I put a post up a couple weeks ago saying the sweet 16 run may have given us false expectations, and that may be true but... Since the Old Dominion and Buffalo losses we haven't exactly played stout competition, but I feel like I'm seeing a team showing vast improvement on both ends of the floor, especially the offensive end- the kind of improvement that is not dependent on the competition. I said to my ppl before the Notre Dame game that Hughes' shooting is now "locked down", he's comfortable, and the dude is going to start lighting teams up in the ACC. I'm not wrong. He's killing it right now and I love his confidence.
The strategy on offense has shown a noticeable change over the last three games- we are attacking with purpose and urgency. Battle is taking jump shots whereas in the past he would dribble into trouble in the lane. It's obvious this dude has worked his jump shot to near perfection. Carey is improving every time I see him. I love his killer instinct when he sees a path to the rim. When he came in he made an immediate impact in under one minute getting 5 points on an assist and a bucket.
I loved Dolezaj's tenacity rebounding the ball. He's shown an obvious conscious effort at making rebounding a priority when he's on the floor. He didn't disappoint in that regard although he put himself in foul trouble way too early in the game.
My only problem right now is that our bigs need to improve near the basket. We're missing too many bunnies and if we're going to have any chance at beating the Dukes and Virginias of the world Chukwu, Brissett, and Sidibe need to be better around the rim. I was blown away when Chukwu got the ball down low and instead of immediately putting the ball above the cylinder he pump faked, missed, then fouls the guy on the rebound. It was incredible to see a 7'2" guy play that poorly near the rim. I hope the coaches drill into him that he needs to be better than this.
I've seen the 5-1 post and I definitely agree that we need to get to 5-1, but right now my sights are on 3-0, and I think there's an 80% chance we hit that. We're starting to see the team we expected coming into this season. Hopefully this isn't temporary.
The strategy on offense has shown a noticeable change over the last three games- we are attacking with purpose and urgency. Battle is taking jump shots whereas in the past he would dribble into trouble in the lane. It's obvious this dude has worked his jump shot to near perfection. Carey is improving every time I see him. I love his killer instinct when he sees a path to the rim. When he came in he made an immediate impact in under one minute getting 5 points on an assist and a bucket.
I loved Dolezaj's tenacity rebounding the ball. He's shown an obvious conscious effort at making rebounding a priority when he's on the floor. He didn't disappoint in that regard although he put himself in foul trouble way too early in the game.
My only problem right now is that our bigs need to improve near the basket. We're missing too many bunnies and if we're going to have any chance at beating the Dukes and Virginias of the world Chukwu, Brissett, and Sidibe need to be better around the rim. I was blown away when Chukwu got the ball down low and instead of immediately putting the ball above the cylinder he pump faked, missed, then fouls the guy on the rebound. It was incredible to see a 7'2" guy play that poorly near the rim. I hope the coaches drill into him that he needs to be better than this.
I've seen the 5-1 post and I definitely agree that we need to get to 5-1, but right now my sights are on 3-0, and I think there's an 80% chance we hit that. We're starting to see the team we expected coming into this season. Hopefully this isn't temporary.