Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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01-19-20 07:14 PM - Post#297101
In response to Old Bison
The two best performing lineups right now don’t have Funk in them. He needs to pick it up. Started the year pretty well.
Best thing about taking Newman out of the mix was it got him out of Meeks way on the interior and more importantly got Bruce out of his way on the perimeter.
Now it’s up to ND to stop John from his natural propensity/talent at junk ball (fade-aways, turn-arounds, double-spin moves and whatever he does on that move in the lane that becomes an automatic travel call). He’s so much better letting the game come to him.
I would love to see a lineup where we go 2-3 with Newman and Bruce and Spear on the wings with Jimmy and Avi up top. Not sure how we would score with that lineup so you couldn’t employ for other than tactical defensive purposes. I would like to see Saeed Nelson go 90’ and get a layup in 8-9 seconds through that. Unfortunately it puts both Newman & Spear on the floor in tight games where you need to shoot fouls.
I do know however that that ball hand off from the 1 to the trailing 5 is the worst basketball play I have ever seen. It sucked when we were dropping off to Nate and Zach. Brought this up early in the year and was mortified to see we dusted it off twice last night. It produces two automatics; travel violation and a license for John to launch a 30 footer (as if we need to increase shot license) with 26 tics on the shot clock. We can do better than that.
1. Funk last night was clearly still suffering from flu symptoms. It was obvious early he had no energy, and the coaching staff shouldn't have used him nearly as much as they did. He ended up playing 22:30 and had no FG's, no rebounds, no assists, and three turnovers (all in a two minute span in the second half). After those three turnovers, they finally took him out with seven minutes remaining - never to return. But he should never have been asked to play major minutes.
Funk had one of his best games of the year versus Holy Cross a week ago - just before the flu. Had 17 points (5-11 on twos, 2-4 on threes, 1-1 on FT's, and 7 rebounds at the defensive end). Also had a good one the week before that in the win at Lafayette. So my lineup would certainly have Funk in it - once he is fully healthy.
2. Agree on the hand-offs to Spear, at least if he is going to ever attempt to put the ball to the floor. When he tries to go to the basket in that situation, it is a sure travel. Having said that, he is 7-15 this year on threes, and 9-20 (.450) in his career. He shoots them better than FT's. Hard to believe but true.
As for Meeks' three point attempt, that was something the staff wanted him to take. They are big on trying to get two-for-ones at the end of the half, and often signal to try to get a quick shot. Meeks missed - but it wasn't a terrible percentage shot - and it would have enabled them to get the ball back for the final shot of the half.
3. Having a defense with the three shot-blockers at the back of a zone would be interesting in the right situation - but as you say, it would be dangerous to use it in most situations because of the total inability of Spear and Newman to make a FT. In any event, we won't ever see it, since I don't think ND will ever play a zone again.
Even if it's not a zone with those three, I wish ND would have a zone just for a tactical change-up on one or two key possessions. Over the years, I have seen dozens of PL teams suddenly switch to zone on a key possession, with generally good results. Typically their opponent is surprised, wastes half the shot clock trying to organize their offense, and then gets a forced shot.
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