Bigdaddyg1 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 06, 2024 7:17 pm

QueencityApp wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 06, 2024 6:19 pm

Kerns couldn’t get the right rotations down tonight. Too many turnovers and Troy is not that good to beat us like that. Hoping for 2-2 road trip.

That would mean losing at 4-9 Coastal? Man I hope we are better than that.

We are 1-1 on this four game road swing. We play Coastal and JMU next week. Unless, of course, you were implying that we will beat JMU.

311neers wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 06, 2024 6:22 pm

Bummer. Hit a miracle 3 to get down by 2 then give up a wide open layup to seal it. Pain.

I remember someone said this is the best team we have had in a long time and the talent is there but we have to be more consistent and shoot better both from the 3-point line and free throws. If we can do that we could be good though because we show the ability to play good defense, have length, and are athletic. If we can become consistent we can really be dangerous. At least we know JMU is beatable though.

Our backcourt has to play better than today. Would like to see Marsh get a few more of Tate and Harcum’s minutes. Marsh makes a lot of mistakes but few players anywhere are as quick as his is. Wish I had a remedy for our free throw woes. A very winnable road game slipped through our fingers.

On offense, need more movement. Easy to guard someone if they do not move after passing, especially around the perimeter. I noticed this numerous times yesterday. After the pass, the player would just stand there and not move. It was several players and not just one. Maybe that is the offense....

Baffling to watch App go cold on FT's yesterday, seeing how they've been so productive from the stripe this season.

Also noticed the lack of movement away from the ball...this has been going on since before Christmas.

Bootsy wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 07, 2024 8:22 am

Baffling to watch App go cold on FT's yesterday, seeing how they've been so productive from the stripe this season.

Also noticed the lack of movement away from the ball...this has been going on since Apke .

Fixed it (with the exception of the Buzz years).

I had commented during the game that our halfcourt offense was terrible-no fluidity or movement off the ball. I've noticed some of our opponents recently who seem to move better and they get easier shots. We play good defense but a couple of our guys get screened and don't switch quickly enough and we give up easy shots. We have a couple of dudes who are turnover machines. Some ask about practicing free throws. My take on those is that it's mental more than anything. If a guy at this level who is 18-23 and has played tons of middle school, high school and AAU games and has practiced for years hasn't figured out how to shoot a "free" shot it's probably too late.

One of two really bad “ halves” this season.

There are mechanical elements to good free throw shooting. It’s like a golf swing in which there are dozens of areas that must be in sync for a successful shot. Take CJ Huntley, for example. Even though big men aren’t usually good free throw shooters, CJ has excellent mechanics and it shows in his free throw percentage. Ditto for Donovan Gregory. Some of the others? Not so much. But good mechanics can be taught and that’s one area where our coaching staff has been deficient.

AppGrad78 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 07, 2024 10:19 am

There are mechanical elements to good free throw shooting. It’s like a golf swing in which there are dozens of areas that must be in sync for a successful shot. Take CJ Huntley, for example. Even though big men aren’t usually good free throw shooters, CJ has excellent mechanics and it shows in his free throw percentage. Ditto for Donovan Gregory. Some of the others? Not so much. But good mechanics can be taught and that’s one area where our coaching staff has been deficient.

I don't go watch as much local high school basketball as I recall watching the teams warm up. After the usual layup line most guys immediately went behind the arc and started jacking 3's. Rarely do they take practice shots at the line. I think the "gym rat" of the past is gone. We all recall those stories of the guy who stayed to shoot 100 FT's.

While free throws and turnovers are a problem, opposing teams have figured out how to take Abson out of the game script for us.
Teams are playing more athletic 4/5’s that require Abson to leave the paint on defense. That is leaving us with no help defense in the paint. His minutes are down from last year. Sure, that could be due to Spillers stepping up but I’ve noticed this over the past few games teams employ faster and athletic lineups.
Huntley and Spillers were exhausted yesterday.

Conditioning ?

Stonewall wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 07, 2024 10:46 am

Conditioning ?

It could be a little of that but we are now relying on Spillers and Huntley to carry the load on offense AND defense now with Abson essentially being removed from the game script in some cases. I think we are okay but would great to have that 4th SF/PF that could protect the paint or present some type on length in the paint. I know we have 2 on the bench but they’re young and RS.

Shooting free throws right out of the locker room vs shooting free throws while winded or fatigued are two different things, somewhat. Practice both. Hard to add game-like pressure to it in practice.

We would run sprints , then head straight to the line , in practice. Then climb the ladder to get the ball out of the basket…

I know nothing about what the theory of our offense is BUT...if we are going to shoot a lot of threes, I wish we would go into Spillers or Abson and back out to a three point shooter. We are trying to get shots coming off of screens. It is a much harder shot drifting side ways vs stepping into a shot.

Stonewall wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 07, 2024 12:58 pm

We would run sprints , then head straight to the line , in practice. Then climb the ladder to get the ball out of the basket…

We ran "suicides" and defensive shuffles last few minutes of practice and then 25 or 50 free throws...depending on coaches mood of the day..this is how we finished practice every day... except the ladder part.

Cro-Magnon App wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 07, 2024 12:52 pm

Shooting free throws right out of the locker room vs shooting free throws while winded or fatigued are two different things, somewhat. Practice both. Hard to add game-like pressure to it in practice.

Very true, when I coached we would finish every practice with every player taking two free throws, make both no one runs, make one suicides to half court, make none full court. Hated and loved that drill as a child too.

BambooRdApp wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 07, 2024 6:39 am

On offense, need more movement. Easy to guard someone if they do not move after passing, especially around the perimeter. I noticed this numerous times yesterday. After the pass, the player would just stand there and not move. It was several players and not just one. Maybe that is the offense....

I noticed this when I went to the game in hickory. Absolutely no movement to try and get open.

Shooting lots of free throws in practice is like taking a lot of BP in baseball. In a baseball game you might have 3-4 at bats and might only swing the bat a couple of times but you have prepared the mechanics- same with free throws. I often hated those players who would bounce the ball 8-10 times, spin it in their hand or whatever other pre shot rituals they had but more often than not those guys hit 8-10. I've noticed a few of our players maybe take one bounce, don't bend their knees and basically just throw the ball at the rim. If you win games by 20 and you shot 8-15 from the line it doesn't matter but when you are in a 4 point game and you left 7 points on the board it absolutely matters.