Bonnies @ Fordham (Wed. 01/29/20 @ 7:00, ESPN+)

While I like our designated 4's in general, wouldn't mind seeing an occasional line up of Kyle/AJ/Jaren/Dom/Osun and play 4 out 1 in. With Dom crashing the boards the way he has been I think we'd be ok in many matchups. I also think we could be really hard to guard with this group.

LDG was definitely a different beast the previous 2 years at the 4 (and 5).
 
Winston is wild. I mean, I want to be on his team in the Richter, but the behind the back dribble on a fast break was just crazy.
Yeah, this isn't HS anymore. If he pulls it off it's highlight reel stuff, but that move had a 10% chance of being successful. Bobby was immediately summoned to the scorers' table. And when he eventually came in his specialty was giving Fordham the basketball.

We (me, my 1-year old) were hoping that one of the freshmen went off.
Ahh.. there's that royal we again.

The 4 position is hurting us again. LD was damn good and spoiled me.
He was so underrated, but is going to get his due if we keep seeing shit like last night. Bobby had a rough game. Winston was.. Winston. Freshman. He's actually picking it up a little but is a WIP.

Welch had a great game. He's crashing the boards. Some layups and free throws, he sees the ball go in, and then he goes off from 3. We're going to have to ride him while he's hot. I like his game a lot when he doesn't spend the whole half court set beyond the arc.
 
It wasnt a good night for the crowd who thought Welch should be benched.

Admittedly I am typically in this crowd, especially when his jumper isn't falling (1 for his last 14 coming into tonight). At one point when we were 1-11 from 3 I probably called for his benching, and then he turned in his best game of the season against what is actually a quality defense. Just 2 turnovers in 40 minutes.

It was heading into a winnable stretch of games last year when Welch started to turn things up. Let's hope that's the case again this year.
 
All things considered, maybe we should change the subject. Strange things are happening everywhere and not just the coronavirus. GW took Davidson through 4 overtimes and then finally managed to put them out of the 3-loss club, so both of those two should be tired enough to lose their next games. Then La Salle took SLU to overtime before finally surrendering. All of which opens the question of how these 4 teams now tied for the coveted 4th place in conference will fare in the remainder of the season. Mathematically, the Bonnies have a clear path, but that would require winning all the remaining games. Power ranking gurus such as kenpom say all of the 4th place teams but Richmond should lose 4 more games, but one of our projected losses is to Richmond. This bears close watching. If we can lose no more than 2 more, we're very likely to get the double bye. That will probably require us to figure out how to improve our 3-point defense.
 
The above point of it not being high school anymore is exactly right regarding Winston. There are driving lanes, one on one moves, etc that he used to be able to pull, and now against A10 athletes he can't. Say what you want about Fordham, one thing they can do is defend. If your'e going to go rouge and try to beat the entire defense on your own, outside the framework of the offense, you're in trouble.

I think (hope) that the staff can sit Justin down, and show him his performance Saturday vs last night. One is an example of just scratching the surface of what he has the potential to be, when doing the right thing. One is an example of the polar opposite. I would guess a better grasp of the scheme on both sides of the ball, and better discipline on both sides of the ball, are going to be the main focuses for him come the off season.

I would like to see the above referenced 4 guard sets as well. I dont see anyone on our remaining schedule for whom this couldn't work well to stretch the defense out, as change of pace for a few minutes per game.
 
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Something I didn't expect to see in the box score and didn't notice during the game, was Winston had 5 assists last night? I remember one or two but did not expect to see 5. I was preparing to write about how our 4s gave us nothing last night but might be willing to back off that some now.

Bobby had a really bad final 4 minutes of regulation, tried to sling a pass to OO on the block that even if it got to the big guy was going to be at his ankles and then a couple possessions later got caught up in a screen lost his man for a wide open 3 to tie the game up. He needs to be a bit smarter at the end of games.

Vasquez committed the worst mortal sin in the book of Schmidt last night and rode the pine pretty much the rest of the way. Made a layup, celebrated the whole way down the court, never found his man and gave up a wide open catch and shoot 3. We all want to see him get more minutes and more chances but making these types of unforced mistakes will only give English and Welch more of a stranglehold on their minute shares.

On a positive note, Welch has really improved from the charity stripe. Him shooting 50% last year didn't make any sense and this year making 79% is a great improvement and closer to what I expected he would shoot as a freshman.
 
Admittedly I am typically in this crowd, especially when his jumper isn't falling (1 for his last 14 coming into tonight). At one point when we were 1-11 from 3 I probably called for his benching, and then he turned in his best game of the season against what is actually a quality defense. Just 2 turnovers in 40 minutes.

It was heading into a winnable stretch of games last year when Welch started to turn things up. Let's hope that's the case again this year.
My post was more of a shot at the Bannedwagon. Shoon makes all the difference for him. When he is out there it forces the defense to collapse and the kick outs are there. VCU and Dayton gave no respect to our insides game (as they should not have) and that meant Welch and others didnt have the open looks they are used to.
 
If we aren't attacking the rim, our offense is garbage. It allows us to kick out for open 3s and also a drive-and-dish to Osun. I only really saw that in the first few minutes of the 2nd half.

I love Winston's talent but he HAS to stop shooting the inefficient 17-foot jumper. Shoot a 3, drive into the paint or swing the ball to someone else. I agree with @proudbonnie89 about trying Welch at the 4 in a lineup that includes English/Vasquez. Welch is 6'5", LD is 6'6", so he could be a slightly smaller version of what he did for us. We usually have a height advantage, so a smaller lineup like this would be basically making us equal to a lot of teams. I think it's worth trying out for a few minutes against a team like Mason. They're 11th in height in the A10, while we are 2nd.
 
Welch is 6'5", LD is 6'6", so he could be a slightly smaller version of what he did for us. We usually have a height advantage, so a smaller lineup like this would be basically making us equal to a lot of teams. I think it's worth trying out for a few minutes against a team like Mason. They're 11th in height in the A10, while we are 2nd.

In the first meeting with Mason they split minutes at center between Wilson/Calixte/Oduro. Against Davidson and URI (Mason's last two games) they played Wilson almost exclusively at the 4 with the Calixte/Oduro combo getting 38 and 29 minutes at center. GW might be the better opponent to try a small lineup, 6'7 Jamison Battle played most the minutes at the 4 last night for GW and he is almost a Welch clone in terms of playstyle.
 
In the first meeting with Mason they split minutes at center between Wilson/Calixte/Oduro. Against Davidson and URI (Mason's last two games) they played Wilson almost exclusively at the 4 with the Calixte/Oduro combo getting 38 and 29 minutes at center. GW might be the better opponent to try a small lineup, 6'7 Jamison Battle played most the minutes at the 4 last night for GW and he is almost a Welch clone in terms of playstyle.

Fair enough, I was just going off the KenPom height rankings. Although SLU ranks last in the conference in height, so I guess it isn't the most indicative of actual lineups...
 
If we aren't attacking the rim, our offense is garbage. It allows us to kick out for open 3s and also a drive-and-dish to Osun. I only really saw that in the first few minutes of the 2nd half.

A caveat I'd add is, attacking within the framework of the offense. There’s times we “attack” the rim by going far too much 1 on 1, too.
 
A caveat I'd add is, attacking within the framework of the offense. There’s times we “attack” the rim by going far too much 1 on 1, too.

Very true, but the offense in the last few games, except for quite a bit of Rhody was the stand around and pass around the perimeter stuff that made us stagnant in huge stretches of OOC. Driving needs to be for a purpose, but we need more plays like on-ball screens for Lofton or getting Welch/English/Winston to cut into the paint off the ball.
 
Yep. I praised them, out loud to myself, for making the extra pass, and what result/shot selection it got them several times on Saturday. It’s so basic, but its night and day how their offense looks when they make that extra pass or two.

Also, for the record there’s no royal we in my house. I have no kids, and my wife thinks I’m far too emotionally invested in mid major basketball (I am).
 
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