USF
 

they just took temple to overtime @ temple, Collins is there best player he’s a lot like Cumberland just not as good obviously, they are physical and play good defense, won’t be an easy USF win anymore.

That & every game left on the schedule. If the Cats don't dramatically improve the quality of their play, esp. defending the 3 pt. shot & hitting their own, I can see 7 or 8 losses the rest of the way....some of them by double digits. Based on recent play, I would predict losses in both UCF & Houston games, loss to USF, Temple, at SMU, UConn...need I go on?

That said, I don't believe the Cats will continue to play as poorly & I expect the coaching staff to be able to adjust to limit the wide open 3's that other teams manage to hit with regularity (why can't we do that?). If that adjustment is too difficult for the coaching staff to handle, I don't know what to say. Sometimes players aren't executing the plan correctly & that leads to open looks (too much help, not quick enough getting back to the shooter), but if your team is incapable of carrying out your plan, then the answer, Mick, et al. is to change the plan! Work with the team you have, not the team you wish you had...that's the essence of good coaching.

Completely agree with your point of mick changing his plan. If you watch his press conference he makes a lot of good points and problems with the team but at what point does he change his philosophy or the way the team plays? And you can’t say his way works because he has only been to one sweet 16

Yes, good call. It seems its always more about the players not playing the system. Why not tailor to your team? Isn’t that what the good coaches do?

Oh well, glad it’s at home. Need that advantage right now. Coaches and kids need to get this back on track.

Would it matter? I've had the same complaint in the past, he has tried to fit square pegs into round holes defensively. Kyle Washington was a good example last year.

This year everyone on the team is physically and athletically capable of playing (and excelling at) our defense. The problem this year is mental. So would changing the defense matter? If the aren't mentally engaged in zone is playing man-to-man going to make a difference? Are they suddenly going to start remembering who on the other team can shoot and who can't?

I wrote this on another board:


Game is 7pm on Tuesday on ESPN NEWS

Kenpom: #141
KP Off: #258
KP Def: #50
NCAA NET: #94

Some interesting Tidbits:

-Rebounding: Wow what an impressive rebounding team from an extremely young team. #17 in Offensive Rebounding, #12 in defensive rebounding. Crushed UCONN 47-32 on the boards a few weeks ago.

-Defense: a top 50 defense in year 2 under Gregory. Laquincy Rideau is #1 in the nation in steal rate. Michael Durr, a 7ft freshman is #79 in the country in block rate. Brian Gregory's team is 3rd in the country in steal % and doesn't even press. On the flip side, they do get a little aggressive and if you attack them, you will get to the line a lot. Their game tend to be high in the foul column on both sides of the ball.

-Close Games: USF has lost 4 games this season, all 4 losses were by 3 points or less.They fight to the finish regardless wether they are down early or not. Nearly pulled an impossible comeback against Tulsa.

-Free Throws: USF is one of the best teams in the country at attacking, getting fouled and getting to the free throw line. They rank #3 in FTA/FGA nationally. On the flip side, only 7 teams in all of D1 basketball shoot a lower percentage from the free throw line.

-David Collins is a killer: Collins numbers don't jump off the charts, you could even make an argument that he is a wildly inefficient player. But then when you watch the game, he just has an answer every time his team needs it.

-Freshman Front Court: The Bulls start 2 freshman big men. One being 7ft rum protector Michael Durr, the other is 6'8 Freshman Alexis Yetna. Yetna is the elite rebounder, Durr the rim protector. In the few games I've watched over the season, they both have seemed to get better and better.

Overall, Brian Gregory has in a full season and a half, given USF an identity of toughness and intensity. I've listened to his press conferences and he sounds almost like another version of Mick Cronin. He demands a lot from his guys. They loaded up on cupcakes in the non conference, but for this group of guys, I think it was the right approach. They grew confident and also learned to win. They aren't very skilled offensively, but they have the nations leading assist rate running the point and have big guys down low dominating the rebounds. This reminds me of an early version of a mick Cronin team. They will beat you with all the things they can control. And even if they don't beat you, you'll wake up in the morning feeling like you were in a fight for your life.

USF is going to be a team to watch from this point on. I for one am glad we don't have to travel to their arena this season.

TL/DR: DONT OVERLOOK USF.

The thing is.... The plan was working... I've never seen such beautiful rotations when we played NKU, Xavier & UCLA.

Literally, every time I thought one of those teams had an open look, our guys made the most insane close to contest.


BUT, lately, either the effort Or the focus has slipped in this defensive system. I mean, its hard to fault the actual system when no one on the floor is actually following it.

Its not our system to help 4 on 1 in the paint, and yet we did for the last few games.


but the thing is.. we've not had a ton of time to fix anything in practice. Thurs then Saturday then sunday off day (mandatory) then Tuesday. Just basically a single full practice between games and most of that is scout work

after the last 3 games i dont think anybody is going to overlook anybody.

Fair point...but I'd kinda like a plan B you can move to DURING a game (not having to wait for practice) when you are getting killed by your poor defense.