Its not physical exhaustion hurting the team, its mental/emotional exhaustion. Our offensive possessions are so slow and labored, are so limited to the perimeter, and because our players lack a scorer's touch, so often leads to failure. The inability to score also means our players are forced to instantly transition to defense without the repose that occurs after a score when the other team has to inbound the ball and take it up through their backcourt. All of this kinetic frustration leads to loss of focus and tenacity on defense which makes them look soft on the court. We need to abandon pressing. We are too slow to play one on one defense which requires our players to leave their man to help the player defending the ball thereby exposing us to good 3 point shooters.
I believe we to play zone to defend the three point line and for Cliff to front the other's team's center to obstruct the post pass into the middle of the zone in the paint. As for offense, Pike needs to tell his players that if they refuse to drive the ball into the paint and attempt to score (or kick out to a player open on the perimeter because of help defense) than you don't play. Because we have a bunch of players without a scorer's touch we must get to the charity line more to score points. Obviously, this requires the player with the ball to be unduly touched by the opposing player in the act of shooting. Again, if you don't drive and attack the rim - no matter how slow you are - you don't play. The present status quo of play must change!
