Our guards

[pearl31]

It became clear early on this season that we pretty much go as our guards go.
S0, today's combined 11-36 shooting and 6 TOs = loss.

MCW's game today was (painfully) reminiscent of his game vs. Temple.

BT was good (can't really complain about 23 pts, 4 assts) but wasn't quite as clutch as we needed down the stretch (no thanks, of course, to not touching the ball on the final 4 possessions of regulation)

bleh. on to Pitt.

 

[tee1222]

It became clear early on this season that we pretty much go as our guards go.
S0, today's combined 11-36 shooting and 6 TOs = loss.

MCW's game today was (painfully) reminiscent of his game vs. Temple.

BT was good (can't really complain about 23 pts, 4 assts) but wasn't quite as clutch as we needed down the stretch (no thanks, of course, to not touching the ball on the final 4 possessions of regulation)

bleh. on to Pitt.

Don't worry my friend. Unless we've got no heart (we do), we're going into Pitt as angry as a Cuse fan after a bull loss.
Payback next Saturday. They can schedule our next game 5 weeks from now, it doesn't matter. We are not forgetting today.

 

[wallacecuse]

MCW's game today was (painfully) reminiscent of his game vs. Temple.

That game we lost because MCW missed ft's down the stretch, and Wyatt was perfect all game. Today both teams missed ft's, but MCW missed the clincher. Brandon missed the clincher vs. Cincy, but we hung on. Fair is the only guy on the team I have faith in on the line...everyone else is a 50/50 proposition.

 

[IthacaMatt]

That game we lost because MCW missed ft's down the stretch, and Wyatt was perfect all game. Today both teams missed ft's, but MCW missed the clincher. Brandon missed the clincher vs. Cincy, but we hung on. Fair is the only guy on the team I have faith in on the line...everyone else is a 50/50 proposition.

Not just the missed FTs, but the unforced turnovers, and series of trips where we didn't even get a shot at the rim. That's why we lost, along with the missed FTs. Too many late trips that didn't even get a shot up.

 

[44cuse]

Not just the missed FTs, but the unforced turnovers, and series of trips where we didn't even get a shot at the rim. That's why we lost, along with the missed FTs. Too many late trips that didn't even get a shot up.

Ball dominating PG.

You forgot that part.

44cuse

 

[realorange]

Ball dominating PG.

You forgot that part.

44cuse

Interesting you'd say that because I think he is becoming more possessive every game. If my memory serves me correctly(dangerous assumption), I think he moved the ball much more in the beginning of the season.

 

[The General]

Interesting you'd say that because I think he is becoming more possessive every game. If my memory serves me correctly(dangerous assumption), I think he moved the ball much more in the beginning of the season.

I honestly think he misses Southerland. Southerland was a finisher. When you're an assist man, you look to the guy who can put it in the hoop for you. They had that chemistry going. What was that si.com chart? Weren't the vast majority of his assists to JSouth before James's "vacation?"

 

[IthacaMatt]

Ball dominating PG.

You forgot that part.

44cuse

Yes, shades of bad Jonny Flynn yesterday.

 

[44cuse]

Yes, shades of bad Jonny Flynn yesterday.

Exactly. Shades of bad Jonny Flynn in the NBA.

See what I'm saying?

44cuse

 

[44cuse]

Interesting you'd say that because I think he is becoming more possessive every game. If my memory serves me correctly(dangerous assumption), I think he moved the ball much more in the beginning of the season.

I think you're correct. I'm not saying this is an easy thing to learn. It's incredibly difficult for guys who been "the man" their whole lives to realize the importance of keeping the ball moving. Yeah, MCW gets a lot of assists, but a bunch of those assists come from dribble drive penetration that starts one on one at the top of the key.

JB took the air out of the ball yesterday and essentially asked MCW to do this. JB has 908 more wins in hoops than I do, so he can do whatever he wants. So the end of the game is not necessarily entirely MCW's fault. But, for MCW to be great...he'll need to figure out that dominating the ball and getting assists is nowhere near as valuable as facilitating and keeping the ball moving.

44cuse

 

[realorange]

I think you're correct. I'm not saying this is an easy thing to learn. It's incredibly difficult for guys who been "the man" their whole lives to realize the importance of keeping the ball moving. Yeah, MCW gets a lot of assists, but a bunch of those assists come from dribble drive penetration that starts one on one at the top of the key.

JB took the air out of the ball yesterday and essentially asked MCW to do this. JB has 908 more wins in hoops than I do, so he can do whatever he wants. So the end of the game is not necessarily entirely MCW's fault. But, for MCW to be great...he'll need to figure out that dominating the ball and getting assists is nowhere near as valuable as facilitating and keeping the ball moving.

44cuse

Agree, and as I said in another thread, MCW said more than once
when he got here that he would rather get an assist than score. I wonder what has changed in some of the more obvious situations.

 

[Henny & Coke]

So funny...all people want to do is complain about end results instead of trying to look deeper into the situation and examine what is leading to the end results.

Imagine you're the point guard for SU right now. You're dribbling up the court, and here are the options you have on offense:

- You can pass to Triche (SR), hanging out on the wing. If you do this, the ball is most likely to come back to you, or maybe Triche makes a play with it. Ok option.

- You can see if Fair (JR) is working to get open (or, when Grant (FROSH) is in the game, see if he is working to get open). But, how likely is CJ Fair (or Grant) to receive a pass & make a play with it (drive the lane or set up a good shot)? Odds or not great, but not terrible either. Gotta admit, Fair's game is mostly about rebounding and tip-ins...being a "garbageman" type guy, which is most certainly useful, but doesn't help the offense much to create the initial shot.

And that's pretty much it. Those are the options you have, unless you decide to drive the lane & make something happen yourself, in which, your options may then become:

- With the defense attempting to stop you from driving, you open up a RAK (SOPH) for a dump-off pass. Odds of him finishing are ok. (I guess.)

- You can also look for an open spot-up shooter to throw the ball out to (since defense is collapsing on your drive)...best option would be Triche, then Fair.

And that is pretty much it. Honestly, what are the other guys doing out there to help the offense work?

Are you really passing to a DC (FROSH) right now? (outside of a dump-off pass if the defense is collaping on you?)

Baye (JR)?

Is Cooney (FROSH) doing anything right now to create shots for himself (or anyone else really)?

Even Fair or Grant...what are the odds they are really making plays to create for themselves or others? It will happen sometimes...but not nearly often enough.

You're not exactly looking to pass to guys who create their own shots/drives/fouls like a Dion Waiters (who could most certainly create his own shots/drives/fouls) or Kris Joseph, or guys who live to spot-up shoot the lights out like an Andy Rautins or even Southerland (who defense has to respect his range, which opens things up)...or, hell, it's not even having a guy like Fab out there to throw an alley-oop to, let alone a guy like Onuaku to pass to on the low block to backdown his guy.

I'm not really trying to rip on our own players either, as much as I'm attempting to convey what an odd spot losing a guy like Southerland has put our team in. Even with him, we still lost alot of offense/options from last year (without Dion, Joseph, Fab...not mentioning Scoop here since he's a PG, and I'm looking at it through a PGs eyes right now)...to lose Southerland too now? Wow. I'm surprised we are winning the games we have won.

EDIT: I guess you could try to measure this by finding out what percentage of our shots this year are assisted (attempting to measure those shots that were "setup" more by another player) vs the same percentage from previous years? This would hopefully shed some light upon how much this current squad can create their own shots?

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

That game we lost because MCW missed ft's down the stretch, and Wyatt was perfect all game. Today both teams missed ft's, but MCW missed the clincher. Brandon missed the clincher vs. Cincy, but we hung on. Fair is the only guy on the team I have faith in on the line...everyone else is a 50/50 proposition.

I wish everyone on the team used CJ's FT mechanics. Nice arc, nice backspin, nice follow-through. Soft, soft, soft. And he rarely misses left-right, always on line - his follow-through ensures that.

 

[pearl31]

...

Generally agree with your post, but I think you're significantly undervaluing CJ and his ability to create shots.
(and Jerami now, too, for that matter)

And, after failed possession #3 of stall ball yesterday, either BT should have had the ball next time down, or they should have run a regular offensive set.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

Generally agree with your post, but I think you're significantly undervaluing CJ and his ability to create shots.
(and Jerami now, too, for that matter)

And, after failed possession #3 of stall ball yesterday, either BT should have had the ball next time down, or they should have run a regular offensive set.

It's early yet, but if Jerami could develop a decent left-hand baby hook, even from 2 feet, he would be devastating inside. Devastating.

 

[Henny & Coke]

Generally agree with your post, but I think you're significantly undervaluing CJ and his ability to create shots.
(and Jerami now, too, for that matter)

And, after failed possession #3 of stall ball yesterday, either BT should have had the ball next time down, or they should have run a regular offensive set.

I may be undervaluing CJ's ability to create shots, you're right.

Although, he did only have 2 free throw attempts yesterday (made them both, thankfully) & for the year is only getting to the line 4 times per game on average. (4.1 to be exact) Not exactly the averages of a guy who is driving to the hoop all the time, but not terrible. (Kris Jopseph averaged only 4.2 last year, but 5.3 his junior year.)

I don't know, it's my opinion that CJ's game is more dependant upon what happens after the initial shot goes up (rebounds, tips, etc) instead of being involved in making that initial shot a good one.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I finally got to watch the game this afternoon due to way too much going on this afternoon. I expected it to be much worse than it was. The truth was both of our guards were fairly pedestrian in the first half. Way too much dribbling going on out there - especially into traffic.

At the end of the second half, yeah MCW didn't make good decisions, but he was following the coaches instructions as far as I could tell. He tried to hit Triche one time (I think the first or second of the consecutive plays that resulted in nothing) but BT was covered extremely well. I would have liked to see him get the ball to BT to start the play, but we won't know if JB wanted that or if MCW blew him off or not.

I don't like the fact that the Ariciando (or whatever his name was) bothered MCW so much. He was all over him and it clearly affected Mike's game. Needs to be better than that.