Okay, yesterday was a really bad effort especially offensively but not lazy on defense like some have posted. The Banks kid hit 3 threes in the first half from real deep and normally we will not get burned from that distance . Our defense has been a constant . I will take giving up 60 points as a bad effort every single game. Giving up on this team like almost every poster has done, saying we will win 1-2 more or 4 at most, is really premature. You are never as bad as your worst game, yesterday, or your best game, Central Connecticut State, but somewhere in between. Coach knows where we are struggling and will do more to tweak things and despite the horrendous shooting from every distance this year, I expect a number of our players to play better and shoot better as soon as their confidence improves.
Some of the tweaks in my opinion is to tweak the starting lineup , go back to Jonathan and Issa and make a real effort to get them looks or Jonathan to drive. Bringing Nigel and Mike off the bench gives us more of a microwave effect like Vinny Johnson of the Pistons. He can still play the 3 guards if the opponent goes small. The guards have to do a better job of entry passes to CJ and Deshawn. Deshawn sealed his guy about 4-5 times and either the guards or CJ did not get him the ball and he got frustrated. But we are not winning with his shooting only 4 shots a game. Everyone is saying he cannot handle the height in the Big 10, but I think as he continues to play through it , he will adapt , draw more fouls, and hopefully also dish it back out for a three . The Tate kid from Ohio State has done it at the same height and I think they have a similar skill set and neither one shoots the 12 footer. . Same goes for CJ, except he has to take that 10-14 foot jumper.
The major problem has been the turnovers , the totally unforced ridiculous ones. We do not shoot well enough to be averaging 15-17 turnovers a game . A small part of our problem I think is our spacing , as I believe it is too tight. I would spread the court and let Corey or Nigel create and then have Jon or Deshawn slashing in for the dish when Corey gets picked up by the bigs. Also, I think dishing to Mike when he is set after the penetration will improve Mike's accuracy to an even higher level. We do not want Corey going reckless or freelance but to penetrate to create fouls and to dish first and get to the hole second. Corey last year could have averaged 6 assists a game if any of our bigs could hold onto the ball last year and I think we have bigs that can catch his passes this year .
Finally, our team defense has been really good but the last 2 games our point guards have not harassed their point enough and both Wisconsin and Penn State got into their offenses too easily .Nigel has to become a pest like he has been for most of the year. I also think Coach playing so much man, tires us out , and yesterday he went zone a few possessions which worked, but I think he should make the 3/4 court trap more of a part of our defense with our length playing at the top of it. I think it will create more turnovers, giving us points , which we desperately need more of , plus get the crowd more energized, plus raising the intensity on defense sometimes gets your offense and confidence elevated.
I not ready to throw in the towel on this team. This conference is a bear but there does not appear to be a truly elite team but almost all the teams appear equal with no easy ones. Coach has a roster 10 deep that is not mismatched every night and everyone except Mike can play better.
