...and a good time was had by all.
As mentioned yesterday pre-game, playing a grossly overmatched opponent like this ain't gonna tell you much statistically, so this one will be light on numbers, heavier on stuff. Let's just shotgun it:
- approach: Once again, proliferation of set plays is going to be a staple of this different 2018-19 version. During the first half, while the game was still competitive (score-wise at least), we ran them off every pause in flow, and thus set plays accounted for 29 of our first-half points. Again, atypical from what we're used to, but a necessary adjustment Roy has wisely made to accomodate our personnel situation. Once the game quickly got out of hand in the second half we had the luxury to return to our standard predominantly free-lance approach, which was good practice for sure.
- As also mentioned yesterday, I was watching Coby as to giving up the ball sooner, and he was actually better at that this time and thus got himself into fewer bad situations, and accordingly got a lot more good looks off return passes and reversals. Hopefully that will continue. As for 7th, once again he played the more solid floor game of the two. Bless his heart, I can see him thinking thru things in real time, but he's working hard to not resort to bad habits and is facilitating an offense much better than in previous seasons. All that said, Elon put zero stress on pur ball-handlers, so the PGs were able to operate freely. The real tests will come when (inevitably) better teams start pressing/jumping our 1s.
- This was a mix-and-match night for Roy and we ran myriad combos and configurations, starting Hybrid (as usual), then Traditional (with Manley/Brooks together), and Small... and eight different backcourt combos along the way. Speaking of lineups there was one particularly sporty Small group late in the first half as we got our working halftime margin featuring Coby, Platek, Leaky, Cam and Luke.
- We didn't shoot the 3 well, but hell, we got nearly every miss it seemed and easy put-backs padded the shooting pct. Good to see Luke continuing to stroke those FTs, BTW! Also, good to see Nas stroke the 3 with more confidence. He still needs more work defensively in rotations, etc but that will come. And oh, for those fretting about his role, in case I didn't mention it before, Nas already has Roy's coveted Green Light.
- LORDY LORDY, WE PLAYED 40!!! Sorry, but this one made me ecstatic. I've been complaining about Roy defaulting too much to 30 in half-court scrambles. Tonight we ran several series of 42 --- hell, even executed consecutive double-teams down the sideline off the pass! --- and other than a late rotation by Nas, they worked. Look, there's nothing wrong with 30 as a quick shock tactic, but it's a one-and-done deal with the jump-switch/trap, and teams scout hard to look for it and to get ball out pronto. 40 maintains the zone-trap protocol as long as the ball doesn't escape to the middle, and most teams have a really hard time with that second double. Yeah, 40 is harder to teach, but IMO it's Dean's most potent defensive invention. Me likey!
- Some individual notes:
*Big Manley came out of his shell. Again, yeah, it was against an overmatched opponent, but he was active and aggressive on the offensive end. Needs to still work on playing defense with his feet and beating guys to the spot, but hopefully this game will serve as a jump-start.
*Kenny however continues to be cold offensively. I watched him closely last night and I'm seeing two things. 1) He is (as I feared) assuming a lot of responsibility, not only in defense, but in compensating for not having a JB to run the show, i.e., wrangling spacing and motion, and 2) he is thus pressing some on the offensive end when he gets his scoring ops. On that note, once he sees a couple of shots go down I think he'll be fine, and as he adjusts to the differences around him the comfort level should hopefully improve.
*Good to see Baby Jet snag some points in front of his dad! And Caleb took full advantage of his late minutes.
*I know it's tricky given the allocation of our considerable depth (see the last point below), but one way or another, Platek needs to get minutes, and that includes later in the season when the rotation shrinks. One reason is he can flat play. The other is that when he's in it's like having a second PG in the backcourt --- a particularly valuable commodity right now --- and good things happen.
- Additional concerns: Despite scoring 116, we only had 18 Team Assists meanwhile blowing 22 --- not good. And along with that were 17 Blown Transition opportunities despite only 11 TOs. In other words, we mauled them with physical superiority as opposed to execution. On the defensive side they absolutely wore us out with their Hi-Lo post action. Multiple easy "slip" lay-ups evoked Roy's most sour expressions of the night. Again, play D with your feet, stay below the ball, and anticipate the spot! Need to get this cleaned up pronto.
- And finally, personnel: People can talk the "positionless" platitude all they want, but our system sure as hell doesn't work that way. It really is fascinating how certain players are just more suited and natural at certain positions, even compered to those that aren't all that dissimilar. For example, it's obvious already that BRob is a born 3 --- when he plays the 2 he just gets himself in trouble. Leaky is also miles better as a 3 than anywhere else right now. In general, looking at the whole, we have a LOT of really good basketball players --- I mean we are deep. Trouble is, unlike an NBA GM, ya can't always have the optimal allocation of personnel amongst positions, and our aggregate strength (1-thru-5) graphs like a Bell Curve...
So... kudos to our coach for having the sportsmanship (and cajones) to play true road games vs close, hungry opponents ( as opposed to the policies of the fella, ahem, down the road a piece). Fun win for fans and players alike, not to mention exciting boosts in cred for the programs at Elon and Wofford! Next step --- Monday...
As mentioned yesterday pre-game, playing a grossly overmatched opponent like this ain't gonna tell you much statistically, so this one will be light on numbers, heavier on stuff. Let's just shotgun it:
- approach: Once again, proliferation of set plays is going to be a staple of this different 2018-19 version. During the first half, while the game was still competitive (score-wise at least), we ran them off every pause in flow, and thus set plays accounted for 29 of our first-half points. Again, atypical from what we're used to, but a necessary adjustment Roy has wisely made to accomodate our personnel situation. Once the game quickly got out of hand in the second half we had the luxury to return to our standard predominantly free-lance approach, which was good practice for sure.
- As also mentioned yesterday, I was watching Coby as to giving up the ball sooner, and he was actually better at that this time and thus got himself into fewer bad situations, and accordingly got a lot more good looks off return passes and reversals. Hopefully that will continue. As for 7th, once again he played the more solid floor game of the two. Bless his heart, I can see him thinking thru things in real time, but he's working hard to not resort to bad habits and is facilitating an offense much better than in previous seasons. All that said, Elon put zero stress on pur ball-handlers, so the PGs were able to operate freely. The real tests will come when (inevitably) better teams start pressing/jumping our 1s.
- This was a mix-and-match night for Roy and we ran myriad combos and configurations, starting Hybrid (as usual), then Traditional (with Manley/Brooks together), and Small... and eight different backcourt combos along the way. Speaking of lineups there was one particularly sporty Small group late in the first half as we got our working halftime margin featuring Coby, Platek, Leaky, Cam and Luke.
- We didn't shoot the 3 well, but hell, we got nearly every miss it seemed and easy put-backs padded the shooting pct. Good to see Luke continuing to stroke those FTs, BTW! Also, good to see Nas stroke the 3 with more confidence. He still needs more work defensively in rotations, etc but that will come. And oh, for those fretting about his role, in case I didn't mention it before, Nas already has Roy's coveted Green Light.
- LORDY LORDY, WE PLAYED 40!!! Sorry, but this one made me ecstatic. I've been complaining about Roy defaulting too much to 30 in half-court scrambles. Tonight we ran several series of 42 --- hell, even executed consecutive double-teams down the sideline off the pass! --- and other than a late rotation by Nas, they worked. Look, there's nothing wrong with 30 as a quick shock tactic, but it's a one-and-done deal with the jump-switch/trap, and teams scout hard to look for it and to get ball out pronto. 40 maintains the zone-trap protocol as long as the ball doesn't escape to the middle, and most teams have a really hard time with that second double. Yeah, 40 is harder to teach, but IMO it's Dean's most potent defensive invention. Me likey!
- Some individual notes:
*Big Manley came out of his shell. Again, yeah, it was against an overmatched opponent, but he was active and aggressive on the offensive end. Needs to still work on playing defense with his feet and beating guys to the spot, but hopefully this game will serve as a jump-start.
*Kenny however continues to be cold offensively. I watched him closely last night and I'm seeing two things. 1) He is (as I feared) assuming a lot of responsibility, not only in defense, but in compensating for not having a JB to run the show, i.e., wrangling spacing and motion, and 2) he is thus pressing some on the offensive end when he gets his scoring ops. On that note, once he sees a couple of shots go down I think he'll be fine, and as he adjusts to the differences around him the comfort level should hopefully improve.
*Good to see Baby Jet snag some points in front of his dad! And Caleb took full advantage of his late minutes.
*I know it's tricky given the allocation of our considerable depth (see the last point below), but one way or another, Platek needs to get minutes, and that includes later in the season when the rotation shrinks. One reason is he can flat play. The other is that when he's in it's like having a second PG in the backcourt --- a particularly valuable commodity right now --- and good things happen.
- Additional concerns: Despite scoring 116, we only had 18 Team Assists meanwhile blowing 22 --- not good. And along with that were 17 Blown Transition opportunities despite only 11 TOs. In other words, we mauled them with physical superiority as opposed to execution. On the defensive side they absolutely wore us out with their Hi-Lo post action. Multiple easy "slip" lay-ups evoked Roy's most sour expressions of the night. Again, play D with your feet, stay below the ball, and anticipate the spot! Need to get this cleaned up pronto.
- And finally, personnel: People can talk the "positionless" platitude all they want, but our system sure as hell doesn't work that way. It really is fascinating how certain players are just more suited and natural at certain positions, even compered to those that aren't all that dissimilar. For example, it's obvious already that BRob is a born 3 --- when he plays the 2 he just gets himself in trouble. Leaky is also miles better as a 3 than anywhere else right now. In general, looking at the whole, we have a LOT of really good basketball players --- I mean we are deep. Trouble is, unlike an NBA GM, ya can't always have the optimal allocation of personnel amongst positions, and our aggregate strength (1-thru-5) graphs like a Bell Curve...
So... kudos to our coach for having the sportsmanship (and cajones) to play true road games vs close, hungry opponents ( as opposed to the policies of the fella, ahem, down the road a piece). Fun win for fans and players alike, not to mention exciting boosts in cred for the programs at Elon and Wofford! Next step --- Monday...
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