My blueprint for a win @ Penn State

[Greene Rice FIG]

I want to see a starting lineup similar to what we saw early in the year. I want to see Sanders and Johnson (or ? if he is hurt) share the 1 and Thiam and Williams share the 2 position. I do not want to see too much of Johnson and Sanders together.

Penn State can be beat inside. I think our 5 bigs can score 35 points and get 2-3 3s from Williams and Issa from kickouts. I also think we can pound them on the offensive glass.

Changing defenses will be a must. Penn State guards and wings are too good for players like Thiam to play man possession after possession.

I do think there will be a hangover from the Indiana.

Eugene is a must play based on his willingness to get others the ball in good spots, but he must eliminate unforced TOs. Can't take the aggressiveness out of his looks, but he has to do simple things like catch the basketball.

I want to see the allocation of touches pretty evenly spread among the 5 guys on the court, meaning 0 and 3 don't have the ball in their hands 15-20 seconds of every possession. Every non transition possession has to be an attempt to get the ball inside.

I am really confident for some strange reason. Nigel being healthy is critical (defense).

 

[bac2therac]

everything comes down to shooting the ball

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

everything comes down to shooting the ball

Which is why I want a lot of touches for our 5 big men.

Last game vs. PSU...33 34 21 32 2 (79 minutes) were 7-14 from the field. The rest of the team was 11-49.

 

[RUsojo]

Limit thiam Johnson doorson and Sa's minutes (boy were we wrong about Sa earlier in the year). Have Williams take some of johnsons and Diallo eat into Gettys. If Freeman takes no jumpers or spinning non sense in the post he can play as much as he wants.

 

[jtung230]

everything comes down to shooting the ball

Then we are sure to lose. We will not out shoot anyone. Play D, pound the boards, and limit TOs.

 

[Vegas pj]

This years PSU team is NOT last year's PSU team. Plus it's a road game.

 

[mikefla]

If Mike Williams contributes 16 again
while Nigel hits for say 14
Corey steps up better than the 8 points he just had
Sa & Thiam get 6 pts each again
CJ steps up...more points AND REBs big guy !
and Freeman gets a double double

We do stand a chance.

We all knew it would be up/down this season
We played stunningly & lost to Wisc
We laid a RARE egg vs IOWA(something we did OFTEN under EJ)
now its TIME we put it ALL together in a freakishly GOOD game !!![banana][banana][banana]
we are DUE!
[cheers]

 

[bac2therac]

Then we are sure to lose. We will not out shoot anyone. Play D, pound the boards, and limit TOs.

that only takes you so far, see a whole bunch of other losses this year, team has to have a great shooting night and hope PSU plays a C minus or below game

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Watching a decent amount of B1G games I believe our 4s and 5s are right there relative to others. I think if we get the ball to CJ and Freeman in good spots they can succeed and open things up for others. Especially Williams and Thaim on the perimeter.

I honestly think we can get 30 points out of Freeman and Gettys.

If we aren't a good shooting team than get close shots. I just don't see a lineup of Johnson and Sanders as a good one offensively. Let sanders score in transition. In the half court I want to see us go back to the way we operated in the OOC. Too much dribble penetration in OOC play. It isn't working.

 

[RUJMM78]

I want to see a starting lineup similar to what we saw early in the year. I want to see Sanders and Johnson (or ? if he is hurt) share the 1 and Thiam and Williams share the 2 position. I do not want to see too much of Johnson and Sanders together.

Penn State can be beat inside. I think our 5 bigs can score 35 points and get 2-3 3s from Williams and Issa from kickouts. I also think we can pound them on the offensive glass.

Changing defenses will be a must. Penn State guards and wings are too good for players like Thiam to play man possession after possession.

I do think there will be a hangover from the Indiana.

Eugene is a must play based on his willingness to get others the ball in good spots, but he must eliminate unforced TOs. Can't take the aggressiveness out of his looks, but he has to do simple things like catch the basketball.

I want to see the allocation of touches pretty evenly spread among the 5 guys on the court, meaning 0 and 3 don't have the ball in their hands 15-20 seconds of every possession. Every non transition possession has to be an attempt to get the ball inside.

I am really confident for some strange reason. Nigel being healthy is critical (defense).

I don't see 35 points from the front court and am doubtful that Johnson plays because of his injury.Its hard to see Rutgers scoring 60 points which won't be enough to win.

 

[jtung230]

that only takes you so far, see a whole bunch of other losses this year, team has to have a great shooting night and hope PSU plays a C minus or below game

Not disagreeing with you but think the bread and butter will keep us in it and making key shots to win. Coming out like the Iowa game and chucking shots and hoping they go in will equal another 20+ point lost.

 

[goru7]

I want to see a starting lineup similar to what we saw early in the year. I want to see Sanders and Johnson (or ? if he is hurt) share the 1 and Thiam and Williams share the 2 position. I do not want to see too much of Johnson and Sanders together.

Penn State can be beat inside. I think our 5 bigs can score 35 points and get 2-3 3s from Williams and Issa from kickouts. I also think we can pound them on the offensive glass.

Changing defenses will be a must. Penn State guards and wings are too good for players like Thiam to play man possession after possession.

I do think there will be a hangover from the Indiana.

Eugene is a must play based on his willingness to get others the ball in good spots, but he must eliminate unforced TOs. Can't take the aggressiveness out of his looks, but he has to do simple things like catch the basketball.

I want to see the allocation of touches pretty evenly spread among the 5 guys on the court, meaning 0 and 3 don't have the ball in their hands 15-20 seconds of every possession. Every non transition possession has to be an attempt to get the ball inside.

I am really confident for some strange reason. Nigel being healthy is critical (defense).

 

[goru7]

We can start by stopping the ridiculous amount of turnovers, especially the unforced ones. We must totally stop the pick 6 turnovers, that reared their ugly head in the beginning of the Wisconsin game with Happ getting 2-3 easy runout layups. We have having somewhere between 14-19 turnovers a game. 5 or so have been on the moving screens. The refs have been calling that all year and now is the time to stop finally doing it. Just getting our turnovers down to 10 a game without pick sixes would result in more points for us and less for the opponent.
The second thing we have to do is hit a few outside shots, not just threes. It would be ideal to hit 6 threes , which I believe we have done only once this year, in the first Wisconsin game, but that doesn't seem possible for this team . That last thought is mind numbing alone. But against Wisconsin, Nigel and Mike hit tough 15 foot shots that extended our lead and should have led to the victory. Corey missed a wide open deep corner 2 or a 3 with 2:45 left that would have extended the lead to 10 and might have been the nail in the coffin. But we have to pull up and take some shots. I really believe we should take the open shots even early in the shot clock that we are declining only to run the clock down and end up taking a forced shot. The brilliance of Pikiell 's defense against Wisconsin between the trap and the zone , is that Wisconsin only had 20 instead of 30 seconds to set up their offense and the tight aggressive zone, forced them to take rushed shots inside 5 seconds on the shot clock, which I thought was the main reason they shot so poorly. I think that happens to us as well . Pikiell wants the offense run and we are inside 10 seconds with the ball in the wrong person's hands and our shots are forced and one of the reasons we are shooting so poorly. We should take the first good shot we have and then crash the boards. I am not comparing us to UNC but between Joel Berry and Justin Jackson, they are hoisting shots within 10 seconds of coming down court and then crashing the boards with their bigs when they miss. They are Number 1 in the country in offensive rebounding and last I checked we were 3 or 5 , so we should try to do more of what we are good at not less.

 

[bac2therac]

Watching a decent amount of B1G games I believe our 4s and 5s are right there relative to others. I think if we get the ball to CJ and Freeman in good spots they can succeed and open things up for others. Especially Williams and Thaim on the perimeter.

I honestly think we can get 30 points out of Freeman and Gettys.

If we aren't a good shooting team than get close shots. I just don't see a lineup of Johnson and Sanders as a good one offensively. Let sanders score in transition. In the half court I want to see us go back to the way we operated in the OOC. Too much dribble penetration in OOC play. It isn't working.

Freeman is the only legit threat of any of our 4s and 5s and even he is limited by size. Gettys can give a couple of baskets. I think you are trying too hard. Our other guys Sa, Doorson and Diallo give NOTHING on offense. Most likely any insistence on forcing the ball inside will lead to double teams and turnovers

we will never get 30 points out of Freeman and Gettys are you kidding me

 

[Russ Wood]

PSU could have a hangover from their 3OT loss at Indiana. Fatigue could be an issue late in the game for them, Rutgers could steal a road win

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Penn State doesn't have interior size that other B1G schools have. Gettys can score on the block.

We need ball movement. Our 3 4 and 5s have more vision than our 1 and 2s lately. I am tired of dribble penetration and low percentage shots. As important guards are tired when penetrating every possession and D suffers.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Double teams are what we want. Thiam and Williams have to knock down 3s

 

[toby83]

If I was opposing coach I wouldn't double anybody in the post until I saw at least a few baskets in a row and/or free throws .

 

[jtung230]

PSU could have a hangover from their 3OT loss at Indiana. Fatigue could be an issue late in the game for them, Rutgers could steal a road win

More of a reason to make them guard you for 25 seconds on offense and pound the boards. Keep it close and law of averages will help us make a key basket. Go RU.

 

[Russ Wood]

More of a reason to make them guard you for 25 seconds on offense and pound the boards. Keep it close and law of averages will help us make a key basket. Go RU.

I don't know about that. I think Rutgers needs to play at whatever tempo Coach wants them to normally play. What they could do is substitute more in the first half so that they're fresher at the end of the game and press from time to time.

If PSU is behind late or its close late, Carr will probably start playing hero ball.

 

[zebnatto]

I want to see a starting lineup similar to what we saw early in the year. I want to see Sanders and Johnson (or ? if he is hurt) share the 1 and Thiam and Williams share the 2 position. I do not want to see too much of Johnson and Sanders together.

Penn State can be beat inside. I think our 5 bigs can score 35 points and get 2-3 3s from Williams and Issa from kickouts. I also think we can pound them on the offensive glass.

Changing defenses will be a must. Penn State guards and wings are too good for players like Thiam to play man possession after possession.

I do think there will be a hangover from the Indiana.

Eugene is a must play based on his willingness to get others the ball in good spots, but he must eliminate unforced TOs. Can't take the aggressiveness out of his looks, but he has to do simple things like catch the basketball.

I want to see the allocation of touches pretty evenly spread among the 5 guys on the court, meaning 0 and 3 don't have the ball in their hands 15-20 seconds of every possession. Every non transition possession has to be an attempt to get the ball inside.

I am really confident for some strange reason. Nigel being healthy is critical (defense).

Mostly agree, FIG--a couple of differences:

I've got no problem with Sanders/Johnson.Among the four guards you name, the only one I can't see is Thiam/Williams--other coach would/should immediately jump into press.

Gettys has to show up.

I like Eugene but only with four scorers (gulp) on the court w/him. I like him when CJ and DeShawn are in.

 

[Mr_Twister]

Haven't seen a second of the game yet. Did the contributors to this thread nail it?

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Mixed

 

[goru7]

Haven't seen a second of the game yet. Did the contributors to this thread nail it?

I nailed part of the formula by saying we needed to hit some shots, specifically hit at least 6 threes, and shoot earlier in the shot clock when we got good open looks..Corey and Mike shot better since most of their shots were earlier than the last 5 seconds of the shot clock. CJ started the game with 2 nice easy bank shot layups after the pass came down to him and Deshawn hit a couple of quick jump hooks earlier in the clock. Our pace was better and we scored 70 for the first time in forever. If we score 70 with the way e play defense , hustle and rebound we have a good chance down the stretch . Turnovers were also reduced with no pick sixes. Have to cut them even more. Only 1-2 moving screens today.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

there were pick 6s in the end game.

1st game vs a real opponent where we scored more than a point per possession.

 

[goru7]

there were pick 6s in the end game.

1st game vs a real opponent where we scored more than a point per possession.

No there wasn't , the pass to Deshawn went right through his hands and led to a run out and it was not intercepted by Penn State. Corey's pass to CJ on the pick and roll was messed up by CJ not expecting the pass that led to a run out. No blatant pick sixes to the other team for flushes.

 

[goru7]

there were pick 6s in the end game.

1st game vs a real opponent where we scored more than a point per possession.

Your second point is more interesting about our scoring more than a point a possession. We have to take the first good open shot we have and avoid taking shots with less than 5 on the clock.