MVC 1/11- Wichita at Drake

[Braves4Life]

I agree with much of what you said StLB. However, I do not think Dunson is the 3-pt. answer -- that is one UGLY shot. I think the only true outside threats are a stationary SM and Norris. Norris is the best 3-pt. shooter that we have this year and Les needs to find a way to get him 5 or more open looks per game.

Unfortunately, I think playing "lock down" defense is our best shot to win games as we do not have a consistent outside threat to bust the zone. In fact, if the zone continues (and it will until we prove we can beat it) we may need to apply intense end-to-end pressure to create turnovers and havoc and fast break opportunities that force the opponent to scramble. Thus, preventing them from getting into the zone. Regardless, I expect a season of intense highs and depressing lows. I hope this team can finish on a roll and take the tournament.

[SFP]

SaintLouBrave22 I understand what you are saying but with the players we have we need to really keep on concentrating on our D in order to create easy baskets because once we get into a 1/2 court game we just do not have the shooters that can create enough consistant O to win consistantly. I also believe that we do have shooters but as I have been saying they need to be set and ready to shoot when they get the ball instead of looking to pass first. SM was 1-2 from the top of the key yesterday and I wish we would run a few plays for him and Darian from the top of the key. I also want all our players to practice pull up jumpers. It is such a great weapon to have but it does take practice.

How many people remeber Keith's Smart pull up jumper from the side to win it all for IU, Juan Dixon hitting pull up jumpers from all over and the best right now hitting those shots and making a great living, Richard Hamilton?

[SaintLouBrave22]

But what you guys are saying is that we really would've had to hold Creighton into the high 40's, low 50's to have a great chance to win that game... Once again, I have to wonder why there are questions about the defense and not the offense...

[bluedevils1]

How many people remeber Keith's Smart pull up jumper from the side to win it all for IU, Juan Dixon hitting pull up jumpers from all over and the best right now hitting those shots and making a great living, Richard Hamilton?

Or almost every basketball player, college or pro, before and at the early stages of the 3 point line. That is how basketball used to be played. So many players took mid-range jumpers and there were a bunch of guys that were exceptional at it.

[Da Coach]

And to think Creighton was playing without Woodfox...

Weren't you one who said that you didn't want to hear about the players that were not playing?
Funny how we focus on the one player from Creighton who was out and conveniently fail to mention that Bradley has been playing the entire MVC season without 2 of their starters, including their top returning scorer.
If Bradley had a healthy Andrew Warren, they would have easily beaten Creighton.

[Bradleyguy10]

STLBrave I agree with you. I was dancing around it in my earlier post but that was exactly what I was thinking. I think our team is buying into the defense. We did hold them into the high 50's or low 60's if we would've been winning and not have needed to give them all those free throws. The thing is though with this team I have a feeling defense will always need to be stressed since it is the main way we will win and there cannot be a lapse. I also stated that defense still should be stressed because we did hold them to a low number but their percentages were outrageous for a road team. We could've easily gotten the difference in points back by playing better defense throughout the game, but I do agree with you offense is a concern now. If we could get that going and not have to give freebie free throws up at the end of games we could easily hold most teams in the 60 point range.

First one to 65 wins.

[SaintLouBrave22]

STLBrave I agree with you. I was dancing around it in my earlier post but that was exactly what I was thinking. I think our team is buying into the defense. We did hold them into the high 50's or low 60's if we would've been winning and not have needed to give them all those free throws. The thing is though with this team I have a feeling defense will always need to be stressed since it is the main way we will win and there cannot be a lapse. I also stated that defense still should be stressed because we did hold them to a low number but their percentages were outrageous for a road team. We could've easily gotten the difference in points back by playing better defense throughout the game, but I do agree with you offense is a concern now. If we could get that going and not have to give freebie free throws up at the end of games we could easily hold most teams in the 60 point range.

First one to 65 wins.

I have no problem w/ our coach consistently getting into players' ears about playing D, but now its starting to turn at the risk of our offense...

Which at the latest, their isn't one...we have went into what some would call a slump and opponents have figured out our primary and secondary weaknesses in 3-pt shooting and inside play on both offense and defense...

Holding teams down is not the problem at all at this point, which is a reverse of earlier in the year (i.e. Butler and UMKC games)...

We have to figure out how to play hard all the time and play both ends of the floor...its just as simple as that!

Our previous coach only knew how to coach one end of the floor...and you can see how things turned out for him...

[SFP]

I believe if AW was playing and a serviceable big man at the 5, WE, we would not be having this discussion. There really is not much we can do about scoring with this team except play better D, get some easy baskets, get a lead so a the other team has to play man2man, hit our FTs and play with some discipline as not to turn over the ball as much.

Our bigs do not bang well inside and our guards need to be wide open to consistently hit their shot. That leads to our slashers having to produce and that becomes very dicey when a team plays zone.

So what you are saying is this team needs to do things that the personnel we have is not equipped to do well! I say we can turn it up a notch on D, which will help our O immensely.

Without getting any O from our bigs our guards will continue to be guarded like white on rice and TB, CR and TW's lanes will be shut down.

[SaintLouBrave22]

I believe if AW was playing and a serviceable big man at the 5, WE, we would not be having this discussion. There really is not much we can do about scoring with this team except play better D, get some easy baskets, get a lead so a the other team has to play man2man, hit our FTs and play with some discipline as not to turn over the ball as much.

Our bigs do not bang well inside and our guards need to be wide open to consistently hit their shot. That leads to our slashers having to produce and that becomes very dicey when a team plays zone.

So what you are saying is this team needs to do things that the personnel we have is not equipped to do well! I say we can turn it up a notch on D, which will help our O immensely.

Without getting any O from our bigs our guards will continue to be guarded like white on rice and TB, CR and TW's lanes will be shut down.

That is not necessarily the reason our guards will continue to have problems...our guards have problems because they're usually outsized...and that will happen many times w/ starting 2 guards under 6 feet tall...

I do agree that still having Will around would help inside greatly as he was on his way to becoming a good if not great player...

Andrew on the other hand hasn't been around all season so we really should've known how to play day 1 without him...and no, thats not saying we don't miss him because we do, however I will still stand by my thoughts that Darian and possibly Dodie are better long range shooters...AW had some trouble last year w/ "shorting" the 3 ball and that was before the line moved back...

Either way, what I'm asking is how much better you want our defense to get? We're don't have the size/quickness backcourt combo on D like when Roberson was here, or the talents of Bennett and Ruffin...and yet we're still holding teams down into the 50's and 60's, which are games we should most certainly win, IF our offense performed at all...

Everyone can keep shouting DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE, but until our offense gets it in gear we will still lose games only giving up scores in the 60's because we'll be in the 50's...

Norris IS our 3-pt shooter and until Jim realizes that and gets him more minutes, Dodie minutes, and lets Chris Roberts get back to being aggressive, we will get crushed by the zone...