Dusty May, in so many words, said his game plan

[S_Janowski]

He can easily hit a 12-15 foot jumper with a simple pin down and sharp pass from our guards. It is in every coach ‘s tool box but Pike didn’t use it to counter and ACE was struggling but at the 3 point line and staying out there. Pike never tried anything different. If ACE hits a mid range then maybe he regains his confidence and hits the last 2 open threes. Sometimes a shooter has to see the ball go thru the hoop

Okay but a 12-15 footer is not really “in the paint”.

Agree he can hit 12-15 footers but I’m not sure how many 12-15 footers we could have gotten him considering Michigans length.

My preference would be to hit the open guy when he gets doubled (which we were doing fairly well) and have the open guys making open shots (which we weren’t doing well).

If we made a few more shots Michigan may not have double as much / hard and it naturally would have free’d up Ace more.

 

[goru7]

Okay but a 12-15 footer is not really “in the paint”.

Agree he can hit 12-15 footers but I’m not sure how many 12-15 footers we could have gotten him considering Michigans length.

My preference would be to hit the open guy when he gets doubled (which we were doing fairly well) and have the open guys making open shots (which we weren’t doing well).

A shot just inside the foul line is a shot in the paint. Pin downs and screens get that shot every time. It wasn’t even attempted which is what pissed me off. The whole team not trying to drive and pull up for a12-15 footer all day pissed me off more and more as 3 pointer after 3 pointer was clanked.

 

[fluoxetine]

This is totally fair and reasonable.

Majority of those were from role players. I mean Martini for example has had legit an all time awful time shooting the ball as of late, Gavin Griffiths bad (the guy that got ran out of here). Michigan had their game plan for a reason, and by not finding ways to free up Ace PRIOR to the double arriving, we played the game they wanted to play.

I guess I've hit the point where I realize this team isn't winning (without Harper), unless Ace has an efficient day offensively. It's brutal to me that JMike had probably his best game of his career, and we still were unable to win.

RU couldn't get over the hump all day, we'd make a little mini run, get close and then the offensive possessions where you NEED a bucket to flip the script we were just content not getting the ball to Ace because of the double and would settle for jumpers from Martini, Sommerville, and Hayes (who hasn't gotten run all year).

I just don't think it's winning basketball. I would have liked us to have a couple of plays drawn up to free up Ace for really clean looks in those key spots. Perhaps nitpicking, but in a 1 possession game, these things matter.

I do give credit for the staff though as this was the most Pike/Rutgers game we've played all year. Was good to see.

That's not a counter.
That's exactly what UM wanted. An open 3 from JWill, Lathan, Grant, Derkack and even Davis is playing into exactly what they wanted.

The counter is not be in this situation where Ace could be taken out of the game By doubling. Which is why we need Harper back so badly. He's the only other consistent offensive threat.

The actual counter is prioritize shooting and recruit players that make that type of defense untenable.
Not just 1 or 2 end of bench players.
The guys on the floor need to be threats - ideally including the center.

If Davis doesn't have a historic shooting night for himself we are blown out.

It's basically always possible to take away or at least make it super difficult for one player. If you get a shitload of great looks for your other players you've executed the best plan you can. If your other players are incapable of converting those great looks.. then that is a problem but not one you can fix on gameday.

 

[BIGRUBIGDBIGredmachine]

With Dylan out, Michigan was better.

Agree...but but but I do believe Ogbole might have helped get us over the top in yesterday's game despite Ace's poor shooting because he would be a stronger presence in the paint against their 7 footers. I wasn't overly impressed with Michigan but they had a huge advantage in the paint against us and that was the difference in the game imo, once they got the ball low it was an ez layup or dunk.

Pike surely didn't do what was needed to build a roster around Dylan and Ace, but we've also been snakebit by injuries and the flu (incl JWill yesterday).

 

[LotusAggressor]

I mean.

We did have a counter. We got 36 open three point looks. And missed 26 of them. Wtf is the coach supposed to do about that?

As has been stated, that's not a counter. That's what Michigan wanted, for bad shooters to take a lot of low percentage long range shots.

 

[S_Janowski]

As has been stated, that's not a counter. That's what Michigan wanted, for bad shooters to take a lot of low percentage long range shots.

Disagree. Not countering would be Ace forcing up shots with 2 guys on him, or turning the ball over.

As bad as our shooters are, we probably make those shots at a better rate than we did yesterday 9/10 games.

A couple baskets could have made the difference yesterday.

I don’t think some people appreciate how bad our shooting was yesterday. Or how we didn’t capitalize on our offensive rebounds.

 

[Shelby65]

I think the upside is that we’ll be able to work Dylan back in gradually and not be so reliant on him once he’s back. Thought JMike did a really nice job as a true 1 today.

How many assists ? LOL !! 2, same as Sommerville and less than Derkack.

He’s a shot hunter same as Simpson and Harper, just not as good.

That’s why so few turnovers of late. He’s mostly only shooting, only yesterday for the first time in his career more went through the net.

He absolutely not anything resembling a 1.

2 assists for a pg. he had a good game, but he doesn’t have a PG cell in his body.

 

[The RUT]

It's basically always possible to take away or at least make it super difficult for one player. If you get a shitload of great looks for your other players you've executed the best plan you can. If your other players are incapable of converting those great looks.. then that is a problem but not one you can fix on gameday.

So are you of the belief that any team doubling Ace will effectively completely remove him from the game? I'm not sure I buy that.

Teams would triple team Douby and it still didn't matter because he was running screens off ball and was able to get quality looks off before a defense could get to him. That's what I'm asking for out of this staff.

I understand exerting more energy on the offensive end will take away from the defense some, which is what this staff is built on, but you need to be willing to do this from time to time. It doesn't need to be the core philosophy of the staff, but you need to be willing to make things happen off ball.

 

[Shelby65]

As has been stated, that's not a counter. That's what Michigan wanted, for bad shooters to take a lot of low percentage long range shots.

It’s a counter because the priority was to stop Ace. That was our response over other options. Problem is, no other options were viable with the roster.

Would you have preferred Dortch posting up ? Or Hayes taking to the rim ? Of course we went to Plan B to counter.

 

[fluoxetine]

So are you of the belief that any team doubling Ace will effectively completely remove him from the game? I'm not sure I buy that.

Teams would triple team Douby and it still didn't matter because he was running screens off ball and was able to get quality looks off before a defense could get to him. That's what I'm asking for out of this staff.

I understand exerting more energy on the offensive end will take away from the defense some, which is what this staff is built on, but you need to be willing to do this from time to time. It doesn't need to be the core philosophy of the staff, but you need to be willing to make things happen off ball.

No, Ace had a bad night and can make the shots he got yesterday at a much higher clip than he did. But if a team makes its singular defensive mission to stop Ace he isn’t going to go off for 40 and our other players are going to have a lot of opportunities.

 

[Big East Beast]

Coach needs to realize - Acuff looked good and tell the players let’s feed it to him as long as Ace is getting doubled. Martini was in a sling when out of the game. Gutty performance, but we needed to score at higher pace. Tell Grant to stop shooting threes - go rebound the ball and dunk it. Williams - drive the ball and try to dunk as aggressively you do in warmups.

You can’t assume these guys know the fundamentals or know how to play with aggressiveness, because they clearly don’t.

 

[willisneverrana43]

What other game plan would there have been? I mean, of course that was his game plan.

 

[fluoxetine]

What other game plan would there have been? I mean, of course that was his game plan.

Well a solid number of posters here think things like "tell the players to shoot better" is part of gameplanning.

 

[The RUT]

What other game plan would there have been? I mean, of course that was his game plan.

It wasn’t Northwestern’s.

Collin’s told his team, “Ace Bailey is going to get his.”