Offensive Gameplan

[BGSU33]

This is not a complaint but more of an observation about our offense this season and it’s more geared towards next year as we head into the NIT. I just really hope we can get something going offensively next season. I simply love how effective our 2-3 zone can be when we’re locked in, and I know we’re a team that’s about defense and rebounding….but it sure would be nice to see us get some scorers in here too to help us on the other end. We’ve certainly won our share of games this year by grinding it out and I’ll take a win any way we can get one no matter how ugly the contest is, but it would be nice to work out some of the wrinkles on offense in the future as well.

Our half-court sets seems to really bog down and it seems like we’re caught dribbling out high with little movement elsewhere with the shot clock winding down way too often, leaving us to force up a shot attempt to beat the expiring shot clock. Nate Miller aside, we also seem to have some guys who look like deer in headlights offensively at times too. I hope the transfers and newcomers next season can help supply us with some offensive production and balance and that Miller’s offensive aggression is contagious on those who return. In my opinion, we’re pretty good at the difficult part of defending. Now, it would just be nice to see us find or get some guys who can help us score as well. GO BG!!!

[Falconfreak90]

I agree, 33. To me, it seems like we stand around too much at times on the offensive end waiting for something to happen.

Defensively, we play very well....once we get the O going, look out.

[Globetrotter]

They went back to Lebron ball. Lets stand around and watch to see if Nate Miller will do anything.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

We don't have much offensive talent. No post threat, and some streaky (read: not consistent) outside shooters to go with Nate's slashing ability.

The offensive game plan will come into it's own once Orr can balance in some offensive skill through recruiting.

[BGGrad01]

I'm not calling for a Dakich-style motion offense, but more consistent cutting and moving without the ball would have been helpful last night when we were struggling. We got a couple free cuts at the basket (Thomas' and 1 that tied it up comes to mind), but they were few and far between. It seemed like our guards stood around the 3-point line waiting for a pass more last night than in the other games I've seen this year.

[JWEIII]

Glass half full here. Knight just didn't seem right this year. Missing three games and then the injury. Really inconsistent...Hmm. Otis came on strong in the second half. Scott Thomas showed some signs of being able to drive to the basket and shoot the jumper (does he start next year?). Throw a couple of transfers in the mix and I think they will be OK. Without Nate and B-Mo they will have to find some balance for sure, but I'm optomistic.

[BGSU33]

Glass half full here. Knight just didn't seem right this year. Missing three games and then the injury. Really inconsistent...Hmm. Otis came on strong in the second half. Scott Thomas showed some signs of being able to drive to the basket and shoot the jumper (does he start next year?). Throw a couple of transfers in the mix and I think they will be OK. Without Nate and B-Mo they will have to find some balance for sure, but I'm optomistic.

I agree in a lot of ways. With Knight....between the suspension, then his injury, he just never seemed to find his flow this year. I hope we can chalk it up as a sophomore slump and that he bounces back in a big way next season. Polk has also shown a lot of improvement, but one thing I would love to see in him is a little bit of nastiness down low. Being at The Q this week for our two games, I can’t tell you how many people, both BG and non-BG folks, who haven’t seen him before, remark on how no one in the MAC has a guy his size. But he just seems to go soft sometimes offensively down low. Obviously, I don’t want to see him picking up charges, but like last night against Akron when he went up to lay the ball in ended up missing, we were all yelling for him to throw it down! There’s no reason when he gets the ball that low in the paint in the MAC he shouldn’t be killing the opponent with it. Joe can run the offense very well, but next year, I’d also like to see him get a little more involved offensively, or at least be a threat to score. I thought Thomas showed flashes late of what we heard about him, but I’d love to see him add some strength to his frame. I haven’t seen any of the transfers play in practice or at their previous schools, nor have I seen McElroy or Kraus. I also hope Calhoun is in the fold as well.

[renorvis]

I'm not calling for a Dakich-style motion offense, but more consistent cutting and moving without the ball would have been helpful last night when we were struggling. We got a couple free cuts at the basket (Thomas' and 1 that tied it up comes to mind), but they were few and far between. It seemed like our guards stood around the 3-point line waiting for a pass more last night than in the other games I've seen this year.

I agree. There was no cutting or flashing to the ball. And also in order for the play to work the ball has to go into the post. Even if the post player does not score, the ball has to go down there to keep the defense moving. I think JoJak needs to command the point guard position. To me he was too passive and did not feel comfortable commanding the team. He needs to get comfortable doing that because next year he he is going be the floor general.

[Globetrotter]

We don't have much offensive talent. No post threat, and some streaky (read: not consistent) outside shooters to go with Nate's slashing ability.

The offensive game plan will come into it's own once Orr can balance in some offensive skill through recruiting.

How do you know we dont have much offensive talent? How often do the posts get the ball in position to score? How often are people slashing or moving without the ball?

[hammb]

We don't have much offensive talent. No post threat, and some streaky (read: not consistent) outside shooters to go with Nate's slashing ability.

The offensive game plan will come into it's own once Orr can balance in some offensive skill through recruiting.

How do you know we dont have much offensive talent? How often do the posts get the ball in position to score? How often are people slashing or moving without the ball?

How do I know we don't have much offensive talent? Simple.

Our guards cannot penetrate off the dribble. Nate Miller is the only guy who can consistently break down a defense off the dribble.

Our post players cannot consistently get themselves in a good position to receive a pass.

Our guards struggle to feed the post.

Our post players struggle to make moves to get the ball in the basket when they do receive it cleanly, and in good position.

We have a number of guys who can hit open jumpers but none of them do so with tremendous accuracy, nor do any of them show the ability to get their own clean looks.

Our offense works if our players are moving well without the ball and Nate Miller is playing well. We are way too dependent on Nate to control the offensive tempo. None of our guards have shown the ability to take command of the offense either. Our offense is pretty good in transition, but in the half court we struggle, and a large reason for that is a lack of offensive talent. No matter how many good ideas/plays a coach draws up a lot of possessions for any team will come down to a guy beating his man. We just don't have many guys that can do that with any consistency at this time. AFAIC our lack of offensive talent is blatantly obvious.

[renorvis]

We don't have much offensive talent. No post threat, and some streaky (read: not consistent) outside shooters to go with Nate's slashing ability.

The offensive game plan will come into it's own once Orr can balance in some offensive skill through recruiting.

How do you know we dont have much offensive talent? How often do the posts get the ball in position to score? How often are people slashing or moving without the ball?

How do I know we don't have much offensive talent? Simple.

Our guards cannot penetrate off the dribble. Nate Miller is the only guy who can consistently break down a defense off the dribble.

Our post players cannot consistently get themselves in a good position to receive a pass.

Our guards struggle to feed the post.

Our post players struggle to make moves to get the ball in the basket when they do receive it cleanly, and in good position.

We have a number of guys who can hit open jumpers but none of them do so with tremendous accuracy, nor do any of them show the ability to get their own clean looks.

Our offense works if our players are moving well without the ball and Nate Miller is playing well. We are way too dependent on Nate to control the offensive tempo. None of our guards have shown the ability to take command of the offense either. Our offense is pretty good in transition, but in the half court we struggle, and a large reason for that is a lack of offensive talent. No matter how many good ideas/plays a coach draws up a lot of possessions for any team will come down to a guy beating his man. We just don't have many guys that can do that with any consistency at this time. AFAIC our lack of offensive talent is blatantly obvious.

I second that motion.

[Globetrotter]

We don't have much offensive talent. No post threat, and some streaky (read: not consistent) outside shooters to go with Nate's slashing ability.

The offensive game plan will come into it's own once Orr can balance in some offensive skill through recruiting.

How do you know we dont have much offensive talent? How often do the posts get the ball in position to score? How often are people slashing or moving without the ball?

How do I know we don't have much offensive talent? Simple.

Our guards cannot penetrate off the dribble. Nate Miller is the only guy who can consistently break down a defense off the dribble.

Our post players cannot consistently get themselves in a good position to receive a pass.

Our guards struggle to feed the post.

Our post players struggle to make moves to get the ball in the basket when they do receive it cleanly, and in good position.

We have a number of guys who can hit open jumpers but none of them do so with tremendous accuracy, nor do any of them show the ability to get their own clean looks.

Our offense works if our players are moving well without the ball and Nate Miller is playing well. We are way too dependent on Nate to control the offensive tempo. None of our guards have shown the ability to take command of the offense either. Our offense is pretty good in transition, but in the half court we struggle, and a large reason for that is a lack of offensive talent. No matter how many good ideas/plays a coach draws up a lot of possessions for any team will come down to a guy beating his man. We just don't have many guys that can do that with any consistency at this time. AFAIC our lack of offensive talent is blatantly obvious.

But thats not simple. We are talking about the offense. The first thing you say is that the guards can not break people down of the dribble. I will give you that. But if I do than its difficult to say that the post players don't show offensive skill because how do we know they would not if the guards were not better at penetrating? Add on to that, that the guards struggle to feed the post. I won't grant you the premise that the posts are struggling because I just have not seen a situation where they have had a real chance for success. In fact I have seen both Polk and Marschall flash some real offensive ability in the post. I also don't see a situation where Moten is running off picks to get open looks. I will grant you the premise that he can't get his own shot, but I disagree that the offense has been focused on getting him that shot consistently. I just don't see any movement, and from that lack of movement I can not conclude that the players are bad offensively, rather the system is bad or they are not executing the system. Regardless, We will have much more athleticism next year as we add atleast 5 new guys, 4 of which are known for their athleticism.

[hammb]

We don't have much offensive talent. No post threat, and some streaky (read: not consistent) outside shooters to go with Nate's slashing ability.

The offensive game plan will come into it's own once Orr can balance in some offensive skill through recruiting.

How do you know we dont have much offensive talent? How often do the posts get the ball in position to score? How often are people slashing or moving without the ball?

How do I know we don't have much offensive talent? Simple.

Our guards cannot penetrate off the dribble. Nate Miller is the only guy who can consistently break down a defense off the dribble.

Our post players cannot consistently get themselves in a good position to receive a pass.

Our guards struggle to feed the post.

Our post players struggle to make moves to get the ball in the basket when they do receive it cleanly, and in good position.

We have a number of guys who can hit open jumpers but none of them do so with tremendous accuracy, nor do any of them show the ability to get their own clean looks.

Our offense works if our players are moving well without the ball and Nate Miller is playing well. We are way too dependent on Nate to control the offensive tempo. None of our guards have shown the ability to take command of the offense either. Our offense is pretty good in transition, but in the half court we struggle, and a large reason for that is a lack of offensive talent. No matter how many good ideas/plays a coach draws up a lot of possessions for any team will come down to a guy beating his man. We just don't have many guys that can do that with any consistency at this time. AFAIC our lack of offensive talent is blatantly obvious.

But thats not simple. We are talking about the offense. The first thing you say is that the guards can not break people down of the dribble. I will give you that. But if I do than its difficult to say that the post players don't show offensive skill because how do we know they would not if the guards were not better at penetrating? Add on to that, that the guards struggle to feed the post. I won't grant you the premise that the posts are struggling because I just have not seen a situation where they have had a real chance for success. In fact I have seen both Polk and Marschall flash some real offensive ability in the post. I also don't see a situation where Moten is running off picks to get open looks. I will grant you the premise that he can't get his own shot, but I disagree that the offense has been focused on getting him that shot consistently. I just don't see any movement, and from that lack of movement I can not conclude that the players are bad offensively, rather the system is bad or they are not executing the system. Regardless, We will have much more athleticism next year as we add atleast 5 new guys, 4 of which are known for their athleticism.

I guess my thinking is that when I gauge offensive talent I think mainly of 3 things: Ability to get your own shot, ability to get an easy look for a teammate, and ability to finish/make the open shots you get. I love to see players run around screens and get good looks from within the system, but that's not what I think about when I think of true offensive talent. I guess, my thinking is that when I gauge offensive talent I think mostly on individual talent level.

Marschall does show some pretty good post moves, but Otis is not a good enough finisher around the rim for me to say he's really got a ton of offensive talent. He just doesn't have the hands and the ability to finish. He is a respectable free throw shooter. Basically from what I saw this year our offense works when A) Nate Miller is doing a great job, not just getting his own shot, but finding open looks under the basket for others; or B) it works well when our guys are moving around well and getting shots off set plays.

From what I gather of our offense it seems like we want to work a two man game from the inside out. We run what looks like an attempted pick and roll from time to time as well, but it's pretty ugly most of the time. Essentially it seems like we're trying to run a more pro oriented scheme, which would be fine, but we don't have the individual talent level to pull that off. If we can get more quickness & athleticism (which this next recruiting class should provide) I think we'll start to have a better idea of what we're trying to do offensively.

If we keep up the defensive intensity that we showed this past season I think we'll be in real good shape.