The last three games have been rough. Here are some of the things ailing us.
1. Two out of the last three games we have gotten killed on the boards. We got out rebounded 40-26 tonight. Our guard rebounding is killing us. Pflueger, Gibbs and Farrell got outrebounded 16-6 in that game. That's just a lack of hustle and focus. That was our biggest issue. Farrell got zero rebounds.
2. We miss Steve Vasturia. Statistically it was hard to appreciate Vasturia. His stats were never great. But he spaced the court for us on offense, and made easy passes and backdoor cuts that we don't make now. In contrast, TJ Gibbs does a lot of 1 v 1 stuff. We rely a lot more on 1 v 1 play this year.
On defense, we have been lit up by scoring guards in two straight games. I can't ever remember that happening with Vasturia. They are shooting over Gibbs who is a good defender but not a big two guard. And Pflueger has great hands but does not stay in front of players like Vasturia. We are good at defense in those two spots, but we no longer have a 6'6 two guard who could guard four positions. That was freakish. Overall we are much better defensively (no VJ Beachem and Matt Ryan), but I don't think we are as good at locking down a team's top scorer.
3. Geben defends the post very well, but does not defend in space well. He's just too slow, and is vulnerable to teams who have a big man who can pull him out from the basket. Mooney did a much better job defensively than Geben tonight and got minutes because of it.
4. Mooney does lots of things well on a basketball court, and setting picks is not one of them. It's odd. It looks easy, but he stinks at it and it's not a small deal. Our pick and roll offense is really lacking. Auguste was the best at it. Cooley was good. Geben is great at the pick part, but is too slow on the roll to be consistently dangerous. Mooney would be playing more, but he doesn't have a feel for that part of the game yet and it's a big part of Brey's offense. If we are not prolific from three we need the pick and roll game to be better.
5. Our three point shooting percentage is decent enough, but we are passing on open threes and we can't hit deep threes. Colson hit 40% last year and is not hitting and is now passing on open threes. Mooney is shooting well, but does not feel he's allowed to be aggressive and is passing on threes. Pflueger is shooting ok but can't hit deep threes. Same with Gibbs. Our spacing has gotten tighter because we don't have a Beachem or Ryan who will launch it from 25 if you leave them open.
6. DJ Harvey needs to survive Mike Brey's freshman treatment. Brey is hard on freshman. You make a mistake, you come out. He's pulled him the last couple games after turnovers and that's tough on the psychee. We need Harvey to be more like Gibbs and have no conscious and keep shooting as this team's going to need scoring.
I think Brey will get this fixed in short order, but we got some holes right now. It's been a while since we had a game like that.
1. Two out of the last three games we have gotten killed on the boards. We got out rebounded 40-26 tonight. Our guard rebounding is killing us. Pflueger, Gibbs and Farrell got outrebounded 16-6 in that game. That's just a lack of hustle and focus. That was our biggest issue. Farrell got zero rebounds.
2. We miss Steve Vasturia. Statistically it was hard to appreciate Vasturia. His stats were never great. But he spaced the court for us on offense, and made easy passes and backdoor cuts that we don't make now. In contrast, TJ Gibbs does a lot of 1 v 1 stuff. We rely a lot more on 1 v 1 play this year.
On defense, we have been lit up by scoring guards in two straight games. I can't ever remember that happening with Vasturia. They are shooting over Gibbs who is a good defender but not a big two guard. And Pflueger has great hands but does not stay in front of players like Vasturia. We are good at defense in those two spots, but we no longer have a 6'6 two guard who could guard four positions. That was freakish. Overall we are much better defensively (no VJ Beachem and Matt Ryan), but I don't think we are as good at locking down a team's top scorer.
3. Geben defends the post very well, but does not defend in space well. He's just too slow, and is vulnerable to teams who have a big man who can pull him out from the basket. Mooney did a much better job defensively than Geben tonight and got minutes because of it.
4. Mooney does lots of things well on a basketball court, and setting picks is not one of them. It's odd. It looks easy, but he stinks at it and it's not a small deal. Our pick and roll offense is really lacking. Auguste was the best at it. Cooley was good. Geben is great at the pick part, but is too slow on the roll to be consistently dangerous. Mooney would be playing more, but he doesn't have a feel for that part of the game yet and it's a big part of Brey's offense. If we are not prolific from three we need the pick and roll game to be better.
5. Our three point shooting percentage is decent enough, but we are passing on open threes and we can't hit deep threes. Colson hit 40% last year and is not hitting and is now passing on open threes. Mooney is shooting well, but does not feel he's allowed to be aggressive and is passing on threes. Pflueger is shooting ok but can't hit deep threes. Same with Gibbs. Our spacing has gotten tighter because we don't have a Beachem or Ryan who will launch it from 25 if you leave them open.
6. DJ Harvey needs to survive Mike Brey's freshman treatment. Brey is hard on freshman. You make a mistake, you come out. He's pulled him the last couple games after turnovers and that's tough on the psychee. We need Harvey to be more like Gibbs and have no conscious and keep shooting as this team's going to need scoring.
I think Brey will get this fixed in short order, but we got some holes right now. It's been a while since we had a game like that.
