5 foot hook shot than another 30 footer.

What we really needed to happen didn't happen. We needed Dajuan to come in and provide this team with the low post threat it lacked last season. I'm not saying that he had to come in, lead the team in scoring, average 15 ppg, etc. -- just that he needed to come in and clean up down low, play the garbage man, convert inside when the ball came his way, get an offensive putback here and there to the tune of 7 and 7 or so.

We also needed Rak to take a step forward on his developmental curve and elevate his level of play.

0-2.

 

[Melancer46]

I agree with everything you said except the last sentence. MCW and Triche are averaging 4.4spg this year, Scoop/Dion averaged 3.2. While MCW certainly can be lazy at times closing out against shooters, Scoop was the same way. Triche isn't as good as Dion was, but he was better than Scoop; MCW/BT are longer, their getting more rebounds, and I think they bother shooters/PGs more than Scoop/Dion did. However Scoop and Dion were better in transition.

Dion was more disruptive than Triche for sure, but Triche was a far better overall defender.

 

[Jasoncuse]

I totally agree. They do need to dump a few passes down to a big, but the bigs also need to work their tails off to get position. Rak likes to get position initially then kind of loses interest. If he and Coleman work harder for position, they need to get the rock. I'm sick of watching our crappy outside shooters jack up 3 after 3 after brick after brick. Our offense stinks, but can be improved. I'm not sure JB wants to change his offense, though, after going with open, one-on-one sets for so long.

 

[Jasoncuse]

"We need to get Rak going, we need to get the bigs going, we need to utilize the post more and get plays from the bigs." -JB

And yet, we don't. We shoot 30 footers despite being an overall horrendous shooting team. Why? Who is at fault here?

Agreed. Either the players don't listen to JB, or he's not really harping on this enough. I tend to believe its the former, even if unintentional. We could get better looks from 3 if our bigs would just get some inside/out touches...

 

[newmexicuse]

I could be wrong, but I put a lot of this on Jimmy. It has always been obvious to me that Rak doesn't have great skills down low. He has the body and the athleticism, but not the skills, the instincts, or the motor. From what we saw in HS, there was no reason to think that DC2 couldn't get the job done sooner or later. He has the strength, the body, and the "natural" ability to score. Jimmy saw this and that is why DC2 was the nominal starter. Problem was that Jimmy would not let him play thru his mistakes. The 3 MPG and done garbage can only serve to break a players confidence. I have said before, and I say again, that Jimmy's handling of DC2 has been about the worst he has ever done with any particular player. I happen to think it is too late for this season, but if there is to be any hope for a low post game come March then Jimmy has to play DC2 as many minutes forward going as his conditioning allows. I don't care if the cost for this is a couple of extra lost regular season games.

PS - Also, how about running few low post plays for Jerami who has shown he can score from down low.