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Old 01-08-2023, 05:38 PM   #11
TheLongHaul
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DDJ was a horrible matchup for Houston b/c of his size, and Houston hedges and traps off ball screens which is probably why they shouldn't have been running them with him.

They were targeting Skillings early but he adjusted and changed the momentum with his effort on the glass. Also had a very nice block on Defense. Davenport literally brought nothing to the game. There was absolutely no reason for him to garner those minutes.

They didn't even try to get Nolley open looks in the 2nd half. Their game plan going into the 2nd half was to get him the ball in the post, which is normally an ok strategy but not against Houston. And it failed, miserably.

MAW would have had a good game due to his scoring, but those turnovers were incredibly costly and were game changers. You cannot have that from your senior PG.

At one point in the game UC had a lineup of Davenport, Skillings, Reed, Ezikpe, and MAW. Against the #2 team in the country that was a lineup he went with. SMH.
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Old 01-08-2023, 05:41 PM   #12
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Decent effort - especially on the boards.. Just got outclassed by a much better team. Needed Davenport to have a few of his 3s fall.

I think we can win the rest of our home games with how we played today.
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Old 01-08-2023, 06:13 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by TheLongHaul View Post
DDJ was a horrible matchup for Houston b/c of his size, and Houston hedges and traps off ball screens which is probably why they shouldn't have been running them with him.

They were targeting Skillings early but he adjusted and changed the momentum with his effort on the glass. Also had a very nice block on Defense. Davenport literally brought nothing to the game. There was absolutely no reason for him to garner those minutes.

They didn't even try to get Nolley open looks in the 2nd half. Their game plan going into the 2nd half was to get him the ball in the post, which is normally an ok strategy but not against Houston. And it failed, miserably.

MAW would have had a good game due to his scoring, but those turnovers were incredibly costly and were game changers. You cannot have that from your senior PG.

At one point in the game UC had a lineup of Davenport, Skillings, Reed, Ezikpe, and MAW. Against the #2 team in the country that was a lineup he went with. SMH.
In the post game press conference, Miller talked about holding guys accountable and I wonder if a few of the odd-ball line-ups were part of that tonight. If they were, all I can say is it's been a long time coming.

He can ask, he can demand, but until he holds them accountable everything else is just words. Nolley is probably the top of my list who need to learn to stop taking plays off (0 rebounds, among other things).

I know quite a few disagree with me, but Nolley really only excels as a shooter. Run him off the line and much like Davenport he disappears (as best). If you want to talk TO's, how about Nolley's 4 TO's, 0 assists and 0-4 from inside the 3 point arc. When we tried to run offense through him, it was a win for Houston.

Could MAW have played a bit better, yes. But he had a very good game and was one of our best players (along with Lakhin) tonight. His 3 TO's were still less than our other veteran leaders (DDJ and Nolley, both with 4).

Davenport led us in rebounds with 6 (tied with Lakhin), also had 3 assists and 0 TO's. He wasn't extraordinary by any means, but Skillings struggled on defense even in the second half. Davenport is at least a threat on offense and draws a lot more attention than Skillings.
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Old 01-08-2023, 06:35 PM   #14
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I know quite a few disagree with me, but Nolley really only excels as a shooter. Run him off the line and much like Davenport he disappears (as best). If you want to talk TO's, how about Nolley's 4 TO's, 0 assists and 0-4 from inside the 3 point arc. When we tried to run offense through him, it was a win for Houston.
We'll never really know unless we play him in a point role. He's just not a very good wing player, partly because of his laziness. DDJ and MAW are relatively easy to get open looks for because you can start them in a corner, set a down screen, and they'll run hard off it and curl to set themselves up. That's what wings should be doing. Nolley doesn't. Modern basketball has been utilizing a horns set with down screens for a long time. We do it too, but our personnel is all mixed up so we have to live with small guards.

My idea has been to use Skillings and DDJ (or MAW) as the wings with Nolley at the point. It doesn't mean the offense runs through Nolley, just that he's the guy with the ball at the top, and the screens are coming from Ody/Lakhin. The offense can be focused on anyone. Screeners can even be the focus if they slip, pop, or roll. Gonzaga does that with Timme or look at Creighton with Kalkbrenner. We could make Lakhin the focus of our offense that way. I think that would be a better use of our skillsets. Nolley and Davenport aren't good wings.

Edit: Brannen actually liked to use the 5 man at the point in horns. He never had a great passing 5 though, so it usually just meant ball reversal. Loyola Chicago was really good using that system. The point is anyone can be at the top, it doesn't have to be a prototypical small quick ballhandling guard.

Last edited by sedziobs; 01-08-2023 at 06:39 PM.
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Old 01-08-2023, 06:44 PM   #15
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Yeah quite a few bad TO's. Houston doesn't take a second off, they were on every lazy pass we threw. They took 11 more shots than us and most of that was because they were +10 in TO's.

One other note is it seemed like Ody really struggled. He's not really built for physicality and getting pushed around got into his head. He had two wide open layup/dunk opportunities and both times tried to pump fake ghosts and gave the defense time to recover.
Wow, +10 is hard to recover from. It's impressive that we kept the game to 13 losing the turnover battle by that much. I figured we did decently on the boards, but was still surprised we actually outrebounded them by 6.

I did notice those Ody plays. Kalu got some time. He's a much stronger player, so he can at least hold his ground inside even if he can't do much else. Kalu had 3 rebounds in 9 minutes after sitting out the previous 4 games.
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Old 01-08-2023, 07:22 PM   #16
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Wow, +10 is hard to recover from. It's impressive that we kept the game to 13 losing the turnover battle by that much. I figured we did decently on the boards, but was still surprised we actually outrebounded them by 6.

I did notice those Ody plays. Kalu got some time. He's a much stronger player, so he can at least hold his ground inside even if he can't do much else. Kalu had 3 rebounds in 9 minutes after sitting out the previous 4 games.
We also got to the foul line 10 more times than them (mostly on the back of Lakhin, who was 8-10). Not a normal thing for this team.

Yeah, I thought Kalu held his own for the most part. Had one nice bucket, fought for rebounds, didn't stand out for poor defense. He had a couple bad plays (a TO and had the ball ripped out of his hands on a rebound), but overall looked better than he has in the past.
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Old 01-08-2023, 07:28 PM   #17
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Wes needs an identity... I have zero clue the direction of this program.
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Old 01-08-2023, 07:30 PM   #18
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We also got to the foul line 10 more times than them (mostly on the back of Lakhin, who was 8-10). Not a normal thing for this team.
Normal for Houston though. They foul a lot and have one of the worst free throw rates in the country at #341 (we're only slightly better at #313). Their offense is really set up for jumpshots and putbacks rather than drives to the basket.
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Old 01-08-2023, 09:46 PM   #19
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Wes needs an identity... I have zero clue the direction of this program.
the biggest problem was that he put himself in a huge hole bringing in all the UNCG players thinking they were even close enough to being good enough for UC. His success rate in the portal has been bad too. Should have held some scholarships and taken more lumps last year.

At least Jizzle and Griffith look good but they still need way more. Skillings will be a baller. Not sure about Reed. Still early but I have no idea what he brings to the table. It isn't shooting, athleticism, or height.
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Old 01-09-2023, 11:24 AM   #20
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the biggest problem was that he put himself in a huge hole bringing in all the UNCG players thinking they were even close enough to being good enough for UC. His success rate in the portal has been bad too. Should have held some scholarships and taken more lumps last year.

At least Jizzle and Griffith look good but they still need way more. Skillings will be a baller. Not sure about Reed. Still early but I have no idea what he brings to the table. It isn't shooting, athleticism, or height.
Agreed. We need a big land in this yrs transfer portal.

I fully expect several guys, with eligibility, on this roster to not be back next season.
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