earlkoppelman
Well-Known Member
Tough "d" and rebounding NOW.STARTS with my favorite coach.Not that hard to Improve no?IOWA SURFER says why not no?
I'm not really sure why people are surprised
- Thread starter lightning1
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lightning1
Well-Known Member
VT decided to make it an athletic, transition game in the 2nd half and you saw how outmatched and how quickly overwhelmed we were.
Robowe
Well-Known Member
Iowa made shots in the 1st half. No transition for VT. Iowa missed shots in the 2nd half, leading to transition points for VT. They scored 38 points in the 1st half, and 41 in the 2nd. Not a big difference. Iowa, on the other hand ... scored 5 points in the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half.
lightning1
Well-Known Member
A lot of those 2nd half missed shots were not good shots to begin with. I'll have to look at the shots to see what was and wasn't a "missed bunny". Not that it really matters. They ran in transition and we couldn't keep up. Missed shots or not.
Robowe
Well-Known Member
If Iowa makes the shots, the transition opportunities are lessened. Iowa started the 2nd half 1-19 and VT took advantage.
lightning1
Well-Known Member
Iowa missed 9 layups, 10 jumpers and 11 3pt shots in the 2nd half. Had 5 turnovers. That's from the play by play. I don't recall how much of that was good defense by VT or poor shots by Iowa. I have the game recorded and can go back and count, if needed.
Again, Transition defense wouldn't be a problem if we had quicker, more defense minded guards. There are things you can do, as a coach, to limit transition points. Fran either didn't do them or it didn't matter.
Robowe
Well-Known Member
Sometimes a view from the other side comes in handy. Here's a link to an article that talks about what was key to VT's win. Look what Buzz Williams had to say - the speed matters, but only when the shots aren't falling for the opponent.
http://www.richmond.com/sports/coll...cle_85883674-f462-5d2c-a781-52457260e782.html
“Fast can only be fast when fast has the ball. So only allowing Iowa to have one shot in the second half, that allows us to be fast,” Williams said. “Part of the reason why they shot 18 percent in the second half is because they were worn out. … because we were only giving them one shot and then we were heading the other way with quickness.”
Robowe
Well-Known Member
Excellent question.
lightning1
Well-Known Member
Buzz Williams isn't going to come right out and say that we are slow and he took advantage of that fact, in the 2nd half.
Count how many times he used words to describe exactly that fact, in that quote you provided:
Fast, fast, fast, fast, quickness.
And he then added that we were worn out, due to his team running in transition.
Sometimes, you just need to accept what your eyes are telling you....not what you wish to see.
lightning1
Well-Known Member
Because all 10 of them are slow.
lightning1
Well-Known Member
And, lets not forget the fact that Tom Izzo went to bat for Todd Lickliter to remain head coach at Iowa. I wouldn't put too much stock in what an opposing coach says about us. It's not always an honest opinion.
Robowe
Well-Known Member
So, VT wasn't faster than Iowa in the 1st half? What changed? Iowa didn't make shots. VT could run.
St Louis beat VT. They didn't beat them with speed. They are not a fast team. By the way, St Louis has to Providence, Detroit Mercy, and Western Michigan since beating VT.
http://www.roanoke.com/hokies/sport...cle_83d8b3ee-8b0e-5c48-8768-3dff08831758.html
“We knew they played fast,” said Javon Bess, who had 22 points for the Billkens. “We knew we just had to slow them down. We slow them down and make them run the offense, make four, five, six passes a possession, we [were] going to be okay.”
So we got blown out by a team that lost to a bad St Louis team? That's even more comforting haha.
lightning1
Well-Known Member
I'll tell you what changed. Buzz Williams went into the half and made an adjustment. He saw how slow we were and told his team to run us into the ground. And that's exactly what they did. Good coaches make adjustments.
You can post links and quotes all day long. I know what I saw and everyone else on this message board saw the same thing. I'm not sure why you don't get it. Ask anyone else what they saw.
InGoodCo
Well-Known Member
While I agree Iowa is not the fastest team - shooting 17% in the 2nd half, scoring only 14 pts and going like 1-12 from 3 is gonna get any team run out of the building. If anything Buzz's adjustments at the half were defensively driven and the rest took care of itself. Iowa had no issues keeping up with the same team the first half when they were making shots.
Robowe
Well-Known Member
I think it's funny you think it took the 1st half for Buzz Williams to decide that Iowa was slow. They knew, but Iowa played well and shot 51% in the 1st half. Williams said it himself ... they needed to get the rebounds on the defensive end and get out in transition. That was the plan the entire game. It worked better in the 2nd half when Iowa shot 18%.
Robowe
Well-Known Member
No, it's not comforting. It looks like the StL game was a one off (so far) for VT (and for StL for that matter). It happens.
Knight78
Well-Known Member
Go to the ESPN recap and look at the shot chart. They had at least a dozen missed shots inside 4 feet. The the "not good shots to begin with" were wide open looks. There were two telling moments in the second half:
1) Moss gets by his man and gets to the elbow (top corner of the lane) and shoots an uncontested jump shot.... and misses. He makes better than 60% of shots from the elbow. He missed this one.
2) Cook gets the ball low and shoots a layup with his "strong" hand, his left hand (he likes to finish around the rim more with his left hand than his right). The ball rolls off the rim.
These are only two misses, but they are telling. If Moss can't make one of his favorite shots and Cook can't get a layup to drop (even a contested one) we are in trouble. Add to that the fact that when we hit a scoreless streak it tends to swallow ALL of our shooters and not just one or two, and you get a very bad shooting second half.