UCalum08
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Marquette lost to gtown tonight 55-63. Surprised? No because if you score only in the 50's you will lose majority of the time. UC better have figured something out or many losses are upon us.
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CaptDale
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When you play a slowdown game, nobody is going to score. That's the reason our opponents don't run up points a la Duke or Kentucky or Indiana or......................
UCalum08
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You missed the point there buddy.
CaptDale
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No, I think I got your point. I know our offense is non-existent. Just that everyone loves to say how good we are defensively because we don't allow many points. We are pretty good defensively, just not against other bigs inside (see Adams, Batts,Obepka, Kirk......).
Defensively, while they are very good, I'm guessing Mick thinks they can be elite. While I'd agree there's probably more upside defensively, isn't it probably a whole lot easier to get to a point where you can consistently score 60+ points than it would be to hold teams around 50 or less? One seems like a much easier path to victory.
I'm guessing this is just a consistent talking point among the coaches to keep the offensive woes from affecting the defense, because if that happens we are looking at blowout losses.
It comes down to can they make enough shots and can the defense spark their offense. We've seen them do it before. They beat two good teams in Vegas, scored a total of 155 points, and never had less than 35 points in a half. They looked like an Elite 8 level team that weekend. They were out in the open court and Sanders was spotting up for open 3's. It was fun to watch. Looking back on those games two things really stand out... 21 steals and 36 turnovers forced! We've got a total of 51 steals and 120 forced turnovers in 11 conference games. We've got to get that mentality back.
Great stat. Defense creates offense and perhaps thats what Mick is referring to.
TheLongHaul
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Unfortunately even lately when they have gotten steals they haven't tried to push the ball to create easy baskets from them. At times they have and have looked good doing it but then for whatever reason they stop doing it.
Also, I'd venture to say teams generally turn the ball over more often earlier in the season and we saw that with Oregon and ISU. Now that we are into the second half of the season teams are more secure with the ball and it's hard to get steals. Plus it seams like Big East refs let them play underneath the basket but want to call every single touch foul if it's 20+ feet away from the basket.
CaptDale
Well-known member
OK guys (and gals), if you want to see some scary stats, check out this from another blog:
http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2013-articles/february/breaking-down-crunch-time-shooting.html
http://www.bearcatsblog.com/2013-articles/february/breaking-down-crunch-time-shooting.html
UCalum08
Well-known member
Nice breakdown of stats. 0-10 from 3 points at the Pitt game...woof! Then we have a whopping 0-2 2-point shots lol. Ugly.
They should probably just keep doing what they are doing and shooting a ton of 3's at the end of games huh?
Great info, thanks.
CaptDale
Well-known member
I wonder if Mick bothers to read these comments?!
That's a fair point that teams are likely more turnover prone early in the season. Some of those turnovers in Vegas were unforced, no doubt. At the same time we played aggressive defense with an emphasis on creating turnovers. Cash and SK were constantly ripping the ball away on drives. Combined they had 12 steals in the two games. I remember Gottlieb saying opposing guards shouldn't even bother challenging Cash with the dribble. It wasn't reckless reaching either. They only had 2 total fouls in 129 minutes.
I always thought this would be one of the strengths of this team. Jamming the passing lanes, stripping the ball, and causing havoc for opposing guards. Anymore they just seem content sitting back and challenging shooters. That type of defense just makes the pace of the game so much sloooower. In conference games were are only forcing 10.9 turnovers a game. That ranks second to last in the BE! They are also second to last in steals in conference games. Yes, it's harder to force turnovers later in the season, but there is no excuse for a defense like ours to be second to last in any defensive category.
Like it or not, the energy of this team comes from the defense. When they are aggressive they end up running more and getting easier baskets. SK got a strip steal and-1 in the 1st half against Pitt. That should be a more common occurrence with this defense.
I know we've hammered this home a million times over but I just had a quick sidenote. I was looking at our schedule so far and came out with this stat: We are 17-1 on the season when we score more than 60 points. That just astounds me. It speaks volumes at how good our defense truly is. Even more, it shows how many more wins we could have if we just scored a few more points.
UCalum08
Well-known member
A side note: the Pitt ND game on ESPN right now is a display of awesome offenses. ND-40 Pitt-34 with 5 minutes left in the game. Wowzzers...
The thing for me is, I feel that we arent put in good situations to try and score. These other teams move the ball well and set screens, they just dont have the offensive players to finish. We rarely get high percentage shots or rely on ball movement, movement, ball screens, screens, or penetration. We settle for too many 3's. I think for most of us, to wonder what this team could be with a transition game or decent half court offense is frustrating.
This could be an elite team, especially in todays college bball
bearcat jeff
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I agree R2G but I believe it's largely due to lack of player movement. These guys just stand in one place makes it pretty easy to guard.
UCalum08
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So true. I always have said UC might be the easiest team to scout and prepare for. Especially if we aren't going to press and trap the whole game. It doesn't help when we basically have only 3 players that actually look to shoot.
WAITE HOYT 2
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Your both way off base. This team was never going to be a elite team. THEY HAVE NO POST PLAYER!!!! To say otherwise is inaccurate. You build the offense around the strengh of your team. That is your 3 senoir guards. Even they have limitations. SK and Parker have suspect handles and Cash has bad knees.The fact we have done as well as we have is a tribute to the staff and players grit. Don't know if you've noticed but this is a down year for elite teams in College basketball. Scoring accross the board is down. Upsets happen nightly. Our best offense is our ability to rebound and play D. Also those on here saying Mick and staff should beable to teach Modj,Rubles,jackson and David N to become those types of players is laughable. He has had a half a season with 2 of them and Jackson is light years from his arrival. Modj basiclly lost a year with injury and suspension. Try a little reality. If we shoot well we can challenge most teams on any given night. But to describe this team as elite talent is ridiculous.You guys have been reading BearcatMick to much. Good team that plays hard everynight but far from great. To paint them as underachievers is wrong.
TheLongHaul
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Waite, enough with the "if they shoot well" spiels. They don't shoot well because they don't create enough open looks. This is a terrible shooting team but at what point in the off season did you think that these players were bad at shooting? Cash came into UC as a SG and was known as a shooter. SK got recruited to score. All we heard about was how Sanders was a lights out shooter.....Now the issue is they just don't have good shooters? It's not that simple. Create good looks and you will create better shooters.
The lack of a post player is not the issue. It's an easy excuse to use. If it is the issue than you should be questioning the recruiting a little more.
The lack of a post player is not the issue. It's an easy excuse to use. If it is the issue than you should be questioning the recruiting a little more.
WAITE HOYT 2
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The Long Haul it tough to get good looks when you have no post presence. TYou do no thay don't have to guard two of our five players on hte floor. You do see that don't you???? Teams don't have to respect the pick nad roll because they want them to throw it to our post players. They can't pass or score. They block shots and defend. We are overachieving with this group.Forr every good thing Jackson and Rubles do with the ball thay turn it over twice. Modj doesn't even look to the hoop to score.