In no particular order, some thoughts after my self-imposed one day wait....
On the defense...
* First off, Ferry's decision to primarily use the 2-3 zone says a lot. Typically teams either play zone rather than man if both are in the head coaches arsenal for one of three reasons. The first possibility is that the coaches fear they can't defend their opponent even up. If Ferry's squad can't defend SFPA man-to-man or if the coaches don't think this team can defend SFPA in the 5 defense, then we're in a world of trouble. The other typical reason to go zone is if the coaching staff saw something significant on film saying that SFPA's zone offense was awful or that there was something that we could exploit. Well, SFPA shredded us with virtually the same three plays run continuously. The last is that you don't think you matchup in man and that zone would be more effective. If we can't match up man for man against a middling NEC team we're in some trouble also IMHO. Whichever of the three, it doesn't look good...
* The zone defense is still a major work in progress also. We're helping too much on dribble-drive penetration and leaving shooters open and letting the opposition hit the middle of the zone too easy for starters. It's not just overcommitting on passes like was being discussed elsewhere, it's overcommitting on penetration also.
* I agree completely with duques102 about going after ballfakes, thus a simple ballfake allows penetration. Then the weakside defender helps, leaving an open three. We don't use them on O, and we're getting burned by them on D.
* That the Dukes could only force 11 turnovers against SFPA, particularly with most of them passive turnovers that didn't lead to transition possibilities, is troublesome.
On the offense
* We're obviously struggling, and it's starting at the point and going to everyone else. However, there is no offense coming from the defense either...
* Once again we looked too selfish. After talking about how players had to know their roles after the RMU postgame that I finally decided to listen to last night (was too ticked to earlier), Jeremiah for everything that he did right can't take the contested three down 13ish with roughly 5 or 6 minutes to go (he promptly got benched). Gill can't knowingly take a shot nine inches inside the three point line straightaway. Eric James's missed layup was one of the worst looking drives I've seen watching college hoops (he promptly got benched too). I completely disagree with some of Durham's comments on the shot selection that he made during the postgame and how he thought we took decent shots.
* I also agree with duques102 about the lack of sets on O right now. I did see more than three plays, but nothing that matched to the number run watching B1G games or even the late night WCC games.
On rebounding
* I know it's harder to grab a defensive board out of the zone than in man, but still nobody put a body on anyone aside Jeremiah and McKoy. NOBODY BOXES OUT! We let a 6-7 guy averaging 5 rpg that I didn't see jump more than nine inches off the ground grab 15 boards. And he didn't even need to jump nine inches...nobody even tried to box him out! Powell didn't get a first half board. Gill didn't get a board the entire game. If anyone actually steps up and wants to box out, plenty of minutes are available!!
* We got beat 45-29 on the boards by a team that just started 5-11, 6-2, 6-3, 6-6, 6-7. Their 5-11 guy had more rebounds (8) than our starting PF and C combined (5).
* With those rebounding efforts against a 6-7 guy that can't hardly jump, I don't see how Ferry can think that his 4-5 combo going forward is Gill and Powell. It just isn't going to work...
On toughness
* Nobody is fighting physically for space on O, D, or rebounds. That's exactly how you can let a 5-11 guy grab as many boards as he did. I wanted someone to make him physically pay (not start a fight, but at least initiate some good legal or even semi-legal contact) just once for going in and fighting for the boards. Yet...nobody even seemed to care.
* The Dukes had to TWICE against SFPA be close to 10 minutes without a foul (from roughly 15 minutes to 5 minutes in the first half as well as the first 10 minutes of the second half). And it was simply because the team is playing very, very soft. Some fouls are ok. And if you're going to foul, FOUL HARD! There was no excuse for the one soft and-one.
* This is one of the weakest minded teams that I've seen. When the Dukes were getting homered at RMU on the first 6 calls of the game, I was wondering where the mentality of the DU women against Pitt was. In the women's game against Pitt, after the officials blew a couple of calls in a row (admittedly once...one official even said to Burt "I missed it") the Dukes simply got pissed off and played harder. It was perhaps the best thing that happened in the game was for the officials to blow the call. The men? They were just sulking en route to an 11-2 RMU run. Wednesday night vs. SFPA, there was no grit or determination at all after going down early. If anyone other than Colter or Jeremiah wants to start showing some toughness...minutes are available!!
Other Coaching Thoughts
* Most teams are settling on a rotation right about now. Ferry's rotation the last two games has been anything but settled. It's a mess. Sure, some of that may be just trying to find something to break this team out of its funk. But it's mid-December, and rotations typically need to become more set by now. I get why they're not, but it's typically the sign of a sign of a very bad team that they're not.
* I don't get the three-quarters soft pressure down double digits midway through the second half that Ferry employed. All it did was allow SFPA make a few easy passes (with no chance of a turnover) to take an extra five seconds off the shot clock each time. When down double digits, you need more possessions, not less. A soft press like that seemed counter-productive to me.
A quick comment on Robinson
* He wasn't permitted to practice last year the entire year. I'm getting tired of reading about how he had a year to develop...not exactly...
On the defense...
* First off, Ferry's decision to primarily use the 2-3 zone says a lot. Typically teams either play zone rather than man if both are in the head coaches arsenal for one of three reasons. The first possibility is that the coaches fear they can't defend their opponent even up. If Ferry's squad can't defend SFPA man-to-man or if the coaches don't think this team can defend SFPA in the 5 defense, then we're in a world of trouble. The other typical reason to go zone is if the coaching staff saw something significant on film saying that SFPA's zone offense was awful or that there was something that we could exploit. Well, SFPA shredded us with virtually the same three plays run continuously. The last is that you don't think you matchup in man and that zone would be more effective. If we can't match up man for man against a middling NEC team we're in some trouble also IMHO. Whichever of the three, it doesn't look good...
* The zone defense is still a major work in progress also. We're helping too much on dribble-drive penetration and leaving shooters open and letting the opposition hit the middle of the zone too easy for starters. It's not just overcommitting on passes like was being discussed elsewhere, it's overcommitting on penetration also.
* I agree completely with duques102 about going after ballfakes, thus a simple ballfake allows penetration. Then the weakside defender helps, leaving an open three. We don't use them on O, and we're getting burned by them on D.
* That the Dukes could only force 11 turnovers against SFPA, particularly with most of them passive turnovers that didn't lead to transition possibilities, is troublesome.
On the offense
* We're obviously struggling, and it's starting at the point and going to everyone else. However, there is no offense coming from the defense either...
* Once again we looked too selfish. After talking about how players had to know their roles after the RMU postgame that I finally decided to listen to last night (was too ticked to earlier), Jeremiah for everything that he did right can't take the contested three down 13ish with roughly 5 or 6 minutes to go (he promptly got benched). Gill can't knowingly take a shot nine inches inside the three point line straightaway. Eric James's missed layup was one of the worst looking drives I've seen watching college hoops (he promptly got benched too). I completely disagree with some of Durham's comments on the shot selection that he made during the postgame and how he thought we took decent shots.
* I also agree with duques102 about the lack of sets on O right now. I did see more than three plays, but nothing that matched to the number run watching B1G games or even the late night WCC games.
On rebounding
* I know it's harder to grab a defensive board out of the zone than in man, but still nobody put a body on anyone aside Jeremiah and McKoy. NOBODY BOXES OUT! We let a 6-7 guy averaging 5 rpg that I didn't see jump more than nine inches off the ground grab 15 boards. And he didn't even need to jump nine inches...nobody even tried to box him out! Powell didn't get a first half board. Gill didn't get a board the entire game. If anyone actually steps up and wants to box out, plenty of minutes are available!!
* We got beat 45-29 on the boards by a team that just started 5-11, 6-2, 6-3, 6-6, 6-7. Their 5-11 guy had more rebounds (8) than our starting PF and C combined (5).
* With those rebounding efforts against a 6-7 guy that can't hardly jump, I don't see how Ferry can think that his 4-5 combo going forward is Gill and Powell. It just isn't going to work...
On toughness
* Nobody is fighting physically for space on O, D, or rebounds. That's exactly how you can let a 5-11 guy grab as many boards as he did. I wanted someone to make him physically pay (not start a fight, but at least initiate some good legal or even semi-legal contact) just once for going in and fighting for the boards. Yet...nobody even seemed to care.
* The Dukes had to TWICE against SFPA be close to 10 minutes without a foul (from roughly 15 minutes to 5 minutes in the first half as well as the first 10 minutes of the second half). And it was simply because the team is playing very, very soft. Some fouls are ok. And if you're going to foul, FOUL HARD! There was no excuse for the one soft and-one.
* This is one of the weakest minded teams that I've seen. When the Dukes were getting homered at RMU on the first 6 calls of the game, I was wondering where the mentality of the DU women against Pitt was. In the women's game against Pitt, after the officials blew a couple of calls in a row (admittedly once...one official even said to Burt "I missed it") the Dukes simply got pissed off and played harder. It was perhaps the best thing that happened in the game was for the officials to blow the call. The men? They were just sulking en route to an 11-2 RMU run. Wednesday night vs. SFPA, there was no grit or determination at all after going down early. If anyone other than Colter or Jeremiah wants to start showing some toughness...minutes are available!!
Other Coaching Thoughts
* Most teams are settling on a rotation right about now. Ferry's rotation the last two games has been anything but settled. It's a mess. Sure, some of that may be just trying to find something to break this team out of its funk. But it's mid-December, and rotations typically need to become more set by now. I get why they're not, but it's typically the sign of a sign of a very bad team that they're not.
* I don't get the three-quarters soft pressure down double digits midway through the second half that Ferry employed. All it did was allow SFPA make a few easy passes (with no chance of a turnover) to take an extra five seconds off the shot clock each time. When down double digits, you need more possessions, not less. A soft press like that seemed counter-productive to me.
A quick comment on Robinson
* He wasn't permitted to practice last year the entire year. I'm getting tired of reading about how he had a year to develop...not exactly...
