...and this was about identities.
Before I dive in, lemme say nice win. And that's not just a platitude --- this was a very loseable game. So yeah.
- But now back to that "identities" thing: Charleston's identity is to push tempo above all else, take a lot of shots --- some good, an awful lot bad --- and hope they can prevail by sheer volume. We, on the other hand, haven't established an identity yet. When we do, I can only hope we don't settle for anything resembling theirs (which some fans inexplicably seem to want).
- Dean used to FEAST on teams that play like CoC, by playing sound controlled fast-break Carolina basketball, NOT racehorse if-it-feels-like-leather-shoot-it nonsense. Suffice to say that, at this point, our shot-selection leaves a lot to be desired. And as usual, most success tonight came adhering to our principals, especially from pounding the rock inside, and certainly not from 4-men trying to drive from the damned wing 3-point line.
- One thing that looks like it might be part of our identity is set plays --- we ran a lot, and by my count scored 43 points off them. Most of you however realize that's a double-edged sword, speaking poorly for our freelance and transition games at this juncture. Ball security (lack thereof) contributed to a miserable first half that like to got us blown out early, and a lot of that came from being unsure about what to do. Again, that's where identity comes in.
- Unsurprisingly and thankfully, Hubert came out for the second half in Dean Smith mode, and suddenly Bacot was getting his touches, and we ran sets designed for post entries. And golly gee, what happened? CoC, immediately got themselves in foul trouble (they were quite the grabby bunch) and we grinded out a lead for the first time all night.
- (edit) Forget to mention this initially, but we saw a couple of interesting things tonight: Leaky running Point when RJ was struggling and going "Small" late in the game with Leaky at the 4. While I've never been a fan of the former, I think it was designed to settle things down, and it kinda did, and the latter was a good adjustment to their personnel.
- OK, back to the weekly elephant in the room: Defense. The best news tonight was our Help-D in the paint was night-and-day improved and we were thus getting some rim protection ops (especially Bacot). Of course, it didn't hurt that they seldom saw a sketchy drive they wouldn't try, but still... they might've hung a hundie on us if we had helped as poorly as we did vs Brown. So that was encouraging. I wish, however, I could say the on-ball D was markedly better but I can't. For his part, Leaky was very good --- and BTW, why they thought it was a good idea to iso #12 time and again is beyond me, but hey, it distracted them from hunting out Kerwin, so well... thanks.
- Finally, (with apologies to the great Jon Stewart), Hubert... meet me at Camera 3. You did a great job wrangling us through the second half with all the set plays (33 points in the second half alone!), but c'mon, you played for Dean. SHOT SELECTION STILL MATTERS! And ours was LOUSY in the first half especially. Please don't even tacitly encourage that... and please spend some extra video time with Dawson on that note. At some point we hafta get to a rhythm and identity that can function in transition and Freelance on its own, so hammer those Carolina principals into their heads!
Anyway, again this is a game we could've lost, and kudos for not panicking when were offering up largely self-inflicted wounds early on (15 points allowed off TOs --- yikes!). There are some positives to build on as we head into a weekend Murderer's Row. And hey, it's always particularly gratifying to get a win over a team that relies on unsound dribble-drive shortcuts...
Before I dive in, lemme say nice win. And that's not just a platitude --- this was a very loseable game. So yeah.
- But now back to that "identities" thing: Charleston's identity is to push tempo above all else, take a lot of shots --- some good, an awful lot bad --- and hope they can prevail by sheer volume. We, on the other hand, haven't established an identity yet. When we do, I can only hope we don't settle for anything resembling theirs (which some fans inexplicably seem to want).
- Dean used to FEAST on teams that play like CoC, by playing sound controlled fast-break Carolina basketball, NOT racehorse if-it-feels-like-leather-shoot-it nonsense. Suffice to say that, at this point, our shot-selection leaves a lot to be desired. And as usual, most success tonight came adhering to our principals, especially from pounding the rock inside, and certainly not from 4-men trying to drive from the damned wing 3-point line.
- One thing that looks like it might be part of our identity is set plays --- we ran a lot, and by my count scored 43 points off them. Most of you however realize that's a double-edged sword, speaking poorly for our freelance and transition games at this juncture. Ball security (lack thereof) contributed to a miserable first half that like to got us blown out early, and a lot of that came from being unsure about what to do. Again, that's where identity comes in.
- Unsurprisingly and thankfully, Hubert came out for the second half in Dean Smith mode, and suddenly Bacot was getting his touches, and we ran sets designed for post entries. And golly gee, what happened? CoC, immediately got themselves in foul trouble (they were quite the grabby bunch) and we grinded out a lead for the first time all night.
- (edit) Forget to mention this initially, but we saw a couple of interesting things tonight: Leaky running Point when RJ was struggling and going "Small" late in the game with Leaky at the 4. While I've never been a fan of the former, I think it was designed to settle things down, and it kinda did, and the latter was a good adjustment to their personnel.
- OK, back to the weekly elephant in the room: Defense. The best news tonight was our Help-D in the paint was night-and-day improved and we were thus getting some rim protection ops (especially Bacot). Of course, it didn't hurt that they seldom saw a sketchy drive they wouldn't try, but still... they might've hung a hundie on us if we had helped as poorly as we did vs Brown. So that was encouraging. I wish, however, I could say the on-ball D was markedly better but I can't. For his part, Leaky was very good --- and BTW, why they thought it was a good idea to iso #12 time and again is beyond me, but hey, it distracted them from hunting out Kerwin, so well... thanks.
- Finally, (with apologies to the great Jon Stewart), Hubert... meet me at Camera 3. You did a great job wrangling us through the second half with all the set plays (33 points in the second half alone!), but c'mon, you played for Dean. SHOT SELECTION STILL MATTERS! And ours was LOUSY in the first half especially. Please don't even tacitly encourage that... and please spend some extra video time with Dawson on that note. At some point we hafta get to a rhythm and identity that can function in transition and Freelance on its own, so hammer those Carolina principals into their heads!
Anyway, again this is a game we could've lost, and kudos for not panicking when were offering up largely self-inflicted wounds early on (15 points allowed off TOs --- yikes!). There are some positives to build on as we head into a weekend Murderer's Row. And hey, it's always particularly gratifying to get a win over a team that relies on unsound dribble-drive shortcuts...
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