Ugly, ugly basketball for roughly 30 minutes. Brutally ugly. Missed shots, missed free throws, stupid fouls, turnovers, and no dominance on the boards, ugh. Then a freshman guard and to a lesser degree a juco transfer decided to put the team on Deuce's back and win a game last year's team would have lost. Huge win for the program. Not because of the team we beat, but because of the comeback and how we came back. Confidence builder.
The bad:
Coming into the game we were around 260th in the country in 3 point shooting, roughly 160th in the country in 2 point shooting and over 300th in the country in scoring. Nothing that occurred last night changed anything (except we likely dropped from our somewhat lofty 24th in rebounding). Huggs stressed over and over again in preseason that we were a much better shooting team. Have not seen it yet.
For roughly 30 minutes, the offense was offensive. Very little movement. NI just packed it in, dared us to shoot from the outside and because they were packed in, they got excellent rebounding position and were able to double Culver inside. Culver HAS TO LEARN that when he is doubled or even tripled, someone is open and he has to find them. I think our poor outside shooting is now in the kid's head. Sherman can't find the bucket from the outside, neither can Knapper, Matthews, Harler or Haley (he almost never takes a 3). I think it is lost confidence, at least in part. And because NI packed it in, neither Culver nor Oscar could wreck havoc inside. And Matthews all but disappeared. McCabe's biggest issue is his awareness and anticipation on defense. He, far too easily, got screened off his man. He could not anticipate and go over the screen and he got so deep into the screen, he could not go under. And he lacks the physicality to play through the screen. Haley played poor half court D in the first half. He was caught with 3 back door plays. That just can't happen. Getting fooled once or twice I can understand. But 3 times is absurd. And Oscar has to play 25 or more minutes a game. He has to learn to stay out of foul trouble. He has played little basketball and my guess is that he has always defended the post. He is new to college basketball and he is new to playing the 4. This makes him inconsistent.
The Good:
During the last 10 minutes or so, Deuce simply took over the game. He decided to let it all out and try and get the team going by making plays. He put the team on his back and lead them to this win. He was helped by McNeil who is a fearless shooter. Both guys get great elevation on their jumpers making them very difficult to block or not get good looks. And both were good on both ends of the court, particularly Deuce. This created energy for the entire team. They fed off of Deuce's play, particularly McNeil. And the guys on the court knew to get the ball to the hot hand in Deuce.
It was fascinating to me to see who was in the game at crunch time. We had 3 new players on the court, Deuce, McNeil and Taz. That speaks volumes. Matthews gave up his body and made a play that was so crucial. I hope this helps him get his confidence back and start to play more freely and being more of a factor during the game. And Culver absolutely owned the boards. He played hard despite not scoring. That is encouraging although I think his attitude is going to get him in trouble this season with Huggs (desperately hope I am wrong). It is no accident that we did better inside when Deuce and McNeil started going off.
With certain line-ups, I would like to see Huggs bring back PressVirginia if it is not too late to teach some of the new guys that press. Deuce, Taz, McNeil, Haley, Matthews, Gabe, Oscar and Culver can all play that kind of press, imo. It would be a nice change of pace, speed up the game and create open looks before the defense can become set. As stated earlier, I would like to see 3 outside threats at all times. No more line-ups with just one outside threat.
And defensively we played pretty well holding NI to very poor 3 point shooting. Our defense kept them in the game. We had some breakdowns but NI shot it poorly and our defense had a role in those stats.
The guys need to start to play more freely and with more confidence. Huggs needs to give them some room to make some mistakes when they do so. We are not loaded with great outside shooters so we need to create wide open looks. That means dribble penetration and kickouts or turnovers leading to easy buckets or wide open 3's. It is an outside in game today. Not an inside out game. We need guards if we have any hope of making a splash in the Big 12 and the NCAA tourney. The key question is do we have the guards to lead the way?
The bad:
Coming into the game we were around 260th in the country in 3 point shooting, roughly 160th in the country in 2 point shooting and over 300th in the country in scoring. Nothing that occurred last night changed anything (except we likely dropped from our somewhat lofty 24th in rebounding). Huggs stressed over and over again in preseason that we were a much better shooting team. Have not seen it yet.
For roughly 30 minutes, the offense was offensive. Very little movement. NI just packed it in, dared us to shoot from the outside and because they were packed in, they got excellent rebounding position and were able to double Culver inside. Culver HAS TO LEARN that when he is doubled or even tripled, someone is open and he has to find them. I think our poor outside shooting is now in the kid's head. Sherman can't find the bucket from the outside, neither can Knapper, Matthews, Harler or Haley (he almost never takes a 3). I think it is lost confidence, at least in part. And because NI packed it in, neither Culver nor Oscar could wreck havoc inside. And Matthews all but disappeared. McCabe's biggest issue is his awareness and anticipation on defense. He, far too easily, got screened off his man. He could not anticipate and go over the screen and he got so deep into the screen, he could not go under. And he lacks the physicality to play through the screen. Haley played poor half court D in the first half. He was caught with 3 back door plays. That just can't happen. Getting fooled once or twice I can understand. But 3 times is absurd. And Oscar has to play 25 or more minutes a game. He has to learn to stay out of foul trouble. He has played little basketball and my guess is that he has always defended the post. He is new to college basketball and he is new to playing the 4. This makes him inconsistent.
The Good:
During the last 10 minutes or so, Deuce simply took over the game. He decided to let it all out and try and get the team going by making plays. He put the team on his back and lead them to this win. He was helped by McNeil who is a fearless shooter. Both guys get great elevation on their jumpers making them very difficult to block or not get good looks. And both were good on both ends of the court, particularly Deuce. This created energy for the entire team. They fed off of Deuce's play, particularly McNeil. And the guys on the court knew to get the ball to the hot hand in Deuce.
It was fascinating to me to see who was in the game at crunch time. We had 3 new players on the court, Deuce, McNeil and Taz. That speaks volumes. Matthews gave up his body and made a play that was so crucial. I hope this helps him get his confidence back and start to play more freely and being more of a factor during the game. And Culver absolutely owned the boards. He played hard despite not scoring. That is encouraging although I think his attitude is going to get him in trouble this season with Huggs (desperately hope I am wrong). It is no accident that we did better inside when Deuce and McNeil started going off.
With certain line-ups, I would like to see Huggs bring back PressVirginia if it is not too late to teach some of the new guys that press. Deuce, Taz, McNeil, Haley, Matthews, Gabe, Oscar and Culver can all play that kind of press, imo. It would be a nice change of pace, speed up the game and create open looks before the defense can become set. As stated earlier, I would like to see 3 outside threats at all times. No more line-ups with just one outside threat.
And defensively we played pretty well holding NI to very poor 3 point shooting. Our defense kept them in the game. We had some breakdowns but NI shot it poorly and our defense had a role in those stats.
The guys need to start to play more freely and with more confidence. Huggs needs to give them some room to make some mistakes when they do so. We are not loaded with great outside shooters so we need to create wide open looks. That means dribble penetration and kickouts or turnovers leading to easy buckets or wide open 3's. It is an outside in game today. Not an inside out game. We need guards if we have any hope of making a splash in the Big 12 and the NCAA tourney. The key question is do we have the guards to lead the way?
