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re: Tide Hoops | Recruiting
Posted on 2/20/25 at 10:44 am to Riseupfromtherubble
Posted on 2/20/25 at 10:44 am to Riseupfromtherubble
quote:
I wouldn't be as concerned with the February issues if they hadn't been festering since November. The boneheaded turnovers have showed up in nearly every game. The inability to inbound the basketball on our end of the court has bene around for several years. The inability to stop an opponents best player has been brewing since November. These are all things that make going on a 6-0 run nearly impossible. We have been bad all year at a lot of the little things.
I think if we somehow as a team just decide collectively that we're going to give 100% effort on defense when the tournament starts, on every possession, we will go farther than I anticipate. Our flaws this season though have been flaws form start to finish.
And we're still a Top 8 team who has consistently beaten/competed with the best teams on our schedule (which is the best schedule in America) even with those flaws. I mean last year's team didn't play a lick of defense the entire season. Ever. Good opponent, bad opponent, did not matter. There wasn't a person on earth who thought they'd piece together the defense enough to make a run in the tournament.
I dunno what we'll do in March, and we have flaws that might trip us up, but it's all relative. Houston has flaws. Duke has flaws (maybe a bunch, they haven't played elite opponents in 6 weeks). Florida has flaws (see losing by 20 to Tennessee and having an identical performance as us vs Missouri, except at home). Tennessee clearly has flaws. Auburn has been the team to date that has shown the least flaws and the most consistency against the best opponents, but even they've had nights where they were shaky against medicore opponents.
Go down the list - those are the other #1/2 seeds. Part of this is we've basically only played teams that are going to be Top 5 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, teams that we wouldn't even play until a Sweet 16 - Houston, Purdue, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Kentucky, State, Auburn, Missouri.
The teams we've played that don't fit that criteria we've beaten the daylights out of for the most part - specifically teams that will be in the tournament or are on the bubble. Illinois by 13. North Carolina by 15. Creighton by 8. Oklahoma by 27. Vanderbilt by 16. Georgia by 21. Texas by 23.
So we'll see. It's possible that we run into a bad matchup, turn it over 22 times and lose to a competent 7-10 seed. It's very possible we play St Johns or someone in a Sweet 16 and lose. But it's also possible we get good matchups, figure some things out and beat the crap of out 2 teams before getting to the Sweet 16/Elite 8.
This post was edited on 2/20/25 at 10:52 am
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Posted on 2/20/25 at 11:42 am to SummerOfGeorge
We gotta get tougher. Or at least Grant and Jarin do. I can’t count how many rebounds and loose balls they have been out wrestled for the last 2 seasons.
Oats also needs to look into getting more size on the perimeter this offseason. I feel like you can be elite defensively with drop coverage if you have length and with Reid out we really don’t have much length again.
Oats also needs to look into getting more size on the perimeter this offseason. I feel like you can be elite defensively with drop coverage if you have length and with Reid out we really don’t have much length again.
This post was edited on 2/20/25 at 11:42 am
Posted on 2/20/25 at 12:06 pm to mistaken4193
quote:
Oats also needs to look into getting more size on the perimeter this offseason. I feel like you can be elite defensively with drop coverage if you have length and with Reid out we really don’t have much length again.
We have length. We’re one of the top teams in opponent 3PT%. Our issue is our bigs suck at defending the rim.
Posted on 2/20/25 at 12:08 pm to Crimsontide1713
I figure we win the next two. I think Saturday will be one of our better performances of the season. We match up with them pretty well. Think we win by double digits. A loss Saturday and even I’ll admit it may be time to panic a little.
Posted on 2/20/25 at 12:19 pm to Crimsontide1713
quote:
We have length
Without Reid, our length is very limited athletically. Especially defending screens. Pringle last year was athletic enough to press the edge on screens and then get back on down the lane. He's the main reason our defense improved so much.
Posted on 2/20/25 at 12:27 pm to Riseupfromtherubble
quote:
The inability to inbound the basketball on our end of the court has bene around for several years
There was a sideline inbound last night toward the end of the game where none of the 4 on the court even moved. They just stood hoping the passer would lob the ball over the defender.
quote:
I think if we somehow as a team just decide collectively that we're going to give 100% effort on defense
I don't disagree but I feel it's actually a lot more about our defensive system and lack of variety. We run extended tight on ball defense and give up penetration too often. He has guys body up the dribbler at half court and we end up with a 5 on 4. Our guys in help defense stay too tight to their man on the help side and are often late in rotation. Can some play harder, yes, but we need to be able to adjust and run multiple defenses. Mizz showed a lot of variety on defense last night.
Posted on 2/20/25 at 12:40 pm to DT55Forever1
My biggest thing is one of the benefits of having the depth we do is we shouldn’t be scared of foul trouble. Guard the hell out of them. Make the refs call it. They’re being ticky tacky with us half the time anyway. Go earn a few. Go for some steals. Put their 40% free throw shooter on the line as soon as he touches it in the post.
Posted on 2/20/25 at 12:47 pm to DT55Forever1
quote:
I don't disagree but I feel it's actually a lot more about our defensive system and lack of variety. We run extended tight on ball defense and give up penetration too often. He has guys body up the dribbler at half court and we end up with a 5 on 4. Our guys in help defense stay too tight to their man on the help side and are often late in rotation. Can some play harder, yes, but we need to be able to adjust and run multiple defenses. Mizz showed a lot of variety on defense last night.
Very well said. That's my grievance with this team is our frontline still looks really uncertain about what they are supposed to do. We hedged high ball screens last year and it was effective at allowing the defending guard to recover and extend the play far away from the basket enough for Pringle to recover after keeping the defending guard supported.
But this year, if you run any type of rub screen against us, our entire defense get's really shaky immediately. We don't hedge screens anymore and instead we often end up with our guard and our big man just getting in each others way or we end up with the worst possible switch ever, our bigs on the perimeter and our guard dropping to cover their big. In the event that we filter penetration to one side, Cliff has no idea when to commit to the dribble penetration. I am hard on Cliff becomes he just looks comfortably lethargic for large portions of the game. But in his slight defense, Im just not sure he knows what he is supposed to do half the time and NOBODY on our coaching staff is apparently telling him.
This post was edited on 2/20/25 at 12:49 pm
Posted on 2/20/25 at 1:21 pm to Chadaristic
Is Clifford Omoruyi the most disappointing transfer of the Nate Oats era?
Posted on 2/20/25 at 1:32 pm to Roll Tide Ravens
Last two games, we can't seem to get off the blocks. We played Auburn even for the last 38-and-a-half minutes of the game and we lost by 9. We played Mizzou even for the last 37 and a half minutes of the game, and we lost by 12. We can't afford to start games in a 9-0 or 12-0 hole in the opening couple of minutes against good/great teams and still expect to win...
Posted on 2/20/25 at 1:49 pm to Roll Tide Ravens
quote:Easily.
Is Clifford Omoruyi the most disappointing transfer of the Nate Oats era?
The common denominator in 4 out of our 5 losses is one single post dude basically equaling or outproducing our entire frontcourt. He was supposed to be the rim protector, the guy who forced the other team to settle for jump shots. Instead:
Purdue:
- Trey Kaufman-Renn: 26 points
- Nelson, Omoruyi, Dioubate, Sherrell: 23 points
Oregon:
- Nate Bittle: 19 points
- Nelson, Omoruyi, Dioubate, Sherrell: 20 points
Ole Miss
- Malik Dia: 23 points (he also outrebounded our entire frontcourt)
- Nelson, Omoruyi, Dioubate, Sherrell: 20 points
Missouri
- Mark Mitchell: 31 points
- Nelson, Omoruyi, Dioubate, Sherrell: 28 points
This post was edited on 2/20/25 at 1:55 pm
Posted on 2/20/25 at 1:53 pm to OldPete
quote:Mo Dioubate has to start. He's a tone-setter. It's a luxury to bring a guy like that off the bench to beat a team into submission, but we don't have that luxury anymore because our normal starting 5 isn't capable of getting early stops.
Last two games, we can't seem to get off the blocks. We played Auburn even for the last 38-and-a-half minutes of the game and we lost by 9. We played Mizzou even for the last 37 and a half minutes of the game, and we lost by 12. We can't afford to start games in a 9-0 or 12-0 hole in the opening couple of minutes against good/great teams and still expect to win...
Posted on 2/20/25 at 1:57 pm to TideCPA
Should have been playing SHERRELL more all year so he could have been learning. He will eventually be the Big we need Defensively and offensively but he ain’t ready yet
Posted on 2/20/25 at 3:00 pm to TideCPA
quote:
Mo Dioubate has to start. He's a tone-setter. It's a luxury to bring a guy like that off the bench to beat a team into submission, but we don't have that luxury anymore because our normal starting 5 isn't capable of getting early stops.
Yep, It shouldn't even be up for debate anymore...
Posted on 2/20/25 at 3:31 pm to Roll Tide Ravens
quote:
Is Clifford Omoruyi the most disappointing transfer of the Nate Oats era?
It's just such a bummer. Cliff is apparently like a historically good person and was just a freaking tank for a few years at Rutgers. He kind of cooled off his senior year and purely guessing, but Cliff very well may just not be in love with basketball anymore. Link to a 7 minute documentary about him below on youtube. It's really hard to understand why he transferred from there after watching, but it certainly reminds me that he is human and im just kind of a d*ck because I have basically said for most of the year that his lackluster performance is the difference in us being a very good team and a juggernaut.
LINK
Posted on 2/20/25 at 3:56 pm to GoodTalkRuss
Said most of this last night, but there's no reason for the doom and gloom. The defense was horrible and it has to be better, BUT even with that being the case AND us playing on the road in a tough environment AND us spotting them 12 points from the jump AND not one but two career nights from 2 of their best players including some pretty impressive shot-making in the 2nd half, we still had a chance to steal it towards the end of the game.
Couple of gripes and a couple of suggestions. I see a lot of talk about personnel and the defensive scheme, but the main problem I saw last night was the complete lack of communication on the defensive side of the ball. Two guys going with the roller or both choosing to stay with the ball-handler. That shite happened the entire first half. Secondly, a lot of Mo praise going around and I second the love because of how crazy good he's been in his role this season, but last night he had several defensive lapses including but not limited to continually forcing a left handed player to go left. I was SCREAMING at my TV any time Mitchell had him in a post up hoping he'd hear me.
My first suggestion is this: we have to be more willing to go press if we're looking to shrink a scoring gap late. Being down 10-15 points with like 3 or 4 minutes to go and we're still setting up a half court defense is maddening. When we press late things tend to go well, but we always hold off until it's too late. I understand the analytics behind not doing it, but I'd love it if we just did it sporadically to pick up the defensive intensity and make the ball handlers uncomfortable from time to time.
Next suggestion: Aden and Mark need to play more together. Aden is our best at initiating offense, and would allow Mark some more time off-ball where he thrives (like how him and Estrada worked out so well together). They spent more time together in the second half and it completely opened up Mark's game. Him being that unbelievable shooting threat is what made him so dominant inside the arc as well. He doesn't have the burst to get by good defenders and his shot forces opponent to over commit to the contest.
And that is the silver lining of this game: getting Mark's confidence back. We have to get the Mark we had last year if we want to be the title favorites I thought we were before the season started.
Couple of gripes and a couple of suggestions. I see a lot of talk about personnel and the defensive scheme, but the main problem I saw last night was the complete lack of communication on the defensive side of the ball. Two guys going with the roller or both choosing to stay with the ball-handler. That shite happened the entire first half. Secondly, a lot of Mo praise going around and I second the love because of how crazy good he's been in his role this season, but last night he had several defensive lapses including but not limited to continually forcing a left handed player to go left. I was SCREAMING at my TV any time Mitchell had him in a post up hoping he'd hear me.
My first suggestion is this: we have to be more willing to go press if we're looking to shrink a scoring gap late. Being down 10-15 points with like 3 or 4 minutes to go and we're still setting up a half court defense is maddening. When we press late things tend to go well, but we always hold off until it's too late. I understand the analytics behind not doing it, but I'd love it if we just did it sporadically to pick up the defensive intensity and make the ball handlers uncomfortable from time to time.
Next suggestion: Aden and Mark need to play more together. Aden is our best at initiating offense, and would allow Mark some more time off-ball where he thrives (like how him and Estrada worked out so well together). They spent more time together in the second half and it completely opened up Mark's game. Him being that unbelievable shooting threat is what made him so dominant inside the arc as well. He doesn't have the burst to get by good defenders and his shot forces opponent to over commit to the contest.
And that is the silver lining of this game: getting Mark's confidence back. We have to get the Mark we had last year if we want to be the title favorites I thought we were before the season started.
Posted on 2/20/25 at 4:02 pm to BigBird09
quote:
Secondly, a lot of Mo praise going around and I second the love because of how crazy good he's been in his role this season, but last night he had several defensive lapses including but not limited to continually forcing a left handed player to go left. I was SCREAMING at my TV any time Mitchell had him in a post up hoping he'd hear me.
Mo struggled to guard Mitchell (as did anyone on our team), I said that last night. But the numbers don't lie, we were +8 in the 28 minutes he played. Considering that we lost by 12, that's a 20 point swing in the 12 minutes he didn't play.
Posted on 2/20/25 at 4:15 pm to GoodTalkRuss
quote:
Mo struggled to guard Mitchell (as did anyone on our team), I said that last night. But the numbers don't lie, we were +8 in the 28 minutes he played. Considering that we lost by 12, that's a 20 point swing in the 12 minutes he didn't play.
We were absolutely a better team with him on the floor, but a lot of that was his offense particularly in the first half. And it wasn't just his defense on Mitchell where he had defensive miscues. Having said that, he certainly wasn't any worse than the other bigs and his offense kept us afloat (barely) early in the game.
Posted on 2/20/25 at 4:16 pm to BigBird09
The ladies are on the road tonight. Always a good time to beat the Vols.
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Posted on 2/20/25 at 4:36 pm to BigBird09
quote:
And that is the silver lining of this game: getting Mark's confidence back. We have to get the Mark we had last year if we want to be the title favorites I thought we were before the season started.
Good post altogether.
I definitely agree that even last night there's some silver linings and Sears playing off ball more is exactly where he thrives. We need the other 4 guys on the floor looking to get him spot up shots instead of just handing it off to him 40ft from the basket all the time. Like you said, that's when he has the surprise/defense off-balance element to drive effectively.
Not the most popular thing to say after a disappointing loss but there's also no lack of heart in this bunch. Bad lapses in concentration maybe but not fight. Even with boneheaded mistakes, it's good to see Philon and Stevenson shooting with more confidence.
Also, Oats is one of the few best coaches in the country but that doesn't mean he doesn't make mistakes. The lack of communication / confusion on defense is on the staff. Other top teams are coming out executing their game plan much better than we are --and not only at the start/end of halves but also in the last 2 games anytime the game got close. (I forget the exact stat but read that against AU and Mizzou we only scored on like 20% of possessions and they scored on 80% when the games was closer than 10 points!). That all comes down to who's executing the game plan better.
This post was edited on 2/20/25 at 4:43 pm
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