What do we do now?

who is our 3? hamilton aint cuttin it

He’s the only 3 on the team. Right now we start Mason there.

Change things up. Next game start Hamilton or Johnson there.

All season I would have liked to see much more matchup zone D. That makes it much easier to play Dex and Jordan (and Gary at sf and Brown at pg). A zone will turn Dex from a D liability into an asset. Zone will be easier for Jordan to master. Zone means that the top players can play more minutes because it is physically less demanding. It reduces the easy buckets permitted. Barnes is excellent at teaching how to rebound when playing zone D which solves one of the biggest problems with the zone. Zone would permit Chapman to backup Dex which would help rebounding and scoring from the backup center.

I don’t see much point in playing pressue man D when Dex is in because Dex’s man will always be open as a relief valve.

The horns need to have all 5 guys hit the D boards.

On O, Dex cannot clog the lane, the lane has to be open so that Jordan, Bradley, Brown, Damion, Gary, Mason and Balbay can drive. Dex needs to get the ball on drive and dish, pick and roll, and flashes to the low post; Dex can no longer camp out on the low post. Rely much more on individuals taking it to the hole and sticking it in or dishing. Any O player who can’t shoot outside has to either be driving or setting a pick.

Barnes needs to be calling more O plays so the judgement of the players becomes less of an issue. It is his job to recognize and attack the mismatches.

Bring in a free throw coach/consultant/psychiatrist.

I’m not sure about more pressure defense. It seems that we are getting broken down too much as it is, which is part of the reason we find Pittman in foul trouble constantly. I think this team might be better off just focusing on keeping the opponent in front of them. I think they could be very successful at just focusing on stopping the other team from scoring.

What do we do now?

Sit back and watch Barnes handle his greatest challenge as a coach.

I, too, was encouraged with the perimeter defense yesterday.

I know that sounds ridiculous, but we have always longed for these taller, more athletic gaurds that can lock down on defense, and we have definite signs that those guys are here.

Free throws are lost, no reason to mention them anymore, but the put back, tip in chronic missing can be helped with more Chapman, it seems.

I am not giving up on Pittman.

I think that monster that played in December is still in that kid and still believe that he can get the energy back to play like that again.

An offense run through ANYBODY would be encouraging, though…and James is our best player….it might as well be him. He can’t get his own shot playing the 4, so I do like that idea alot.

Hoping that all of this tinkering with the rotations has some point to it and what Rick finds at the end of it is a rested, injury free cohesive group that will go deep into the tournament.

I have always said that I wasn’t going to be too concerned about anything that happened before February, basically in regard to figuring out the rotations and working in freshmen.

But February’s almost here, so it’s just about time to see what the coach is going to decide. Neither Hamilton nor Brown is playing regularly enough to contribute like I think many of us thought they would need to in order for this team to go to the FF.

We’re at the point that other teams have figured out how to take away Dexter, and if they can find another way to score, they’ll get Dex back. I think that’s where James comes in, and anyone who can get the ball to him.

"Run Our Offense Through Damion James"

If this were the off-season, I would agree 100%. The offense should have been developed with James as the leader. However, is this something that you do mid-season during conference play? I don’t know. One of the big problems with this team is that the obvious leaders should be James and/or Pitt but that is not happening. The natural leader seems to be Bradley, which becomes a problem if James is forced into a 1 or 2 offensive option.

James hasn’t shown to be able to create his own shot very often. He has been most effective as the 3 or 4 offensive option. Most of his effectiveness seems to come through improvising, kick outs, and trash points. It is hard to be the leader if you are not leading. Midway through his senior season, if James hasn’t learned to lead the offense by now, I am not sure forcing it upon him will make him or the offense more effective at this point.

Run it through Matt Hill or Justin Mason.

I hate the turnaround jumper. But he can draw defenders away from Dexter.

Keep Balbay from jumping on the backs of 6’11 guys and getting into foul trouble

James hasn’t shown to be able to create his own shot very often.

I disagree. Damion gets a pass on the wing, sqaures up, hesitates, and then takes his man off the dribble to the rim 4-5 times a game. He has done it to the left and to the right (which is shocking) and finished with both hands.

Damion has led the offense and the team when we have played our best basketball against North Carolina and Michigan State. He also led the team when we played like dogshit against Arkansas and A&M.

He is doing it in the ‘flow’ of our offense most nights, but I think we need to emphasize his offense as a team strength because right now our offense does not have a focus.

The only adjustment we would need would be for Barnes to yell at the point guard when he brought it up to give it to Damion on the wing. Occasionally, we would need to start him on the block and let Dexter and Gary screen for him to get him open. Then we just let Damion either enter the ball to Gary or Dexter and reset to the corner or cut to the basket. Or, Gary or Dexter post and then clear to the opposite wing.

It is essentially two man basketball, which we actually ran quite a bit of with these same guys last year when Damion was playing the three. Except now Damion has the skills to play the three.

Also, whatever two man game we run for Damion we could run with Bradley on the other side.

Love the idea of playing a lot of pick and roll with Dex setting/slipping the screens. It clears the middle for driving, it provides a way to get the ball to Dex when he either rolls or slips the screen to go toward the bucket. Brown, Balbay, Bradley, and Jordan would all be good as the guy who is getting screened for. Love having a 5 set a pick for a 1 or 2 because a switch creates a huge mismatch that can easily be exploited either by posting up Dex when he is guarded by a 1 or 2 or letting our 1 or 2 drive on the 5 guarding them.

I’m not as keen about Damion running a pick and roll offense because (though he has much improved handles) he is not a great ball handler and because a 5 setting a pick for a 4 does not create a big mismatch on the switch. I would prefer Balbay setting a back screen for Damion on the weakside and throwing the alley oop to Damion at the rim (where Damion is defended by a 1 or 2 after the switch).

I don’t like Damion playing pick and roll either as the handler. But, in our random ball screen offense the screen is what we do the worst, so the less we run it the better as far as I am concerned.

I like the space and matchups a Dexter screen creates, but Dex is really bad at both the screen and the roll and it pulls him away from the basket.

If we are running the offense through Damion it needs to be in the high post or on the wing and a simple two man game between him and the low post. Or we enter the ball into him in the low post and play two man with a guard.

You either have to set really flat ball screens for Balbay or don’t set them at all because the kid does not threaten the arc whatsoever. But generally it’s a waste to ball screen for Doge unless the opponent is galacticly stubborn or stupid.

My thoughts are kinda similar to Kafka’s in that I’d like for Balbay to initiate the offense in a pass and pick away scenario forcing his defender to at least show on screen which means that defender won’t be involved in a sagging situation to help to Pittman. If we could incorporate some guard to post screens off that with Balbay, all the better. Maybe some screen the screener involving Pittman giving a ballscreen to our two and then diving to the post off of a cross screen from Balbay. Damion is your counter option on the weakside if teams over play the dive to the post and it’ll likely mean Damion getting a bigger player closing out to the arc. But I’m not talking specific set plays that’s the coaches’ job. I’m just talking concepts and schemes.

Great post General.

By the way, I wish I had one of those UPS erase boards and I’d show you what I mean. Or, go watch Uconn second half and you’ll see some of the things they were doing.

We need ChrisApplewhite moving dots for basketball. It would make this alot easier.

The main thing you have to as a screener is to get set and not move so that the screen is legal. It is the ball handler’s job to set up his defender for the screen. Any big man smarter than a carrot can set a screen. I admit that a lot of screeners give in to the temptation of moving their screen at the last moment.

No reason setting a pick should take Dex too far from the bucket after he completes his roll to the bucket. There is strong need to get Dex to stop camping on the low post to facilitate driving by other players. At worst he’ll need 1 power dribble to get to the rim. Dex has the biggest hands in the universe, I’m pretty sure he can catch the short pass. The footwork of a roll is easier to execute than the footwork of a drop step (which Dex does great).

The standard way to defend Balbay when he is handling the ball on a pick and roll is for Balbay’s defender to go under the pick with no switch or hedge. If the pick occurs at the free throw line, this approach to pick defense becomes problematical because Balbay can attack the rim before his defender can get around the big bodies of the two centers setting/defending the pick. Balbay is a fearless physical leaper who can finish at the rim with either hand (which means he can go around the pick either left or right).