Chemistry
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2021 2:58 pm
A stray comment on a reddit NBA thread got me thinking about chemistry. Obviously, with as much turnover as we had last season to this, that can be an issue. Think of the number of times you have seen a freshman (any of the 3) zig on defense when everyone else on the court expected him to zag - leading to blown coverage. Early in the year we COULD NOT get a pass in to Swingle to save our lives, and it wasn't his fault a lot of the time - people just were not giving him the ball in a spot where he could reasonably reach it.
But I've seen some promising signs - just from the Toledo game.
Offense: Nobody seems to give a damn who scores. We really don't. When Fields stops being tentative and takes it to the rack for a layup, nobody gives him the side eye for not giving it to Juice, for instance.
Also - we seem to be looking for passes to open teammates more. Fulcher and Matheny both had a couple of good ideas turn into turnovers when they saw an open teammate behind the defense - but they telegraphed the passes and the defense did a better job of knowing where to be than we did of being able to look them off.
Still, at least guys were TRYING to beat the defense, and other guys were seeing it and TRYING to get them the ball. Those are the same passes that Larranaga drained out of Huger's game back in the 90's. And they are the EXACT plays we should be working on making instead of stopping trying. A simple look off to redirect a SINGLE defender's attention and we could have had several dunks.
BUT - we really don't know much about where to be to make a pass out of a double team easy, or when that is even going to happen as opposed to stopping and waiting for another handoff.
Defense: Obviously we have some zig instead of zag moments. And the way we cheat to the interior to cover our complete lack of interior defense leaves us vulnerable to open 3's - especially corner open threes which are the best shot in the game. We just don't rotate over enough.
BUT, there were two things I saw yesterday v Toledo that I really liked. Both Matheny and Fields took charges in the paint. When Matheny took his, it was because Fields directed the ball handler right into him. And when Fields took the charge, it was because Matheny steered the ballhandler into Fields. Neither of those charges happened in a vacuum. They both happened because those two players knew what the other one was doing in real time and took advantage of it.
I would love to see us build on that.
But I've seen some promising signs - just from the Toledo game.
Offense: Nobody seems to give a damn who scores. We really don't. When Fields stops being tentative and takes it to the rack for a layup, nobody gives him the side eye for not giving it to Juice, for instance.
Also - we seem to be looking for passes to open teammates more. Fulcher and Matheny both had a couple of good ideas turn into turnovers when they saw an open teammate behind the defense - but they telegraphed the passes and the defense did a better job of knowing where to be than we did of being able to look them off.
Still, at least guys were TRYING to beat the defense, and other guys were seeing it and TRYING to get them the ball. Those are the same passes that Larranaga drained out of Huger's game back in the 90's. And they are the EXACT plays we should be working on making instead of stopping trying. A simple look off to redirect a SINGLE defender's attention and we could have had several dunks.
BUT - we really don't know much about where to be to make a pass out of a double team easy, or when that is even going to happen as opposed to stopping and waiting for another handoff.
Defense: Obviously we have some zig instead of zag moments. And the way we cheat to the interior to cover our complete lack of interior defense leaves us vulnerable to open 3's - especially corner open threes which are the best shot in the game. We just don't rotate over enough.
BUT, there were two things I saw yesterday v Toledo that I really liked. Both Matheny and Fields took charges in the paint. When Matheny took his, it was because Fields directed the ball handler right into him. And when Fields took the charge, it was because Matheny steered the ballhandler into Fields. Neither of those charges happened in a vacuum. They both happened because those two players knew what the other one was doing in real time and took advantage of it.
I would love to see us build on that.