I was blown away by last night's game and the amount of improvement the last week. How does this happen? Yes, JB is a genius and he has recruited very good players. But they are young and it normally takes us to mid-December or January to achieve such fluidity and team defense. I was stunned. Here are a couple more observations.
1. A great defense and running a transition-basket offense can win a lot of games by themselves.
2. #1 above can help win games when the half-court offense is off, as long as it does not involve many turnovers.
3. We are much better at not taking the foot off the gas pedal. Coach B. has changed in the last year or two. If the team had a big lead, he used to take the air out of the ball with five to eight minutes remaining. Not any more. He realizes that when you slow it down, you better wait to 2-3 minutes because it is just too hard to regain the speed and rythem of the game. We do not want a FT contest. Making FTs are a work in progress.
4. Defense and rebounding are about 70% hustle and effort and 30% technique. If you can't provide those aspects consistently, you might as well as take a seat on the pine.
5. Through great recruiting and coaching, we are developing a very positionless, versatile and physical team. We can go big or small depending on how the other team plays. Do we need a couple Bigs? Sure. We got em and Teske is a really good player when he wants to be. Davis is okay. But there are some nights where switching on defenders to cover both perimeter shots or drives to the rim are the most needed skills. That was true last night for most of the game. Iggy, Livers and even Charles can play some five on either end of the court. It is so heartening to know we can do it either way this early in the season. X, Livers, Matthews, Poole, Iggy and Brooks are all good defenders. Teske is a fine post defender.
6. Finally, we can only go about seven deep right now. It is a very young team and they have a lot more upside as the season progresses. The freshman, other than Iggy, will take another year to develop at least. Let's hope that DD, CC and BJ develop into fine players as sophmores. They've got the skills, but need time to refine, learn the Defense, get into the offensive flow and nail their shots.
1. A great defense and running a transition-basket offense can win a lot of games by themselves.
2. #1 above can help win games when the half-court offense is off, as long as it does not involve many turnovers.
3. We are much better at not taking the foot off the gas pedal. Coach B. has changed in the last year or two. If the team had a big lead, he used to take the air out of the ball with five to eight minutes remaining. Not any more. He realizes that when you slow it down, you better wait to 2-3 minutes because it is just too hard to regain the speed and rythem of the game. We do not want a FT contest. Making FTs are a work in progress.
4. Defense and rebounding are about 70% hustle and effort and 30% technique. If you can't provide those aspects consistently, you might as well as take a seat on the pine.
5. Through great recruiting and coaching, we are developing a very positionless, versatile and physical team. We can go big or small depending on how the other team plays. Do we need a couple Bigs? Sure. We got em and Teske is a really good player when he wants to be. Davis is okay. But there are some nights where switching on defenders to cover both perimeter shots or drives to the rim are the most needed skills. That was true last night for most of the game. Iggy, Livers and even Charles can play some five on either end of the court. It is so heartening to know we can do it either way this early in the season. X, Livers, Matthews, Poole, Iggy and Brooks are all good defenders. Teske is a fine post defender.
6. Finally, we can only go about seven deep right now. It is a very young team and they have a lot more upside as the season progresses. The freshman, other than Iggy, will take another year to develop at least. Let's hope that DD, CC and BJ develop into fine players as sophmores. They've got the skills, but need time to refine, learn the Defense, get into the offensive flow and nail their shots.
