Winning Tournament Games

[wadesworld]

Curious to know if teams that advance in the Tournament have much in common.  Just purely eye test, one thing that sticks out to me is it seems like tenacious rebounding teams are having success (Houston, TCU really should've been playing this weekend, UNC), and the ability to get to the free throw line.  Both of those things can be greatly improved by work in the weight room.  A lot of these teams that have success are really physical and mostly very athletic.  You look at teams like Arkansas, Houston, UCLA, Duke, even Nova (less athletic, but their guards are tanks), Providence, Purdue, and Miami.  Last year's Baylor team.  They all have dudes.

The last time Marquette had "dudes" like that was under Buzz.  Since then we've been lacking in one of (or both) the physicality and athleticism.  This year only Morsell and Lewis were really physical for their positions.  Stevie has some of it, which is why he had some defensive success.  OMax and Joplin have the frames to put on muscle.  Sean Jones and Chase Ross both seem like they will be able to be that quick, explosive athlete with a frame to put on muscle.  But we have a long way to go.  I think I remember Shaka's VCU teams being very physical and tough, but his Texas teams usually had bigs that were more Oso than Jae Crowder.

Interested to see how this is addressed.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Getting to the FT line is huge.  It's elite offense, even for a poor shooting team.  A team that shoots 65% at the line equates to 1.3 points per two shot foul.

For reference, you would need an elite 2FG percentage of 65% to match it.  For 3FG, it's the equivalent of 43.3% shooting.

Buzz's teams got to the FT line.  For sustained success, Shaka needs to find players that can draw fouls and get to the line.

[Uncle Rico]

Good effective fg%, though Arkansas is an exception

[Elonsmusk]

Curious to know if teams that advance in the Tournament have much in common.  Just purely eye test, one thing that sticks out to me is it seems like tenacious rebounding teams are having success (Houston, TCU really should've been playing this weekend, UNC), and the ability to get to the free throw line.  Both of those things can be greatly improved by work in the weight room.  A lot of these teams that have success are really physical and mostly very athletic.  You look at teams like Arkansas, Houston, UCLA, Duke, even Nova (less athletic, but their guards are tanks), Providence, Purdue, and Miami.  Last year's Baylor team.  They all have dudes.

The last time Marquette had "dudes" like that was under Buzz.  Since then we've been lacking in one of (or both) the physicality and athleticism.  This year only Morsell and Lewis were really physical for their positions.  Stevie has some of it, which is why he had some defensive success.  OMax and Joplin have the frames to put on muscle.  Sean Jones and Chase Ross both seem like they will be able to be that quick, explosive athlete with a frame to put on muscle.  But we have a long way to go.  I think I remember Shaka's VCU teams being very physical and tough, but his Texas teams usually had bigs that were more Oso than Jae Crowder.

Interested to see how this is addressed.

Had the exact same thoughts as I've watched these Round of 32/16 games.  Agree that we need to focus on getting guys who are athletes/tanks almost first, and then through tons of skill work getting them where they need to be as basketball players.