Scenes from Practice

[MadRU]

 

[RUChet]

I believe by season end we will look back and say Mark was our best player. He has the potential to play good D with his quickness and he’s going to be a problem for other teams with his driving and passing ability. It’s all about the outside shot. If it holds he should be quite good. If it doesn’t hold, he’s not going to have as much room to get to the rim.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I believe by season end we will look back and say Mark was our best player. He has the potential to play good D with his quickness and he’s going to be a problem for other teams with his driving and passing ability. It’s all about the outside shot. If it holds he should be quite good. If it doesn’t hold, he’s not going to have as much room to get to the rim.

I think he’s going to be good too. We’re positioned very nicely in the backcourt to do some good things. Some of our options at the 1-2 are small but we’ll be able to go with a bigger line up when we need it.

Defense at the 3-5 is the biggest question mark.

 

[LeapinLou]

They seem to have the type of team that can steal some Big 10 games where they will be the underdog. Just not sure there is enough talent for top half of the conference consistency. Gurdak is a bit of a wildcard. If he can be really good defensively, that could elevate the whole team.

 

[gmay8]

There were 4 videos in that twitter post. 1 layup, and 3 mid-range jump shots. worst shot in basketball.

3's and dunks. that's what the good teams do

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

There were 4 videos in that twitter post. 1 layup, and 3 mid-range jump shots. worst shot in basketball.

3's and dunks. that's what the good teams do

Relax. There’s a reason for everything they put out now and it provides no clues of anything about the team. We practice for hours and hours. Eventually everyone hits a 3 ball that could be recorded and posted but you wouldn’t know if the player shooting hits 5% of them or 40% of them.

Meaningless. They wanted fans to see Lino breaking guys down to promote excitement. They wanted to show footage of two of the new big guys making moves. They haven’t shown much of Buchanan so they included a clip of him at the end - favoring that strong side as usual - he doesn’t take that many 3s. Transition attempts usually make someone on the other end look bad. We generally don’t post much of those for this reason preseason.

Again - all of it means nothing about the team either way.

 

[dark_check]

Relax. There’s a reason for everything they put out now and it provides no clues of anything about the team. We practice for hours and hours. Eventually everyone hits a 3 ball that could be recorded and posted but you wouldn’t know if the player shooting hits 5% of them or 40% of them.

Meaningless. They wanted fans to see Lino breaking guys down to promote excitement. They wanted to show footage of two of the new big guys making moves. They haven’t shown much of Buchanan so they included a clip of him at the end - favoring that strong side as usual - he doesn’t take that many 3s. Transition attempts usually make someone on the other end look bad. We generally don’t post much of those for this reason preseason.

Again - all of it means nothing about the team either way.

For most teams I agree with you, but we are notorious for favoring the mid range (to our detriment)

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

For most teams I agree with you, but we are notorious for favoring the mid range (to our detriment)

Oh yes - no doubt that has been an issue for us. I should clarify - I’m not suggesting anything positive about our development on offense. I’m simply saying that whatever and whoever we choose to feature in pre-season video footage has zero correlation one way or the other to what the team will look like in games.

The objective was for us to see Lino on film splitting a pair of defenders in penetration and show the fan base that 2 of the big man additions have an offensive game in the paint. While those shots technically count as midrange attempts they were post moves from inside the paint and in fairness, not close to equals when thinking about the standard RU midrange game that fans understandably want to chuck off a cliff. A soft touch from a big man inside the paint on a close midrange opens up the post game.

In contrast, I hate everything about the shot Buchanan took. It’s the poster child for what you are talking about. I have no explanation for why it was featured other than they haven’t shown much of Buchanan and the camera got a good angle.

But again - with all the hours they practice and most of it likely being filmed in this age of technology it’s fair to assume they could find clips that tell a completely different narrative. Hence why preseason practice film tells nothing.

 

[Bob Chaewsky_rivals]

There were 4 videos in that twitter post. 1 layup, and 3 mid-range jump shots. worst shot in basketball.

3's and dunks. that's what the good teams do

It's only a bad shot if you don't make it. At a 60% clip it's a good shot. As teams focus more and more on defending the three and protecting the rim, mid range shots will become more open. The really great teams will hit the mid range at a high clip.

 

[LOU-RU85]

Mark reminded me of Bou Bouy from Northwestern.

 

[richthedentist]

It's only a bad shot if you don't make it. At a 60% clip it's a good shot. As teams focus more and more on defending the three and protecting the rim, mid range shots will become more open. The really great teams will hit the mid range at a high clip.

Problem with that is if we don't defend the like against Villanova for every 3 they make we essentially have to make 2 baskets to make that up

 

[Caliknight]

For most teams I agree with you, but we are notorious for favoring the mid range (to our detriment)

If we made those shots it would be fine.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

If we made those shots it would be fine.

Francis makes open mid range floaters at pretty much a lay up execution rate. Nobody should ever have issue with him taking them. He needs to smarter about when to try to draw the foul on the contested ones. But even then, for as many times as he gets blocked he does succeed in drawing fouls and there are obvious benefits to getting the opponent in foul trouble too.

 

[dark_check]

If we made those shots it would be fine.

Metrics just dictate that the percentage for the reward (2) is just poor strategy

 

[Caliknight]

Metrics aren’t always right. They said the Brewers wouldn’t win the WS because they don’t hit home runs.

Even so, there are no metrics that say making mid range jumpers is worse than missing 3s.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Metrics aren’t always right. They said the Brewers wouldn’t win the WS because they don’t hit home runs.

Even so, there are no metrics that say making mid range jumpers is worse than missing 3s.

Careful - we have fans who are happy with Miteo and Gurdak launching those 4 threes against Nova. Helps the appearance of that shot chart after all.

 

[dark_check]

Metrics aren’t always right. They said the Brewers wouldn’t win the WS because they don’t hit home runs.

Even so, there are no metrics that say making mid range jumpers is worse than missing 3s.

Very true, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Pi$$ing contest aside, we can keep ignoring modern game strategy and we are free to keep reaping all the benefit. How’s that been working out? A few on here like how things have been going.

 

[SleepingGiantIsAwake]

Mark is fast as sh$t but needs to be more selective when taking it to the rim. Forcing too much. He’ll look great against lower level teams but will be getting swatted against the big boys.

If our guys learn to cut while he’s flying to the rim while the other teams bigs are converging on him, and Lino has options to dish and can actually execute dishing, he’ll be a game changer.