mobrien
Masters Student
Posts: 402
Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
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02-11-24 02:00 PM - Post#363117
That was the first time we’ve won a game like we should since before all our injuries started, and, not so coincidentally, the best Mack has played since coming back from mono. That was such an easy 18 points for him, he barely even looked for his shot (and maybe should a little more).
I’m worried, though, that there was an element of fool’s gold to that performance: we just made shots that we’d been missing recently. We’d (hopefully) expect some of that to continue since our in-conference shooting has been so bad compared to out-of-conference, but I’d still like to see us generate more easy looks from two, and not just depend on making more threes.
More ball screens for Mack earlier in the shot clock—with Okpara or Lesmond setting them—is the easiest way to go that. I know we won’t do this, but adding a wrinkle and running some double high ball screens with Okpara and Lesmond would be the kind of thing that would be easy to introduce and keep other Ivy coaches off balance a little. The other thing I mentioned before would be a play where Mack comes up for a handoff from Okpara at the three point line; we accidentally did that once yesterday, and both defenders went with Mack, leaving Okpara open for a jam. Make that a play! Do it more.
I like the idea of trying to get more spacing on offense with Nesbitt, but he’s such a defensive liability that we’d have to play zone when he’s on. Too easy for him to get switched onto a big guy for an automatic layup otherwise.
Huge weekend coming up. Cornell is a very difficult matchup for us this year, but at least we get them on the first half of the back to back this time. Columbia is the big one though. Winning that would be a two game swing in the race for fourth. Have to be smarter about giving Ajogbor and Okpara easy passes to make when they get doubled in the post; that’s going to be important against Columbia and also Princeton.
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CrimsonBlood
Freshman
Posts: 46
Age: 33
Reg: 03-15-18
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Re: Dartmouth I
02-11-24 10:39 PM - Post#363140
In response to mobrien
I get that Nesbitt is small. Perhaps I’ve missed it, but I haven’t seen this massive defensive liability people are referring to. If he can give us a bit more flow, I think it’s worth trying. Big issue with our offense is when Mack passes it away, ball movement stops. I think Nesbitt could help incrementally with that and would love to see him get more minutes. If we skew a bit more zone when he’s in, that’s not necessarily bad change of pace either.
I was encouraged to see Ajogbor hit a few free throws against Columbia. Hopefully he can gain some confidence at the charity stripe.
It was good to see shots fall, but hard to say what this means for us given Dartmouth is just not a good team.
Looking forward to next weekend.
With all of the injuries seemingly every year, it’s been a bit of a tough slog being a Harvard fan in recent years. I’m hoping this team can at least make it interesting for us this year by squeaking into that 4th slot.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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02-12-24 09:40 AM - Post#363146
In response to CrimsonBlood
Nesbit’s shooting earned him minutes OOC, until a Harvard opponent (can’t recall which one) pressed him leading to 2 or 3 steals in the backcourt, easy buckets and he as pulled. Nesbit can see some minutes but he isn’t a PG.
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