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[QUOTE="pfister1, post: 1236327, member: 285"]
1.    Christmas has to eliminate the silly fouls.   We simply can't afford to have to play McCullough at Center against any team that plays physical basketball.    Not only does it reduce his effectiveness because he doesn't seem to like contact, but it makes him more susceptible to foul trouble.    I think at least 2 and maybe 3 of his fouls against Nova came with him manning the middle.

2.    Joseph, Gbinije and Cooney have started and need to continue to drive with purpose.   They all seemed to do a really really effective job of this against Nova.

3.    We need to improve at finishing at the rim.   The last few games Cooney has looked much better at this.

With the guards I think its a matter of using the offhand.   I've seen a number of drives to the hoop this season; Gbinije against Nova sticks out as the most recent example, where our player is driving for a contested layup against a middlin sized defender.    Rather than go up with the off hand and use their body to shield the basketball they use their dominant hand and expose the ball to the defender which leads to having their shot blocked.

McCullough seems to be bothered by almost any contact at all.    I'm not sure he can change that except in the weight room, which is obviously a long process.    Maybe the one thing that he can do to offset the inability to finish is to be better at the free throw line.   Right now if he gets the ball down low the best strategy for the defense is to bump him relatively hard because he isn't able to finish the shot and if they do call the foul he isn't converting at the line.

4.    Everyone needs to be stronger with the ball, come meet passes - don't throw lazy cross traffic passes.    We are going to have turnovers because of our inexperience at lead guard, but we can stop exacerbating the problem by giving away possessions on what amounts to lazy "weak sauce" passes.

5.     Joseph needs to take and make shots when they are presented to him.    Force the defense to honor him as an offensive threat.    He did a much better job of this against Nova than I had seen in recent games.

6.    We need another big body.    Either Coleman or Chino to give a few minutes at the Center position when Rak needs to come out of the game.     Just clog the middle and give a few fouls.     Playing 10 minute stretches of games with McCullough at Center isn't going to work against big or physical teams.
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