Scholarship table
Many of the people who were staunchly advocating for Shaka to be hired this past spring liked to bring up that he always has top 40 defenses and you could rely on that (had 10 consecutive dating back to VCU)This year we are currently 59 in DRating at KenPom.For those more intimately knowledgeable on his defenses, should we expect that to improve safely into the top 40 range this year? Are we doing anything differently tactic-wise than he has done in that past? Is it that he doesn't have the ideal player fits yet? Or do we just need more "time on task" so to speak to become more of a well-oiled machine on the defensive end?I'll hang up and listen.
I believe the D will improve and rotations that work will be found and utilized. While I have not been impressed with the results of the D thus far, I am a fan of the aggressive nature being used. There is a lot of work to do, but I feel that we will see ongoing improvement in the upcoming weeks.
TAMUI do know, Newsie is right on you knowing ball.
This is kind of what I was referencing the other day with my Kenpom question. If they had randomly slotted us higher originally would our body of work this year be good enough to have us higher in their rankings.eThe answer is we have to wait til sometime in January when data from last year are eliminated from his equation.
Every game has its own unique set of circumstances . So my definition of Defense is did the other team score less than us. 7-1 record demonstrates that we have played good defense .
One of the reasons our half court defense is successful is because the press takes 10-15 seconds off the shot clock and wears the opponent down in the second half.The purpose of this press is not meant to generate live ball turnovers (though that is a byproduct of it). The purpose is to throw off the opponent's offensive scheme leading to dead ball turnovers and poor shooting. A cost of this strategy is the occasional easy bucket given up. As long as we improve and limit those easy buckets to 2 or 3 a game, the strategy will be successful.
This doesn't look like a top 40 defense to me yet. Our weakest spot on defense is defensive rebounding, we are giving up way too many second chances. Shaka has been able to correct that in individual games, for example, in the New Hampshire game we gave up 8 offensive boards before the second media timeout but the rest of the game we only gave up 1. This makes me hopeful that he will eventually correct it for the season.Fix the defensive rebounding, cut down on fouls a little bit (we're okay at not fouling, not great) and continue to improve on the deflections and I think we end up with a top 40 defense.
This is kind of what I was referencing the other day with my Kenpom question. If they had randomly slotted us higher originally would our body of work this year be good enough to have us higher in their rankings.The answer is we have to wait til sometime in January when data from last year are eliminated from his equation.
Shaka's offense is Shaka's offense. Pick and roll and dribble drive. Take the open 3, regardless of who you are. Emphasis on 3's and lay ups. So there are going to be long rebounds, there is going to be dribbling into traffic. Until the guys grow into it. He clearly has given everybody on the team the green light. I would love to see more dribble, drive, dish opposite, lather, rinse, repeat, a la Buzz and the midgets. That isn't this coach or this team. So, sit back and watch.
I am 100% on board with the pace of play and philosophy behind it. I fully expect better shooting days ahead and it will make a world of difference. As a matter of fact, they can speed it up even more, IMO.
Given the shooters' histories, I'm not as confident that something suddenly will click. Morsell, for example, appears to have had a revision to the mean these last 4 games after an absurdly good start that was nothing like 4 years of history suggested was possible. But maybe. I hope you're right, Goose.