Huff may be our best post player, but he doesn’t like posting up and waiting for the ball. And for some reason, Coach Bennett doesn’t seem to like him to stand with his back to the basket, signaling for the ball. Huff is the only big man we have who has the tools to average in double figures. If you can explain to me what’s going on there, I’d like to know.
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There’s not going to be major overhauls to the lineup. If possible Id say move Sam to the 3 and bring in Shedrick at the 4. But even that line up has limitations and would likely mean Sam has to cover the wing which he is likelyly worse at doing than covering a traditional 4.
Defense and matchups will always guide the staffs decisions. Huff and Sam are the keys to the offense and the defense in some ways. On defense Sam has to figure out how to guard anyone. On offense Huff has to find his groove on the block. Maybe its more mover blocker or maybe it’s more set calls in the 5 out. Whichever one it is hea needs to be immediately agressive and physical to take advantage of those opportunities
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Problem is those guys aren’t on the roster. McKoy might have more potential as an on ball defender than Hauser but he is just as lost in the packline. Take Jay and Same out and we are back to last year’s offense without the historically good defense to compensate for it.
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I think Justin and Kadin can get there by eos.
seems like we need one of them in with Huff and Hauser.
Huff can defend the rim, but he will get pulled out and we need help defenders.
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I’m coming around to Mark’s jumbo lineup idea. With a slight tweak of Huff and Shedrick together with Hauser and Murphy. Yeah they’d get blown by off the dribble a lot but good luck scoring at the rim.
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Did we focus on the wrong Trey? Wertz is avg 12pts in 26mins per game. Shooting 46% from 3.
I know our Trey is great and happy we have him, but with our continued struggles at the 2 would Trey Wertz have been a better fit with the current roster…?
It’s worth trying. I like Huff next to a frontcourt player that can stand-up guys on the defensive end, so he can rotate over to block shots. Mamadi-Huff together last year held together some lineups that were iffy in terms of perimeter defense. I think it depends on the nature of the opponents’ perimeter players. For teams that have guards who want to shoot 3s off the dribble (not super common in college), I don’t think you want Murphy chasing one of those guys. But for teams who want to drive, Murphy and Hauser can just funnel guys into help.
I don’t like the center-less lineups. Sounds fine in theory, but I think it’s more fancy than good in practice, as the defensive drop-off is not made-up for on the offensive end.
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How well can he defend? That’s the biggest issue. Also 12pts for a pretty mediocre notre dame team (knocking on wood for tomorrow). Only having one reliable 3 pt shooter at the guard is a hurdle but the bigger struggler is not having consistent playmaking guards. Kihei and Reece both show flashes but nothing consistent. Our Trey Murphy is absolutely the higher ceiling trey and arguably our best player with more minutes.
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Agree on all pts but he’s only been eligible a couple of games, will soon be playing 30mins a game and might well turn into a 17-18 pt a game guy. My point was positional, would he bring better value to us at the 2 than Trey currently is at the 3. It’s all moot of course and we’ll get to see firsthand tomorrow
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I don’t have numbers on that lineup, honestly don’t even remember when we used it. Don’t think it was in much volume.
My concern has always been that by playin that lineup you’re basically saying yea Kihei is the only guy who’s gonna dribble the ball. Working on a story right now actually titled “Reece Beekman is the key to unlocking the uva offense.”
Big lineups are good to experiment with at times, and playing Shedrick with huff is appealing. Just think they have to adjust accordingly offensively and make the decision to actually take advantage of the size advantage.
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Zach and I have talked about this. Late in the W&M game, they played for a short stretch first with 4 guards (Kihei, Beekman, Tomas, Casey) with a center Shedrick I believe. And then immediately switched to 4 forwards (Murphy, Hauser, McKoy, Shedrick) with a point guard. It was purposeful. Now whether they did it with the the idea that either could be used regularly or more for a possible gimmick to pull out on occasion, who knows.
Small sample size that’s worthless, but the big lineup did do well on the scoreboard. They ran blocker/mover, Murphy banged home a couple threes. Of course it was W&M so the defensive problems weren’t as obvious.
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I feel like defensively a big rotation is gonna get killed when we are already having trouble rotating quickly
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That’s my drawback to that lineup. Sam on a wing and in space feels like a bad idea. But if they can plug the paint with an anchor it can make up for it.
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You can switch everything. We have done switiching in the packline before but as a half time adjustment. Not something we gameplan to do intentionally from the get go. Would take heding out ofthe equation which would help sam and huff.
It’s 3 point shooters that is killing us. If we give up a line drive or two, so be it with this group. It’s not our MO but with how this group struggles defensively it might be the best bet.
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Went back and watched those minutes. They ran with that lineup of Clark-Murphy-McKoy-Hauser-Huff for 1:39 from 6:54 to 5:15 in the second half.
First offensive possession there was actually a little wrinkle thrown in where Hauser, as a mover, set a pin down for Murphy to come off and then take a dribble hand off from Huff. Didn’t end up generating anything and they went into sides. Ended up with a wide open three for murphy after he threw the ball into mckoy in the post and his guy stupidly doubled adjacent.
First defensive possession, Barnes penetrated by beating Clark off the dribble. McKoy fouled when Barnes touched the paint as he was helping down adjacent from the perimeter. Yb made both fts.
Next offensive possession went straight into sides. Ended with a contested made three from Hauser. He fed Murphy curling tight off a pin down and proceeded to curl cross court, expecting Huff to set the flare. Huff actually didn’t set it and instead crashed inside cuz he though murphy was gonna shoot. But that drew Loewe’s (who was guarding Hauser) attention enough that Hauser had space to catch and shoot. Nice shot though, a bit off balance.
Second defensive possesion resulted in a fairly contested but very make-able midrange shot from Loewe that he missed. Murphy got caught closing out at a bad angle and had to retreat, allowing Loewe to pull up. Murphy’s length still allowed him to contest tho. McKoy grabbed the rebound.
Third and final offensive possession was sides again. Generated an open corner three for Hauser off a flare He missed it but Huff tipped it out to Clark who then drove against the unsettled defense and fed McKoy in the dunker spot. McKoy got fouled on the way up. Went 1-2 from the line and then Morsell, Beekman, and Shedrick came in for Clark, Huff, and Murphy.
Finished 2.33 PPP on offense and 0.5 PPP on defense on 3 o possessions and 2 d possessions. Key for that group is McKoy guarding the three and Murphy guarding the two cuz they want to keep hauser guarding the four. Prolly why the shedrick/huff lineup could be problematic unless they can hide hauser on a bad 2/3. Likely gonna rely on the two bigs to clean things up on the back end
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Oh if you’re running that lineup you have to accept the problems defending the 2 & 3 spots. It’s why I would prefer Shedrick over McKoy. Add the rim protection, make them pull up or have tough finishes at the rim. And presumably you’re running blocker/mover out of that anyway so give me the better screener and more effective post scorer.
PS I never expect to see this used in any meaningful way lol Just discussion fodder.
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What about Kihei Reece Woldo Kadin Huff? Ball Screen for days. Put in Caffaro for some mean screens as well?
Murphy over woldo there. Gives u the the shooting but more athleticism and more potential to touch the paint
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Forgot about him. I was just thinking about who our best passers are. Woldo is a underrated passer but I would agree Murphy brings more versatility.
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