OFFENSE

[shockar25]

my complaint is that there where a number of times where JT/GS gained great position down low and the ball handler dribbled or passed away. Our offense runs around 30 + feet from the basket. Yes, there were some nice cuts, so yes some highlights. I am no coach but did stay at the HIEXPRESSS.....

I know what you mean about that, and I think (actually I have no real info, just speculation) that a lot of that is lack of confidence in those guys and in their ability to get it to them. In all fairness to them team, I'm seeing more cuts than we had been seeing, and GS is getting better. The things he's still struggling at--speed of his feet and getting better positioning isn't going to happen quickly. I think these issues with him will take a season or 2 to correct, but as we all know, he's not a lazy guy or a stupid guy. He's both hard working and smart, and it's only a matter of time as long as he stays away from the injury bug.

I do believe JT needs to take it inside a lot more. He's still settling for too many 15-17 foot shots when he could take it strong and either draw a foul and some free-throws or make higher percentage shots. With that said, he's improving too--he got inside and drew a foul or 2 last night, and his rebounding was much better. He just needs to keep doing MORE of those things.

In my opinion, the offense is improving, but it's slow progress. We're going to win more Valley games--not necessarily because we are any kind of offensive 'machine' but because defensively we really keep our competition well below their normal average %, and we ARE a better shooting team than last season. Perhaps not by as much as we'd like, but I think in the long run we'll see our overall percentage go up over last year.

.500 is very realistic. I'm not concerned about anything else. The kind of improvements like we'd all like to see will happen from season to season, not necessarily from game to game.

[SubGod22]

Feeding the post has been bad. There were a few times last night that a lob would have been great as there was NO backside help and the only one that didn't see that was the guy with the ball. We do NEED to feed the post MUCH more.

[fuball7]

i personally thought the ball movement was alot better at times tonight. clevin made several very nice passes. the ball was moved around several times to open shots that were missed. graham missed some shots he will normally make. toure missed some shots he will make more often than not. i think tonight showed alot of improvment actually. yes the freshman had an off night. that will be expected.

[t7017s]

Its a problem for offense when your center spends the whole game setting screens at the top of the key instead of getting his ass in the paint. Seemed to me that Durley last night actually posted up in the paint a few times in the first five minutes of the game but couldn't handle any of the passes. From there out he moved out to the 3 line to set screens and didn't roll off those screens into the paint but mearly about 2-3 feet from where he set the screen. Clevin had 3 more baskets in the paint last night than Durley did. That my friends is what you call a big problem. Durley had 2 baskets that I counted in the paint. One was a put back that he happened to be in position for on a rebound. The other he actually posted up in the paint. The 3rd time I saw him post in the paint they fed him the ball and he reached around and delivered a nice assist to Ramon next to him. Its funny when your center is in the paint that they can get rebounds, put backs and assists from that spot.

[Denny Crane]

It was a weird game. No flow because of the refs. AJ made some really tough, guarded shots, but we missed a ton of wide open threes. If those threes go in our offense opens up and looks good. Maybe it was the new net on the north basket that started our shooting psychosis. I was grumbling and griping the whole game, but I'm pretty sure we would have lost that one last year.

[SB Shock]

Murray, Hatch, Chamberlain, Ellis were 2-16 (13%). These guys just took shots that were no where in the flow of the game. Hatch was just pumping 3pts up because he was open. That might be alright - if he actually knocks some down.

Rest of the team was 19-35 (54%). There were glimpses of where this team can get to when the right players are on the floor. The timing for this team is just not there yet. But if and when it gets down, there will be some plays that get the roundhouse rocking.

[moshock]

We did lose that one last year !!!

:wsu_posters:

[SFL]

It was a weird game. No flow because of the refs. AJ made some really tough, guarded shots, but we missed a ton of wide open threes. If those threes go in our offense opens up and looks good. Maybe it was the new net on the north basket that started our shooting psychosis. I was grumbling and griping the whole game, but I'm pretty sure we would have lost that one last year.

me too... in fact my wife may have attended her last Shocker game of the year. She told me to 'shut it' several times last night to no avail. At least I'll have some room for my winter parka Monday night.
:D

[KC Shox]

Murray, Hatch, Chamberlain, Ellis were 2-16 (13%). These guys just took shots that were no where in the flow of the game. Hatch was just pumping 3pts up because he was open. That might be alright - if he actually knocks some down.

Rest of the team was 19-35 (54%). There were glimpses of where this team can get to when the right players are on the floor. The timing for this team is just not there yet. But if and when it gets down, there will be some plays that get the roundhouse rocking.

As a team, shooting 41 percent from the field and 31 from the 3 pt line and 68 percent from the free throw line. Yucky!

The guy who has jacked up the second most three's on the season but is making only 29 percent of them, maybe he should tone it down a little.

[shockar25]

It was a weird game. No flow because of the refs. AJ made some really tough, guarded shots, but we missed a ton of wide open threes. If those threes go in our offense opens up and looks good. Maybe it was the new net on the north basket that started our shooting psychosis. I was grumbling and griping the whole game, but I'm pretty sure we would have lost that one last year.

Good point. Not that made threes would fix the overall 'look' of the offense, but it would definately spruce it up some. We were a few made open 3's from being up double digits for most of the game.

[Snapshot9]

So far, last year and this year, we are a 'below average' 3 point shooting team and a 'below average' free throw shooting team.