Wrangor
Go Deacs
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2011
- Messages
- 12,413
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This was my first game to watch from start to finish. I missed a few plays as I finished up homework with my 7 year old, but caught almost the whole game.
1. We turn the ball over way too much. Crawford and Woods looked especially shaky with the ball at times considering they are both juniors with a ton of game experience. I know Crawford led us in scoring, but he needs to play better for us to be a good ball team. Also Crawford is really a BAD defender. Often times the player he defends doesn't even have to make much more than a hesitation move to get past him. Its really bad, and inexcusable for a player of his athletic ability.
2. Woods looked lost. I saw part of our last game (watched on my phone), and he played great. Last night he just looked lost most of the time, and did not play confident basketball. You could tell when he hit that last three that it was a huge sigh of relief. Hopefully he gets his game going. I think 6th man is the perfect role for him.
3. Chill started off slow, but was a huge part of our victory. He scored when we needed him to score, and he is our only guard that can really defend on the ball. He pressures without fouling. He is going to play a key role on our team if we are going to have any success.
4. Four Guard lineup is still awful defensively, and relies upon the three too much on offense. We need to have at least someone of Chaundee's size in at the 4. Playing Woods at the 4 on defense just doesn't work, even in a zone. We are too vulnerable on the boards.
5. Moore really played well. He is such a better defender when he can stay in the post and distract and alter shots. When we play man to man, the first thing the other team does is bring him out on a pick and roll, and that is just deadly for our defense. It removes our only good rebounder, and puts our slowest player in the position of having to hedge on a guard 25 feet from the basket.
6. We need more zone. I have been beating this drum for a while, but I would continue to use more zone. 2-3, 3-2, 1-3-1....I would even introduce a half court 1-2-1-1 and let it collapse into a 2-3 once the offense gets the ball into position. I would also like to see us trap in the corners occasionally just to make the other team think. If we had stuck with m2m last night we would have lost by double digits. The key to this team is keeping Moore in the ball game in an effective defensive position. Woods, Wilbekin, and Crawford just don't defend on ball very well, and Moore is too slow to guard the pick and roll. This is a zone team. Manning has to adjust and continue down the path we started last night.
7. Sarr played VERY well in his limited minutes. I was most impressed by his passing. He made several excellent decisions with the ball. He is going to be a VERY good player. I am not sure if he is pro material, but he moves very well, and already has a good feel for the game. Can't wait to see his learning curve.
8. Defensively we still have to do a better job of cutting off the baseline. Several times last night we played 'good' (decent is probably a better word) defense initially only to allow the dribbler to force his way baseline. We have to force them to turn their back and retreat. We just have to get better at that. When the drive baseline, beat them to the spot and turn them around.
9. Wilbekin actually played really well. He made some big shots, and played within himself. He is a limited player, but I think Manning likes that he knows what MW is going to do.
10. Brown played like a freshman. It wasn't his best game, but not really worried about him. We don't have to worry about him going pro anytime soon, but he is going to be one heck of a player for us. Just needs to keep working on his game.
11. Offensively, Manning needs to figure out some better quick hitters. We need a 2-3 pass set that doesn't require the ball to rotate around in order to get a shot. We need to do a better job of getting Moore the ball in a position to score. He isn't John Collins, but he is really effective inside of 10 feet. We need to establish his presence early and often.
12. The timeout at the end of the half by Manning was dumb. We had already used a timeout, so it wasn't a situation where if we didn't use it we would waste it. Our play coming out of that timeout was a Crawford ISO drive, which ended up with a good shot, but we didn't get 2 for 1 (which we had a chance to do), and we didn't really run a specific set. One of those options should have happened if you are going to burn a real timeout.
13. Glad to get a win. We need every one we can get to continue our recruiting momentum.
PS: Mark-god Smith was 'surprisingly' ineffective.
He looks like an average guard to me, and doesn't look like the physical beast that many Illini fans were projecting. He isn't bad, but I would rather have Chill, and definitely would rather have a guy like Brown who displays a lot more potential.
1. We turn the ball over way too much. Crawford and Woods looked especially shaky with the ball at times considering they are both juniors with a ton of game experience. I know Crawford led us in scoring, but he needs to play better for us to be a good ball team. Also Crawford is really a BAD defender. Often times the player he defends doesn't even have to make much more than a hesitation move to get past him. Its really bad, and inexcusable for a player of his athletic ability.
2. Woods looked lost. I saw part of our last game (watched on my phone), and he played great. Last night he just looked lost most of the time, and did not play confident basketball. You could tell when he hit that last three that it was a huge sigh of relief. Hopefully he gets his game going. I think 6th man is the perfect role for him.
3. Chill started off slow, but was a huge part of our victory. He scored when we needed him to score, and he is our only guard that can really defend on the ball. He pressures without fouling. He is going to play a key role on our team if we are going to have any success.
4. Four Guard lineup is still awful defensively, and relies upon the three too much on offense. We need to have at least someone of Chaundee's size in at the 4. Playing Woods at the 4 on defense just doesn't work, even in a zone. We are too vulnerable on the boards.
5. Moore really played well. He is such a better defender when he can stay in the post and distract and alter shots. When we play man to man, the first thing the other team does is bring him out on a pick and roll, and that is just deadly for our defense. It removes our only good rebounder, and puts our slowest player in the position of having to hedge on a guard 25 feet from the basket.
6. We need more zone. I have been beating this drum for a while, but I would continue to use more zone. 2-3, 3-2, 1-3-1....I would even introduce a half court 1-2-1-1 and let it collapse into a 2-3 once the offense gets the ball into position. I would also like to see us trap in the corners occasionally just to make the other team think. If we had stuck with m2m last night we would have lost by double digits. The key to this team is keeping Moore in the ball game in an effective defensive position. Woods, Wilbekin, and Crawford just don't defend on ball very well, and Moore is too slow to guard the pick and roll. This is a zone team. Manning has to adjust and continue down the path we started last night.
7. Sarr played VERY well in his limited minutes. I was most impressed by his passing. He made several excellent decisions with the ball. He is going to be a VERY good player. I am not sure if he is pro material, but he moves very well, and already has a good feel for the game. Can't wait to see his learning curve.
8. Defensively we still have to do a better job of cutting off the baseline. Several times last night we played 'good' (decent is probably a better word) defense initially only to allow the dribbler to force his way baseline. We have to force them to turn their back and retreat. We just have to get better at that. When the drive baseline, beat them to the spot and turn them around.
9. Wilbekin actually played really well. He made some big shots, and played within himself. He is a limited player, but I think Manning likes that he knows what MW is going to do.
10. Brown played like a freshman. It wasn't his best game, but not really worried about him. We don't have to worry about him going pro anytime soon, but he is going to be one heck of a player for us. Just needs to keep working on his game.
11. Offensively, Manning needs to figure out some better quick hitters. We need a 2-3 pass set that doesn't require the ball to rotate around in order to get a shot. We need to do a better job of getting Moore the ball in a position to score. He isn't John Collins, but he is really effective inside of 10 feet. We need to establish his presence early and often.
12. The timeout at the end of the half by Manning was dumb. We had already used a timeout, so it wasn't a situation where if we didn't use it we would waste it. Our play coming out of that timeout was a Crawford ISO drive, which ended up with a good shot, but we didn't get 2 for 1 (which we had a chance to do), and we didn't really run a specific set. One of those options should have happened if you are going to burn a real timeout.
13. Glad to get a win. We need every one we can get to continue our recruiting momentum.
PS: Mark-god Smith was 'surprisingly' ineffective.
He looks like an average guard to me, and doesn't look like the physical beast that many Illini fans were projecting. He isn't bad, but I would rather have Chill, and definitely would rather have a guy like Brown who displays a lot more potential.
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