Wisconsin to their credit played the post double very well. Obviously practiced but they not only passed out of it, but made the extra pass on the perimeter when needed.
The high hedge I think hurt even more defensively. They pulled Dunn out of key and basically forced a recovering Blake or Groves to counter the 7 footer. We need a better answer to it.
Wonder what a zone would do to an opponent who is so obviously well prepared and scripted vs. our pack line? Just as a change up. 3-4 defensive possessions per half type of thing to stop momentum and allow our inexperienced bigs to play more effectively.
@Cuts_from_The_Corner @DavetheWave @DFresh11: is there anything we can scheme/exploit offensively when teams are basically keeping someone in iMac/Rohdeās pocket wherever he is on the court? (Outside of individually beating their man).
Like could we use that to clear space on side of the floor? More dribble handoffs to force switches? Pin downs?
For me you HAVE to make sure the guy being shadows touches the ball off screens or whatever and that gets so much attention that other guys have space, yes. I didnt notice if we passed iMac up or not but that has always worked when I played
The best part of this idea is that we could spend even more practice time on defensive stuff!
IU coach Mike Woodson (former NBA coach and no idiot) dropped a zone at Lāville and ā¦ "ā¦his unexpected pivot to a 2-3 zone the adjustment turned around a 74-66 win against Louisville.
Kenny Payne thought Woodson was trying to trick him with it. Xavier Johnson said the Hoosiers know Woodson doesnāt much like it. Woodson turned to it anyway, proof heās still searching for answers to his teamās problems ā but proof also, perhaps, that his team is not the lost cause it looked like at the under-8 timeout in the second half Monday."
Point is ā¦ you donāt need a lot of practice to be effective when dropping a zone on someone who is not expecting it at all. It will steal a few possessions and potentially change momentum.
Yes - run some 2 man game with Rohde/Blake or Isaac/Groves etc to force their big to guard a shooter 25 feet out ā¦ pick and roll doesnāt work as well with Reece when opponents are obviously told to go under every time.
It was very obvious from the tip Wisconsin was going to give Reece and Dunn and Bond all the threes they were willing to take. And if you noticed just because Reece made a couple they didnāt deviate from the plan ā¦
Dunn missed two wide open threes in the first 5 minutes and Iām willing to bet even if he had made one or both he would have stayed wide open all game. He was 0/3 outside the lane. And Reece was 3/7 outside the lane. Any opponent will take 3/10 all day and the offense will stay bogged down because by playing that way everything stays clogged for everyone else.
Rohde and Isaac and Groves simply have to attempt 12 threes or more every single game. No exceptions. 7 attempts wonāt win games against anyone good.
Reece scored or assisted on 33 of the Hoos 41 points There were 4 free throws made on 2 possessions which would not have been assists if we made the shot. And 2 other FGs made. Thatās it.
Normally if Reece produces 33 points we would think the rest of the team could produce the same?
Is that reasonable?
p.s. I forgot to add Harris to the list of guys left wide open outside - he was 0/3 and Bond was 0/1. So they simply played the percentages and dared our non shooters to make shots.
Combined 3/14 - all makes by Reece. 0/7 by the other 3.
Still remember my HS school coach breaking down the ābookā that tape gives your future opponents. The boys will be seeing similar treatment again in future games this season. JMHO.
Thatās the stat I was thinking of! Like, how friggin good is our defense?
Ive thought about it more. And I dont think rebounding was why we lost. I mean itās a huge part of it. But I remember the announcers talking about āWisconsin has this many rebound but only so little 2nd chance pointsā (paraphrasing).
Poor shooting night + poor chemistry and execution on rotations and basketball stuff + playing a veteran team much more battled tested than us who also as someone jokingly said but might be the case āthey know our playbook better than we doā + out energied and out hustled.
More seriously I dont think adding Robinson does much because the execution and experience needed to rebound would still be an issue. But I dont think we can count on Minor either
Also I still canāt get over the fact that blackwell, a 2/3 star guard who is basically an Austin Williford equivalent, looked more confident and assertive than Leon Bond and Rohde (to be fair itās engrained in how our offense operates/ nothing really to get them downhill or engage them in the offense). Just a blatant sign that we lost the psychological war last night. We did get it to 35-40.
My solution: Go Groves Buchanan in the front court and double there. And have Dunn at the 3 playing safety basically there to steal the ball on the pass out of the double or block the shot if the pass goes to someone under the rim.
Also donāt hedge with Groves. And play Leon some since when heās in we can switch screens instead of being punished on the hedge
I mean, if you donāt take from this that rebounding is the primary problem, I donāt know what to tell you.
During the Florida game, Florida rebounded 53% of their misses and allowed us to rebound 28% of ourā¦so we arenāt far off from doing it 2x in 5 games this year.
Look at the OPP. list in that Torvik table. Itās a whoās who of bad power conference teams over the last 15 years.
We, thus far, are a historically bad rebounding team.
The question is if its something that can be coached (e.g. rotatations, efforts) or structural (talent, roster composition, playing a stretch 4 as a 5, etc.).
thatās sorta my point though. we rebounded poorly vs florida and still won. We rebounded poorly vs Wisconsin and got BLASTED. Rebounding is horrid but itās not the reason of the outcome disparity last night since Wisconsin didnāt really capitalize on 2nd chance points and we only scored 41 pts
Wisconsinās 2nd chance points was only 12-5 over us, which is abysmal for them since they had 17 more offensive rebounds.
If we can marginally improve rebounding as year goes on, Iām really hopeful.
The silver lining as you said is that we can be a shit rebounding team and still hang with top 30 teams. Need the other stuff to click through.
As a related side note, anyone remember when we dropped like 3 straight during 2015-2016 and our rebounding was garbage? Lost at GT ā¦ woof
It was very calculatedā¦ rarely did they go right back up with a put back attemptā¦. They ran offense for another 15 secondsā¦ lots loooong possessionsā¦ tires the legs of a jump shooting Hoo team and the legs of cutters coming off sides over and overā¦.
Hereās an example - Reece makes a 3 to cut it to 10-7 at 14:07 left in the first half. The next UVA shot attempt was at 12:04.
In that time Wisconsin had 3 FGA and 2 FTA
