Thoughts on how to fix this teams issues going forward

S

springfieldhawk

Active Member
This team is best when White or Basabe are shooting the ball at close range. This team should be making an effort to feed the ball to these two on the block. They will command attention/ fouls / free throws / 60% shooting % ... This helps free up our wing people for easier looks.

Johnny Utah is your Three ..... he can really stroke the threes and his length is a serious issue for opposing wing shooters. White is not an effective three.

So here is the captain obvious conclusion... feed the guys the ball that are shooting like 60% from the floor more shots from places that they like to be.

Thoughts?
 
springfieldhawk said:
This team is best when White or Basabe are shooting the ball at close range. This team should be making an effort to feed the ball to these two on the block. They will command attention/ fouls / free throws / 60% shooting % ... This helps free up our wing people for easier looks.

Johnny Utah is your Three ..... he can really stroke the threes and his length is a serious issue for opposing wing shooters. White is not an effective three.

So here is the captain obvious conclusion... feed the guys the ball that are shooting like 60% from the floor more shots from places that they like to be.

Thoughts?
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I was just thinking the same thing about White's role last night. When he gets to the low post area, generally good things happen (10-10 FT). And the excellent three point shooting benefits from this.
 
This sounds like a no brainer but if you do not have an outside threat then players like Basabe and White are going to struggle as the defenses will simply collapse down and they will end up seeing double teams and those shooting percentages will go down quickly.
 
The problem with this we don't have NW guarding us every game. As kelley noted in order to make this gameplan feasible there has to be a consistent outside threat. It doesn't have to be one guy, and it doesn't have to be every game. Making just one open 3 can scare a Defense into thinking you'll make every one. But if you come out and miss the first 3, or clank like 5 in a row you aren't going to get any respect form the defense.
 
If Basabe is active as he was last night it is a big difference maker for our team also. He had a at least a finger on every board last night it seemed. Problem is there are too many games where you just don't know he's even playing that night... too inconsistent.
Gessel Hitting from outside is huge for us too, he might be THE key to our season. Good PG play, especially a scoring threat, is just too important in the college game.
 
Take out White and replace with Woody and Basabe and you're right.

White's not a back to the basket post up type player. He uses his speed to beat the other team's 4 man down the floor and faces up an drives to the hoop to get fouls and cashes in at the line.
 
1. Agree on getting White's more touches on the block.
2. Better FT shooting from everyone, but especially Gessel and Marble.
3. When up 10-12 points, continue to execute offense and defense to push lead higher. Need to have the killer instinct to bury teams.
 
ibahawkeye said:
Take out White and replace with Woody and Basabe and you're right.

White's not a back to the basket post up type player. He uses his speed to beat the other team's 4 man down the floor and faces up an drives to the hoop to get fouls and cashes in at the line.
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That may be true but White has the best hands around the basket, on this team. I prefer a White (high post) and Basabe (low post) game with Uthoff working the mismatches on the wings and the baseline. This puts White in a position to do what he does best and you correctly pointed out. Plus he passes the ball well for a big guy. Once he starts towards the basket, he'll draw a double team leaving Basabe open or he'll draw fouls.
 
rchawkeye said:
1. Agree on getting White's more touches on the block.
2. Better FT shooting from everyone, but especially Gessel and Marble.
3. When up 10-12 points, continue to execute offense and defense to push lead higher. Need to have the killer instinct to bury teams.
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When we get a lead, guys start standing around on the 3pt line rather than keep moving. It gets frustrating to watch.
 
Agree with the OP and general consensus but college basketball has been a dribble drive and dish game for many years.

Bball is point guard oriented now as switching and double teams have taken away a lot of post play.

I think Marble, gesell/clemmons, and the person playing the three position, white, uthoff, or oglesby, need to drive, breakdown the defense, and dish to open teammates, whether downlow like gesell did last nite or out to 3 point shooters.

They can do the dribble drive off the screens and curl cuts that Fran uses.
 
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springfieldhawk said:
This team is best when White or Basabe are shooting the ball at close range. This team should be making an effort to feed the ball to these two on the block. They will command attention/ fouls / free throws / 60% shooting % ... This helps free up our wing people for easier looks.
Click to expand...

Both White and Basabe are better in the open court, in the fast-break game. They are both good as the primary wing and as the secondary middle. That's how both of them get 90% of their dunks. In the post at home, they'll get the calls; on the road neither is strong enough to establish themselves as low-post threats as they both get pushed to at least the 10-12 foot range instead of the 6-8 foot block placement. This causes tougher passing lanes for our wings to feed them "in the post".

Bottom line is, we HAVE to stay up tempo. Both guys do great when we run and not-so-great when we walk the ball down the floor.

springfieldhawk said:
Johnny Utah is your Three ..... he can really stroke the threes and his length is a serious issue for opposing wing shooters. White is not an effective three.
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Yes, but he does have some issues at this point. He's sloppy with the ball - he will get better, but right now there's a lot of silly turnovers. Also, he needs to improve his strength; this should also help with his ball handling.
 
Uthoff..........more playing time, encourage more shot attempts (especially the 3), create more open opportunities for him beyond the arc, encourage him to be aggressive to the basket as well, etc. Might as well start learning how to be the go to guy for next year.

He's put up some impressive offensive stats to date especially as a first year player getting limited playing time.
 
Uthoff is really an interesting player right now. I was talking to the guys who sit next to me at the games and we came up with a word to describe his play at this time..."shy." This is NOT to pick on him. We also said, "Uthoff may be the best basketball player on the Iowa team." His ability to shoot the basketball from darn near anywhere is indisputable. He rebounds incredibly well. He does get a bit 'sloppy" with the ball as pointed out above, but a lot of it is just plain physical strength. I would certainly agree when he gets stronger the turnovers will decrease. I would not be at all surprised to see this kid as a first team all big ten sometime down the road.

Maybe I am making more of this than I should, but...I think we need to remember that this is the first time this kid has ever played in a Big Ten basketball game. Also, I believe that some of the "shyness" we see in him is Uthoff trying to figure out where he fits in with this team. Remember, most of these guys have been playing together for quite a while. Now, the new guys comes in. Is not always fun being the new guy. In short, I will be fascinated to see where he goes during this first season.
 
Thoughts? I hope to beat Ohio State but don't expect to beat Ohio State. What I think is going to help us the most going forward is to play fewer teams ranked in the top 9 away from Carver. We will only have to do that one more time during the regular season.

Clemmons can regain his confidence. Basabe and White can continue to assert themselves more. Olaseni and Woodbury can dominate some teams at the 5. Uthoff can continue to knock off the rust, learn, develop, improve, etc. Gesell and Marble can shoot some free throws with a 10 point lead instead of a 3 point lead and relax a bit and build some confidence. Jok, McCabe and Oglesby can get some open looks from 3.

The killer part of our schedule is over. Keep everyone healthy and share the ball and this team should be poised to make a move come post season.
 
Issues? I think this teams only issue has been playing 3 very highly ranked teams and losing. This is a good team that is fun to watch. Just enjoy the ride fellas. There doesn't have to be something wrong to lose games. We aren't going to win them all and no one is. The season will be over soon and a bunch of people on this board are going realize they missed a great year because they were too busy crying and trying to figure out "what's wrong".

Is this a national championship team? Probably not! But that doesn't mean this can't be a great and exciting season. I will say it again, enjoy the ride fellas!
 
LasVegasHawk said:
Issues? I think this teams only issue has been playing 3 very highly ranked teams and losing. This is a good team that is fun to watch. Just enjoy the ride fellas. There doesn't have to be something wrong to lose games. We aren't going to win them all and no one is. The season will be over soon and a bunch of people on this board are going realize they missed a great year because they were too busy crying and trying to figure out "what's wrong".

Is this a national championship team? Probably not! But that doesn't mean this can't be a great and exciting season. I will say it again, enjoy the ride fellas!
Click to expand...
So no free throw shooting issues? No closing a game out issues? No issues putting a team away when on they are on the ropes? Good team? Yes. Room to improve? Plenty.
 
LasVegasHawk said:
Issues? I think this teams only issue has been playing 3 very highly ranked teams and losing. This is a good team that is fun to watch. Just enjoy the ride fellas. There doesn't have to be something wrong to lose games. We aren't going to win them all and no one is. The season will be over soon and a bunch of people on this board are going realize they missed a great year because they were too busy crying and trying to figure out "what's wrong".

Is this a national championship team? Probably not! But that doesn't mean this can't be a great and exciting season. I will say it again, enjoy the ride fellas!
Click to expand...

We've already been on this ride before last year. Same team pretty much, doing the same things, just with more pre-season hype.
 
I think if they had limited their TOs in the 3 losses they would have won those games. Don't get me wrong we are a good assist team and push the tempo quite well, but it seems there's usually a stretch of 5 minutes or so in the game we try too hard. I think those 5 minutes in the game the team gets a little sloppy and tries a little too hard to push the tempo and end up giving it up to the other team or we go for the extra pass and it ends up trapping the player and causes a TO.
 
This team doesn't need any major fixes. The scores indicate that. Just some tinkering.

in the big games it comes down to these 3:

Marble - Make FTs and he has to handle the point the last 2-3 minutes of eating clock & move Gesell to SG.
More minutes for Uthoff & more shots from him (like above, don't be shy).
White finding more shots in 1/2 court offense.
 
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