Coach's Radio Show for 01/30/17

[pie n eye]

Zach is a big part of this team. We need him to lock down the other teams best scorers. As with Tekele we also need him to be a threat on offense. Not a primary guy but we need him to hit open shots and identify opportunities to take the ball to the rim and score or get fouled. Cle didn't have great handles either but he was good at making one move, a jab step or pump fake, and driving to the hole. IMO Zach tries to do too much off the bounce at times (I feel the same way about McDuffie) and that gets him into uncomfortable positions that can end in less than optimal results. If he runs the offense and takes shots or makes moves within the flow then he'll be just fine. I wouldn't mind an uptick in 3pt percentage, similar to what we've seen from Shamet and Frankamp, beginning Wednesday at Drake and carrying through the end of the season.

[ShockerFever]

That's probably overly harsh. He's in the middle (end, hopefully) of a pretty rough stretch, but he's had some really great games this year.

He had a five game stretch from Southern Nazarene through Oklahoma State where he averaged 12.8 pts, 4.2 rebounds, was shooting 50% from 3 and had more assists than turnovers. As a freshman, he only scored in double figures twice, and he had seven assists on the year. I think your memory of him as a freshman is tainted by a really good performance against Indiana and a great play against KU.

So you're saying I was tainted by a couple games (pretty big ones) his freshman year and then you come back with a 5 game stretch in November starting with Southern Nazarene and think your few game stretch is more meaningful?

What were his 3 pt %, FG%, FT %, and assist to turnover ratios over each season? I'm not being harsh. The stats don't lie. I honestly don't know what they are but if you want to prove my "harshness" wrong, let's see them.

[Cdizzle]

So you're saying I was tainted by a couple games (pretty big ones) his freshman year and then you come back with a 5 game stretch in November starting with Southern Nazarene and think your few game stretch is more meaningful?

What were his 3 pt %, FG%, FT %, and assist to turnover ratios over each season? I'm not being harsh. The stats don't lie. I honestly don't know what they are but if you want to prove my "harshness" wrong, let's see them.

His shooting pcts are down across the board. He's rebounding a bit better. His assist rate and A/T are actually considerably better this year (surprised me some). Bit of a mixed bag. Certainly not a big step in the right direction one might have hoped for before the season started.

I understand the frustration some have. I'm just placing my bet. Stats say I'm more likely to be wrong than others. I still feel he has some big moments left. Maybe some very big moments.

[1972Shocker]

Zach certainly doesn't get much rest on the defensive end. He generally is guarding one of the opponent's better scorer's and often one of their better athletes who generally get a lot of picks set for them that Zach gets to battle through. With the 30 second shot clock in play there is just not a whole lot of time for Zach to recover before he is back at it on the defensive end.

How much of his offensive struggles are attributable to that. Who knows. Maybe a lot. Maybe none. My guess is probably some. But Zach is clearly expending a lot of enregy playing generally high quality defense against the best our opponents have to offer.

There's a reason Zach has started 17 of 23 games so far (2nd on the team behind Landry's 23 starts). He clearly is bringing something to the table that 3G values.

[jdshock]

The stats don't lie.

There might be something to the theory that you and JH4P are the same person...

@Cdizzle: covered it, but I'll just add that he's obviously in a remarkably bad shooting funk right now.

If he'd just shot his career average over the last ten games, he'd be shooting 37.8% from 3 on the year instead of the abysmal 31% he's currently at. He's also averaging the most minutes of his career this year (although, admittedly, those are trending down with his recent performance).

If you'd rather have freshman ZB on this team, so be it.

[proshox]

ZB would improve a lot by just reducing the amount of time it takes him to make a swing pass and passing up a couple looks a game.

[ShockerFever]

Zach certainly doesn't get much rest on the defensive end. He generally is guarding one of the opponent's better scorer's and often one of their better athletes whoh generally get a lot of picks set for them that Zach gets to battle through. With the 30 second shot clock in play there is just not a whole lot of time for Zach to recover before he is back at it on the defensive end.

How much of his offensive struggles are attributable to that. Who knows. Maybe a lot. Maybe none. My guess is probably some. But Zach is clearly expending a lot of enregy playing generally high quality defense against the best our opponents have to offer.

There's a reason Zach has started 17 of 23 games and so far (2nd on the team behind Landry's 23 starts). He clearly is bringing something to the table that 3G values.

And that's fine. He's clearly a good defensive player. He needs to embrace that role and stop trying to be the offensive player that he isn't.

[ShockerFever]

There might be something to the theory that you and JH4P are the same person...

@Cdizzle: covered it, but I'll just add that he's obviously in a remarkably bad shooting funk right now.

If he'd just shot his career average over the last ten games, he'd be shooting 37.8% from 3 on the year instead of the abysmal 31% he's currently at. He's also averaging the most minutes of his career this year (although, admittedly, those are trending down with his recent performance).

If you'd rather have freshman ZB on this team, so be it.

How many games do you constitute a "funk"?

[ShockCrazy]

And that's fine. He's clearly a good defensive player. He needs to embrace that role and stop trying to be the offensive player that he isn't.

The thing is, his offensive efficiency is better than Shaq, Darral, and Rashard. Zach's assist rate is way up this year, rebound rate up a bit, and turnovers down. Overall he's been good, he needs to be a bit more selective with shots for a bit, but eventually the shots will start falling, and we will need them. Don't let recency bias destroy how valuable he has been to this team this year on both sides of the ball.

[jdshock]

How many games do you constitute a "funk"?

I've been told "stats don't lie," and he's currently not shooting his career average from 3, so I don't know... but he's currently not shooting the way he typically does. I get it, though. Every time one of our players has some bad games, half the board hops on the train of "Brown/Kelly/Wessel/Armstead/Cotton/etc. is such a bad offensive player. Coach needs to sit them!" That's fine. I think Brown is playing better defense this year than he has any other time in his career. I also believe Brown is a better offensive talent than he has been lately. I don't put a ton of stock in shooting percentages from a freshman season where he wasn't really expected to do much with the ball and he only played 10 minutes a game.

As an interesting math quirk I stumbled across while looking at ZB's stats, I thought I'd share this:

Shamet is shooting better from 3pt range than Kelly (41.2% vs 37.5%) and better from 2pt range than Kelly (51.4% vs 50.7%), but he has a lower overall field goal percentage (45.5% vs 48.3%).

[Cdizzle]

How many games do you constitute a "funk"?

10? I mean. It's a big, bad funk. And it's all in league. Which could be somewhat telling. Who knows. Maybe his 2nd semester classes are just harder.

The first 12 D1 games, he was averaging 9.8ppg on 47% FG, 40% 3pt. That's pretty solid. And includes all but 1 of our best competition. He was a mixed bag against good competition. And even if we just say he fattened up on cupcakes, it's odd he wouldn't fatten up some more on Valley cupcakes.

In the last 10 games he's averaging 5ppg on 30% FG and 19% 3pt. That's terrible. Who knows what happened. But if he plays the next 15 games somewhere in between those two, given his other skills, I'd like our chances. Maybe this is just a long funk. Maybe the start of the year was just a long good stretch. Tough to tell. I'm buying.

[proshox]

10? I mean. It's a big, bad funk. And it's all in league. Which could be somewhat telling. Who knows. Maybe his 2nd semester classes are just harder.

The first 12 D1 games, he was averaging 9.8ppg on 47% FG, 40% 3pt. That's pretty solid. And includes all but 1 of our best competition. He was a mixed bag against good competition. And even if we just say he fattened up on cupcakes, it's odd he wouldn't fatten up some more on Valley cupcakes.

In the last 10 games he's averaging 5ppg on 30% FG and 19% 3pt. That's terrible. Who knows what happened. But if he plays the next 15 games somewhere in between those two, given his other skills, I'd like our chances. Maybe this is just a long funk. Maybe the start of the year was just a long good stretch. Tough to tell. I'm buying.

Shot selection... he still makes it when he takes good shots.

[pinstripers]

He's a better shooter than he is a passer.

[ShockingButTrue]

ZB would improve a lot by just reducing the amount of time it takes him to make a swing pass and passing up a couple looks a game.

I guess you either have it or you don't. It's pretty simple.

[WuDrWu]

And that's fine. He's clearly a good defensive player. He needs to embrace that role and stop trying to be the offensive player that he isn't.

Very fair.....although I think he deserves, in a program that prides itself on excellent defense the last decade or so, the title of elite defender.

Zach is a very intelligent young man. I think he'd benefit from a look at RK and "buy in" on his strengths. I bet the rest of his game would come around.