Collins said he's been sick, which is why his minutes were limited.
Still, Matt continues to show progress. His FT shooting now that he does that relaxation thing is great. He just needs to get a Ryan Young low block game going.
Game Thread: Northwestern vs. Prairie View A&M
- Thread starter mshelton33
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Still, Matt continues to show progress. His FT shooting now that he does that relaxation thing is great. He just needs to get a Ryan Young low block game going.
What you wrote is true, buuuutttttt... Nicholson was open as Audige drove the lane, but Audige threw a lob about 4 feet from where it should have been, requiring Nicholson to go backwards and almost out of bounds to corral the pass, then he gathered and went up for a dunk. So the bad pass caused the shot clock violation. A good pass would have enabled Nicholson to jump, catch and dunk. At least thats how I saw it. I'll re-watch.
One question about lobs... isn't the defender, by rule, at a disadvantage? He cannot interfere with a ball lobbed toward the rim because it will probably be called goaltending. But a big guy on offense can go up and grab the ball on its downward flight, just before it touches the cylinder above the basket, then dunk it. At least thats my understanding. Is that right?
I’m not confident in the written rules, but that’s my understanding.
Matt also needs a bit more confidence from his guards. There were a couple of times on offense he neatly boxed his guy out and was open for a pass from Boo for an ‘easy’ score, and Boo looked at him then passed to Berry or Roper in the corner instead.
I think that was before he and Boo scored twice on the pick n roll. More of that please.
Matt also needs a bit more confidence from his guards. There were a couple of times on offense he neatly boxed his guy out and was open for a pass from Boo for an ‘easy’ score, and Boo looked at him then passed to Berry or Roper in the corner instead.
I think that was before he and Boo scored twice on the pick n roll. More of that please.
I don't think I suggested Matt was talked about more than Boo or Chase. Just that he comes up, while Verhoeven, despite often contributing zero, does not. But I suppose that's often how it goes, if you don't shoot, you are not singled out. You shoot and miss and you are.
I am not sure how to justify the "can't play big Matt if he isn't rolling". You can't, but you will play Verhoeven, who did not even manage a single rebound?
Matt gets talked about around here a lot because a certain poster made it his mission to force us all to obsess about Matt. Matt clearly has potential to be a good player, but for now, he is a bit of a bumbling, stumbling mess on many plays. That stands out on camera and so it draws attention.
Boo and Chase are clearly our most skilled players and we go as they go. I would be a huge Boo fan if every third time down the court, he didn't run that play where he dribbles around for 20 seconds and then forces a bad shot or turns it over. But I blame coaching for that one. That shit should have been coached out of him three years ago.
Chase is the most exciting player right now. His defense is All BIG level. I am so impressed with how he moves his feet and then he has those quick hands. I also think he has clearly improved his offensive game. He is playing with so much more control this year than last year. I no longer cringe when he has the ball, but am starting to trust he'll make a decent decision.
Did anyone else notice that Big Matt is starting to resemble Teen Wolf (Michael J Fox version)?
Buie had six assists yesterday (and would have had a few more if we could hit more than 20% of our shots) and 1 turnover. I thought he took 1 or 2 bad shots. If we had better scorers around him, it would bother me more when he dribbles a lot. For me, the bigger issue is that he is a below average shooter, especially around the basket.
Then I guess we lost yesterday.
Collectively Buie and Audige were 8 for 29 from the floor. 3 of 13 from distance.
Walk down Central Street and take the "L" home.
Beran and Nicholson were the main reasons we beat Prairie View.
We entered a period in basketball where it became dogma that the only shots worth taking were 3 pointers or layups. A two-point jumpshot was considered a bad shot. Well... defenses caught on to that and have adjusted to play the perimeter and guard the rim. Thus, the mid-range game is there for the taking. In the NBA, some of the best guards are bringing the mid-range game back. I watch a lot more Eastern Conference, so I see guys like Donovan Mitchell, DeMar DeRozan, Jimmy Butler and Jaylen Brown making a living this year on that mid-range jumper.
It would be nice to see Boo hit that pull up jumper or floater from the free throw line. Same thing for Ty and Roper. Not every shot has to be a three - especially as poorly as we shoot it.
Are you seriously telling me Boo and Chase aren't our most skilled players? It doesn't mean they are the MVPs every game, but in total, they have the most skills.
Beran was great yesterday, and I wish that was the Robbie Beran we got every game, but he tends to disappear once we aren't playing a team with five words in their school name. Nicholson just isn't very good. Yes, he can grab some rebounds when he has 6 inches over everyone else on the floor. But, considering the size advantage he had yesterday, how many second chance points did he get? I really don't know. Maybe he had a bunch yesterday. But I would expect him to feast on a little team like that.
Buie and Audige are who run the offense and create looks for Beran and Nicholson. They didn’t shoot well but had fine games. Audige made many defense plays that kept us in the game as well. Buie had a least one steal that lead to a score.
He didn't state anything close to that. He said that Beran's and MN's performances were the main reason we beat PVAM. It's hard to argue with that.
I also think our guard play on defense had a lot to do with PVAM scoring 4 points (2 of them being a fluky ball squirting out of a multi-player scrum right to an unguarded PV player as he watched under the basket) over the final 10 minutes.
Look at his post again. He specifically singled out one of my sentences that said Boo and Chase are our most skilled players and then immediately responded, "I guess we lost yesterday." It sure reads like he is trying to refute my statement.
Also: defense is a skill.
Yes, defense is skill. Yet, you continuously say this team has no skill in these game threads.
The ability to not disappear requires being a player of a higher caliber. This ability is only found, in our roster, in Boo and Chase.
Beran, like Berry, will tend to disappear if they have a good stretch. Once that happens the opposing teams adapts, the defender helps less, sticks more to the player. And that is why Beran or Berry will tend to disappear after scoring a few baskets in a row.
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I don't know who our most skilled players are. It depends what you call "skill."
I don't think of Audige as being particularly skilled - he is athletic and plays with a great motor. His "skills" are on the defensive side, but a lot of defense is effort.
Beran has some skills too. He shoots better than Buie and Audige, for example. Can't pass the ball to save his life.
I was really only objecting to the "we go as they go" part about Audige and Buie.
Collins says it all the time and it has become a mantra.
That was not the case yesterday. It doesn't have to be the case. It should not be the case if we want to win.
Buie and Audige shoot a lot. They possess the ball constantly. The team needs better balance offensively and more variety because Audige and unfortunately (this season) Buie are inefficient scorers.
Fair enough. I think Buie and Audige are the two guys most capable of creating offense for this team either for themselves or their teammates. I also think they are our best defenders. We may be able to beat the Prarie Views of the world without at least one of them playing really well, but we won't win (m)any BIG games that way in my opinion.
Totally agree with your last point. Even though Boo and Chase are the best players on our team with the ball in their hands, it doesn't mean they are particularly good with the ball in their hands. A team like Northwestern is likely to have more success if the ball is moving around.
Prairie View doesn't have exams? That's my kind of university.
No doubt Audige played well on the defensive end, but he is probably not going to help us on offense as an alternate point guard. But there's still time to experiment.
I would love to see Coach Collins dedicate 10 minutes a game to Nicholson/Beran/Barnhizer/Roper/Audige while we are still playing non-conference teams and see how much of a beating we can dish out, pounding the ball inside and getting on the glass.
You might want to consider the defense you'd see against that lineup and the effect on your boy, Nicholson, before you design an offense around him.
Probably a 3-2 zone with the guards pinching in, right? Audige and Roper aren't going to light it up from 3.
They had exams last week too. Probably why both teams shot like crap.
I just want to see what happens. I think those 5 are potentially an effective unit, but Collins is using Barnhizer as Beran's backup, so they usually end up watching each other play, instead of being teammates.
Really doesn't have as much to do with Nicholson - has more to do with Barnhizer and Roper being willing to get inside and slug it out. Beran can crash too or hit threes. Its a power lineup. Nicholson fits with those guys better than Verhoeven. Collins always tends to play finesse/perimeter. To win you need more options, especially when your 3 point shooting is average at best.
Its Collins job to make it work. Gotta play to the strengths of your players.
and then a bit later after Verhoeven failed to dunk the dunk...
So I think he gets mentioned at least a little...
I was at the game yesterday. The 3 point strategy commitment is numbing. If they just drove to the hoop in the first half they would have been ahead by 10 at half. That is on the coaching staff. In addition, boxing out seemed to be a foreign concept to our team. I was the only person that booed at the end of the first half. Apparently, that sh*t show as acceptable to every one else at the game. Apparently, the draw of dipping dots was too strong for some. thought I was at the f#cking opera. I hope they had an off day. If not, they will have thier a$$es handed to them for the next 2 months.
Boxing out is a lost art. Players just don't do it.
They did try to get to the basket, missed a lot of layups in the first half.
But they stuck with it and got the job done, tough grind but got the win.
They did try to get to the basket, missed a lot of layups in the first half.
But they stuck with it and got the job done, tough grind but got the win.
Most of the attendees were grade schoolers. They appreciate the dipping dots, but not the finer points of boxing out and shot selection. At least give them credit for rooting loudly for Chick Fil A.
If you've got two or three guys shooting +40% from three, it's a decent strategy. But even then, driving the lane and actually taking the shot a decent amount of the time, rather than always kicking out, is going to help your shooters when the D isn't sure what's happening this time.
If Barnhizer showed anything close to an outside shot or a strong ability to create his own shot in the 19 mins he's playing now, I could see the additional options.
You need a consistent (key word) outside shooter somewhere in this group to get the inside game you want. Or else the whole world is just going to collapse on the lane.
But I get it: Desperate times call for desperate measures.
What’s crazy is that we’re currently shooting 26% (28 for 106) on 2-pointers that aren’t close to the rim or dunks. That’s probably unsustainably bad and will improve. But although we’re pretty bad on 3s at 31% that’s clearly a better strategy than the mid-range given that the 3s are also worth 50% more points. We’d have to be shooting 46.5% from the mid-range just to break even vs. 31% from 3.
As far as I know (and it never mattered for me) the offensive player is allowed to grab the ball even if it is heading down toward the basket, as long as it isn't in the cylinder or on the rim. I can't find anything that says otherwise.
So lobs that look like shots are difficult to defend...
Maybe somebody knows for sure.
Thanks for that stat. Are we at or above 46.5 percent on shots close to the rim and dunks? I feel like we miss more than half of our shots driving to the basket and on fast breaks.
Per Torvik, we are 26/27 (96.3%) on dunks, 68/153 (44.4%) on layups, 28/106 (26.4%) on midrange, and 71/228 (31.1%) on 3s. Combined dunks and layups is 52.2%.
Worst offender, to what should be no one's surprise, is Buie, who is 14/33 (42.4%) on layups.
We are far and away the worst in the conference at layups. Only Rutgers is below 50%, 10 teams are above 58% and 6 teams are above 60%, with the Illini being the best at 62.8%
So we should only take dunks and 3's. I am only half-kidding. Driving to the lane draws fouls (which are not reflected in those stats) and should create put back opportunities (but we haven't been very good at that since Pardon graduated), but those percentages support what I see when I watch games. "Jacking" 3's is a pretty efficient option in our offense.
The biggest weakness on almost all of Collins' teams has been an inability to finish at the rim. I believe that's a primary reason why we struggle at the end of games. We only have a couple of players that can create their own shot (which is critical at the end of games) and they are poor finishers. Some of it is the level of athletes we recruit but even Vic Law was not great at driving to the basket when he was here. Watching him in a few videos since, he has gotten much craftier and efficient around the rim. And fast breaks are an adventure that seem to lead to almost as many turnovers as baskets.
I thought Barnhizer and Roper would be better at it but they haven't given me much hope the past few games. As much as folks on this board like to criticize our offense (and it can be stagnant), basketball is still primarily about one guy beating another guy one on one and scoring and creating, especially at the end of games. Other teams generally aren't beating us with scheme.
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