Only 5 assists last night....We're all raving about Pikiell but he needs to install a better ball movement offense especially with 2 talented guards.
Ball movement
- Thread starter jerrickson
- Start date
I agree better offense has to be installed. But if Issa hits the 7 open threes he missed , which came from nice quick passes, it would have been 12assists or if he hits 4 , then 9 assists. We as a team do not do enough cutting to the basket or bounce passes for buckets and that can be improved .
Assists require people to make shots. Last night that didn't happen. Backdoor cuts require someone to make shots from the perimeter first to set up the defense. Anyway you slice it, it's hard say what is coaching Xs and Os and what is lack of shooters. But we should see in a couple of years as the shooters are on tap. My hunch is that we will have a great offense in time.
maybe if my man Corey would dish the ball on one or two of his drives while getting stuffed by 3 players we could get a few......but that would also require guys to move and that's not in our plan right now. Only 1 can move at a time.
It's hard to rack up assists when you're shooting 30 percent from the field! Issa alone had a ton of open looks that would have added to that number.
One thing I will say is we have a bad habit of taking too long to get into our sets and ending too often with Corey or Geo forcing long, contested looks.
One thing I will say is we have a bad habit of taking too long to get into our sets and ending too often with Corey or Geo forcing long, contested looks.
While I question whether he'll ever prove to be able to coach a consistently elite offense no matter the players, it is clear what Pikiell is doing most of the last two years. He is keeping the ball mostly in the hands of the players that have a better chance of not turning it over and actually making a basket if they can get a decent look (Sanders, Freeman, to a certain extent Geo and Omoruyi this year, with a healthy amount of touches for Thiam as he has improved his release, movement, and ballhandling). Pikiell knows that up and down the lineup, if he asks them to move without the ball and run an offense with lots of passing and precise movement, we will turn the ball over and fumble it away too frequently, leading to no shot attempt for the offense and more fast breaks for the other team. Combine that strategy with draining the shot clock on most half court possessions, and he is relying on his defense to keep scores in range and win close games. Lately we've swung the ball a bit more and sometimes it works like against Iowa, other times we miss shots like against Nebraska. Hopefully as he trusts new players and improved players to do more on offense, we will see a harder offense to defend.
Inside out ball movement only works when there are scoring threats inside and outside. Ineffective post players and bad outside shooters make that strategy useless. This is a personnel problem. There are multiple approaches to basketball offense. All of them only work with players that have the skill to put the ball in the basket.
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Ball movement isn’t the problem. Thiam like Williams before missing wide open threes that are very good shots.
Sorry but it is definitely one of the primary problems with the lack of scoring, and I have heard Pikiell express it himself in person. Obviously you also need to make your share of open shots. But if Thiam goes 5-7 from three against Nebraska instead of 0-7, that gives us a whopping 69 points. Enough to win that game sure, but lower than the scoring average of good offensive teams.
This is spot on. RU hasn't had a shortage of open shots. No matter what you want to think of RU's ball movement, they've had lots of shots that they should make. And way more often they result in clank, not swish.
I would see it the other way. We generally have not been a terrible turnover machine and with this shooting and rebounding we need to take more shot attempts to score points. Our defense is good enough to handle the other end with additional possessions by the other guys. I'd like to see us really go after it and see what that brings. We're getting too many crappy looks cause every other team knows its going right side drive and only have to defend half of the basket.
I don't fully disagree. Over the last two years, I have often wanted Pikiell to free things up more and take our chances. I don't think we would have won fewer games, and it would be more exciting to watch. But he has gone with a low risk strategy, and I can't fault him for it too much because the roster is limited.
Our ball movement sucks because we dont have enough weapons.
NEB had 3 guys who could drive and/or pop at will...and still we kept it close
Corey can drive but EVERYONE can see he has 2 moves that are variations on a theme because he is so athletic. He was stuffed a good number of times vs NEB
We have Corey MOST nights
Freeman MOST nights(a double double vs NEB)
Baker SOME nights (3-11 doesnt cut it)..he was 1-9 the game before that..hey he is a FR!)
Omoruyi 4 pts
Sa 4pts
Doorson 6pts
Bullock ZIP
Mensah ZIP
We simply dont have enough O weapons
Games where Omor/Sa/Doorson step up & get 10-15 pts we probably win that game
Until then we play great D, rebound well and HOPE Corey sets on fire..and gets some help
NEB had 3 guys who could drive and/or pop at will...and still we kept it close
Corey can drive but EVERYONE can see he has 2 moves that are variations on a theme because he is so athletic. He was stuffed a good number of times vs NEB
We have Corey MOST nights
Freeman MOST nights(a double double vs NEB)
Baker SOME nights (3-11 doesnt cut it)..he was 1-9 the game before that..hey he is a FR!)
Omoruyi 4 pts
Sa 4pts
Doorson 6pts
Bullock ZIP
Mensah ZIP
We simply dont have enough O weapons
Games where Omor/Sa/Doorson step up & get 10-15 pts we probably win that game
Until then we play great D, rebound well and HOPE Corey sets on fire..and gets some help
