Recent Trends

[GODANESGO]

I just wanted to list some of the things developing that I've seen with the men's team in the past few/half a dozen games:

 

1. Scoring Shift - This between Jamar and Lucious is astounding. Jordan scored 30 to open the season and hasn't hit it since. Minus a 22 (I think it was) point game a week or two ago, Jordan has recently been efforting to hit 10 points a game, capped off by his dismal 3 point display today. He seems to be missing a lot more of his drive attempts while taking a lot fewer 3-point shots (and making less of those attempts as well). On the other had, Jamar is a regular 20 point threat now. He's making crazy lay-ups, getting to the line a ton (and making the shots) while shooting, and making, enough 3-point shots to keep his defender honest.

 

2. Rebounding - While Jordan is scoring less, he has been picking up about 7 boards a game for a good amount of time now. He's threating to become the most productive rebounder on the team, defintely out of the ordinary for a 6'2" guard. Q's rebound production has dropped off a lot, while Levi is very hit or miss, getting 8 some games but then dropping down to 2 or 3 the next.

 

3. "Zo" - He has gotten A LOT more aggressive recently, starting I think with the game versus Bingo. Swinging arms and elbows at the game vs. Hartford, dunking at least a couple times a game including an alley today at BU, and going after loose balls on the floor. I think this is what we all have been wanting to start seeing. His numbers are slowly starting to creap up, as shown by his 12pts today. He's also been averaging about 1 block per game (2 today) the past few games compared to his .5 average, something that although isn't essential, is nice to see from a 7 footer. He's also been getting in less foul trouble compared to the early season.

 

4. Lillis - Becoming a great defensive player, even effectively defending some fowards who have been trying to post him up near/in the paint. He's a huge steal threat (as has Q been). He's becoming a bit more comfortable going to the hoop, as I'm sure his wrist continues to feel better. As someone mentioned in another thread, if he can develop his outside game at all, he's gonna be VERY dangerous for us.

 

5. B. Wilson - First off, I love this kid. Probably our most consistant 3-point shooter, is on the floor for balls a lot, and takes a lot of smart and VERY helpful charges on drivers in the lane. That said, his game hasn't developed too much past that. For being 6'8" and strong, he hasn't been a banger on the inside, and (beside his 7 boards against Hartford this past week) hasn't been as big of a rebounder as I would've hoped. I think he's starting to become a role player, which he obviously is capable of a lot more. Hopefully he develops some of these things (doesn't need to excel at them) so that his 3-point shooting, which he obviously likes doing, becomes that much more effective. I'm sure our 2 big recruits coming next year will take away some of the pressure on him of being the banger that we need.

 

6. Defense - Whether on purpose or not, somehow this team is becoming a scoring stifler while struggling to reach 60 points a game (including Levi's big drop). Without touching on the lack of offensive production, I'm glad to see this great defense. Lucious has been playing great defense, holding many teams' guards best scorer to limited numbers. Kirsten is also playing centers well and COMPLETELY clogging up the lane. Not only altering lay-ups but often fully stopping some drives (with double team help from Q), forcing guards to kick the ball all the way out to the top of the key, wasting a lot of the opponents shotclock. Lillis is also a big contributor to this recent trend.

 

Comments/thoughts?

[Patch]

GODANESGO

 

1. Scoring shift or shooting slumps????

 

Offensively we're struggling mainly because some of our main men are not making shots. The player struggling the most is Levi(14/47 - 30%). It is not that he isn't getting enough shots it's that he not shooting it well. The same could be said for Lucious(22/68 - 32%). Jamar(30/63 - 48%) is shooting it better than both Levi and Lu plus he gets to the FT line much more.

 

The numbers are for the last 6 games. The pecking order for shot attempts is probably right with Lu(68) and Jamar(63) about equal and Levi being our third option.

 

We need to get 2 of the 3 shooting well on the same night to win consistently and if we get all three shooting it we can beat anyone in the AE.

 

6. Defense:

 

This team has improved tremendously defensively. Defense will keep us in alot of games even when offensively we're struggling.