Indeed. We were talking from almost the get-go about Cole having the ball too much and yes, it was a mutual thing with the other guys being spectators too often. I'm hoping AP and Leaky in particular (and BRob once he gets back) will hunt the ball more and even let Cole do some off-ball work using screens to get open. Sure, he was amazing in the second half but he shouldn't have to create his own shot so much --- don't wanna turn him into James Harden ---and the Freelance won't function well without ball movement, as you know... not to mention the value of "pitching ahead" in transition.
Like many of us, most of the guys were standing around in awe of what Cole was doing, and understandably so. Talents of his level don't come around very often. But our staff will stress the necessity to move without the ball and present themselves as viable targets for Cole's passes. Cole will have more and more help as the other players acclimate themselves to his exceptional talent.
A few things that really impress me about Cole:
1- his work ethic is off the charts, Jordanesque. That is extremely rare.
2- he has a very well rounded game, he defends voraciously, he rebounds as well as you could possibly want a guard to rebound, and he understands the importance of getting his teammates involved in scoring,
despite being a scoring machine. Individual accolades aside, winning is paramount in his genetic makeup. Again, a rare breed.Having to replace 80% of the scoring from last year's team, what does Roy do? Turn to defense and rebounding, the two basic building blocks of any good team. As we rebound and defend better, and we're already showing signs of being a great rebounding team, our offense will naturally come as a result.
If it were last year, the team would have about 60-70% of the total offense installed already, but with so many new and younger players, priority 1 is defense and that is what Roy and staff have concentrated on to date. Roy specifically mentioned in his post game interview that the team needs to learn offense, and I would certainly expect that part of the players basketball education to begin very, very soon..., like tomorrow.
We may very well see a different look offensively come Friday's game. Something to look for. Also expect some run & jump defense employed Friday as well.
Our offense will develop as a natural result of our emphasis on rebounding and defense. Roy says every year that rebounding is the most important statistic in basketball. IIRC, we have finished in the top 3 nationally the last three years. With Mando, Garrison at his natural PF spot, and long wing players to chip in, I think we can be right there again this year. We just crushed a very good rebounding, veteran ND team on the boards, it was undoubtedly the difference in the game.
One of the things I was most impressed with was how well Garrison played defense without getting in foul trouble. That's going to be important for this team.
Because of his penchant for fouling, the fact that Garrison played 39 minutes against Mooney, a guy who may very well be first team All ACC this year, impressed me as much as anything that happened. With Sterling out, we need Garrison to average 35 MPG this year and provide something like 12/8 on a consistent basis. I think he can.
