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When This Kind Of Thing Happens

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I'm more concerned about the fact that the offense has looked awful for three straight games. We had the excuse about facing very good defenses for the first two, but clearly that wasn't the case last night. I'm sure the defense will get cleaned up, but I'm starting to worry that we may not be a very good offensive team.
In the last four games in regulation we scored 83, 64, 59,72. The VCU game was ugly. But even in that game we scored 14 points in 5 minutes in overtime. We are still the highest scoring team in the big east by average I believe. The question is, what changed after the Auburn game? Some of it has to be attributed to fatigue, some of it is definitely lack of real time adjustments by Hurley. But the biggest culprit is basketball IQ in my opinion. Outside of Cole(who is a culprit at times as well) we are not a very smart team. Strong, yes. Athletic, yes. Tough, yes. Talented, yes. Smart? Hell no. For example, Sanogo was triple teamed in the post last night with a WIDE OPEN Jordan Hawkins open right in front of him, and didn't make the pass. That's not coaching. That's just a basic routine play that should have been made. This happens constantly with this team. Hurley almost always has these guys amped up, but sometimes they over do it and fail to execute. Example B, Sanogo in the first play of the second half, was defending the post player and had him in prison, but he was being over aggressive and went for the fake. Hurley's teams are always aggressive but lack execution. Hurley in a sense is the same way. The next step in his development is to learn to win with IQ instead of brute force. Or his teams will always have a lower ceiling. All in all, our "offense" isn't the problem. Our problem from the players to Hurley is all in between the ears. And i'm confident we will figure it out.
 

Rico444

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In the last four games in regulation we scored 83, 64, 59,72. The VCU game was ugly. But even in that game we scored 14 points in 5 minutes in overtime. We are still the highest scoring team in the big east by average I believe. The question is, what changed after the Auburn game? Some of it has to be attributed to fatigue, some of it is definitely lack of real time adjustments by Hurley. But the biggest culprit is basketball IQ in my opinion. Outside of Cole(who is a culprit at times as well) we are not a very smart team. Strong, yes. Athletic, yes. Tough, yes. Talented, yes. Smart? Hell no. For example, Sanogo was triple teamed in the post last night with a WIDE OPEN Jordan Hawkins open right in front of him, and didn't make the pass. That's not coaching. That's just a basic routine play that should have been made. This happens constantly with this team. Hurley almost always has these guys amped up, but sometimes they over do it and fail to execute. Example B, Sanogo in the first play of the second half, was defending the post player and had him in prison, but he was being over aggressive and went for the fake. Hurley's teams are always aggressive but lack execution. Hurley in a sense is the same way. The next step in his development is to learn to win with IQ instead of brute force. Or his teams will always have a lower ceiling. All in all, our "offense" isn't the problem. Our problem from the players to Hurley is all in between the ears. And i'm confident we will figure it out.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but I'm still concerned that as far as offensive talent goes, this team is lacking. Sanogo obviously has a lot, but is still developing and has to work through the adjustments defenses have made keying on him as 'the guy' on offense. Hawkins has a lot of talent, but is still raw; I expect him to improve as the year goes on and be one of our better scorers. After that? Cole is a good player, but against good defenses he's going to struggle get into the paint and score. Gaffney doesn't have the handle to be much of an offensive threat. Polley is a streaky three-point shooter, but doesn't bring much else to the table. Whaley has little to no offensive game. Martin is pretty good offensively, but his full season 3 point percentages haven't been great and he's out for at least a few weeks. I'm not trying to say the sky is falling, but I see some reasons to be concerned that we're going to struggle offensively this year. Not every game, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are long stretches where we really have a hard time putting the ball in the hoop.
 
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I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but I'm still concerned that as far as offensive talent goes, this team is lacking. Sanogo obviously has a lot, but is still developing and has to work through the adjustments defenses have made keying on him as 'the guy' on offense. Hawkins has a lot of talent, but is still raw; I expect him to improve as the year goes on and be one of our better scorers. After that? Cole is a good player, but against good defenses he's going to struggle get into the paint and score. Gaffney doesn't have the handle to be much of an offensive threat. Polley is a streaky three-point shooter, but doesn't bring much else to the table. Whaley has little to no offensive game. Martin is pretty good offensively, but his full season 3 point percentages haven't been great and he's out for at least a few weeks. I'm not trying to say the sky is falling, but I see some reasons to be concerned that we're going to struggle offensively this year. Not every game, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are long stretches where we really have a hard time putting the ball in the hoop.
I guess I agree. I dont see this being an issue in the coming years with the guys we're recruiting. I think Hurley understands he needs more natural scorers on this team
 

Rico444

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I guess I agree. I dont see this being an issue in the coming years with the guys we're recruiting. I think Hurley understands he needs more natural scorers on this team

I agree with that for sure. I also think Hawkins continuing to improve will help open things up offensively. I'm not as doom and gloom on the team as it sounded above.
 
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Is there any chance that teams like MEAS and VCU are actually much better than their low early season rankings? They're athletes, they are up for a ranked team. Maybe they don't know they're supposed to lose by 35? And it's also possible we don't deserve our pretty lofty ranked number just yet? Injuries and coasting were definitely factors tonight but every BE team thinks they can beat us even if they are unranked I bet.
Maybe, but probably not. I wouldn't worry about it.
 

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