Always amazed at the guys on our team leaching I'm on a drive and leaving their man open. Not helping per se. just moving off their man.

wacarnolds said:

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We're like 1/10 of the way through the season and it's already being determined that this team, is unsalvageable.

Don't know if it's an absurd overreaction or a telling bit of honesty. Feels like an overreaction.

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I didn't say this season is unsalvagable. In fact the whole idea of this thread was trying to think of a way that we can still have a good season with what we have on the floor and our coaching staff.

But if the solution is that we need to get better at fundamental basketball or have tighter x's and o's, I don't think that's a realistic expectation in the middle of the season. We're not going to all of a sudden become awesome at getting guys open off screens or have our post guys get some iso moves over the holidays or anything.

Weren't you saying during the SavSt game that their pace/style was idiotic and pointless? It is a quick 180, even if you dont believe the season is a lost cause.

bobinator said:

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wacarnolds said:

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We're like 1/10 of the way through the season and it's already being determined that this team, is unsalvageable.

Don't know if it's an absurd overreaction or a telling bit of honesty. Feels like an overreaction.

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I didn't say this season is unsalvagable. In fact the whole idea of this thread was trying to think of a way that we can still have a good season with what we have on the floor and our coaching staff.

But if the solution is that we need to get better at fundamental basketball or have tighter x's and o's, I don't think that's a realistic expectation in the middle of the season. We're not going to all of a sudden become awesome at getting guys open off screens or have our post guys get some iso moves over the holidays or anything.

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We return 8 of the 9 guys were currently playing next year. We have 30 games left this season to get better at whatever Kennedy is trying to do with his program. Or we can scrap it all and try to install some new junk system that no one is the least bit familiar with on the fly. Nevermind trying to get better at specific aspects of a more sustainable approach to the season, let's learn a bunch of bad habits and wear out an already thin rotation until no one has any legs by February.

I'm sorry but you sound like a guy on the football board who thinks because we won't make the playoffs we should just throw hail marys every play because it's more exciting and we can't run the ball anyway so might as well try something different.

expresswrittenconsent said:

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Weren't you saying during the SavSt game that their pace/style was idiotic and pointless? It is a quick 180, even if you dont believe the season is a lost cause.

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I think it's pointless for Savannah State, not for everyone. I think it's pointless for them because they aren't going to be more athletic than anyone that's any good, nor are they going to be as skilled as anyone that's any good, so all their style winds up doing against any opponent worth anything is giving the other team more possessions and more opportunities to score.

I don't think that's the case for us. I think we're more athletic than a lot of teams that we're going to play, and I think we have some skilled players, but their skills are more suited to a wide open game than one played a half court at a time.

Flagg, Chandler, Meko, Nebo and Mahan are all guys that I think are better suited for an open court game than one played in tight quarters.

The point, though, is that the style, whether us or SavSt run it isnt going to change the outcome. You said it back then. We are going to lose when less talented, win when supremely over talented, and lose occasionally when more talented but worse coached. You want us to lose in a more fun way, though.

wacarnolds said:

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We return 8 of the 9 guys were currently playing next year. We have 30 games left this season to get better at whatever Kennedy is trying to do with his program. Or we can scrap it all and try to install some new junk system that no one is the least bit familiar with on the fly. Nevermind trying to get better at specific aspects of a more sustainable approach to the season, let's learn a bunch of bad habits and wear out an already thin rotation until no one has any legs by February.

I'm sorry but you sound like a guy on the football board who thinks because we won't make the playoffs we should just throw hail marys every play because it's more exciting and we can't run the ball anyway so might as well try something different.

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Playing a full court press system isn't a 'junk system,' a lot of teams have done it with a lot of success. And there's a skill and a strategy to doing it. I'm not saying we just run around like chickens with our heads cut off. I should have chosen my words better when saying 'recklessly' uptempo, but I was being a bit hyperbolic. Obviously we shouldn't just fly around aimlessly. We don't press make-or-miss like 2010 Yates high school or anything insane.

But a lot of the principles for zone presses are pretty simple. It's not like I'm saying we need to install a motion offense halfway through the season.

You choose the system that fits your guys.

We have: Length, athleticism (especially in the post), slashers who can attack the rim with space (Chandler, Mahan, Flagg)
What we don't have: Shooters, posts who can create their own shot, ballhandlers

So to maximize our team this year, we need to run a system that creates space on the floor. We aren't going to be able to do that with our offense because we can't shoot and we don't have bigs that can draw extra defenders.

So we're going to have to do it with our defense. We have to create turnovers and easy baskets.

I think for us it could change some outcomes. I don't think we would have lost to UCI or Minnesota. In the Minnesota game, albeit a very small sample size, we were better than them when the game was wide open, but when we slowed down and the game got down into tight quarters, they were way better than us because we couldn't create anything in the halfcourt.

There's no question that the drawback is that we're probably going to lose some games really bad. Arkansas and Kentucky especially I would expect to smoke us.

But I think we would win more games by playing as fast as we can than we're going to if we sort of go halfway on it.

bobinator said:

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Double Diamond said:

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Awful idea.

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Cool, thanks for participating.

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I think it's a good idea by bobinator but also agree with the other poster that depth would likely prevent this from being a successful strategy.

At this point though I say to hell with it and try it to see if it works because we already know what doesn't work.