Knicks411
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In no particular order, some things I have been thinking about
1) I definitely think the last few weeks have made us take a big of a hit with our national rep, and to be honest, a little with me as well. Though a lot of that speaks to how high our expectations are; normally beating a top 15ish team, including one that is at least one of our biggest rivals, would be great. But it's the fact that we're supposed to be one of the very best teams in the country, that no one should be taking us to OT at home. And i think it is more concerning when it happens and we have some flaws exposed. If Gtown makes a ton of tough shots and they play us to OT, that's one thing. But they shot 33%, and 5-21 from 3. Sure, Clark threw in a few long bombs, but they also missed a ton of wide open looks before that. What hurt us was basically A) Gtown killing us on the offensive glass and B) us not getting much flow in the offense. The last 4 minutes of regulation were just awful. Which brings me to
2) The defensive rebounding. I know I have been harping on it and saying that we've never been a good defensive rebounding team, which is absolutely true. But now it's getting really bad; we're 338th in the country in defensive rebounding%. The team one spot better than us is Monmouth, the team one spot behind us is St. Peter's. The team 8 spots behind us is...no one. There are only 7 teams worse than us at getting defensive rebounds in the country. In conference play, we're even worse. I don't expect us to be good on the defensive glass, but I believe we need to be better than this.
3) Dion really is in a funk. Ever since that Nova game, for the most part, he hasn't looked like the same player. In the 6 games since, he's shooting 24-70 (8-27 from 3). The one good thing is he only has 5 turnovers in those 6 games.
4) We're in the middle of a huge slump from downtown. Last 8 games, 44-156. 28%. Are we a good 3 point shooting team? Probably not. Are we a 28% team? I don't think so. So that should turn around.
5) I get on Fab because his defensive rebounding isn't great, but man is he a presence in the middle of the defense.
6) The turnover thing really is our biggest strength. We're now 4th in the country in lowest to% on offense, and 6th in forcing turnovers. Only giving the ball away 9 times saved us last night, even if we don't shoot well, we're going to get more shots up.
7) A little bit of perspective. We're still running away with the BE, both on a record basis (essentially a 3 game lead with 6 to play), and on a per possession basis. (No one is close to us in efficiency margin). We don't look as good as Kentucky right now; no one in the country does. But A) there is time to change that, and B) in a one game situation, who knows what'll happen.
1) I definitely think the last few weeks have made us take a big of a hit with our national rep, and to be honest, a little with me as well. Though a lot of that speaks to how high our expectations are; normally beating a top 15ish team, including one that is at least one of our biggest rivals, would be great. But it's the fact that we're supposed to be one of the very best teams in the country, that no one should be taking us to OT at home. And i think it is more concerning when it happens and we have some flaws exposed. If Gtown makes a ton of tough shots and they play us to OT, that's one thing. But they shot 33%, and 5-21 from 3. Sure, Clark threw in a few long bombs, but they also missed a ton of wide open looks before that. What hurt us was basically A) Gtown killing us on the offensive glass and B) us not getting much flow in the offense. The last 4 minutes of regulation were just awful. Which brings me to
2) The defensive rebounding. I know I have been harping on it and saying that we've never been a good defensive rebounding team, which is absolutely true. But now it's getting really bad; we're 338th in the country in defensive rebounding%. The team one spot better than us is Monmouth, the team one spot behind us is St. Peter's. The team 8 spots behind us is...no one. There are only 7 teams worse than us at getting defensive rebounds in the country. In conference play, we're even worse. I don't expect us to be good on the defensive glass, but I believe we need to be better than this.
3) Dion really is in a funk. Ever since that Nova game, for the most part, he hasn't looked like the same player. In the 6 games since, he's shooting 24-70 (8-27 from 3). The one good thing is he only has 5 turnovers in those 6 games.
4) We're in the middle of a huge slump from downtown. Last 8 games, 44-156. 28%. Are we a good 3 point shooting team? Probably not. Are we a 28% team? I don't think so. So that should turn around.
5) I get on Fab because his defensive rebounding isn't great, but man is he a presence in the middle of the defense.
6) The turnover thing really is our biggest strength. We're now 4th in the country in lowest to% on offense, and 6th in forcing turnovers. Only giving the ball away 9 times saved us last night, even if we don't shoot well, we're going to get more shots up.
7) A little bit of perspective. We're still running away with the BE, both on a record basis (essentially a 3 game lead with 6 to play), and on a per possession basis. (No one is close to us in efficiency margin). We don't look as good as Kentucky right now; no one in the country does. But A) there is time to change that, and B) in a one game situation, who knows what'll happen.
I still think it really boils down to making some shots. All of our weaknesses have been exploited in these last 4 or 5 games because we can't put the ball in the basket. JB has always said, it's all about making shots. When the ball goes in the basket, it's amazing how all the other problems fall like dominoes (less rebounding issues, more pressure on other teams to make shots, etc). Also, I've said it in another thread too, I think the way we take care of the ball is the single biggest reason why we still win games even when we don't play all that well.
