pulitzerdave
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Posted: Today 10:59 AM
Re: Hey dave and learni
fbc4life wrote: I don't think it's too much to ask either for a team. However.....for us to all of a sudden shoot 70 percent from the line as a team would be a dramatic increase across the board by every player. I think we can be a better free throw shooting team but that is almost a culture that takes time to develop. A guy that has shot 60 percent from the line for two seasons isn't all of a sudden going to improve 10 pts. Well its possible but rare and not to be expected.
The best way to improve our overall team percentage is to improve our finishes around the rim. Never in my life have I seen bigs struggle to finish around the rim the way that ours do. Hopefully someone can come in and teach a jump hook and work on situations where dunking is high percentage and getting it off the glass is high percentage. We were terrible at this. If we had coached our bigs well the last few seasons we would should have led the conference in And 1's. Our guys would draw fouls just fine but would just miss chip shots in the process. If we can improve in that area we could improve big time in overall fg percentage. I do not expect our outside shooting to improve much. We have the players that we have. Outside of Rodney there is not a sharp shooter on this roster.
learnin wrote:
Good post. But I don't think it's too much to ask for a college team to shoot 45% from the field and 70% from the line.
fbc4life, Gor, learnin and others, these are good posts. Our shooting problems have bothered me over the last few years, and I think these are all solid reasons why we haven't been a good shooting team. Because of the aggressive nature of the previous coaching staff, shooting almost seemed like a component of the game that wasn't as important as rebounding and defense. That's the way some teams have to play who don't have elite talent, but it's not the only way to play. We won games shooting in the high 30's to low 40's, but when we shot close to 50%, ( which was rare) we separated from teams. One thing I like about Weber's philosophy is utilizing the face-up 4 guy who can shoot 3's. This player is more prevalent in the Big 10 than in the Big 12, and also has been a tremendous weapon for mid-major's, especially when they go against power conference teams in the NCAA Tourney. Just look at how it worked in the KU/Purdue game when Robinson was chasing Hummel all over the floor, putting him in an unfamiliar defensive spot, and pulling him away from the basket. Self did make some adjustments at half time, but I believe had Hubbel remained aggressive, they would have won that game. Only late in the game did he readjust with his driving and post-up game, but it was too late. KU had already cut into the lead and had the momentum.
A few years ago Drake had a team that dominated the Valley and were ranked in the top 15 in the country. They had two bigs who could shoot 3's and a couple of guards who could penetrate and kick to them. It was a thing of beauty to watch. Their talent was probably a C+ at best, but they were a great shooting team, with 4 of their 5 guys able to shoot 3's in the 40% range. Just think what you can do with better talent, more athletic wings and guards, plus a couple of big guys who are versatile enough to step out and extend a defense. I think this is what we are going to see in the next few years with Weber. It cracked me up when I read the quote about Weber asking JO if he like the "pick and pop". JO probably thought he was talking about a convenience store. It will take some time, but I'm excited about the possibilities of running an offense that the Big 12 is not that familiar with. We'll be hard to prepare for, and a much more versatile offensive team. Now, if we just keep playing good defense, and don't do things that our personel won't allow us to do (yes, learnin, I'm talking about chest to chest defense, 30 feet from the basket) we'll be a very good team. I want to see less stubbornness and more insight in how we play the game and utilize the players we have. I'm excited about the possibilities.
