Random Clemson Thoughts

[Niastri]

With the holidays this is pretty late. It is kind of amazing how much harder it is to watch and analyze a game when I'm on vacation ...

Freeman had a rough offensive first half back. But his defensive rebounding and intensity were there. He is pretty nimble for a guy his size, and he has a nice effect on defense and rebounding. He still has occasional mental breakdowns, but for a guy on his first game back, not so bad. 9 boards and a block is decent productivity for a guy coming off the bench after extended injury time. Offensively, he went 0-5 the first half, and didn't make a shot until 11:50 remaining in the second half. Throw in his three turnovers and it was shaping up to be a forgettable return game.

At 11:50, when Freeman got his first basket. Syracuse was down 35-43. The test of the way, Syracuse was the Donnie Freeman show on offense. He went 5-6 from the floor (2 threes) and 6-6 shooting free throws, to have 18 points in less than 12 minutes of game time. 18-9-1 is a great stat line for a guy coming back from injury.

Freeman pulled down 48% of Clemson shots that missed when he was out there, but only George got an offensive board, 3 of them. Clemson is nearly elite at cleaning their own boards. Donnie is an elite defensive rebounder, Chris Bell on the offensive boards. (Not quite, nobody is that bad.)

Unfortunately, The Donnie Freeman Show turned out to be a nightmare for everybody else. The rest of the team scored 8 points after Freeman's first basket. I posted in the game day thread that I was worried that the team would stand around and watch the star player.

Holding Clemson to 14 points under their season average is a bit of a victory, but scoring under their season average, allowed not so much. We forced them to foul, held our own on the boards, and even made 20-24 free throws. I thought that was our win condition. But other than Freeman blowing up in the second half, the offense did little to nothing. Having 35 points with 12 minutes left in the game against a good but not great defense isn't something we can win with. Freeman can make a difference, but in this game, not quite enough.

Honestly, our offense is so strange. We do a lot of things well, but not well enough. We don't seem to isolate the things we do well and focus on them. When we have a player or a specific play going well, we don't seem to stick to it until we are forced, by the other team, to stop.

Freeman being great the rest of the way will allow us to win a lot of games, asking a great player to a decent team definitely doesn't hurt. But we have weirdly bad offense given the variety of parts.

I think playing Freeman > Betsey > White > Souare will help. I was shocked Souare played more than White against Clemson. Those minutes should go to Betsey or Freeman. We just don't have a good enough offense for us to play 5 on 4 with Souare while Betsey is in the bench. Betsey just does so much Offensively and could get even better with more time.

Anyway, off to the next games, both extremely winnable.

 

[Nicknack]

With the holidays this is pretty late. It is kind of amazing how much harder it is to watch and analyze a game when I'm on vacation ...

Freeman had a rough offensive first half back. But his defensive rebounding and intensity were there. He is pretty nimble for a guy his size, and he has a nice effect on defense and rebounding. He still has occasional mental breakdowns, but for a guy on his first game back, not so bad. 9 boards and a block is decent productivity for a guy coming off the bench after extended injury time. Offensively, he went 0-5 the first half, and didn't make a shot until 11:50 remaining in the second half. Throw in his three turnovers and it was shaping up to be a forgettable return game.

At 11:50, when Freeman got his first basket. Syracuse was down 35-43. The test of the way, Syracuse was the Donnie Freeman show on offense. He went 5-6 from the floor (2 threes) and 6-6 shooting free throws, to have 18 points in less than 12 minutes of game time. 18-9-1 is a great stat line for a guy coming back from injury.

Freeman pulled down 48% of Clemson shots that missed when he was out there, but only George got an offensive board, 3 of them. Clemson is nearly elite at cleaning their own boards. Donnie is an elite defensive rebounder, Chris Bell on the offensive boards. (Not quite, nobody is that bad.)

Unfortunately, The Donnie Freeman Show turned out to be a nightmare for everybody else. The rest of the team scored 8 points after Freeman's first basket. I posted in the game day thread that I was worried that the team would stand around and watch the star player.

Holding Clemson to 14 points under their season average is a bit of a victory, but scoring under their season average, allowed not so much. We forced them to foul, held our own on the boards, and even made 20-24 free throws. I thought that was our win condition. But other than Freeman blowing up in the second half, the offense did little to nothing. Having 35 points with 12 minutes left in the game against a good but not great defense isn't something we can win with. Freeman can make a difference, but in this game, not quite enough.

Honestly, our offense is so strange. We do a lot of things well, but not well enough. We don't seem to isolate the things we do well and focus on them. When we have a player or a specific play going well, we don't seem to stick to it until we are forced, by the other team, to stop.

Freeman being great the rest of the way will allow us to win a lot of games, asking a great player to a decent team definitely doesn't hurt. But we have weirdly bad offense given the variety of parts.

I think playing Freeman > Betsey > White > Souare will help. I was shocked Souare played more than White against Clemson. Those minutes should go to Betsey or Freeman. We just don't have a good enough offense for us to play 5 on 4 with Souare while Betsey is in the bench. Betsey just does so much Offensively and could get even better with more time.

Anyway, if to the next games, both extremely winnable.

I agree about Betsey. Earlier in the year, I called him a one trick pony. I was wrong. He has shown that he can hit the mid range shots as well. I think he could be even more impactful with more time.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I agree about Betsey. Earlier in the year, I called him a one trick pony. I was wrong. He has shown that he can hit the mid range shots as well. I think he could be even more impactful with more time.

He plays pretty good defense, too.

 

[RedtheGOB]

With the holidays this is pretty late. It is kind of amazing how much harder it is to watch and analyze a game when I'm on vacation ...

Freeman had a rough offensive first half back. But his defensive rebounding and intensity were there. He is pretty nimble for a guy his size, and he has a nice effect on defense and rebounding. He still has occasional mental breakdowns, but for a guy on his first game back, not so bad. 9 boards and a block is decent productivity for a guy coming off the bench after extended injury time. Offensively, he went 0-5 the first half, and didn't make a shot until 11:50 remaining in the second half. Throw in his three turnovers and it was shaping up to be a forgettable return game.

At 11:50, when Freeman got his first basket. Syracuse was down 35-43. The test of the way, Syracuse was the Donnie Freeman show on offense. He went 5-6 from the floor (2 threes) and 6-6 shooting free throws, to have 18 points in less than 12 minutes of game time. 18-9-1 is a great stat line for a guy coming back from injury.

Freeman pulled down 48% of Clemson shots that missed when he was out there, but only George got an offensive board, 3 of them. Clemson is nearly elite at cleaning their own boards. Donnie is an elite defensive rebounder, Chris Bell on the offensive boards. (Not quite, nobody is that bad.)

Unfortunately, The Donnie Freeman Show turned out to be a nightmare for everybody else. The rest of the team scored 8 points after Freeman's first basket. I posted in the game day thread that I was worried that the team would stand around and watch the star player.

Holding Clemson to 14 points under their season average is a bit of a victory, but scoring under their season average, allowed not so much. We forced them to foul, held our own on the boards, and even made 20-24 free throws. I thought that was our win condition. But other than Freeman blowing up in the second half, the offense did little to nothing. Having 35 points with 12 minutes left in the game against a good but not great defense isn't something we can win with. Freeman can make a difference, but in this game, not quite enough.

Honestly, our offense is so strange. We do a lot of things well, but not well enough. We don't seem to isolate the things we do well and focus on them. When we have a player or a specific play going well, we don't seem to stick to it until we are forced, by the other team, to stop.

Freeman being great the rest of the way will allow us to win a lot of games, asking a great player to a decent team definitely doesn't hurt. But we have weirdly bad offense given the variety of parts.

I think playing Freeman > Betsey > White > Souare will help. I was shocked Souare played more than White against Clemson. Those minutes should go to Betsey or Freeman. We just don't have a good enough offense for us to play 5 on 4 with Souare while Betsey is in the bench. Betsey just does so much Offensively and could get even better with more time.

Anyway, if to the next games, both extremely winnable.

I’ve struggled to go back and watch this one. Just like Hofstra.

You nailed it with the offense. It really is just strange. It’s like no one is scoring the way they’re best at scoring. I think they’re all missing 3’s which is making everything they try to do worse and prob crushing their confidence too.

I also would’ve thought the guys making their free throws would’ve got that monkey off their back to spark them a little more offensively but it was like the opposite.

I like the rotation and I think they just need to figure it out without Suare. The guards need to play faster and more decisive. Surprised you didn’t mention JJ. I’ve looked back at his +/- and other metrics overall this season and it’s a hard read. I don’t know what the answer is there but he can’t just sleepwalk offensively all game.

This was a game you can live with if it’s over thanksgiving but this looked way too similar to our other bad offensive games for ACC play.

Im not sure how they get it done this year unless something rattles loose in the coaches brain and the players suddenly figure it out.

Maybe they’ll be some road warrior team and can get rolling now that all these long layovers are done. Some posters here like to say Defense travels..

 

[Niastri]

I agree about Betsey. Earlier in the year, I called him a one trick pony. I was wrong. He has shown that he can hit the mid range shots as well. I think he could be even more impactful with more time.

I think Betsey is a pretty skilled player who was called upon to add a ton of weight at Cincinnati and become an inside player. They let him shoot threes, but didn't really use him offensively the way he wants to play.

Between those two things, it's not surprising he left.

Including both those things, it seemed likely he could experience a significant sophomore jump this year.

Looking at his stats, Betsey has gotten a lot better. In addition to his counting stats improving dramatically with additional minutes, all of his advanced rate stats have improved with very few exceptions. some of them really significantly.

Considering the defense has been a strong point for us this year, I think we should be playing Betsey more than White. But that argument could be made either way, I suppose. Betsey being better for the team than Souare isn't really an argument. Now that Freeman is back and can situationally be Kyle's back up, I think we should be seeing more Betsey and White and less Souare.

 

[Newhouser]

I think Betsey is a pretty skilled player who was called upon to add a ton of weight at Cincinnati and become an inside player. They let him shoot threes, but didn't really use him offensively the way he wants to play.

Between those two things, it's not surprising he left.

Including both those things, it seemed likely he could experience a significant sophomore jump this year.

Looking at his stats, Betsey has gotten a lot better. In addition to his counting stats improving dramatically with additional minutes, all of his advanced rate stats have improved with very few exceptions. some of them really significantly.

Considering the defense has been a strong point for us this year, I think we should be playing Betsey more than White. But that argument could be made either way, I suppose. Betsey being better for the team than Souare isn't really an argument. Now that Freeman is back and can situationally be Kyle's back up, I think we should be seeing more Betsey and White and less Souare.

I like Sadiq but this team needs more of what Betsey can provide.

 

[Otto21]

He plays pretty good defense, too.

Interesting that he has the worst defense rating on the team from the metrics you posted. I think his interior positional defense has looked good, but what do I know?

 

[Nicknack]

I think Betsey is a pretty skilled player who was called upon to add a ton of weight at Cincinnati and become an inside player. They let him shoot threes, but didn't really use him offensively the way he wants to play.

Between those two things, it's not surprising he left.

Including both those things, it seemed likely he could experience a significant sophomore jump this year.

Looking at his stats, Betsey has gotten a lot better. In addition to his counting stats improving dramatically with additional minutes, all of his advanced rate stats have improved with very few exceptions. some of them really significantly.

Considering the defense has been a strong point for us this year, I think we should be playing Betsey more than White. But that argument could be made either way, I suppose. Betsey being better for the team than Souare isn't really an argument. Now that Freeman is back and can situationally be Kyle's back up, I think we should be seeing more Betsey and White and less Souare.

Yeah, I think right now I would probably play Betsey a bit more than Sadiq. Earlier this year, I wasn't happy that they were both logging about the same minutes - but lately, Sadiq just hasn't been performing as well.