Our first half last night against Penn STATE was arguably the best of the year , a little better than the first half against Alabama , but it included a blueprint for winning basketball that has to be part of our offense going forward.
1). The 3 point attempts have to be a staple of our offense and they must be taken by the players that should be taking them. To win a game like Pike played in prior years where we only made 4-5 threes a game required a superb defensive effort . We should not have another game this year making only 4-5 threes . We will unlikely get the back to back to back from Dylan but 1 or 2 at various times should be doable. Getting 2 from PJ and 2 fromAcuff was also tremendous as they were the ones we wanted shooting them. PJ actually missed another open one in the first half and I think he missed one from the corner in the second half. Ace missed his but Jeremiah hitting the buzzer beater was also great. The guys who were supposed to take the 3 , even if they missed , were the right shots.
Pike I think made a mistake against Ohio State in not playing PJ , as the entire defense was terrible and he got beat badly in the first half for a drive by layup . However , not playing him at all in the second half against Ohio State destroyed any chance of him hitting 1 to spark the team and get the lead Ohio state had 7-9 points , down to 4-6 points and if he hit 2 then you are talking 1 possession.game. As bad as we were against Ohio State it was 63-56 with just under 8 minutes left and there were 4 stops or turnovers by Ohio State and followed by 4 turnovers by us . A few threes might have sparked us and woke us out of our slumber and Ohio State who just blew a 12 point lead to Pittsburgh in their last home game with under 4 minutes to play , might have coughed up another.
Now not advocating shooting too many threes but making 7-11 on 16-20 attempts should be a goal every game as trying to win games making only 3-4 threes a game is becoming almost impossible. Not advocating just chucking up threes at random but within the course of our offense on kick outs and off second chance rebounds or in transition. We missed a number in transition in the early second half that could have blown the game wide open. We need a cushion to get a lead and to maintain one and the three ball has to be a part of it. Pike has to keep his 3 point shooters in the game with Dylan and ACE for a decent portion of the game.
Look at how difficult it was to hold onto the lead against Penn State making 0 threes in the second half.
1). The 3 point attempts have to be a staple of our offense and they must be taken by the players that should be taking them. To win a game like Pike played in prior years where we only made 4-5 threes a game required a superb defensive effort . We should not have another game this year making only 4-5 threes . We will unlikely get the back to back to back from Dylan but 1 or 2 at various times should be doable. Getting 2 from PJ and 2 fromAcuff was also tremendous as they were the ones we wanted shooting them. PJ actually missed another open one in the first half and I think he missed one from the corner in the second half. Ace missed his but Jeremiah hitting the buzzer beater was also great. The guys who were supposed to take the 3 , even if they missed , were the right shots.
Pike I think made a mistake against Ohio State in not playing PJ , as the entire defense was terrible and he got beat badly in the first half for a drive by layup . However , not playing him at all in the second half against Ohio State destroyed any chance of him hitting 1 to spark the team and get the lead Ohio state had 7-9 points , down to 4-6 points and if he hit 2 then you are talking 1 possession.game. As bad as we were against Ohio State it was 63-56 with just under 8 minutes left and there were 4 stops or turnovers by Ohio State and followed by 4 turnovers by us . A few threes might have sparked us and woke us out of our slumber and Ohio State who just blew a 12 point lead to Pittsburgh in their last home game with under 4 minutes to play , might have coughed up another.
Now not advocating shooting too many threes but making 7-11 on 16-20 attempts should be a goal every game as trying to win games making only 3-4 threes a game is becoming almost impossible. Not advocating just chucking up threes at random but within the course of our offense on kick outs and off second chance rebounds or in transition. We missed a number in transition in the early second half that could have blown the game wide open. We need a cushion to get a lead and to maintain one and the three ball has to be a part of it. Pike has to keep his 3 point shooters in the game with Dylan and ACE for a decent portion of the game.
Look at how difficult it was to hold onto the lead against Penn State making 0 threes in the second half.