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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 2490759, member: 837"] It's an interesting question and I like that this thread isn't people arguing angrily arguing about JB one way or the other. I would suggest, for my part, that we've seen some pretty different looks at times over the past decade or so offensively (obviously not in terms of zone and/or press). This was detailed in Brooky03's post so I won't rehash. But I would think any objective observer would agree that if we're being honest, JB's offenses rarely model a lot of what we see in many college where the action and the plays are the meat and potatoes of what teams do. UVA, UConn and Duke, for example, have always run a ton of sets in the halfcourt -- we tend to have basic motion and a lot of freelancing. So where that leaves us, generally, is with a relatively similar offense from year-to-year. When we have solid offensive players, we look pretty good in this department. Even last year (White/Lydon/Battle as plus threats, Gillon and Thompson as solid options and Roberson/Howard struggling) we were a top third offensive team (108th overall in scoring, 6th in the ACC; 41st in offensive rating) -- a far cry from what we've seen this year as we're close to 200 in offensive rating with rating with Battle as a really nice option, Brissett and Howard chipping in at a solid rate and struggles offensively from Chuckwu/Dolezaj/Moyer (Sidibe struggling with injuries, Thorpe dominating pickup ball somewhere). Point being, as much or as little change as we see in the offense, our personnel is a huge factor. To me, the biggest difference is getting to a point where we don't have to ask players to do things that they can't do. It's rarely perfect, like the 09-10 team, but the frustration with this team is that we're asking frank to be the point guard, primary ball-handler, 15 ppg scorer and, oh, by the way, also play 40 mins and don't get in foul trouble while playing great defense. We're asking Battle to score 20 ppg consistently and efficiently despite not really having many threats around him. We're aksing Brissett to play 40 mpg, grab 10 boards and be an inside/out threat offensively as a frosh. We're playing Dolezaj and Moyer far more minutes than they would have played five or six years ago, etc. Point is, IMO, the roster management and talent development are huge keys. Does that mean I wouldn't like to see JB do a bit more with this offense? No, I'm with everyone else in that department. I'd also LOVE to see us play with more tempo going forward. But, ultimately, getting back to 22-25 wins in the regular season every year instead of trying to scratch out 18-20 comes down largely to building rosters that can truly compete at a bit higher level in this conference. Thems my two cents. [/QUOTE]

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