1/7 PJS Dave Reynolds

[Big Mike]

Pretty much confirms what has been hashed out in the last few days post on this board!

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/010708/DAV_BFDRA2MR.076.php

[Dallas Brave]

Nice article by Dave. I like his perspective on the 3 point shot.

[houstontxbrave]

What I get from this piece is how much other coaches recognize the need for making adjustments even coaching philosophy adjustments versus BU.

[MacabreMob]

Nice article DR!

Any chance Coach Les will read it?

And how much are the Fieldhouse seats gonna go for?

[Beninator]

Well it's kind of like a stock portfolio.... If a person doesnt diversify, then sooner or latter it will come back to hurt you.... same thing with our offense....

[Flying Hellfish]

I think we can all agree that BU's biggest problem is their inside game, both on offense and defense. Especially when it comes to rebounding, which we really suck at. So what can BU do differently if we need an inside presence but Les refuses to play our 7-footer and two other bigs? The same people saying Les needs to do change things up are the same people who unequivocally reject the notion that Collins, Egolf and Austin should play big minutes. You can't have it both ways people. The only answer I see is to give Collins some real minutes and see what he can do. What's the worst that could happen? Oh yeah, we could get out-rebounded by 25 instead of just 20, like our current lineup does.

[BradleyBrave]

I don't want to make Matt Salley the whipping boy here, because BU's problems run much deeper than just him. But his 5 foul, 4 rebound, 1 technical performance tells me that we don't have much to lose by giving some other guys a shot. We've got nothing to lose and possibly something to gain by letting Austin and Collins play big minutes. If they fail, they fail. We won't be in any different of a spot than we are know, and we may just gain/learn something about what we have moving forward.

[Beninator]

The same people saying Les needs to do change things up are the same people who unequivocally reject the notion that Collins, Egolf and Austin should play big minutes.

I disagree... I think that it is safe to say that most people on this board who want a change WANT MORE minutes for DC and a lot of people, myself included, want DC to start with MS. Austin, Singh-depending on matchups--, and Egolf should be coming off the bench in that order of priority.imo

Your last statement about DC playing more minutes to see what he can do fits with what has been said on this board.imo

[Flying Hellfish]

I disagree... I think that it is safe to say that most people on this board who want a change WANT MORE minutes for DC and a lot of people, myself included, want DC to start with MS. Austin, Singh-depending on matchups--, and Egolf should be coming off the bench in that order of priority.imo

Your last statement about DC playing more minutes to see what he can do fits with what has been said on this board.imo

I, too, would love to see Collins starting. And I can appreciate that there are those on here to think that as well, but it seems to me like the majority of people on this board are dead-set against Collins getting more playing time this year (at least until he "proves" himself in practice). Those are the people I was directing my comments toward.

[ghunt]

I orignally had this as part of another post I made today about the state of the college game today and it's physicallity, poor fundamentals, and lack of execution, but it it is more applicable here, and I added comments on defense. In all honesty, I think between parts of '05-'06 and '06-'07, we were about the most finese offensive team out there at times, and it was something to watch with the clean screens, crisp passsing working the angles, and good shot seelction and shooting. I just think that given how the game is played, it it is extremely hard to run our offense, especially when trying to do it undersized. And, espcially when we play only one guy with any size compared to what we did previous seasons.

All defenses have to do is get physical on the point and the ball screeners--push them out and fight them, and the ball winds up being past the top of the key, and the passsing lanes and angles get obstructed and aren't there. Also, why in the heck we run the same sets that struggle now and get the lone center (which is typically Matt who really isn't a center to begin with) 15 feet away from the basket (which results in no true post position for shooting or rebounding) for most of the possession is beyond me at times.

Given the lineups and the offense, I think that's why we are primarily left with some wing and a lot of corner threes--leaving us with poor shooting percentages. We really need 2 guys out there at the sametime who are not only adequately big and physcial, but in shape and agile enough to move from high ball screen to setting up an adequate post. In '05-'06 we had Marcellus, POB, and Zack to fill those roles, whereas last year we had JJ and Matt in addition to Zack to step into those roles, but I think the ability of Will to pentrate and find the open man in addition to Daniel helped to compensate for some screening and inside play. Having two guys like Dan and Will who could just say, "Forget about the screens, I'll just break you down, find seems, collapse the D, and pass," is very hard to do without when you don't have the bigger athletes out there.

With that being said about the offense, it still puts pleanty of points on the board. But what really has been consistenly lagging is the defense, which is pretty much the base defense we have run for the past few seasons. I think some of the same personnel decisions/differnces account for these short-comings (lack of big guys who are big enough to body up on D and rebounding, and another guard (or another player period) who is quick enough to recover on D when helping and doubling, but it may be to a lesser extent, The lack of proper execution on defense may be where Jimmy is getting at about addressing the teams problems. In other words, yes DC, Will, or even Sam may be a little more of benefit on offense (but given the present observations I made above, there is not much more room for improvement unless the players improve or Jimmy alters the offensive sets), but they just do not exucute on defense the way we need them to.

But it does irritate me to no end, like I have said many a time before, to see JC at 6'4"-6'5" and SM 5'10", plyaing post defense against guys 6" and/or 25 to 50 lbs. heavier. I think we would all rather see true 4 and 5 men, who may blow some plays outright several times for all to see, try to play defense and at least have a shot to guard based on size, than to have undersized players guys that may try, but have almost chance at all based on a complete mismatch.

P.S. Sam M is playing darn well--to the point of almost making me eat my words some. Way to go, and keep it up. However, given the offense Jim seems wedded to, Sammy just does not have the quickness to run it the way it has been before. In fact,we need to quick guards on the floor at the same time. Given what is happening now, I wonder if Jim will change things up next year in terms of what we run?

[real fan]

The article is 100% correct and about taking so many 3 pointers I would have to believe that with next years 3 point line moving farther out it is to our benefit to start working on an inside game as some players will be effected by this and percentages will only go down.

[Big Mike]

By the way does anyone know how much the seats from the Fieldhouse will sell for? I sure would love to have a set........but I would like to think it will be AFFORDABLE?

[ghunt]

By the way does anyone know how much the seats from the Fieldhouse will sell for? I sure would love to have a set........but I would like to think it will be AFFORDABLE?

I noticed the lttile mention at thebottom about seats, but yes--how much? And more importantly, how can I get them I don't live in Peoria and I really, really want them if they are available.

[Braves4Life]

I'm interested as well. Anyone PM me with any info on Fieldhouse memorabilia

[Big Mike]

I pretty sure that someone will get some info and post it on the board!