Absolutely gut wrenching road losses and last night’s was I think the biggest gut punch. However, this group is special and gritty and never gives up , so although mentally you would think it will bother this team, I think it does the opposite and make them want to win away from the RAC more than ever .
I posted in another thread some things that must change and they are to change the first half narrative, change the defensive intensity, and get to the line more. On the road especially , Coach seems to want to set up the offense and methodically run the offense and is doing so because of his fear of guys losing their men in transition defense. Most teams in the country run similar offense, high ball screen, pick and roll, multiple times, hi horn sets, and some run a lot of pin downs and curls to set up shooters. Duke , Kentucky and Kansas run similar stuff with Kansas running more curls, but we happen to be in a league with tremendous shooters and Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue and Iowa and Northwestern run a lot of pin downs and curls . A majority of teams struggle running half court offense just like us , and a few posters have said that our offense sucks but we are still 78th out of 353 teams in offensive efficiency , so lots of teams are worse. It should be clear that once we go uptempo , our efficiency increases , we ratchet up our defense, get more steals, jump into the passing lanes are more energized. While we are doing this and making our comebacks , Pike’ fear, our inability to play transition defense has not materialized and we are able to make up second half deficits . So one way to change things on the road especially is to go more up tempo as I think we have more players suited to that style in Geo, Jacob, Ron and Montez and even Caleb.
That solves the other huge problem, the lack of defensive intensity especially on 3 point shooters . Ohio State first half, Wisconsin first half and Penn State first half we were down 15, 13, and 18, primarily because we left a lot of players unguarded at the 3 point line. BAC even pointed out to me , it happened in the St. Bonnie’s game , which is true, and the first half of the Michigan MSG game and even the first 15 minutes of the Northwestern home game . We know how to guard the 3 and make the adjustments in the second half during our comebacks , so it really is not a big adjustment , just a ratcheting up of the defensive intensity to start the game .. The uptempo game will fuel our intensity and get our defense kick started . Even coming out in a full court press to start the game would be a wrinkle to change things because those games listed above we came out with not enough intensity to guard the 3 and dug ourselves a hole. Pike cannot expect teams are not going to shoot well and has to be pro active and cause them not to shoot well.
Finally, we are not getting to the line enough, our guards have to do a better job of creating contact and playing through it. Montez has to pull up for a short jumper instead of going all the way to the hole when 1-3 guys are ahead of him , but he is one of our better drivers and he has to pick his spots and then go hard when he gets a seam. Same with Ron , he has to use his ball fake more and get on the block for more shots where he can draw contact. Geo has to turn his body when driving towards the defender to create contact , then finish with his hands away from his body. We should be going to the line more and seeking contact and not avoiding it like we usually do.
