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5fouls
5fouls

Guarding the 3 more effectively is more important than shooting the 3 more effectively with this IU team.

IUFLA
IUFLA

When: Sunday, November 20th 1 PM EST Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY TV: ESPN Danny Hurley (6th year at UConn 107-52...258-160 overall) leads his 3-0 Connecticut Huskies (#5

IUFLA
IUFLA

Very cool stuff...  

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IUFLA

IUFLA

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11 hours ago, BGleas said:

Where I'm with you @IUFLA is that we will improve. Woodson will definitely get the defense better. He will, he's too go not too. 

He'll figure out how to get MM to at least be serviceable on that end. I have major concerns about the over-helping though, because that's been a 3 year issue. 

I also just hate our offense. I thinks it's antiquated and not conducive to winning, and I don't think it will work when we play better competition. I just don't, and I think we have a lot more we 'could be doing.'  

Just my opinion and I hope I'm wrong. 

Understand...You guys that watch the NBA put a lot of value in the three, and I can see why...I just don't think we have the consistent shooters to go really high volume at this point...I can see us taking maybe 4-5 more a game (which would get us in the top half of 3 FGAs) so maybe as the year rolls along, we will...

But right now, I think Woody is playing the hand he dealt himself...The one truism in basketball is the team with the most points wins (unless you're the USA 1972 Olympic men's basketball team :) ), and for the moment, Woody's going to go to his strength...

 

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BGleas

BGleas

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2 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

Understand...You guys that watch the NBA put a lot of value in the three, and I can see why...I just don't think we have the consistent shooters to go really high volume at this point...I can see us taking maybe 4-5 more a game (which would get us in the top half of 3 FGAs) so maybe as the year rolls along, we will...

But right now, I think Woody is playing the hand he dealt himself...The one truism in basketball is the team with the most points wins (unless you're the USA 1972 Olympic men's basketball team :) ), and for the moment, Woody's going to go to his strength...

 

Understand you're points as well. 

The bolded is why I get frustrated with this topic (not towards you specifically, I've seen the bolded from lots of people), nobody has said we should be some high volume 3pta team. 

But being in the bottom 10-15 in the country will be losing basketball. We have the shooters to take more in an efficient way. 

While guard depth is definitely a concern, we have the guys to play a faster, more skilled style of play...at least at times. 

Woodson has never even tried it. 

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Maedhros

Maedhros

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For me, the argument for shooting the three more is very simple. It's a weapon our opponents have that we simply don't. When the other team drains a three, either to stop our momentum or to start a run of their own, it's especially deflating because I know we won't be able to respond. At best we'll get a quick two, meaning we still need a stop on the other end.

The three point shot is just not an option for us, seemingly by choice. You can win that way. We did last year. But you're making everything harder on yourself. You have to be that much more efficient on your twos, and you have to be that much better on defense. Why play with one hand tied behind your back? 

We don't need to be a great three point shooting team. We have other strengths. But we are least need to be competent to have the success we want. It's a rising tide that will lift everything else we do if we can establish a threat from the perimeter.

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BGleas

BGleas

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17 minutes ago, Maedhros said:

For me, the argument for shooting the three more is very simple. It's a weapon our opponents have that we simply don't. When the other team drains a three, either to stop our momentum or to start a run of their own, it's especially deflating because I know we won't be able to respond. At best we'll get a quick two, meaning we still need a stop on the other end.

The three point shot is just not an option for us, seemingly by choice. You can win that way. We did last year. But you're making everything harder on yourself. You have to be that much more efficient on your twos, and you have to be that much better on defense. Why play with one hand tied behind your back? 

We don't need to be a great three point shooting team. We have other strengths. But we are least need to be competent to have the success we want. It's a rising tide that will lift everything else we do if we can establish a threat from the perimeter.

Great post! Wish you had posted this sooner, it would have prevented me from being a complete lunatic on this topic for 3 days 🤣. 

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Parakeet Jones

Parakeet Jones

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In the Wright St pregame thread I said my hope for that game was improvement. I’ll say the same thing again today, specifically defensive improvement.   
 

At this point, I’m resigned to the fact that our offense is what it is. It has some positives it’s not all bad, but it has gaps (consistent 3 point shooting) that we will have to deal with all year. That’s why my great interest and hope for improvement is on the defensive side of the ball. 
 

Defensively we have to find a way to minimize the gap created points wise when other teams are bombing threes on us. That’s my captain obvious statement of the day. Just as importantly, imo, is that we have to get to the point where our defense is consistently leading to offense. The best we have looked to me this year was early in the Wright St game where we were getting out in transition. Woody said after the Army game it’s hard to get out in transition when you’re constantly taking the ball out of the net.  With our offense being what it is, we desperately need those easy transition points. 
 

My head says this gets ugly today, but I’m hoping for some progress in the areas I noted above. If we can do that and keep the game at a point where we aren’t getting boat raced and then follow that up with a decent performance tomorrow and a win (I’m assuming we will end up playing Louisville) then we can walk away from NYC headed in the right direction. 

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NCHoosier32

NCHoosier32

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1 hour ago, Hoosierfan1901 said:

XJ is expected to play today 

i was pretty positive that was the case, but i wonder if it's like he is toughing it out and barely good enough to play?  or is he close to 100%?  or somewhere between there?  that situation means a lot to me... on a related topic, my son is a huge IU fan (of course) and is in his second year of college bball.  at this point, he is more analytic of the games than i am and i think he is better at it than i am.  that said, he is steadfast that most of our problems have to do with X.  just a take i haven't really noticed, because i don't think we have a viable alternative.  he swears up and down that much of the overhelping starts with X.  says people blame some of his getting out of position on Mbako because MM is the one who reacts to it trying to make up for it.  thoughts on that?  he also says if we were running the exact same stuff with JHS instead of X, we'd be so much better because he created so much more for teammates than X does.  also points out that X isn't even very good at getting his.  honestly, i'm not sure what my opinion on all that is.  kind of doesn't matter i guess.  

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BGleas

BGleas

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22 minutes ago, NCHoosier32 said:

i was pretty positive that was the case, but i wonder if it's like he is toughing it out and barely good enough to play?  or is he close to 100%?  or somewhere between there?  that situation means a lot to me... on a related topic, my son is a huge IU fan (of course) and is in his second year of college bball.  at this point, he is more analytic of the games than i am and i think he is better at it than i am.  that said, he is steadfast that most of our problems have to do with X.  just a take i haven't really noticed, because i don't think we have a viable alternative.  he swears up and down that much of the overhelping starts with X.  says people blame some of his getting out of position on Mbako because MM is the one who reacts to it trying to make up for it.  thoughts on that?  he also says if we were running the exact same stuff with JHS instead of X, we'd be so much better because he created so much more for teammates than X does.  also points out that X isn't even very good at getting his.  honestly, i'm not sure what my opinion on all that is.  kind of doesn't matter i guess.  

Agree with a lot of that but not all. I'm an XJ supporter, but also realize he isn't perfect. One reason I like that smaller lineup is because it gets the ball in Cupps hands to direct the offense and gets XJ in more of a scorers role. 

I'd agree JHS is better, but I think we all want a team where we have two guys line that. Unfortunately, we were robbed of it last year. 

I noticed this live when it happened, but on the broadcast Bardo blamed MM for this. This is a good example of what I think your son is talking about. 

While MM was in horrible position defensively, this was XJ's fault, and even XJ wasn't in great position either. 

You can't just randomly switch because you feel like it. But this is a clear defensive breakdown starting with XJ. 

 

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KoB2011

KoB2011

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1 hour ago, 5fouls said:

Guarding the 3 more effectively is more important than shooting the 3 more effectively with this IU team.

I don’t think the concern with shooting the three is how effective it is, it’s how infrequent it is.

I am perfectly comfortable with where our percentages will end up with the quality of looks we are getting, I just want to see us taking more. 

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kyhoosier29

kyhoosier29

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32 minutes ago, BGleas said:

Agree with a lot of that but not all. I'm an XJ supporter, but also realize he isn't perfect. One reason I like that smaller lineup is because it gets the ball in Cupps hands to direct the offense and gets XJ in more of a scorers role. 

I'd agree JHS is better, but I think we all want a team where we have two guys line that. Unfortunately, we were robbed of it last year. 

I noticed this live when it happened, but on the broadcast Bardo blamed MM for this. This is a good example of what I think your son is talking about. 

While MM was in horrible position defensively, this was XJ's fault, and even XJ wasn't in great position either. 

You can't just randomly switch because you feel like it. But this is a clear defensive breakdown starting with XJ. 

 

I’d say a little blame to be thrown around for both. MM should have been communicating and hollering switch just to get back to the guys they should have had. But if he didn’t, MM has to follow his guy (shouldn’t be getting beat to the middle that easy) and X can’t just be floating around doing whatever he wants. More blame on XJ in that play if MM wasn’t hollering switch. MM’s D on that play was bad, as was XJ’s, but I’d say the bulk of the problem on that play was not communicating. 

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