The proverbial monkey off our back with another gutsy effort by our Knights. Corey just put his team on his back and refused to lose yesterday . This team fights through adversity unlike any Scarlet team in a very long time. This is a credit to the coaching staff and the hard work put in by these players, who are really busting it. Coach has started to tweak things to make a difference, especially yesterday with the defenses, but even more must be done to make some noise down the stretch . Unlike some others on this board, I would include Rutgers as a tough out for any Big 10 team and not fall for some of the articles we saw this week" about the 2nd worst team in conference besides Rutgers"! Every team except Michigan State knew they would have to claw and scratch to get a win.
A couple of observations and thoughts so that we win some games down the stretch.
1) Corey Sanders is returning to his mid season form from last year, which makes our chances for wins go up exponentially. Any person that does not realize how good and important he is to our team and might focus on a few turnovers or not playing defense on every possession , is missing it. Any point guard handling it as much will have turnovers and playing 35 plus minutes like he has has done the last few games, cannot sustain his defense. His defense has improved drastically and Coach is putting him on the other team's best scorer as well. His mid range jumper is starting to return and he uses the window better than almost anyone and should teach it to some of our players. He tries to execute the pick and roll but our bigs cannot finish .
2) The defense and rebounding has been terrific but I was glad to see Coach install more traps and press. Earlier in yesterday's game, Nebraska was killing us on high / pick and roll. Coach switched defenses to part press , part traps , which caused them to miss 17 straight shots from the field and go scoreless from the field for over 10 minutes. That is the type of adjustment that will win us more games. Some will say Nebraska just played bad but I will say , Rutgers caused them to play bad. We are doing things like this more regularly as the first 19 minutes of the first half against Northwestern was the best defense we have played all year. It is not a fluke but we cannot sustain that level of man defense the whole game and that is why the adjustments will be key.
3) We scored 65 yesterday , which was an improvement from our conference average of 58, but it will not be enough. I have been and continue to say we have to hit 6 threes a game to win . We were outscored 24-9 from 3 and that 15 points are really hard to overcome. The 2 prior games we only hit 1 three , even though we held teams down to 4 and 2, and when coupled with pick 6 turnovers and under 50% foul shooting it was impossible to overcome. I have said Coach can get some improvement there and yesterday although we had 13 turnovers, there were no pick 6's for run outs or dunks, momentum shifters. We also shot 14-20 from the line for 70% , which I am hopeful will continue .
Coach has to change his message on three pointers just a little , we were 3-6 yesterday, 1-6 against Indiana, and 1-12 (mostly late) against Northwestern. His message to not shoot more than 10 a game has made guys like Mike, and Laurent and Issa before he was hurt , very tentative. We have to get more out of our 3 wing and passing up open looks to work the ball to a more forced shot later in the shot clock, will not help. With the added attention Corey will get, which did lead to Nigel hitting 3-3 from three point land yesterday, there will be more opportunities and we have to get the players confidence back to make a difference. We cannot continue to only shoot less than 10 a game !!!
4) Using the glass for our bigs. Finally CJ hit a 12 foot bank shot yesterday and he should have done it more. Our bigs miss too many layups or drive into contact without drawing fouls. Deshawn would definitely benefit from using the bank shot as could Sa and Diallo. Corey uses it the best and Nigel did early in the year and now is not and just going up soft into traffic leading to a bad shot or runout. A conscious effort to make the simple shot will go a long way.
There are more thoughts but this thread is already too long but I am excited to see where this team goes from here on out.
A couple of observations and thoughts so that we win some games down the stretch.
1) Corey Sanders is returning to his mid season form from last year, which makes our chances for wins go up exponentially. Any person that does not realize how good and important he is to our team and might focus on a few turnovers or not playing defense on every possession , is missing it. Any point guard handling it as much will have turnovers and playing 35 plus minutes like he has has done the last few games, cannot sustain his defense. His defense has improved drastically and Coach is putting him on the other team's best scorer as well. His mid range jumper is starting to return and he uses the window better than almost anyone and should teach it to some of our players. He tries to execute the pick and roll but our bigs cannot finish .
2) The defense and rebounding has been terrific but I was glad to see Coach install more traps and press. Earlier in yesterday's game, Nebraska was killing us on high / pick and roll. Coach switched defenses to part press , part traps , which caused them to miss 17 straight shots from the field and go scoreless from the field for over 10 minutes. That is the type of adjustment that will win us more games. Some will say Nebraska just played bad but I will say , Rutgers caused them to play bad. We are doing things like this more regularly as the first 19 minutes of the first half against Northwestern was the best defense we have played all year. It is not a fluke but we cannot sustain that level of man defense the whole game and that is why the adjustments will be key.
3) We scored 65 yesterday , which was an improvement from our conference average of 58, but it will not be enough. I have been and continue to say we have to hit 6 threes a game to win . We were outscored 24-9 from 3 and that 15 points are really hard to overcome. The 2 prior games we only hit 1 three , even though we held teams down to 4 and 2, and when coupled with pick 6 turnovers and under 50% foul shooting it was impossible to overcome. I have said Coach can get some improvement there and yesterday although we had 13 turnovers, there were no pick 6's for run outs or dunks, momentum shifters. We also shot 14-20 from the line for 70% , which I am hopeful will continue .
Coach has to change his message on three pointers just a little , we were 3-6 yesterday, 1-6 against Indiana, and 1-12 (mostly late) against Northwestern. His message to not shoot more than 10 a game has made guys like Mike, and Laurent and Issa before he was hurt , very tentative. We have to get more out of our 3 wing and passing up open looks to work the ball to a more forced shot later in the shot clock, will not help. With the added attention Corey will get, which did lead to Nigel hitting 3-3 from three point land yesterday, there will be more opportunities and we have to get the players confidence back to make a difference. We cannot continue to only shoot less than 10 a game !!!
4) Using the glass for our bigs. Finally CJ hit a 12 foot bank shot yesterday and he should have done it more. Our bigs miss too many layups or drive into contact without drawing fouls. Deshawn would definitely benefit from using the bank shot as could Sa and Diallo. Corey uses it the best and Nigel did early in the year and now is not and just going up soft into traffic leading to a bad shot or runout. A conscious effort to make the simple shot will go a long way.
There are more thoughts but this thread is already too long but I am excited to see where this team goes from here on out.
