jordoo
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There were plenty of issues in last nights game that we need to improve on. Most seemed to be fixable issues IMO although some are inherent to the make up of the team and our style like giving up offensive rebounds (although this can still be improved on) and being very thin at the center position causing Rakeem to play stretches where he just lets guys go around the basket (perhaps he should do that when they have a clear dunk rather than pick up a 3rd). We also had defensive issues mostly stemming from poor play out top IMO allowing penetration too easily which either opened things up for the cutter our wound up in an open 3 after a couple of passes. Turnovers were devastating and the main reason we needed to claw back from 10 down. Some of this was decision making and inexperience of our young guys like Chris and Kaleb but Rakeem was awful passing out of the double team, Cooney had a couple really bad passes out after penetration and Mike also had his miscues handling the ball. Those are our 3 most experienced guys but all pretty inexperienced in these situations. Rak has never been doubled before this year, Cooney's game hasn't been the drive and dish and Mike is really a slasher trying to play lead guard. Can all these things be fixed by Saturday? Very doubtful although surely the staff will touch on all of them. What will they emphasize most? What will they practice the most?
St. John's is not the 3pt shooting team that Mich is so I think we will be better on the defensive glass because we won't be as spread out. This should also help our defense out top if they aren't as worried about the shooters but I do hope Cooney and Kaleb get some lessons on playing the ball handler who has a dribble like its m2m rather than usher them into the lane or allow a free cut when they don't have the ball.
I want the team to work on Rakeem's passing out of the double team to make teams pay for doing it. We will see it all season so this would be very useful. Rak's passing was bad but we didn't help by making cutters available and it looked like there wasn't a plan so he wasn't expecting player x to be a certain place. This would likely limit some of the turnovers and help the offense. Obviously the guards all need to look at their turnovers and learn from them as well. I guess it seems like the offensive rebounds we gave up were more an issue of Mich having so many shooters, Rak's fouls and lots of deep shots than specific mistakes. Its a learning process for the wings and guards that is mostly improved through application in games. I think the turnovers can be addressed more quickly and the coaches can work on these situations much easier in practice.
St. John's is not the 3pt shooting team that Mich is so I think we will be better on the defensive glass because we won't be as spread out. This should also help our defense out top if they aren't as worried about the shooters but I do hope Cooney and Kaleb get some lessons on playing the ball handler who has a dribble like its m2m rather than usher them into the lane or allow a free cut when they don't have the ball.
I want the team to work on Rakeem's passing out of the double team to make teams pay for doing it. We will see it all season so this would be very useful. Rak's passing was bad but we didn't help by making cutters available and it looked like there wasn't a plan so he wasn't expecting player x to be a certain place. This would likely limit some of the turnovers and help the offense. Obviously the guards all need to look at their turnovers and learn from them as well. I guess it seems like the offensive rebounds we gave up were more an issue of Mich having so many shooters, Rak's fouls and lots of deep shots than specific mistakes. Its a learning process for the wings and guards that is mostly improved through application in games. I think the turnovers can be addressed more quickly and the coaches can work on these situations much easier in practice.
