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re: Kent State @ Alabama - SECN 12 CST
Posted on 12/23/24 at 9:23 am to BamaBravesPackers
Posted on 12/23/24 at 9:23 am to BamaBravesPackers
quote:
If we don’t start playing substantially better, we’ll be lucky to beat them in Coleman and will get run off the court by 25 at the barn.
Last year’s team was significantly more susceptible to getting blown out
2024 Alabama vs Top 50 Opponents
•9th ranked offense
•200th ranked defense
•44th overall
2025 Bama against Top 50 opponents
•8th ranked offense
•69th ranked defense
•5th overall
As far as the Auburn problem goes, there is nothing we can do to stop them from being really good. But if you believe KenPom, we are literally the toughest game on their schedule
This post was edited on 12/23/24 at 9:33 am
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Posted on 12/23/24 at 9:32 am to Glorious
I haven't watched every minute but some of the turnovers are due to spacing. We simply have fewer shooters on the court to keep defenders attached to another offensive player when someone gets into the paint. When Mallette and Youngblood get into full form, I think we're going to see a much more difficult team for our opponents to defend. Despite it all, Alabama is still scoring well in terms of pure points per game but also still solid in points per possession.
My big concern with this team is that they don't really have an identity yet. I feel like the better teams under Oats were already finding themselves by this point in the season. Maybe that is the conceit of hindsight at play but even last year you knew that team was going as far as their offense would take them if they could just get a tiny bit more efficient on defense.
Is this a team that needs to play to their frontcourt athleticism and length? Is this a team that needs to play to their backcourt's ability to take defenders off the dribble to drive or kickout to a shooter?
My big concern with this team is that they don't really have an identity yet. I feel like the better teams under Oats were already finding themselves by this point in the season. Maybe that is the conceit of hindsight at play but even last year you knew that team was going as far as their offense would take them if they could just get a tiny bit more efficient on defense.
Is this a team that needs to play to their frontcourt athleticism and length? Is this a team that needs to play to their backcourt's ability to take defenders off the dribble to drive or kickout to a shooter?
Posted on 12/23/24 at 9:39 am to Glorious
quote:
Last year’s team was significantly more susceptible to getting blown out
They were also a lot better at blowing out teams. I think you’re right though, given the defense was twice as bad last year, but I don’t remember getting blown out in many OOC games last year prior to conference starting (Maybe OSU?). We played a NC runner up Purdue a lot closer last year than we played the top 20 version this year (granted, this year was road vs. neutral last year).
20 TOs to UT or AU will likely get us blown out this year as well, despite us having a better defense. We need to learn to take care of the ball against good defenders (had 15 against Houston, but we shot 35+% from 3s and 73+% from FTs to win that one this year, something we have only done one other time this year…against UNC’s bad defense).
Posted on 12/23/24 at 10:06 am to VaBamaMan
quote:
IQ is normally referring to the little things that help you win, though. a lot of small decisions leads to big impact
That comes from coaching and experience. If someone has been doing a job for five years they will make better decisions about their job bc they have more experience, not because their IQ went up.
We have a very experienced basketball team. Do they make boneheaded mistakes like Sears throwing the ball into the bleachers or shot clock violations? Of course they do. But its not because they are "below average basketball IQ" players or whatever bullshite you want to call it. It's because they happen to have their head up their arse at that particular time. If we had somebody on the roster that didnt understand the game at a high level, they would not be on the court.
These guys are essentially professional basketball players; many of them in their 5th seasons. To suggest that they are below average IQ players is just the bullshite talking.
Posted on 12/23/24 at 10:24 am to SECSolomonGrundy
You do realize that the very definition of using a statistical term such as “average” means there are some below and some above it? There’s even quartiles of the top 25% and bottom 25%, by definition.
I guess if you are interpreting the “average” line to include middle school and high school players, then all of our guys could be deemed above average BBall IQ guys (and don’t confuse IQ with BBall IQ, they aren’t the same).
I’ve never heard someone say that people who make boneheaded decisions (evidence suggests with regularity, I might add) are above average or even high basketball IQ guys. Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree
I guess if you are interpreting the “average” line to include middle school and high school players, then all of our guys could be deemed above average BBall IQ guys (and don’t confuse IQ with BBall IQ, they aren’t the same).
I’ve never heard someone say that people who make boneheaded decisions (evidence suggests with regularity, I might add) are above average or even high basketball IQ guys. Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree
This post was edited on 12/23/24 at 10:53 am
Posted on 12/23/24 at 10:47 am to Diego Ricardo
quote:
We simply have fewer shooters on the court
We’re in a weird spot because we gotta figure out how to optimize 3pt shooting and defense
1. Don’t start Cliff with Nelson at 5 and essentially be a worse version of last year?
2. Start Holloway over Philon and ask Cliff and Nelson to anchor the defense with Sears and Holloway on the court? (This also leaves Mallette as the only good 3 pt shooter on the bench)
3. Iowa Football Lineup with Cliff, Nelson, Mo D, Reid, and Philon?????
This post was edited on 12/23/24 at 10:53 am
Posted on 12/23/24 at 11:06 am to BamaBravesPackers
quote:
They were also a lot better at blowing out teams. I think you’re right though, given the defense was twice as bad last year, but I don’t remember getting blown out in many OOC games last year prior to conference starting (Maybe OSU?). We played a NC runner up Purdue a lot closer last year than we played the top 20 version this year (granted, this year was road vs. neutral last year).
If we’re specifically talking about Auburn coming into Coleman and kicking our asses, last year’s squad would be more likely imo
If we’re talking about having “Built For March” guard play, then this year’s squad has a lot to prove
This post was edited on 12/23/24 at 11:09 am
Posted on 12/23/24 at 11:09 am to Glorious
quote:
We’re in a weird spot because we gotta figure out how to optimize 3pt shooting and defense
1. Don’t start Cliff with Nelson at 5 and essentially be a worse version of last year?
2. Start Holloway over Philon and ask Cliff and Nelson to anchor the defense with Sears and Holloway on the court? (This also leaves Mallette as the only good 3 pt shooter on the bench)
3. Iowa Football Lineup with Cliff, Nelson, Mo D, Reid, and Philon?????
Overall, I agree... We have some challenges integrating a shooting line up with Grant and Cliff especially if our 3 is Reid, Mo or Stevenson. I do think you forgot about Youngblood in your post though and he has a pure stroke with a quick release. I trust him, he just has to shake off the rust a little bit and I think he will be very reliable from the perimeter long term as a 2 or 3.
Posted on 12/23/24 at 11:15 am to GoodTalkRuss
Our starting 5 should be:
Sears
Philon
Youngblood
Reid/Mo D
Nelson
Bench Rotation:
Holloway
Cliff
Mallette
Mo D/Reid
Sears
Philon
Youngblood
Reid/Mo D
Nelson
Bench Rotation:
Holloway
Cliff
Mallette
Mo D/Reid
Posted on 12/23/24 at 11:42 am to GoodTalkRuss
quote:
I do think you forgot about Youngblood in your post though and he has a pure stroke with a quick release. I trust him, he just has to shake off the rust a little bit and I think he will be very reliable from the perimeter long term as a 2 or 3.
My only concern is that Holloway quickly becomes the only ball handler off the bench unless Philon is the one Youngblood replaces
Posted on 12/23/24 at 11:43 am to Glorious
quote:
If we’re specifically talking about Auburn coming into Coleman and kicking our asses, last year’s squad would be more likely imo
I agree, don’t think we get run on our own court and was more referring to getting blown out on the road. I was hoping we were headed for a comfortable win in Coleman and competitive game at AU this year. However, with the way the 2 teams are playing right now, it seems a close game in Coleman and potentially large defeat at AU is most likely (same as last year).
Things change though, and I’m hoping this team finds a groove in Feb and March that propels us to a season sweep (or at least a similarly competitive season split). That said, NCAAT success can erase a lot of mediocre regular season performances as evidenced by last year’s run.
This post was edited on 12/23/24 at 11:44 am
Posted on 12/23/24 at 11:54 am to mistaken4193
quote:
Our starting 5 should be:
Sears
Philon
Youngblood
Reid/Mo D
Nelson
Is this better than Sears, Estrada, Wrightsell, Griffen, and Nelson that we bailed on last year? We brought in Cliff specifically to avoid this
Posted on 12/23/24 at 12:12 pm to Glorious
quote:
Is this better than Sears, Estrada, Wrightsell, Griffen, and Nelson that we bailed on last year? We brought in Cliff specifically to avoid this
That's kind of been my point of emphasis with Cliff. If we are going to be elite defensively, he is the tip of the spear and honestly we can't be elite without him. You have to have a lockdown paint defender if we want this game to get a lot easier. So far from what I have witnessed of Cliff, the ability is there but the guy just has a tendency to stand and watch a lot. Im not calling him lazy, im saying I wish our coaches would light a fire under him and tell him to crash the boards and help on defense more... He did a nice job yesterday of help defending and he seemed to turn up the energy in the 2nd half on the glass. I watch him closely each game and far too often he appears to sort of wait for the ball to bounce to him and he has a tendency to kind of get pushed out of position and get lazy legs.
Im not trying to blast the guy, I personally think his level of play dictates how good we can be and I just think he is ultra important for us to turn the corner.
This post was edited on 12/23/24 at 12:14 pm
Posted on 12/23/24 at 12:29 pm to GoodTalkRuss
quote:
That's kind of been my point of emphasis with Cliff. If we are going to be elite defensively, he is the tip of the spear and honestly we can't be elite without him. You have to have a lockdown paint defender if we want this game to get a lot easier.
Despite the growing pains, we are knocking on the door of the KenPom Top 30 Offense Top 30 Defense threshold that every national champion since 2002 has. Cliff is a massive part of that
Posted on 12/23/24 at 12:43 pm to Glorious
quote:
Despite the growing pains, we are knocking on the door of the KenPom Top 30 Offense Top 30 Defense threshold that every national champion since 2002 has. Cliff is a massive part of that
I think he is the biggest part of it. Im just saying I think there is a lot more in the tank with him and maybe it's just him knowing exactly what his job is on this team, but he has the ability to terrify opposing teams and if we can get to that point this team becomes a monster.
Posted on 12/23/24 at 4:31 pm to GoodTalkRuss
quote:I never said we can’t beat them, I said they wouldn’t be an underdog in any game they play the rest of the year. Their metrics are too good.
Im not taking anything away from Auburn, they have looked like a tank. But this Alabama team has basically produced similar results (minus Purdue) in the big games and yet most who closely follow this Bama team would tell you they have not really figured things out yet.
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