(POST GAME) @Xavier (Cintas Ctr), Sun. Jan. 5, 4:30pm, FOX / 970AM

[quote="Paul Massell" post=370971][quote="JackofVirginia" post=370968]
I don't know if his movement is to blame. If you notice he does take a soft one handed shot when shooting from 2 or 3 feet away from the basket. And it is not over his head.[/quote]

That's my point actually. He could do the same at the FT line and be a lot more consistent than he is with that way too complicated movement he has at the FT line. He needs to apply the KISS Principle. Get to the line don't think about it and just do what you've done thousands of times before and let the muscle memory do it. Simple, consistent and repeatable.[/quote]

Normally you would not advocate trying to dramatically alter a shooting motion in-season. But, this is so bad and the results are so poor that you probably have nothing to lose.
 
[quote="Knight" post=370956][quote="Duke of Earlington" post=370955][quote="Knight" post=370954]Our defense begins on the offensive boards. We seem to have slacked off battling for rebounds and adopted the Mullin shoot and retreat tactic. Sears seems to be the only one in position to battle for O-boards, but I hope Earlington goes back to what made him a force to be dealt with.
Our shooters seem to lack the nice stroke and touch of confident shooters. Looks tight, rather than smooth and fluid.[/quote]

I think the Duke is trying but at 6'5, its different getting boards against mercer then it is against big east teams.[/quote]

Last 2 games he was not near enough to be a factor as he was tracking his defensive assignment and was retreating back to cover him.[/quote]

Bad shots also lead to lower offensive rebound percentages. You have to be able to anticipate a shot in order to position yourself for a rebound.
 
[quote="SJU61982" post=370965][quote="Monte" post=370949][quote="NCJohnnie" post=370890]SJU16982 wrote: As great as Rutherford and Williams were on Tuesday, they completely disappeared in this one, although they were not the only ones.

Last year's team had a great starting 5, and nothing else. This year's team has 10 or 11 guys with similar skills, most of whom are probably one notch below Big East level.

This is where I disagree. We have two guys who have proven they can play significant minutes and score 14-15 ppg in high major play, but we are playing as if we have 10 or 11 players of roughly similar ability. We don't. Can't win that way in BE imho.[/quote]

CMA needs to play 10-11 guys in order to keep up the pressure D for 40 minutes. And when we’re not hitting our shots, as we weren’t yesterday, the only thing keeping us in the game is our pressure D. Now, Heron and LJ cannot play 30-35 minutes each of pressure D. No one really can without it exhausting them. So it’s a bit of a catch 22 for CMA.[/quote]

I don't dispute any of that. In fact, I've said before, that is the one style where you can justify playing 11 guys.

I was just pointing out that this is the complete opposite of last year's team. Just a random observation, not a rip job.[/quote]

Didn't take it as a rip job at all. Agree with your observation. Was really just replying to NC that CMA is in a tough spot this year. He needs to rely so heavily on the D to keep us in games, that he needs to go 10-11 deep to keep up the pressure. At a certain point, playing LJ and Heron beyond 25 minutes likely starts to become a diminishing return. As it is, Heron is probably not in very good game shape due to the injury. So tough to get a lot more out of him. Will be interesting to see how CMA manages things in the years ahead as the talent level increases. Hopefully he can strike the right balance between keeping the most talented kids on the floor the longest, and still keep up the 40 minutes of hell D.
 
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[quote="Monte" post=370995][quote="SJU61982" post=370965][quote="Monte" post=370949][quote="NCJohnnie" post=370890]SJU16982 wrote: As great as Rutherford and Williams were on Tuesday, they completely disappeared in this one, although they were not the only ones.

Last year's team had a great starting 5, and nothing else. This year's team has 10 or 11 guys with similar skills, most of whom are probably one notch below Big East level.

This is where I disagree. We have two guys who have proven they can play significant minutes and score 14-15 ppg in high major play, but we are playing as if we have 10 or 11 players of roughly similar ability. We don't. Can't win that way in BE imho.[/quote]

CMA needs to play 10-11 guys in order to keep up the pressure D for 40 minutes. And when we’re not hitting our shots, as we weren’t yesterday, the only thing keeping us in the game is our pressure D. Now, Heron and LJ cannot play 30-35 minutes each of pressure D. No one really can without it exhausting them. So it’s a bit of a catch 22 for CMA.[/quote]

I don't dispute any of that. In fact, I've said before, that is the one style where you can justify playing 11 guys.

I was just pointing out that this is the complete opposite of last year's team. Just a random observation, not a rip job.[/quote]

Didn't take it as a rip job at all. Agree with your observation. Was really just replying to NC that CMA is in a tough spot this year. He needs to rely so heavily on the D to keep us in games, that he needs to go 10-11 deep to keep up the pressure. At a certain point, playing LJ and Heron beyond 25 minutes likely starts to become a diminishing return. As it is, Heron is probably not in very good game shape due to the injury. So tough to get a lot more out of him. Will be interesting to see how CMA manages things in the years ahead as the talent level increases. Hopefully he can strike the right balance between keeping the most talented kids on the floor the longest, and still keep up the 40 minutes of hell D.[/quote]

I think most people are of the opinion that CMA is squeezing a lot more out of this group than anticipated pre-season, and maybe about as much as is possible.

My biggest concern going forward is as the level of offensive firepower goes up, will you still get the same level of buy-in to the style of play and physical and mental demands that come with it. If he does, then the sky is the limit.
 
Yes, but that falls on the coach and staff recruiting. Look there are players outside the top 100:who can spot up and hit threes They may not play great def or go to the hoop strong but they can hit open 3s If we just had one of these players in the line up we win this game even how bad we played and win the butler game Oh let’s recruit some players that can hit free throws at 75% consistently how we do better recruiting next yr
 
It is painful watching Roberts shoot those FT's....

Even if Mullin couldn't teach him to play in the post, he could have spent a few minutes watching his form and having him try something else. It couldn't have gotten worse
 
Monte wrote: Didn't take it as a rip job at all. Agree with your observation. Was really just replying to NC that CMA is in a tough spot this year. He needs to rely so heavily on the D to keep us in games, that he needs to go 10-11 deep to keep up the pressure. At a certain point, playing LJ and Heron beyond 25 minutes likely starts to become a diminishing return. As it is, Heron is probably not in very good game shape due to the injury. So tough to get a lot more out of him. Will be interesting to see how CMA manages things in the years ahead as the talent level increases. Hopefully he can strike the right balance between keeping the most talented kids on the floor the longest, and still keep up the 40 minutes of hell D.

Monte, enjoy and respect your posts and position on this one as well as that of SJU61982. While I agree that asking Heron and/or LJ to play much above 30 minutes a game in CMA's high pressure defense would be too much, I believe they can and should play a little more. On Arkansas' 2018-2019 squad he played a 9 man rotation and 4 guys played between 29-31 mpg; the year before he played a 10 man rotation and 3 guys played between 30-31 mpg. Heron is playing 25 mpg and LJ 27. I think they both need to play about 28-31 mpg for us to succeed. Might seem like a small difference but if we want them to be main guys, we need them to play 70-75 percent of the game absent foul trouble or real bad play on their part. Just my opinion. Will be interesting to see how playing time unfolds over next few games which are key for us.
 
[quote="NCJohnnie" post=371010]Monte wrote: Didn't take it as a rip job at all. Agree with your observation. Was really just replying to NC that CMA is in a tough spot this year. He needs to rely so heavily on the D to keep us in games, that he needs to go 10-11 deep to keep up the pressure. At a certain point, playing LJ and Heron beyond 25 minutes likely starts to become a diminishing return. As it is, Heron is probably not in very good game shape due to the injury. So tough to get a lot more out of him. Will be interesting to see how CMA manages things in the years ahead as the talent level increases. Hopefully he can strike the right balance between keeping the most talented kids on the floor the longest, and still keep up the 40 minutes of hell D.

Monte, enjoy and respect your posts and position on this one as well as that of SJU61982. While I agree that asking Heron and/or LJ to play much above 30 minutes a game in CMA's high pressure defense would be too much, I believe they can and should play a little more. On Arkansas' 2018-2019 squad he played a 9 man rotation and 4 guys played between 29-31 mpg; the year before he played a 10 man rotation and 3 guys played between 30-31 mpg. Heron is playing 25 mpg and LJ 27. I think they both need to play about 28-31 mpg for us to succeed. Might seem like a small difference but if we want them to be main guys, we need them to play 70-75 percent of the game absent foul trouble or real bad play on their part. Just my opinion. Will be interesting to see how playing time unfolds over next few games which are key for us.[/quote]

NC the respect is mutual, and I wasn't calling you out on your post. I haven't looked but will assume that his 2018-2019 team probably had more offensive firepower and needed to rely on the pressure D just a little less? I too would love to see Heron and LJ on the floor more. It does seem like there are many stretches where we have our 2 biggest offensive weapons on the bench. It's a tough balancing act for CMA. I mean, we didn't have Heron at all and beat Zona and almost beat Butler. So I guess CMA is hoping to get offensive firepower elsewhere when Heron and/or LJ aren't on the floor. The other question is; how much does Heron hurt us on D while he's not at full strengths? Again, this are tough things to figure out and it certainly gives us plenty of fodder for Monday morning QBing lol
 
[quote="usguard" post=371000]Yes, but that falls on the coach and staff recruiting. Look there are players outside the top 100:who can spot up and hit threes They may not play great def or go to the hoop strong but they can hit open 3s If we just had one of these players in the line up we win this game even how bad we played and win the butler game Oh let’s recruit some players that can hit free throws at 75% consistently how we do better recruiting next yr[/quote]

Dunn doesnt pass the ball to our best 3 point shooter-Caraher
 
Heron and Figueroa are proven better 3 pt shooters than Caraher…. look at career stats

Heron: 155/406= 38.2%
Figueroa: 81/215 = 37.7%
Cahaher: 65/189 = 34.4%
 
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[quote="dee" post=371012][quote="usguard" post=371000]Yes, but that falls on the coach and staff recruiting. Look there are players outside the top 100:who can spot up and hit threes They may not play great def or go to the hoop strong but they can hit open 3s If we just had one of these players in the line up we win this game even how bad we played and win the butler game Oh let’s recruit some players that can hit free throws at 75% consistently how we do better recruiting next yr[/quote]

Dunn doesnt pass the ball to our best 3 point shooter-Caraher[/quote]

I like Caraher's hustle and willingness to fight for rebounds. But he has a slow release and seems to lack confidence. If he misses a few in a row, he shuts down his outside game completely.
 
[quote="RedStormNC" post=371014]Heron and Figueroa are proven better 3 pt shooters than Caraher…. look at career stats

Heron: 155/406= 38.2%
Figueroa: 81/215 = 37.7%
Cahaher: 65/189 = 34.4%[/quote]

I dont think heron or Figueroa on shooting as well as they did in the past. I'd like to see this year stats
 
2019 only...

Heron: 20/53= 37.7%
Figueroa: 30/82 = 36.6%
Cahaher: 9/35 = 25.7%
 
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[quote="JackofVirginia" post=370961][quote="SJU2000alum15" post=370958]Why is it considered a lock LJ is leaving after this year? I honestly don’t see him getting drafted in the NBA next year , I love LJ but he’s not an NBA player. Is he planning on leaving to go play overseas?[/quote]

Each game I watch I feel the same way about LJ, not ready for the NBA but probably leaving for overseas.[/quote]

He's turning 22 this year. Seems like a great chance he'd go overseas after this year as opposed to delaying his prime earning by another year.
 
Haven’t seen anything from him that shows signs
he will be a good player 40 mins of hell would be great if we can squeeze in 15 min of hitting outside shots and putting the ball in the basket thus finishing The penetration
 
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