The Downside

[SWC75]

- As disheartening as the 7-20 opening run was, it was even more discouraging to take leads of 36-22 and 47-35 and give up 9 and 11 point runs that put South Florida back in the game. After the 26 point run, I thought we were going to keep on dominating and win by 30 like Georgetown did against this same team. Brian Barrett on the post game show suggested that the team “is getting bored”. Maybe if they lose one of these game, they will be more excited.

- We had only 9 turnovers but there were innumerable times when our guys seemed to lose control of their dribble, costing them lost opportunities to get off good shots or drive to the basket to score.

- Just as their edge on the boards didn’t convert to second chance points, our forcing 18 turnovers didn’t give us an edge in fast break points: they won that 8-10. They did a much better job of getting back than we did. Brian Barrett asked a good question on the post game show: why don’t we do what North Carolina does and run off of rebounds? Just throw it out there and let your guys go get it and make plays. Why do we have to just hand it off?

- We are the famous “10 deep” team. Tonight Rakeem Christmas was pulled out after one minute of play and never went back in. Michael Carter-Williams remains in the dog house. James Southerland can’t find the basket so he can’t play. Scoop and CJ played 37 minutes. Kris played 36. Fab played 33, a lot for a center. Only branding and Dion really split time, 24/19, respectively. The team seemed bushed when USF went on that second 11 point run. I think it took a loot of energy to pull off that 26-0 come from behind run. They won the rest of the game 23- 28.

- The key to that run was that we used the press to up the tempo and force turnovers. We never went back to it and the final 17 minutes looked an awful lot like the first 11 minutes.

- The wheels seem to have completely fallen off for Brandon Triche, who went 0 for 6 from the field. He’s our “shooting guard” when he’s in there, (along with Waiters). We’ve been talking about how he needs to be in there at the end of games because he’s our best free throw shooter, (86%) going into the game. Well he was in there at end of this one and was fouled with 44 seconds left and SU up 54-48. And he missed both of them. He did convert earlier when he was fouled on a trey attempt. Those were his only three points of the game. And I and 25,315 other people could have killed him when he ended the 26-0 run by dribbling the ball right into a guy, leading to a fast break dunk at the other end.

- Early on it appeared that James Southerland was on the same schedule Demetris Nichols had when he was here: struggle for two years and then find the range as a junior and become a big-time outside threat for us. South has missed 16 of his last 17 treys and 35 of 43 since the Big East season started.
- Through the Connecticut game, this team was averaging getting 28 points “outside the paint”, (or “POP”: total points minus points in the paint and free throws) per game. Against Louisville, we had 5. Against Rutgers we had 17. Tonight we had 13. It’s gotten so we don’t even try that many jump shots any more. We just try to bull through the defense to score. That gets us on the line a lot, (we attempted 23 more free throws than USF, 20 more than Rutgers). But teams have learned to pack it in against us: we were only 16 for 46 inside the arc in this game. That’s why these games have been such a struggle. It’s very hard for us to pull away from teams because we can’t score.

 

[ORANGEsPHK]

Good analyses as always. However, I do distinctly remember games where all we did was jack up three's and we're not a good outside shooting team. At least now they are driving and getting to the free throw line where we can at least put some points on the board. Not ideal, but at least we're not just jacking up low percentage shots - I'm happy that we're being more aggressive but hope that it will translate into more open looks for outside shots in the near future.

 

[Orangezoo]

good points and another stellar writeup. i agree in liking the aggressiveness vs just jacking up shots. kris and brandon are being shadowed on the perimeter so the looks tend to not be as open. i think we will see a return to better outside shooting this weekend and into the tourneys. we havent been great all year but we have been good enough to warrant being guarded on the perimeter.

 

[Upstate]

Bad night for the floor-moppers, too.

 

[mark79]

Great analysis!

 

[SWC75]

Good analyses as always. However, I do distinctly remember games where all we did was jack up three's and we're not a good outside shooting team. At least now they are driving and getting to the free throw line where we can at least put some points on the board. Not ideal, but at least we're not just jacking up low percentage shots - I'm happy that we're being more aggressive but hope that it will translate into more open looks for outside shots in the near future.

Just jacking it up from outside doesn't produce POP. You've got to make them.

 

[ORANGEsPHK]

Just jacking it up from outside doesn't produce POP. You've got to make them.

Absolutely. I re-read what I wrote and I that it got interpreted differently from what I mean. Those games were spent on the perimeter and we could not hit anything. I'm glad that team is attacking inside the paint more.

 

[Madbiker]

Good insight on our use of the press. When we went to it that jump started the 26-0 run. We really needed to go back to it again later in the game after they closed on us. But you can't press if you're going to play everyone 37 minutes...they'll keel over from exhaustion. JB needs to sub to keep fresh guys out there to press. He's just more comfortable playing 7 and having an exhausted team. I really wish he'd sub and press.