[quote="weathermannyc" post=313252][quote="SJU1512" post=313243]Incredible to win that game. Executed so poorly at the end of regulation and in OT but continued to play relentlessly and just refused to lose. Mullin and staff appear to have this team conditioned not to panic and to keep playing through mistakes, two important qualities. Sometimes you just have to gut it out especially on the road and that's what they did Saturday. Major guts.
That said gutting it out is not a sustainable strategy, and the execution in the last 8 minutes against SHU and Georgetown is unlikely to fly against better competition. That might sound overly critical fresh off a 2-0 week and a ranking, but Georgetown is not a great team and I think SJU has the ability to beat great teams this year.
And I mean that literally, this team is showing the potential to be a second weekend NCAA team, but not the way they closed SHU and GTown. Few key and repeat areas from my perspective:
1. Defensive creativity. Even if you don't believe in zone (I'm guessing our staff's NBA view), and even if man defense is one of the biggest strengths of your team (I believe to be the case for this team), at the college level you can disrupt teams just by showing a different look. Saturday perfect example. Akinjo great young player with bright future, but seemed a classic freshman guard in that he was borderline unstoppable when things were going well, but was prone to mistakes when things weren't going his way. There was what felt like a 7 possession stretch in the second half where GTown did nothing besides P&R Keita onto Akinjo with no resistance, and then Akinjo went to work on Keita and made a positive play almost every time. You can't allow that to happen, have to do something to disrupt it and challenge a freshman guard to first identify and then beat changing defenses, not an easy task. Same true when they went on that run in the second half just dumping it in to Govan and LeBlanc at the rim. You let an inferior team get in a rhythm against the same look defensively and you are doing them a favor. Where is that 1-2-2 three-quarter court pressure that gave Rutgers fits? Seems like we haven't seen it since and likely would have been useful against a bigger team Saturday.
2. One of our biggest advantages defensively is that we can switch anything. Not sure if that will apply to Keita. Maybe generally, but not if a team sees a matchup they like and looks to exploit it. In a game that was even after 40 minutes that stretch where we just let GTown P&R Keita onto Akinjo with basically no resistance was not good and could have cost us. This is nothing against Keita - one he shouldn't be expected to stay with a dynamite freshman guard, and two even though he's capable of guarding smaller it's been an issue for Clark at times as well in terms of picking up fouls. Ok to be a team that switches everything but adjusts based on matchups with more traditional hedge/recover, etc.
3. A momentum crippler offensively right now is Simon in the post. I know we think we have a mismatch with Simon and maybe we do, but right now it's telegraphed, slow-developing, everyone else seems to stand around, and we aren't converting. If it becomes quicker and Simon passes out of it when help comes all for it, but it seems like we are going to it 5-7x per game which in the context of a ~60 possession game on average is not nothing. I'm a big Simon fan, he brings so much to game all over court, but he's so much more effective as a slasher facing basket (as we saw with key buckets late in second half driving from top of key).
4. Ponds needs to have the ball in his hands in winning time. At 94-90 under 2 minutes to go you should have a shot clock violation maybe 1 time out of 100 possessions. Should almost never happen. With plenty of time left on clock Ponds went to get ball and Simon waived him off to run motion and I don't know if Ponds ever touched ball. Trust our other guys but you just can't have that and the result spoke for itself, maybe the most disorganized possession of the game. Ponds is playing at such a mega level right now not just for himself but for his teammates we can't afford to not let him be dictating offense for us late and letting him make the right play.
Some of this is bigger impact and other is more nit picky, glad to get out of there with a win in critical game, but think we'll need a little bit more creativity on defense and better late game execution against better teams, particularly on the road. Hopefully starting tomorrow night
[/quote]
Excellent post. Mullin clearly has the program going in the right direction and is building momentum. That said, I do think one area that I believe could be handled better is the adjustment to the modern college game compared to what the college game was when he played and the NBA game. Kids don't stay 4 years anymore. Stars are usually one or two years. You are mainly dealing with 18-21 year old kids. Change the look and you can get them out of rhythm. Just like a pitcher keeping a hitter off balance by changing speed, location and eye level, or a football defense giving a QB different looks...you can and need to do the same thing with defense. Make the opponent have to think about what you are doing and see if they can recognize and execute. They're kids. Most of them will struggle for a possession or two.[/quote]
Thanks and agree with your analogies weatherman. Pitching a particularly good one - starter could be dominant fastball/curve/slider, but might still show change as his 4th best pitch 5-10x per game. Especially against the right hitter to pick up a cheap easy out. And the reality is a lot of college offenses are such that you can pick up some cheap easy outs with your fourth best pitch, so why not take it when they start to time your fastball?
I look at the success Mack had at X with that 1-3-1. Didn't use it exclusively, didn't rely on it, but used it strategically often it seemed to break up an offense he saw getting into a comfort zone. Seems like such a small thing but think we need to implement similar to reach our max potential.
Also agree regarding Mullin and direction/momentum of program. This is awesome and winning - no matter how you get there - just seems to beget more winning. Would much rather be discussing how we might get better after a win than a coaching search after another disappointing season.
And don't want to under-emphasize the consistency with which Mullin gets these kids to play. They haven't always executed but they have shown up in 15/15 games this year when it mattered, enough so to be 15-0. That probably matters a lot more than strategic improvement but with that improvement which I think is achievable this team could play well into March. I watch a lot of college hoops and have seen very few teams this year whose first 5 is more talented than ours and plays more together than ours. Add to that the few teams that have a #1 as special as Ponds. Very few in all of those respects.
That said gutting it out is not a sustainable strategy, and the execution in the last 8 minutes against SHU and Georgetown is unlikely to fly against better competition. That might sound overly critical fresh off a 2-0 week and a ranking, but Georgetown is not a great team and I think SJU has the ability to beat great teams this year.
And I mean that literally, this team is showing the potential to be a second weekend NCAA team, but not the way they closed SHU and GTown. Few key and repeat areas from my perspective:
1. Defensive creativity. Even if you don't believe in zone (I'm guessing our staff's NBA view), and even if man defense is one of the biggest strengths of your team (I believe to be the case for this team), at the college level you can disrupt teams just by showing a different look. Saturday perfect example. Akinjo great young player with bright future, but seemed a classic freshman guard in that he was borderline unstoppable when things were going well, but was prone to mistakes when things weren't going his way. There was what felt like a 7 possession stretch in the second half where GTown did nothing besides P&R Keita onto Akinjo with no resistance, and then Akinjo went to work on Keita and made a positive play almost every time. You can't allow that to happen, have to do something to disrupt it and challenge a freshman guard to first identify and then beat changing defenses, not an easy task. Same true when they went on that run in the second half just dumping it in to Govan and LeBlanc at the rim. You let an inferior team get in a rhythm against the same look defensively and you are doing them a favor. Where is that 1-2-2 three-quarter court pressure that gave Rutgers fits? Seems like we haven't seen it since and likely would have been useful against a bigger team Saturday.
2. One of our biggest advantages defensively is that we can switch anything. Not sure if that will apply to Keita. Maybe generally, but not if a team sees a matchup they like and looks to exploit it. In a game that was even after 40 minutes that stretch where we just let GTown P&R Keita onto Akinjo with basically no resistance was not good and could have cost us. This is nothing against Keita - one he shouldn't be expected to stay with a dynamite freshman guard, and two even though he's capable of guarding smaller it's been an issue for Clark at times as well in terms of picking up fouls. Ok to be a team that switches everything but adjusts based on matchups with more traditional hedge/recover, etc.
3. A momentum crippler offensively right now is Simon in the post. I know we think we have a mismatch with Simon and maybe we do, but right now it's telegraphed, slow-developing, everyone else seems to stand around, and we aren't converting. If it becomes quicker and Simon passes out of it when help comes all for it, but it seems like we are going to it 5-7x per game which in the context of a ~60 possession game on average is not nothing. I'm a big Simon fan, he brings so much to game all over court, but he's so much more effective as a slasher facing basket (as we saw with key buckets late in second half driving from top of key).
4. Ponds needs to have the ball in his hands in winning time. At 94-90 under 2 minutes to go you should have a shot clock violation maybe 1 time out of 100 possessions. Should almost never happen. With plenty of time left on clock Ponds went to get ball and Simon waived him off to run motion and I don't know if Ponds ever touched ball. Trust our other guys but you just can't have that and the result spoke for itself, maybe the most disorganized possession of the game. Ponds is playing at such a mega level right now not just for himself but for his teammates we can't afford to not let him be dictating offense for us late and letting him make the right play.
Some of this is bigger impact and other is more nit picky, glad to get out of there with a win in critical game, but think we'll need a little bit more creativity on defense and better late game execution against better teams, particularly on the road. Hopefully starting tomorrow night
[/quote]Excellent post. Mullin clearly has the program going in the right direction and is building momentum. That said, I do think one area that I believe could be handled better is the adjustment to the modern college game compared to what the college game was when he played and the NBA game. Kids don't stay 4 years anymore. Stars are usually one or two years. You are mainly dealing with 18-21 year old kids. Change the look and you can get them out of rhythm. Just like a pitcher keeping a hitter off balance by changing speed, location and eye level, or a football defense giving a QB different looks...you can and need to do the same thing with defense. Make the opponent have to think about what you are doing and see if they can recognize and execute. They're kids. Most of them will struggle for a possession or two.[/quote]
Thanks and agree with your analogies weatherman. Pitching a particularly good one - starter could be dominant fastball/curve/slider, but might still show change as his 4th best pitch 5-10x per game. Especially against the right hitter to pick up a cheap easy out. And the reality is a lot of college offenses are such that you can pick up some cheap easy outs with your fourth best pitch, so why not take it when they start to time your fastball?
I look at the success Mack had at X with that 1-3-1. Didn't use it exclusively, didn't rely on it, but used it strategically often it seemed to break up an offense he saw getting into a comfort zone. Seems like such a small thing but think we need to implement similar to reach our max potential.
Also agree regarding Mullin and direction/momentum of program. This is awesome and winning - no matter how you get there - just seems to beget more winning. Would much rather be discussing how we might get better after a win than a coaching search after another disappointing season.
And don't want to under-emphasize the consistency with which Mullin gets these kids to play. They haven't always executed but they have shown up in 15/15 games this year when it mattered, enough so to be 15-0. That probably matters a lot more than strategic improvement but with that improvement which I think is achievable this team could play well into March. I watch a lot of college hoops and have seen very few teams this year whose first 5 is more talented than ours and plays more together than ours. Add to that the few teams that have a #1 as special as Ponds. Very few in all of those respects.
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