Community Bank 3Pt Tee
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- Dec 29, 2019
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No great mystery. We're not playing to our strengths. Alter shots, force bad looks, disrupt rhythm and force turnovers. Push transition, when in the halfcourt attack relentlessly- crisp ball movement, play downhill slashing to the rim, drawing fouls, and making the extra pass. Those are all things we do when we are at our best. Last year the offensive side of that was inconsistent, and we'd often wonder why. But at least the d was there. We'd win ugly at our worst, win with a gritty swagger at our best.
The question of what happened isn't one of diminishing skill sets, it's why can't we see the team that does that on a consistent basis? Schmidt has even acknowledged it, so why isn't it fixed? I have no clue what the answer is. It's probably several reasons that are intertwined.
Here's what I do know: our best wins have come vs teams ranked 2nd (VCU), 8th (Boise) and 23rd (Marquette) nationally in KenPom's AdjD metric. They all have length. UB has length. Clemson has length. So another team playing us tight defensively or having length isn't even really the reason, even if those things do sometimes seem to disrupt us. We're just not playing our game.
A scouting report on us would probably tell you to sag inside, take away our driving lanes, force us to win at the perimeter. It's working great this year. Last year Adaway would prowl the baseline or the middle of the lane to disrupt defensive spacing. It created lanes for cutting and driving. Why aren't we doing that? Why are we spending most of our time with 4 guys on the perimeter then driving into traffic with the clock ticking down?
The question of what happened isn't one of diminishing skill sets, it's why can't we see the team that does that on a consistent basis? Schmidt has even acknowledged it, so why isn't it fixed? I have no clue what the answer is. It's probably several reasons that are intertwined.
Here's what I do know: our best wins have come vs teams ranked 2nd (VCU), 8th (Boise) and 23rd (Marquette) nationally in KenPom's AdjD metric. They all have length. UB has length. Clemson has length. So another team playing us tight defensively or having length isn't even really the reason, even if those things do sometimes seem to disrupt us. We're just not playing our game.
A scouting report on us would probably tell you to sag inside, take away our driving lanes, force us to win at the perimeter. It's working great this year. Last year Adaway would prowl the baseline or the middle of the lane to disrupt defensive spacing. It created lanes for cutting and driving. Why aren't we doing that? Why are we spending most of our time with 4 guys on the perimeter then driving into traffic with the clock ticking down?