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You guys do know Gott is growing out the beard for ALS awareness support, in honor of Chris Combs.. not because it makes him a SEXY beast! Right?
Score update please? No cable here and no way of watching CBSSN.
You guys do know Gott is growing out the beard for ALS awareness support, in honor of Chris Combs.. not because it makes him a SEXY beast! Right?
Yes we knew that.
Thanks I just found a stream so I’m good to go to watch fuzzy, pixelated basketball.
Another key shot by Johnson. That kid will be starting soon. Don’t know who will lose a spot but he is making it difficult for Gott to keep him off the floor.
Impressive game for team and staff. I actually thought Anya anr Marshall and Abu kept us close in first half.
Looks like tennis smith Jr took over in second half. Impressive win with short-handed squad…and as some who has criticized his team’s defense in the past, that was a key tonight.
Hope the guys have fun but sont roll too hard nwhite shadow style in Vegas or nc state style in Atlanta at acc tournament in 89.
Grrrr, I missed it and I was right here at the computer. Nice overall FG % even with the 28.6% from 3. Hopefully I can catch the next game.
Just watched the second half. The last 1:40 was crazy and yes Johnson looked great. Nice show of sportsmanship with :18 to go #5. Speed and ball handling kills. We need some quality nicknames stat.
They seem very likeable, much like the Nate McMillan/Chucky Brown teams were. You know what I mean? There’s just a flow and a positive energy to them.
They seem very likeable, much like the Nate McMillan/Chucky Brown teams were. You know what I mean? There’s just a flow and a positive energy to them.
No doubt and very unselfish. So glad Dennis enrolled early and immediately started building chemistry.
I like a spoiled drunk brat ran my mouth here as I’ve done before after too many fat tire’s last week. I’ve been scolded here and realize I deserved every key typed…..that being said holy cow. Just like Gott with his sneaky grin towards the end after a DSJ dunk….GOTT D*MN I’m excited. No Rowan, No Kapita, No Turk (ehhh) yet we have kids like Johnson and BJ step up and play. 4-5 tremendously talented perimeter players with 4-5 legitimate interior kids…this will be a more pleasant year than those in the past. From the most pessimistic fan…I give in to optimism.
First game I’ve seen this year. Really impressed with Johnson, Dorin, Abu and Smith tonight (in that order). Can’t believe Anya is squandering his chances at a future career. If we can find some sustained defensive intensity, I think we can go far. I agree they seem to gel well as a team.
Just finished with the DVR of the game.
Markell Johnson has vastly outplayed DSJ so far this season. That young man is a good, smart player.
Abu and Anya were something like 12-13 from the line. If that holds up 37-3 may be a tad pessimistic.
Every team needs a Torin Dorn.
Abu & Anya combined for something like 12-13 from the line.
DSJ has a lot to learn.
Did I mention the free throw shooting from our bigs?
I don’t think one can repeat that FT shooting line too many times. It was as lovely to read as it was to see.
And it makes SENSE – like Cat before them, they always had the makings of really nice form, just needed that last little 10% of their stroke to fall in line.
Keep it up, big fellas!
Oh, and I really liked the versatility and the WILLINGNESS of DSJ to slide over to the 3 for a bit and let Markell run things. Really got DSJ’s offensive rhythm going, too.
BJ started slimmed down last year, and it didn’t help his game. So maybe he’s trying a different approach.
I think that Kapita and Markell will give us the defensive skills previously lacking.
I don’t know if there’s a way to fix the half court defense without the zone..wish there was a way to improve our man-on-man.
I wouldn’t they my hopes up against Creighton. They just hit 15 threes at 50%, played 14 players, beating a team at a similar RPI as Montana by almost 30.
I don’t know if there’s a way to fix the half court defense without the zone..wish there was a way to improve our man-on-man.
I mean, there are plenty of ways to fix our defense, it just hasn’t happened because Gottfried is a bad defensive coach. I don’t want to say that. I hope more than anything that he gets a great defensive performance out of the team this year, but every piece of evidence says that the guy can’t coach defense. The players on this team almost all have the skill and athleticism to be at very least average defenders, with Rowan being the possible exception (though I’m of the opinion that basically anyone can be an average defender if they work hard enough). What’s been clear for 5 years though is that Gott doesn’t prioritize defense in his rotation choices and the team doesn’t show consistent defensive effort, which tells me that he probably doesn’t prioritize it in practice either.
The effort is one thing, but the schemes are also generally bad. We have consistently been bad at two things during Gott’s tenure. We do not force turnovers, ever. That’s the biggest one. Now, you can play a successful defensive style that doesn’t rely on turnovers. UVA is a great example. They’re not a heavy pressure team and they never gamble. But even their national rank in opponent turnover percentage generally averages around mid-to-low-100s. Here are State’s national rankings for opponent turnover rate under Gottfried: 256th, 320th, 231st, 346th, 331st. You should accidentally stumble your way into more turnovers than that. This isn’t just a conservative-style defense, it’s a defense that puts absolutely zero pressure on opposing offenses. Teams easily get into their sets against us, there’s no ball denial on the wings. Our pick-and-roll coverages are dire. We rarely trap or even show hard, and our help rotations are often defeated by one pass. The upshot of all that is that we’re never dictating what the offense does, we’re never forcing them into 3rd and 4th options. Making an offense scramble is what leads to turnovers, and we never make offenses uncomfortable. This year we have tons of athletic talent and one of the premier ballhawking guards in the country. There is no excuse to not be better at this (early returns are not promising though, through 3 games we’re 223rd nationally). The second thing is that despite being a consistently excellent offensive rebounding team, we are a consistently terrible defensive rebounding team. That’s both the result of poor fundamentals and effort, and of allowing too much penetration (because, again, we can’t guard the pick and roll), which leaves our big men out to dry. We actually are normally well above average at holding our opponents to low shooting percentages, but when you give up so many extra possessions, it just doesn’t matter. Note that neither of these are problems that are solved by a zone, but rather are usually exacerbated by it.
The team this year is going to be very good offensively, there’s too much talent for them not to be (though I have some significant issues with Gott’s offensive system as well). The determiner of whether we will really be elite was always going to be defense. I hope beyond hope that our talent can shine through and Gott (or his assistants) can fix some of these trouble areas, but it might just be that this is who we are under Gott.
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