...and this will be a bit longer for those who get it.
So... once again we come out flat, but most noticible is that nobody (other than maybe Seth) is playing anywhere near their abilities right now. Bigs aren't looking to score, we don't finish with any consistency, Drake looked lost, RJ is forcing shots and Eliot is forcing passes. Ultimately, it does no good to scapegoat individual players --- as I've tried to explain, the underlying issue here is SCHEME.
- Before I get into that, two 2nd half moments exemplified our struggles: EC hits ahead to RJ in transition wide-open at his favorite Wing 3 spot, and misses pretty badly. Moments later, RJ on a called play (same spot) freezes his man with his patented step-back, but again, clang. I'll bet I wasn't the only one here saying "last year RJ makes that", huh? OK, so reality is RJ is in a bad shooting slump right now --- slumps happen --- but what it should expose is that we shouldn't HAVE to rely on RJ to shoot us out of trouble.
What's getting us in this trouble is scheme. THAT is the catalyst for most of the issues we're (painfully) watching.
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To wit: Since I started keeping specific game notes back in 2014, I create a grid to track our scores by 4 categories:
Fast Break (primary with number advantage or ahead of the defense)
Secondary Break (including iterations and reversals)
Half Court (Freelance or player-called actions on the fly)
Set Plays (Called from bench or OB situations)
- As an example of how things CAN work, during the last Natty season 16-17 there were some games in which there were more points in the Secondary box than any other (all wins, unsurprisingly). Most of those points won't show up in box score "fast break" stats, but it has been the key to our success.
- In stark contrast, today (aside from 4 FTs in late Press Offense, we had 5 --- count'em FIVE --- Secondary points (and 7 vs bama). Folks, that dog ain't gonna hunt. Look, I've already explained exactly how we've f***ed up the Secondary scheme, so I won't revisit it, but it also has a ripple effect by making us start Freelance from a static set vs an unstressed defense.
- That then leads us into the foibles of unsound 5-out offense. Yikes. Unless you're raining in Steph Curry range 3s, 5-out actually creates LESS perimeter space than 4-out, and makes us just too damn EASY to defend. Moreover, there's a reason coaches have long preached "inside-out" --- it's basic applied geometry. The ball has to periodically go inside WITH A PURPOSE. The Big needs to look to score (and not just be a passer), because even if it's not always successful, it STRESSES the defense vertically thus making it difficult to track perimeter motion. Right now, defenders are just anticipating and swarming RJ's cuts without having to look over their shoulders, and they're also anticipating Eliot's PnR dishes. We are easy to scout.
- Our impotency in inside threat also showed up vs their 1-1-3 matchup --- and jeez, can't even flush a perfect lob play. It's not good when our "paint" points are almost all from Guards driving.
- OK, some positives: I still can't believe we out rebounded them. It was definitely a group effort, which it will need to be going forward for sure.
- Starting just after the under-8, we legtimately turned up some defensive intensity and shut them out of FGs for a long stretch. Seth was a terror, and gotta give a shout-out to EC here, who despite apparently fighting a virus, was also key. In particular, when EC was out Stoudamire was having his taller PG iso RJ, but Eliot absolutely stoned him with some damn good footwork.
- Although we missed three front-end FTs, Seth and Ian knocked down the big ones in crunch time. Now, why we were somehow still in 1-and-1 so late is a whole nuther issue, but we'll leave that for another day.
- Finally, bottom line is there's no way this Tech team should lead us during the 2nd half of a game. I mean, they are competitive but their most dangerous shooter transfered to Auburn --- speaking of whom, found out what the ACC knows about the striped treatment at HIS, the sort of home-cooking we can never seem to get --- but I digress. Our issues these days are self-inflicted.
Anyway, we toughed out a win that shouldn't have been so hard, so there's that. And I don't mean to down-play this win --- Lord knows a loss would've been disastorus --- as the guys sucked it up and fought for 8 key minutes down the stretch for the W. The bad news is that right about now, we're Fast Break or "Hoo-Boy", so I've said it before --- December is for adjustments, and we are in dire need of doing just that. The upcoming practices and LaSalle would seem to be the ideal time. I'd rather not wait untiI UF and UCLA. I suppose we shall see... 
