kingaling42: It often looks like we jack up 3s any time we are open. Shots are taken with the player not being in a good shooting posture (not squared up and no follow through) and not within any team flow. Hard to understand why we frequently look so disjointed on offense.
Once the younger players get some PT and the substitution patterns are set hopefully this will show improvement.
crposton: In the postgame it was stated (McDevitt?) that a starter was left home for each team. Millin for MT and the starting post for Rider. If the reason was given I didn't catch it.
Initially this year I don't think that this team is a great shooting team, the sample size is increasing and the percentages are about the same from the perimeter, plus you can look at FT% and make a decent read on who is more likely to be consistent from deep- in instances when we are wide open there's only 2 guys that I feel like 'that's going in'- we have some streaky guys that can get going but none of these guys strike me as the type of guy that you say, give him attempts and he'll shoot himself into a streak... that said this team needs to be more consistent and learn what good shots are- this is D-1 ball not all of these attempts should be wide open but shots under control, good defensive balance in case of misses, and in the flow of whatever action we're running..
Again, I didn't see this game so I'm not sure what the shot selection looked like.. on paper Sims' was 1 for 7, Jefferson, Buford, & King were each 0 for 3- so that's 1 of 16 right there alone; compounded today by poor FT shooting 11 of 21 with Dishman mainly dragging those numbers down.. having watched all of the other games there have been stretches of good ball movement, making the extra pass and shots simply not falling.. we saw that early in the SFA game, several stretches vs Winthrop for instance.. late in the SFA game you saw most of the team trying to shoot themselves back into the game with ~4 minutes remaining and subsequently the SFA lead ballooned and it looks bad- real bad... I try not to compare this team to other year's teams but that was very similar to what we seen before.. I get that teams want to try to shoot themselves back in a game when there is 1-2 minutes remaining but I was disappointed in seeing that happen with so much more time remaining in that game for example. If MT is going to lose any games with this group, I'd rather see them go down executing at a higher level for as close to 40 minutes as possible.. young players have to learn what a good shot is at this level- not all of these guys are young players though.. I'm looking at guys like Sims and Jefferson to help the younger guys figure that out.. I'd also like to see Dishman and the BIGs more involved in the post, getting touches and looking to kick the ball out if pressure comes or the defense collapses down; he's a decent passer/decent vision but get's in trouble with TO's when the defense doesn't double and he's hesitant to make an offensive move- inside out shots are the best..
This team does have some distinct differences from other teams for those paying more attention to the details than simply the results..
- Team has been exceptional at converting TO's into points- 25 pt off TO's today
- Bench scoring has been consistent this year- haven't had much of a bench to speak of for years so getting 26 points (43% of total points) from the bench today is a huge lift and keeps team fresh
Lots of work still to be done but some distinct differences thus far from my vantage point..
Mercer took care of Bucknell- Alvarez is their guy but Haase is a smart player down low.. gonna have to be play smart to win tomorrow
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