What's truly amazing is how often it actually works anyway. He's so athletically gifted that sometimes it still leads to points.

On another thread (maybe earlier in this one?) I compared him to a mobile quarterback and that has no pocket presence and drops his eyes as soon as he starts to move but it's also like that quarterback breaks off a few huge touchdown runs per season. It's truly wild stuff.

bobinator said:

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What's truly amazing is how often it actually works anyway. He's so athletically gifted that sometimes it still leads to points.

On another thread (maybe earlier in this one?) I compared him to a mobile quarterback and that has no pocket presence and drops his eyes as soon as he starts to move but it's also like that quarterback breaks off a few huge touchdown runs per season. It's truly wild stuff.

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I agree and was going to post something similar, and I keep hoping that he starts to put it together again like he did at the end of last year when he seemingly had figured out how to control some of his worst impulses to just dribble around and force things.

I like when he backs it in but he's not enough of a threat to cause a double and free up a shooter. I don't think he'd have to make too many buckets off of a backup and spin before teams started reacting to it.

Sometimes I think they would be better just to throw the ball over their head towards the basket.

TjgtAg08 said:

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bobinator said:

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The thing is that the things that make us an efficient offense wouldn't have to change if we were better at actually playing offense.

We're good at exactly two things, getting fouled and getting offensive rebounds.

Imagine if we were also just decent at putting the ball in the basket. We could still be good at those things.

Everyone focuses on shooting, but shooting is often just a byproduct of your ability to handle the ball. If you have guys that can handle the ball and create space, you get better shots and your mediocre shooters become decent ones.

In six years we've had like three guys that could legit create space for others off the dribble at the level you need for a top 25 type team. Taylor, Boots and now Phelps. Maybe 3.5 if you want to count Q, I think he was more of a slasher than someone who's really creating space off the dribble but he did handle the ball a lot. 3.75 if you want to count those like two weeks that Marcus Williams played well. Diarra showed some potential to do that and he's doing it now at UCONN but he wasn't that guy here.

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Do you think that our commitment to getting offensive rebounds has a negative effect on our 3pt %?

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IDK, but I do think that having a coach at the end of the bench screaming what to do when we miss a FT adversely affects our FT%. There, I said it.

AggieEP said:

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The frustrating thing here is that guys that previously looked like they knew how to play offense seem to lose that ability when they come here.

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Or guys who were already here putting up great numbers... *cough* Flagg *cough*

94chem said:

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TjgtAg08 said:

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bobinator said:

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The thing is that the things that make us an efficient offense wouldn't have to change if we were better at actually playing offense.

We're good at exactly two things, getting fouled and getting offensive rebounds.

Imagine if we were also just decent at putting the ball in the basket. We could still be good at those things.

Everyone focuses on shooting, but shooting is often just a byproduct of your ability to handle the ball. If you have guys that can handle the ball and create space, you get better shots and your mediocre shooters become decent ones.

In six years we've had like three guys that could legit create space for others off the dribble at the level you need for a top 25 type team. Taylor, Boots and now Phelps. Maybe 3.5 if you want to count Q, I think he was more of a slasher than someone who's really creating space off the dribble but he did handle the ball a lot. 3.75 if you want to count those like two weeks that Marcus Williams played well. Diarra showed some potential to do that and he's doing it now at UCONN but he wasn't that guy here.

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Do you think that our commitment to getting offensive rebounds has a negative effect on our 3pt %?

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IDK, but I do think that having a coach at the end of the bench screaming what to do when we miss a FT adversely affects our FT%. There, I said it.

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I'm kidding, but it does seem to fit with the "lets not worry too much about free throws and recruiting good shooters, if we win the oft-neglected-post-free-throw-miss-possession then we'll have the edge!".

I posted this in premium, but thought it belonged here to give a little more long term hope in Buzz's ability to create an offensive team.

"I find it fascinating to think back to how Buzz built his Va Tech team compared to now. Their 2018-2019 team is nothing like this version at A&M.

They were bottom third in OReb and DReb. Top 10 3pt%. Bottom third in FT attempts. Top 50 in assists. Top 50 in FG%.

Just wild that he's built two programs totally different. Think there's one he prefers more than the other? Is it geography? Is it because he's in the SEC vs ACC and the conferences favor different strategies?"

It's possible that he's evolved as a coach and decided that these margins are the margins no one else is paying attention to, so we're going to win those and it's going to help us win games. We get offensive rebounds, we play tough D and we get to the line. Also on a good day, we don't turn the ball over.

And it's hard to argue with the results, we've won games for the most part using this strategy.

What remains puzzling in many ways though is why we can't have both and at least run what looks like semi-competent offense as well.

It's perhaps a case of personnel and not having a really strong floor general type PG that can organize us on offense. We all know that Wade and Phelps really are scoring guards. Wade plays the point because of his size, but he's really a 2 trapped in the body of a 1.

Hopefully either one of the incoming freshmen or someone from the transfer portal can handle the role of being a PG and commanding the offense next year, and we'll see something much different.

One good thing about us losing all of the veterans from this team at the same time is that if Buzz wants to evolve again, or make changes in philosophy, next year's team will be MUCH different than this years team, almost unrecognizable outside of probably Payne and Solo. That roster turnover should make it easier to implement something different without worrying about messing up the continuity of a system that the rest of the guys have been in for 3-4 years now.

I think its pretty simple. He operates his team based upon who he lands in recruiting. As the players committing to A&M's abilities change so will the formula. Yes when the formula emphasizes X, Y, and Z then other statistics suffer. Coach is adapting his approach to his personnel and will continue to do so.