My thing is, play to the advantage of the opponent that night. The B10 has great big men. I don't think many of us believe Nicholson will win his matchup against TJD, Dickinson, etc., but he can still be efficient when he plays. You can't rely on your guards to score 85% of your points taking the shots that they have been. That's an even worse recipe for success.
Game thread for NU vs. IPFW
- Thread starter mshelton33
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I want to believe Collins is trying to come up with something where the ball goes inside. I mean you have to do that from time to time or the defense completely ignores it. At this rate, Santa Claus will have made his annual run before Buie throws the ball inside to Nicholson.
I have seen one play many times, where Nicholson fakes a ball screen and rolls to the basket and the ball goes somewhere else. Verhoeven runs a pick and roll pretty well against inferior athletes. I think thats all we have.
Love matt, but cannot give up two offensive rebounds in the last 3 mjns of the game.
Also if you have that mismatch that also means grab an offensive rebound and put the ball back in.
Lots of silly plays where they could have got points to. The berry turnover on the break was bad. Roper, boo and audige were waiting to long to make a play.
Also if you have that mismatch that also means grab an offensive rebound and put the ball back in.
Lots of silly plays where they could have got points to. The berry turnover on the break was bad. Roper, boo and audige were waiting to long to make a play.
How many entry passes total have Buie and Audige made to Nicholson? I'm not exaggerating when I say it's 0.
That's fair. He needs to clean up defensive boards. My recollection is that they were long rebounds but my memory could be foggy.
+1 about carelessness of the rock
Audige getting treatment for his back on the bench. We need him to stay healthy! Roper lookls tentative out there. Boo willed this team to victory tonight. Yes, PFW missed some open looks from 3 but many were also contested and we missed a ton of open threes ourselves. A win is a win but we need to be better in order to win at least one in Cancun.
Those rebounds I watched him no box out and extra shot for the opponents. That needs to be cleaned before next few games.
Also matt can set off the ball screens and be a second cutter rolling to the basket.
If he had better footwork the on ball screen could be lobs
Another thing that would help is consistent shooting from three. The help defenders would have to stay with their man if NU shot better.
Matt has improved, but a give the ball low post guy he isn't there yet.
Also matt can set off the ball screens and be a second cutter rolling to the basket.
If he had better footwork the on ball screen could be lobs
Another thing that would help is consistent shooting from three. The help defenders would have to stay with their man if NU shot better.
Matt has improved, but a give the ball low post guy he isn't there yet.
He definitely isn't polished. And I haven't been defending his defense.
It's when he establishes position on his man and it's not even an attempt to dump it in to him. I'm not saying run even 30% of the offense through him when he's on the court. He doesn't get a single feed from the core guys. That needs to improve.
Roper looked like he got a major shoulder injury with - what was it - three or four minutes left in the game. Wasn't moving his arm ... trainer called over the doctor who took him to the locker room while he was wincing in pain.
Hope I'm overanalyzing, but Roper was yelling like he knew there was a major problem.
Hope I'm overanalyzing, but Roper was yelling like he knew there was a major problem.
Except for two 5-8 guards, the Mastodons actually had pretty good size throughout their lineup so we DID NOT have a big advantage there. They also had a very experienced team. A good test for November.
They are the
They are 348th in height. As you said, they have two 5-8 guards which plays a factor in that number but their tallest guy is 6-9. That should be a big advantage in college basketball.
Collins mentioned the Roper injury in the post game, but just in passing and he wasn’t pressed on it. Hopefully it isn’t a major thing.
After reviewing the game both leagues agreed to give both teams losses
Well, just ask Ryan Young, now playing for Duke, right? Not to shabby a program to transfer to.
There were mismatches everywhere last night. PFW was small. It looked like if Audige took the ball to the foul line he could shoot, every time, over his defender and rack up 40 points along the way. Those were some tiny ass guards.
Barnhizer looked like a super athletic dude out there. There were moments you could easily see why he averaged 30 in HS. Games where maybe he was not the most athletic guy in the building but was well above average.
And so on and so on, mismatches everywhere. PFW is, at the mid major level, pretty decent. Lots of experience. But those are not P6 bodies.
Point is, we did not look for mismatches, we did not exploit them. At all. We ran stuff, and won on the back of Buie and, to a lesser extent, Audige having a good game. One might say those mismatches won’t be there in B1G play. And they won’t be, not to the extent they were last night. But there will be some and we better exploit them.
Make no mistake, Buie and Audige are going to be hounded.
In the end, after yesterday’s game we are back to the exact same spot of pre season. We can defend, but our offense is underwhelming.
Barnhizer looked like a super athletic dude out there. There were moments you could easily see why he averaged 30 in HS. Games where maybe he was not the most athletic guy in the building but was well above average.
And so on and so on, mismatches everywhere. PFW is, at the mid major level, pretty decent. Lots of experience. But those are not P6 bodies.
Point is, we did not look for mismatches, we did not exploit them. At all. We ran stuff, and won on the back of Buie and, to a lesser extent, Audige having a good game. One might say those mismatches won’t be there in B1G play. And they won’t be, not to the extent they were last night. But there will be some and we better exploit them.
Make no mistake, Buie and Audige are going to be hounded.
In the end, after yesterday’s game we are back to the exact same spot of pre season. We can defend, but our offense is underwhelming.
Barnhizer doesn’t seem very fast for his size and build, but I was heartened by the speed of some of his spins underneath. He smoked his guy a couple of times. We need that stuff.
But his traveling over the shoot/drive indecision was a bummer. Wide open either way. Turn over.
With Matt and Tydus down low, the middle of the lane seemed wide open for drive and pops. I was disappointed at how open, especially as FW made their second half run, we settled for off balance threes early in the clock.
But his traveling over the shoot/drive indecision was a bummer. Wide open either way. Turn over.
With Matt and Tydus down low, the middle of the lane seemed wide open for drive and pops. I was disappointed at how open, especially as FW made their second half run, we settled for off balance threes early in the clock.
I was pretty confident that Buie had never even looked to pass to Nicholson.
So I re-watched.
Buie had Nicholson open for 3 easy entry passes over the course of the game.
Once he was unguarded, waving both arms, calling for the ball.
Buie never looked to pass the ball into the post to Nicholson.
There was one sequence when Buie drove around his defender into the lane, got double-teamed and stopped by a wing defender, picked up his dribble, then had to get rid of the ball and threw an over the shoulder hook pass into the low post, where Nicholson grabbed it, and for whatever reason didn't dunk, but misssed a reverse layup badly. It was Nicholson's 2nd attempt to score. It was not Buie intentionally looking inside. It was Buie throwing the ball up for grabs after he picked up his dribble, was being doubled and was desperate to get rid of the ball.
So the short answer is no, Buie did not look inside to Nicholson at all.
That's what I thought. Thanks for looking into it.
Liberty is another small opponent. Let's see if they adjust.
I agree, but if I'm another team, I'm not even sure Audige concerns me. He's too inconsistent as is most of this team.
On offense, Boo really wouldn't concern me either if I was a good team - especially when this team maddeningly burns 10+ seconds of the shot click just standing and "analyzing" in so many possessions. But I might want to force him to give up the ball, and take my chances with Audige and Beran.
To be consistently competitive, this team starts with the foundation of Buie hopefully playing smart ... always a coin flip. Then they need double digits from any two of Audige, Beran or maybe Berry. And I'm not sure I have greatest confidence in that.
The centers are fine as are Roper and Barnhizer but none of them is to the point where they will make difference in the offense in B10 competition.
But the one thing this group can not survive with is Beran being as absent as he was last night.
Take the W. Move on. Hope that, despite CCC history, they learn and improve
IPFW came in averaging 89 a game so I can see not wanting to get into a high scoring game with them. With anyone, really, considering the make up of our team. Should we run some clock standing or doing a passing/weave up top? Standing saves energy and is less risky, so if they let us do that I am fine with it.
Because Purdue Fort Wayne isn't a Power 6 team, or good mid-major, I won't be generating the +/- numbers for this game.
But I did look specifically at the score when Vehoeven was playing and when Nicholson was playing.
Nicholson on court... NU 36 PFW 21 in 21 minutes of play
Verhoeven on court... PFW 31 NU 24 in 19 minutes of play
I thought Nicholson entirely eliminated PFW's inside scoring in the 2nd half... this enabled our perimeter defenders to be aggressive in contesting shots.
But I did look specifically at the score when Vehoeven was playing and when Nicholson was playing.
Nicholson on court... NU 36 PFW 21 in 21 minutes of play
Verhoeven on court... PFW 31 NU 24 in 19 minutes of play
I thought Nicholson entirely eliminated PFW's inside scoring in the 2nd half... this enabled our perimeter defenders to be aggressive in contesting shots.
Like Coach Collins previously said, its better to learn and improve while winning then it is while losing. There is room for improvement but Cats are 4-0 with two big games coming up in Mexico. Defense has been stellar. Continue to improve offensively and continue the tough defense and win streak!
I’m not convinced our defense has been stellar. Watching the games, what I’ve seen is teams missing a lot of open shots against us. The last two home games, the visitors didn’t have a lot of trouble running their offense and putting the ball in open hands that missed shots.
We saw what happened last night when the open shooters started making the shots and our lead dropped to one pretty quickly.
We saw what happened last night when the open shooters started making the shots and our lead dropped to one pretty quickly.
We led by 42-26 at about the 14:00 mark and scored a grand total of 11 points in the next 11 minutes. That will cause any lead to shrink. I'm sure they were concentrating on not letting their three point ace, the 6-8 grad student Bobby Planutis, get open looks. I watched the guy warm up and he almost never missed. I remember Merrimack beating us when a guy like that got very hot from 3. You gotta pick your poison.
And in that stretch, Bobby scored 8 points, including two 3s, which were the third and fourth open 3 opportunities he had in the second half, and maybe the sixth and seventh for the team.
Teams get hot and cold. It happens. I’m just saying I don’t put much store in our ‘stellar defense’ when what I’m seeing at the games is bad shooting from lesser opponents.
When they’re shooting 22% from 3, you get a lot of leeway (and credit) for blown coverage and I’m just not sure we’ll see that as the competition gets to the P6 level.
Suddenly people will be asking what happened to our defense when that’s not what changed.
Also, I totally did not see Juice or know he was there, and now I’m sad.
Teams get hot and cold. It happens. I’m just saying I don’t put much store in our ‘stellar defense’ when what I’m seeing at the games is bad shooting from lesser opponents.
When they’re shooting 22% from 3, you get a lot of leeway (and credit) for blown coverage and I’m just not sure we’ll see that as the competition gets to the P6 level.
Suddenly people will be asking what happened to our defense when that’s not what changed.
Also, I totally did not see Juice or know he was there, and now I’m sad.
Collins says a lot of things that sound good but don't mean too much.
Listen closely.
"I thought we got very stagnant at times... I was very disappointed in our lack of movement... we gotta be better... I can help the guys out with that"
"We gotta get better. Fortunately our defense is elite right now."
"We have to continue to evolve offensively and learn to get other guys to kinda help out with Boo, with Chase so we can - more like we had at Georgetown, you know I thought we were very balanced in that game. Tonight not so much and that will be on me and the staff to kinda figure things out on that end."
If you want to see Nicholson and Buie at the podium together after the game, watch the last part of this video...
I actually liked what Buie had to say and Nicholson was pretty nervous.
Big Matt was just pretending to be nervous. All part of his master plan to lull people into underestimating him. It worked in these boards.
Boards had me convinced Bigg Matt is Shaq, RY is Kareem and CCC is Vinnie Del Negro. I have to re-think this now HJ.
Big Matt gets fed the ball so few times that I can’t tell if he has any ability to pass out of a double or poor positional situation. I suspect, if it does go inside it has basically one option on most plays, a shot. Doubt it is inside out playing often. Seems like the drive to the hoop with the little hand off should be at least attempted. Big Matt has to make the game ugly. If you aren’t going to get fed the ball, go get it yourself. We certainly miss enough shots that the offensive rebound can really help the offense and it’s something RY couldn’t do but Big Matt should be able to do. He makes a difference when he crashes the boards. Posting him up in the B1G will not and should not be a big part of the O.
Nicholson belongs in the paint. Its fine when he comes out and sets a ball screen, but he has to roll and get back in rebounding position or "post up" position. Standing out at the perimeter, facing the basket as part of the "hot potato passing chain" is a waste and leads to turnovers like when Barnhizer threw the ball toward Nicholson's knees and into the backcourt.
PPD is correct that Nicholson basically has to muck things up under the basket. But the offense has to get him touches in the paint in order to keep the defense honest. It looks to me ike he's a pretty good passer. Had a nice kickout to Buie for a deep three, which he made. Also flipped it to Buie in the corner and walled off the defender, but Buie missed that open look.
It does surprise me that Coach Collins is just now trying to figure out how to get other players involved in the offense, besides the two guys who handle the ball (Buie and Audige). Do we do any screening away from the ball to get shooters, like Beran or Barnhizer, open looks? It seems like we are 90% ball screens in the half court.
PPD is correct that Nicholson basically has to muck things up under the basket. But the offense has to get him touches in the paint in order to keep the defense honest. It looks to me ike he's a pretty good passer. Had a nice kickout to Buie for a deep three, which he made. Also flipped it to Buie in the corner and walled off the defender, but Buie missed that open look.
It does surprise me that Coach Collins is just now trying to figure out how to get other players involved in the offense, besides the two guys who handle the ball (Buie and Audige). Do we do any screening away from the ball to get shooters, like Beran or Barnhizer, open looks? It seems like we are 90% ball screens in the half court.
On a different note... shockingly...
In all of D1 basketball, as of Saturday, the fifth most successful lineup nationally is none other than Northwestern's 5-man crew of Buie, Audige, Barnhizer, Beran and Nicholson. (Something like a projected score of 130-27 against an average opponent)
They've only had 12 possessions on both sides of the court, but the 4 lineups that were more effective all had similar small samples.
From my perspective, that lineup makes a lot of sense, as it is two guards, a legit small forward, a power forward and a traditional, big center.
I got that info from this website, which has gone to subscriptions as of yesterday.
evanmiya.com
In all of D1 basketball, as of Saturday, the fifth most successful lineup nationally is none other than Northwestern's 5-man crew of Buie, Audige, Barnhizer, Beran and Nicholson. (Something like a projected score of 130-27 against an average opponent)
They've only had 12 possessions on both sides of the court, but the 4 lineups that were more effective all had similar small samples.
From my perspective, that lineup makes a lot of sense, as it is two guards, a legit small forward, a power forward and a traditional, big center.
I got that info from this website, which has gone to subscriptions as of yesterday.
EvanMiya CBB Analytics
Advanced college basketball analytics, home of the Bayesian Performance Rating
evanmiya.com
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