Any Scoopers out there with coaching/playing experience who can breakdown the X's and O's of today's game? Curious to hear about MSU's strategy, what led to Kolek playing so poorly (injury or otherwise), etc. Felt like Sparty did a good job of mucking it up and taking away primary options, plus MU missed a ton of good looks. Strong effort for Marquette on the defensive end though.
A disappointing way to end the season, especially missing out on a deep run with the way this region broke, but the future couldn't be brighter!
2 early stupid fouls took him out of the game, after that, he tried to hard to make a play, MSU has a shot blocker who defended him beautifully on drives. Just a bad game.
Did a very good job of taking away driving lanes. Rarely a good angle. There off ball help closed that down. Took away passing lanes. Did a very good job of taking away the pick and roll to Oso. Anticipated the over the top passes very well. Not only were MU's turnovers up, their assists were down.
IMO, Kolek at 100% mitigates about 60% of this. He wasn't able to get into traffic, control the ball, and then either score or find an open shooter.
But this is one man's opinion. You will be told it is all self inflicted.
Quote from: tower912 on March 19, 2023, 08:10:26 PM
Did a very good job of taking away driving lanes. Rarely a good angle. There off ball help closed that down. Took away passing lanes. Did a very good job of taking away the pick and roll to Oso. Anticipated the over the top passes very well. Not only were MU's turnovers up, their assists were down.
IMO, Kolek at 100% mitigates about 60% of this. He wasn't able to get into traffic, control the ball, and then either score or find an open shooter.
But this is one man's opinion. You will be told it is all self inflicted.
So, he did the same thing Big East coaches were doing
A little bit. There were several subtle things that struck me while watching. I could go back and look, but in the moment it felt like they were strong on ball with zone principles off the ball and next pass in order to take away the driving creases for Kam and Kolek. Then, when Kolek did drive, all the help defenders had their hands high in order to take away his line of sight and passing lanes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuBlDauLkww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV-P8txYcuY
The coaches talk in generalities about what went on.
Quote from: Uncle Rico on March 19, 2023, 08:11:14 PM
So, he did the same thing Big East coaches were doing
Great point Uncle R.
Other teams have certainly tried to clog up the lane to control Kolek and Oso, but MSU just did a great job at it. If you watch, Kolek usually had nowhere to go at all. The driving lanes were completely sealed off, and MSU forced him to spots where he had very poor angles for either scoring or passing. And, on the few occasions Kolek was able to find a crease, MSU had someone waiting for him at the rim. MSU played really, really good interior defense.
One schematic thing we did in the half court that I hated, especially early on, was having the screeners slip instead of running a true pick and roll. This doesn't force any switches which we definitely could've exploited and it leaves us with just one option; hitting the roller whereas a true pick and roll gives you two options. I don't understand why that was the gameplan but I think it really took our offense out of rhythm
Some very good analysis here. I think Tower described it best. It's not easy to defend well on-ball and then also be so good at cutting off the driving angles. MSU's scouting, particularly Coach Wojcic, was phenomenal.
Quote from: GusJohnson on March 19, 2023, 07:55:11 PM
Any Scoopers out there with coaching/playing experience who can breakdown the X's and O's of today's game? Curious to hear about MSU's strategy, what led to Kolek playing so poorly (injury or otherwise), etc. Felt like Sparty did a good job of mucking it up and taking away primary options, plus MU missed a ton of good looks. Strong effort for Marquette on the defensive end though.
A disappointing way to end the season, especially missing out on a deep run with the way this region broke, but the future couldn't be brighter!
In no particular order:
On defense MUBB had trouble staying in front of Tyson Walker. This was big in the game and I haven't seen it discussed much.
Some of the rebounding issues were off of switches where MUBB had smaller guys trying to block out bigger guys. This also is how they scored on mismatches, smaller guys driving by bigger guys as well as bigger guys driving by smaller guys.
On offense, early, MSU anticipated the dribble drive well. showed help. MUBB in my opinion needed to be more aggressive and play through it. A few open 3's were missed and MUBB became tentative. Too much dribble to nowhere and kick to the player next to you. Not enough diagonal passing, or reversing the ball for me.
MUBB played better when it played through Oso, (has good hands, sees the floor and can pass) and when Kam was up top going downhill.
Kolek's turnovers were ill advised long passes. Joplin fell down on an angle drive that was open. Kolek dribbled a lay up off of his foot. Chase dropped the ball a few times on drives.
Sometimes games have key moments. And almost every key moment to extend the lead or get back in the game, shots were missed, turnovers were unforced, wrong guy taking the wrong shot.
That's a few.
Shaka currently dissecting.